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Letter from the Vicarage
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Revd Martin Dale |
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May 2008
The legendary Malcolm Muggeridge was a British journalist, author, satirist and media personality. He was also a Marxist before he found his faith in Christ.
During the Cold War he travelled to Russia to write a story about the Communist party and the decline of religion in the atheistic Soviet Union. After conducting a series of interviews with officials in the Kremlin, he attended a Russian Orthodox Easter service. The church was packed. At the close of the service the priest said, “Christ is risen”, and the people shouted back, “He is risen indeed!”
Muggeridge looked into their faces and instantly realised that they were right and that Stalin was wrong. He said it was the reality of their joy that tipped the scales of his soul toward Christ. The reality of Christian joy is compelling!
It was the Old Testament writer, Nehemiah who said to the people of God: “...the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh 8:10).
Our strength, as Christians, is not in rules and regulations – however important they may seem to be – but rather it is in the joy of the Lord. The Christian life is meant to be a life full of joy.
And yet, sadly so often folk outside the church don’t see that joy in our lives. It was Friederich Nietzche (1844-1900) the German atheistic philosopher who once commented about the Church: “If the Redeemed would look a little more redeemed, I would believe in their Redeemer.”
The distinctiveness of the Christian faith over all other religions revolves around the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. None of the other great religions of this world has ever made the claim that any of their leaders had risen from the dead. But Christianity alone does!
Jesus’ teaching was vindicated by God when Jesus was raised from the dead - and as Malcolm Muggeridge found out - people who have met the risen Christ are a changed people. People will be attracted to our Saviour when they see us - His Church – as a joyful people.
Maddy and a number from our churches here in Leicestershire have just come back from Spring Harvest in Skegness – and they all said that what made Spring Harvest so special was the laughter and joy they found among Christians there.
May I close by echoing St Paul’s challenge to us all down the centuries: “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice” (Phil 4:4)
Martin Dale
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