My Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
The peace of the Risen Christ be with you!
We are thankful to God for bringing us to the beginning of the Connexional year, 2020-2021. We would agree that the year just concluded was “like no other year” as it came with its unique set of challenges and opportunities, occasioned by the onset of the coronavirus. Yet we were able to experience the faithfulness of God in Christ.
Exodus 12 tells of a month that would become the beginning of months for the Hebrews. It tells of a night that was ‘like no other night’. Why? Yahweh God was going to create something new. In anticipation of that new creation, Yahweh invites his people to a simple meal, a meal of remembrance, a meal of thanksgiving. That meal became known as the Passover meal, a time when the people of Israel remember in a real way what God did for them so many years ago.
This month is the beginning of months for us as Methodists in the Caribbean and the Americas. Today being the first Sunday of the month, some congregations will partake in a simple meal, a meal that has its genesis in the Passover meal. Christ, the Lamb that was slain for our sake, admonishes us to partake of this meal in remembrance of him. We remember that it was ‘his blood that was shed for us and it was his body that was broken for us and we feed on him in our hearts by faith with thanksgiving’. Today also, the Leeward Islands District invites us to begin the year with a 7-day Fast as we ‘together seek God’s face.’ Whether in feasting or in fasting, we rise renewed and recreated in the redemptive work of the Lamb, and we anticipate that which is to come. Changes are sure to come, but we pray that the “extraordinary” God will meet us in the ordinariness of our lives.
My ministerial colleagues, Circuit Stewards and Administrative Staff, and their families join me in praying for you an “experience like no other” in Jesus!
Your pastor and friend,
Mark S Christmas