This Lent we will face difficult topics that are common to all human beings. Today we face one of the most difficult things in life: banal & pointless suffering.
Hundreds of thousands of crosses obscured the horizon in the ancient Roman Empire. Hundreds of thousands people were crucified. Hundreds of thousands more were killed in other ways. Hundreds of thousands suffered, died and were buried.
So it is today: pointless, meaningless, unrelenting suffering. Though now it is hundreds of millions of people. Cancer, loneliness, abuse, violence, political interference, war.
There are still crosses, maybe even more today than before.
So we look to Jesus. The one who died unjustly, yet freely. The one who descended to the dead and tore down the gates of hell. The one who rose again in the power of God and so transformed banal and pointless suffering into freedom and life. With Jesus, we can face this.
This is a service of Holy Communion. All are welcome.