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Monday 4 April 2016

Easter: Where do you stand?

Here is my reflection for the current Parish Newsletter at St Martin-in-the-Fields:

Alister McGrath has described the conversion of C.S. Lewis as being ‘like a scientist who, confronted with many seemingly unconnected observations, wakes up in the middle of the night having discovered a theory which accounts for them ... like a literary detective, confronted with a series of clues, who realises how things must have happened, allowing every clue to be positioned within a greater narrative … a realisation that, if this was true, everything else falls into place naturally, without being forced or strained.’ Lewis came to see the story of Christ as a true myth which, once believed, made sense of everything else.

As a Cambridge physicist Professor John Polkinghorne might be expected to disbelieve such an extraordinary miracle as resurrection, which appears to contravene the laws of nature. But in fact, it is the cornerstone of his faith. Reflecting on the remarkable rise of the early Church, he has concluded: ‘Something happened to bring it about. Whatever it was it must have been of a magnitude commensurate with the effect it produced. I believe that was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.’

“Sherlock Holmes once remarked to Dr Watson that, ‘When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.’

An Easter advertising campaign has recently launched which allows you to investigate the story of the Passion yourself in the style of the television sci-fi series The X-Files. The advert “Easter: Where do you stand” — on television, radio, posters, and online — has been released by the ecumenical network ChurchAds.Net to coincide with the finale of the new series of The X-Files. It encourages us to “reopen the case on Jesus Christ”, and vote on the question: “Jesus: man, myth, or messiah?” Your investigation can be made and your vote cast at http://www.wheredoyoustand.co.uk/.

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