Thursday 10 March

Luke 9.22-25

At the start of this passage Jesus is speaking to his disciples, teaching them and preparing them for what is to come. He refers to himself as the ‘Son of Man’. This emphasises his humanity and his identification with his disciples and with all humankind – including us. Yet he knew what was to come. He would face suffering – physical abuse, injustice, and rejection. This would come from the religious leaders, men with power and influence. How would Jesus have felt about that? How would the disciples have felt when he told them? Afraid? Confused? Indignant?

Jesus goes on to talk about his death and resurrection. What would the disciples’ reaction have been? They did not have the benefit of hindsight. Jesus then turns to the crowd (compare Mark 8:34) and talks about what will be required of those who follow him. They must deny themselves, ‘take up their cross daily’ and follow him. They should be prepared to lose their life in order to save it. What did he mean by this? What should we deny ourselves or give up for his sake? Maybe our money, possessions and luxuries. Maybe our time, our privacy. Would we be prepared, if it came to it, to die for him?

What is the cross we should take up? How do we follow Jesus? We have his teaching and his example. We need to know these and do the best we can to obey him and be like him. All the wealth and power in the world are not worth losing our self- respect and our relationship with God for.

Lord, please help me to follow your example and your teaching in my thoughts, in my attitudes, in my actions and in my words; with the help of the Spirit and to the glory of the Father; Amen.

Nicky Jackson
Didsbury Baptist Church

Jesus and the woman caught in adultery

Wednesday 9 March, Ash Wednesday
John 8.1-11

The Law of Moses required that both parties to adultery be stoned. The leaders who brought only the woman and not the man to Jesus had themselves shown disregard for the law. Jesus responds by agreeing that the law should be upheld, but by saying that only a sinless person could throw the first stone, Jesus highlights the importance of compassion and forgiveness. The shamed leaders slip quietly away leaving Jesus and the woman alone.

Perhaps we have judged or criticised people because of the way they live or dress, because of their appearance, colour, accent and even the language they use. We often have preconceived ideas and assumptions – the singer Susan Boyle springs to mind! I remember waiting at a bus stop in Moss Side one evening when I was joined by a haggard-looking young man with red-rimmed eyes. You can perhaps imagine my feelings. However, we both greeted and smiled at each other and spent the next ten minutes in conversation – mainly about public transport (or the lack of it). Lesson learnt!

Jesus did not condemn the woman; neither did he condone her sin. ‘Go and sin no more’. Jesus is ready to forgive any sin in our lives, but confession and repentance mean a change of heart.

God of kindness and compassion, we turn to you in repentance. Remind us that you require mercy and not sacrifice. Forgive us when we have been selfish and unmindful of others, intolerant of them and lacking in patience. Forgive us when we have judged others, forgetting that in doing so we ourselves are judged. Lord, as we live by your forgiving grace, keep us mindful of our Saviour’s word, that
forgiven much, we too may forgive. Amen.

Jean Bridson
Didsbury Baptist Church

Lenten Bible Reading 2011

Churches Working Together in Didsbury is to produce a new booklet of Lenten devotional readings for 2011. The booklet is about to go to print but you can download an advance copy by clicking here.

United Service to launch Christian Aid Week

On Sunday 9 May Churches Working Together in Didsbury will gather for a United Service of Worship to launch Christian Aid Week in our area. It will take place at Christ Church United Reformed Church, Parrs Wood Road at 6.30 p.m. It will be preceded by a bring-and-share-supper at 5.30 p.m. Please join us.

Christ is risen!

Today’s Bible readings are Isaiah 65.17–25; Psalm 118.14–24; Acts 10.34–43; John 20.1–18.

John 20.1–18

Most of us arrive at Easter Day fairly exhausted because of all the drama and extra services of Holy Week. Personally I think it’s absolutely right to be exhausted because I’m sure that’s how the first followers of Jesus felt. So today if you feel exhausted – thank God that you do and pray that he will refresh you!

In our reading today we think about Mary Magdalene and her despair and joy on that first Easter Morning when she found the empty tomb. It’s so easy to see ‘emptiness’ as a negative thing. We talk about ‘empty lives’, about ‘empty promises’ and yet the emptiness Mary Magdalene found was a wonderful thing and something that transformed her life, and something that can transform our lives too.

Someone once described that emptiness as ‘a gift of pure love for our highest good.’ For Mary Magdalene, her God was changed that day, and would never be the same again. God comes to us in our darkness and emptiness and longs to reveal more of himself to us. We can fear the darkness, we can dread the emptiness, but we have a God who calls us by name ‘Mary’ – ‘Rabbouni!’

May the love of God transform us today and every day.

Anne Pilkington
Christ Church and St. Christopher

Holy Saturday

Today’s Bible readings are Exodus 14.10–31; 15.20–21; Romans 6.3–11; Luke 24.1–12.

John 19.38–42

Joseph is a secret disciple. Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. The burial of Jesus must be accomplished before it gets dark. There is an air of speed and secrecy here. It is almost as if there is no real time for grieving because there are things to be done. Yet it is these covert disciples who do what is necessary for Jesus.

This weekend as we grieve over the sin of the world which sent Jesus to the Cross and look forward to the celebration of his resurrection, let us remember the many Christians living in situations of discrimination and persecution who are weary and faint, worn down by the year-in, year-out struggle to survive and the frustration of the injustices they suffer.

Let us also remember all those who are on the point of making a commitment to Christ but who for some reason are holding back. May their reflection on the love of Easter enable them to take the final step.

In secret or in public; through influence or through action; may we know the urgency of serving you. Amen

Stuart Wild
Manchester Methodist Circuit

Good Friday

Today’s Bible readings are Isaiah 52.13 – 53.12; Psalm 22; Hebrews 10.16–25; John 18.1 – 19.42.

John 18

The death of Jesus was totally different from others who have been crucified along with him. In this reading, the soldiers, officials, high priests and everyone thinks that they are in control of the event. But it is clear that Jesus is in control of everything that is happening around him.  He could have avoided going to Jerusalem at that particular journey.   But he “set his face towards Jerusalem”. He need not to have gone to the garden of Gethsemane on that evening. He could have stayed and prayed in the upper room. But he did go there with his disciples knowing that Judas would be there waiting for him. He went ahead purposefully before them. He clearly recognised that ‘the son of man must suffer many things and die’ (Mk. 8:31). Thus he chose the way of cross deliberately, consciously, voluntarily.

Yes, it was a voluntary death. Doing so he exposed the seriousness of human sin. The death of Christ was a painful death, physical death, and a voluntary death on the way of obedience to the will of God. This experience of Jesus’ death on the cross gives us hope in the midst of suffering. The faith which is rooted on the cross is a faith which enables us to follow the crucified Christ into the heart of the world’s darkness, into the kingdom of death, and to look for the light which shines in the darkness,

The death of Christ was the ‘successful failure’. The cross points out that we should not be afraid of failures. Sometimes a failure is transformed into success. But even if that does not happen we need not to be ashamed of our failures. Every resurrection has a cross behind it but not every cross has a resurrection ahead of it. But only in the death of Christ on the cross, God transformed death into a source of life itself.

Jasmine Daviddson
Christ Church and Saint Christopher