大象传媒

Good morning.聽
Last year I attended the funeral of a woman from our church. She was a person of astonishing faith and before she died, she was able to choose the songs she wanted us to sing at her funeral. And so it was that I found myself standing in a packed congregation singing songs of joy and beauty and hope in the face of loss and pain and sadness. It was an incredible, beautiful contradiction, and for me it sums up the defiant heart of the Christian faith.
In singing those songs of hope we were not trying to pretend away the pain and suffering of this world. As at last week鈥檚 One Love concert in Manchester we were acknowledging that pain, sharing our grief and choosing to sing in spite of it.聽
When I was growing up in Nottinghamshire from time to time we鈥檇 have power cuts - usually because of a lightning storm. I would find it all dreadfully exciting as mum and dad rummaged in the cupboards searching for matches and candles so that we wouldn鈥檛 be plunged into darkness for long. And that act of lighting a candle in the darkness is so simple, almost anyone can do it - and yet it is such a statement of defiance, a refusal to allow the darkness to win, to have its way in our homes.聽
John鈥檚 Gospel tells us that Jesus came to be the light of the world, a beacon of hope, something we often hear in Christmas carol services in the darkness of winter. And we ourselves are similarly challenged to shine defiantly - to light a candle, sing and dance despite our pain, to speak kind words in a harsh world.聽
God of hope and joy, do not let our grief overwhelm us. Set within us a defiant spirit that refuses to let darkness have the final say. Amen.聽