Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #32042 in Books
• Published on: 2008-01-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 79 pages

Customer Reviews

Bringing our Pain to the Foot of the Cross
During Easter 2007, Tom Wright gave a series of sermons to the church at Easington Colliery. This is a community that had been totally dependent on its coal mine for most of its jobs, and hence the economic life of the area. Devastating consequences followed when the pit was closed. Some 15 years later, the community finds itself at a place of pain, distress, anguish and bitterness. Not enough work, no affordable housing, the radical decline of social cohesion caused by the loss of the community's central locus. Add to this the ravages of our times, drugs, alcohol, and crime, and you have an area struggling to keep its head above water. It is into this situation that Wright brings the story of Jesus.

Following the last week of Jesus' life, with its triumphs, pain, sorrow and ultimate joy, Wright interweaves the story of Easington (and with it, our own stories of pain). With lightness of touch, he deftly brings his scholarship to bear, with a pastor's heart and concerns for those whom he ministers. Ultimately, God's great story of redemption which culminates in the cross and resurrection, gives us the hope to leave behind our own pain at the foot of the cross and to look forward to the new heavens and new earth in which we will follow after Jesus into full-embodied resurrection life. The challenge for Easington, as for us, is to live between Good Friday and Easter Day, we live in the light of what God has done in Christ and in the light of what we know is to come - Jesus' resurrection has made that glorious future certain. Thus, Wright urges us to bring comfort to those in pain and the healing of forgiveness, and the hope of a better future.

This proved a wonderful little book for my own Lenten reflections. Real people and a real situation was woven into the story of Jesus and God's love for the world. A world full of pain, but for which there is an answer.

passionate meditation
Although it would have been more appropriate to read this work daily during Holy Week, as a pastor I am constantly on the lookout for fresh perspectives on the church's appointed times of meditation, so I read through this over the last week and a half. As expected, it is a wonderful collection of sermons given by Bishop Wright suitable for daily reflection throughout Holy Week. No, there is nothing particularly new in his work (if you are familiar with NTW), but it is framed and explained in a manner more fitting for laity, sermon, devotional, and the like.

The collection comes from Wright's week long journey with the congregation in Easington Colliery in 2007. This community, which lies in County Durham, has experienced tragedy and hardship in the past few generations. As the village now lies in somewhat of an eclipse, Wright takes the message of the cross and resurrection as a challenge to the fear and dread and a proclamation of hope and life. This certainly makes for some interesting coloring upon his well-documented theological beliefs of the resurrection, resulting in a powerful and poignant message of salvation. I know of many communities (my present one especially) who can relate to much of what lies in this work.

On a more subjective note: I felt that the book/sermon-series reached a particular climax on the Meditation on Holy Saturday, entitled "Waiting." Here Wright brings together the themes of suffering and death with hope and resurrection in a unique way, for it is the in-between of the passion narrative. And we who participate in the church today are in a similar situation (being those who mourn and who are, simultaneously, filled with joy). Reading the chosen text from Lamentations with this setting, one can better reflect the tragedy of this life and the call of hope which has gone forth.

To quote from this chapter: "And if we want to find God's way forward for this community, for ourselves, for this church - and we are, in many respects, a microcosm of where so many churches up and down our country are today - then we must learn to wait, to be quiet, to affirm God's order in our chaos but not yet to understand it" (67).

A wonderful Lenten preparation
It has been a joy to reflect on the meaning of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ through the beginning of this Lenten season. If anyone is wondering about some sort of weekly devotional material this season I would highly recommend this book for a weekly meditation on Christ.