Easter Friday Year B

Lent for Everyone
Mark Year B
EASTER FRIDAY...

The old ones are the best. ‘I was on a plane,’ said the comedian Bob Hope, ‘and suddenly it started to go into a spin and head straight for earth. Everybody was panicking and someone said, “Do something religious!”

‘So,’ he said, ‘I took up a collection.’

We smile, because the stereotype is all too familiar. I was in a church the other day where we had a regular offering, and then, because there was some special event coming up, there was a second offering specially for that; then, as we left church, there was someone standing at the door with a plate for yet another good cause, just in case anyone had any spare change left in their pockets or handbags. It did not, shall we say, create a good impression. In fact I do not now remember anything else at all about that service.

Now, of course the church has to pay its way. If people don’t give to support mission, ministry and the buildings where they happen, the doors will soon be shut. And we all know that ‘God loves a cheerful giver’ (2 Corinthians 9.7). So do we, if it comes to that. Generosity – when it obviously comes from the heart – is a lovely and loveable thing, not simply when we happen to be the recipients...

Taken from Lent for Everyone Mark Year B by Tom Wright