Latest / Eurasia Region Podcast / S2-E23 | Everyday Eurasia |  Dr. Steve Wright

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S2-E23 | Everyday Eurasia |  Dr. Steve Wright · Eurasia Region Podcast

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  This week on the podcast, we're welcoming Doctor Steve Wright.
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  In 2015 he moved from Australia and joins the faculty at Nasrin
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  Theological College in Manchester to teach theology.
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  Originally from the Wesleyan Methodist Church tradition, he
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  teaches and supervises across a wide range of subjects.
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  He will take us on a journey through time, exploring the rich
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  themes and deeper reflections of the Christian literatical
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  calendar. Every year on the 1st Wednesday
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  of the season of Lent, the season of preparation for
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  Easter, at my church, we gather in the evening and we go through
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  a series of prayers. And then we bring out ashes,
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  which are the burnt ashes of last year's palm crosses from
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  Palm Sunday, these symbols of celebration becoming symbols of
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  sorrow, and they're mixed together with oil and they're
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  smeared on our foreheads. And as we make this smear, we
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  say remember that you are dust, and to dust you will return.
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  Turn away from sin and be faithful to Christ.
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  And this, this practice of Ash Wednesday is a is a symbol of
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  the entire season. A season of penitence and
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  preparation, a season of remembering one's own mortality
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  and limitation. A season of identifying with
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  Christ in his sorrow. So those who take the Lenten
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  journey are journeying with Christ towards his cross.
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  Many Christians around the world fast from something in this
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  period. The period lasts for 40 days.
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  Just as Christ entered into the desert for 40 days of trial, so
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  the Lenten faithful journey with Christ for 40 days towards his
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  crucifixion. It's also reminiscent of the
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  testing periods in Israel's life, where Israel wandered the
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  desert for 40 years. So it's this time of trial and
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  of the memory of 1's own mortality.
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  It then leads us to Good Friday. On Good Friday, Christians
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  commemorate the crucifixion of Christ.
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  And in a worship service on Good Friday, we traditionally don't
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  tell the story of the resurrection.
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  We tell the story of the crucifixion.
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  And then we live in the space of that mourning and loss and
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  uncertainty until Easter Sunday arrives.
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  And then it is light and joy. So the songs that we sing on
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  Good Friday, this the the texts that we read are all supposed to
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  be oriented towards the death of Christ.
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  Holy Saturday is this space of uncertainty where Christ lies
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  dead in the tomb. And then as we've journeyed with
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  Christ, we witness the the distress and the sorrow of his
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  disciples, all of whom looked upon him and said this, this is
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  not a sleeping man. This is a dead man.
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  They, they undertake the traditional practices of burial
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  for him. The the male disciples flee, the
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  women tend to the corpse, and then they lay it to rest in the
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  tomb. Well, this tomb which has no
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  potential, no hope, this, this corpse which no one looks upon
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  and says, oh, that's actually just a resting body.
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  We can imagine it raising up to life, this empty tomb filled
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  only with the remnants of once a living person becomes filled
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  with so much life that Christ returns from the dead, The stone
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  is rolled away, and then this life pours out from the tomb
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  into the world so that it's thoroughly transformed.
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  And we see this in the preaching of the early church.
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  Gregory of Nazianzas, the great 4th century preacher, speaks
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  with wonder at the the way that the world and life is
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  transformed because of the resurrection.
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  Because Christ lives now, we can be free from sin.
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  Because Christ lives now, we can be drawn into union with God.
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  So we identify with Christ through the season of Advent in
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  his suffering, and then we're united with God in Christ on
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  Easter Sunday. Sunday, as I've said before, is
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  always a day of the resurrection.
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  So for those who observe A Lenten fast, every Sunday
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  throughout the season is a mini Easter.
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  So if you're one of these people that gives up something like
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  caffeine or sugar throughout the Easter season, throughout the
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  Lenten season, every Sunday, you're allowed to have a little
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  feast because every Sunday is a day of the resurrection.
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  Easter Sundays is a day of such significance.
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  It was the center of one of the first major theological
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  controversies in the early churches history.
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  It's also the traditional day of baptism.
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  So many churches around the world conduct their baptisms on
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  Easter Sunday, and we have first and 2nd century accounts of Pete
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  believers or, you know, new converts to the faith being LED
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  into the baptismal waters on Easter Sunday morning at dawn.
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  So as the light rises, so people come out of the water, cleansed
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  from their sin, garbed in robe, in white robes, and then LED off
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  to the church in Seoul. And so Easter is this day of new
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  life, of the life that is given in Christ as he identifies with
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  us and we identify with him. Easter again sets the rhythm for
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  the Christian life. This is a way of marking time.
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  This isn't a typical kind of Spring festival.
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  The way that some people think of it.
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  The practices of Easter predate many of the Pagan practices that
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  are surround the the Easter cell other the spring fertility
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  celebrations. Easter in most languages, in
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  fact, isn't called Easter at all.
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  It is called pasca or Pasca, some form of the word Passover.
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  It is a celebration that is associated with God's act of
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  deliverance. Just as Israel commemorates the
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  deliverance, their deliverance in Egypt on the day of the
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  Passover, so Christians celebrate the deliverance of God
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  enabled through Jesus Christ. Let me pray for you, God of new
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  beginnings. We give you thanks for the fact
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  that you journey with us in our sorrows.
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  We thank you that we can take hold of our mortality and give
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  it up to you, knowing that even the most fragile and weak parts
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  of our being can be made into something meaningful through
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  you, the one who raises the dead back to life.
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  May we be made alive just as Christ came among us.
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  May we be drawn up to you. In His name we pray.
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  Amen. Thank you for listening to the
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  Everyday Eurasia podcast Inspiring Faith for Everyday.
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  information about the Euratia region, visit our website,
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  euratiaregion.org.