Pastoral Letter
Dear Friends,
I am writing this letter at the end of what has been a most beautiful spring day. Days like today are a precious sign of new growth and new hope, and are there to be treasured.
The first Easter Day was a day such as that. A day when Jesus' disciples made the most wonderful discovery - the most amazing miracle in history had occurred - their Lord had risen from the dead.
The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith. The apostle Paul wrote, "And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain" (1 Corinthians. 15:17). Our belief in this great teaching is not based upon some religious feeling or upon an unfounded idea about what may have happened in the past. Nor are we talking about an isolated rumour, but about a historical fact with solid evidence to support it.
About 100 years ago a group of lawyers met in England to discuss the biblical accounts of Jesus' resurrection. They wanted to see if sufficient evidence was available to make a case that would hold up in a court of law. When their study was completed, they published the results of their investigation. They concluded that Christ's resurrection was one of the most well established facts of history!
A few years later the writer, Frank Morison, was fascinated by the historical accounts about Jesus. He deeply admired Jesus as a man, but he found himself seriously sceptical about the miraculous aspects of the biblical accounts of his life. So, he set out to investigate every aspect of the last seven days of his life with a view to "strip it of its overgrowth of primitive beliefs and dogmatic suppositions, and to see this supremely great person as he really was." Yet, as he compiled his evidence, Frank Morison became deeply affected by one startling historical conundrum - the issue of the huge stone that was rolled across the entrance to Jesus' tomb after his death. Every piece of historical evidence pointed to one irrefutable fact - the stone had been mysteriously rolled away from the entrance to the tomb early on that first Easter morning.
Frank Morison found himself becoming obsessed with one simple question - who moved the stone? That burning question drove Frank Morison to investigate every possible piece of evidence from every angle, and his ultimate conclusion, was to change his life. As he later wrote: "It is not that the facts themselves altered, for they are recorded imperishably in the monuments and on the pages of human history. But the interpretation to be put upon the facts underwent a change. Somehow the perspective shifted - not suddenly, as in a flash of insight or inspiration, but slowly, almost imperceptibly, by the very stubbornness of the facts themselves."
His conclusion was recorded in his book 'Who Moved the Stone', which was first published in 1930, and reprinted on numerous occasions since, and which became an international best seller. The final sentence of the book reads: "There may be, and as the writer thinks, there certainly is, a deep and profoundly historical basis for that much disputed sentence in the Apostles' Creed - 'The third day he rose again from the dead.'"
The realisation of this wonderful truth brought Frank Morison to a living faith in the risen Christ, as it has done for millions upon millions of Christians around the world over the past 2000 years. This Easter we shall be celebrating that wonderful truth in our Churches, as we proclaim with joy and thanksgiving - Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!
I hope that you can and will join us in proclaiming that statement of truth.
I wish you all a very happy and blessed Easter.