I drove over to Redhill this afternoon to address 140 year 10 RE students on the subject of ‘death’. St Bede’s (http://www.st-bedes.surrey.sch.uk) is an ecumenical comprehensive school with great staff and students. I had been asked some time ago to address the subject of death, etc and wondered what I would face. They were good kids and I went away wishing I’d had longer to talk with some of them.

Death is still not something our culture handles very well. It seems to me that the Church doesn’t always handle it well either. I believe that Christian hope is rooted not in a system, but in the person of God who raised Jesus Christ from death, thus denying that violence and destruction have the final word in this world – despite the apparent evidence around us. Furthermore, I am not a Christian because being so will guarantee my eternal destiny – there is something narcisstic about that – but because I believe the truth about God is to be found in Jesus who was raised. So, I’ll follow him whatever life throws at me.

After all, Christmas celebrates God opting into the world. His followers have no option but to do the same – come what may. The rest is detail.