Started Street Pastor training last Saturday - excellent. Today I wrote a piece for my church magazine. These are linked by a thought about Good Friday (stay with me...)
Les Isaacs, the founder of Street Pastors, suggested that people outside the church know lots of things that we're against, but very little of what we're for. Earlier today I was musing on how we celebrate Good Friday. A little while ago I was in the middle of a rant by a group of Christians about how outrageous it is that the shops are open on Good Friday.
Now I think it might be a generational thing, but I'm not sure I can't hot under the collar about shop opening hours. Sometimes I need to shop at midnight and am grateful for the corner shops and supermarkets open at that time. Sometimes I need things on a Sunday. I even admit to having gone shopping on Good Friday (in fact I have done so the last three years at Spring Harvest - the UK's premier Christian conference!)
As I mentioned a few posts ago, Paul urged his readers in Rome to live their lives in the ordinary daily round in an extraordinary way because they were indwelt by the Spirit of God.
There was no acknowledgement of Good Friday in First Century Rome. And Paul didn't seem to be lobbying for one. Rather he was lobbying for a people whose lives were shaped by the cross to be living in the midst of working, shopping and playing Romans and allowing the shadow of the cross to fall over their lives.
Is there a lesson in this for us? I think so.
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