News

from St Anne's

In Hope to Overcome Hopelessness

Across the Wednesdays of Lent, the Cathedral’s Chapel of Unity was filled each lunchtime as we explored one of the shortest books of the Hebrew Scriptures to untangle ideas around ‘Brexit, Borders and the Book of Ruth.’

Over recent months, doctors have reported an increase in levels of anxiety and depression which they associate with the ‘Brexit effect.’ People are unsettled, worried or increasingly angry about the way the Brexit process has dragged on.

Will this country crash out with ‘No Deal’ on April 12? Will an orderly Brexit take place on May 22? Or will the dark clouds of uncertainty overshadow our futures for years to come? Who knows what the future will hold?

It was into such a world of uncertainty that Jesus rode, astride a donkey, on the first Palm Sunday. Who was this Jesus? King or conman? Messiah of God, or a deranged blasphemer?

Did Jesus really hold the answers to truth, and the will of God, or was he mistaken and wrong footed, choosing a pointless death on a Roman cross instead of driving the Romans into the sea.

On Sunday the crowds hailed him, Son of David. On Friday they bayed for his blood.

Judas thought he could turn history to his advantage for thirty pieces of silver. Peter vowed to defend Jesus to the death, yet betrayed his master to the curious questions of a servant girl.

Yet out of the uncertainty of the Holy Week story, two certainties are nailed down. Jesus was crucified to death on the arms of a Roman cross. And Jesus lives to reign from an empty tomb.

On Easter morning, death was defeated by the defining moment of all our histories. It is the resurrection of Jesus which is the hope to overcome all our hopelessness.

- Dean Stephen Forde

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