Way back in the early 1980’s we organised a trip from our Church to Blackpool for the young people and we learned in the process of preparation that when you take young people to Blackpool an important feature of the day had to include a visit to the pleasure beach.
All these years on, I can’t remember exactly what had happened, but I managed to get separated from the rest of our group and unfortnuately I wasn’t wearing my watch. Trying to find a group of teenagers in Blackpool Pleasure Beach was an almost impossible task and I’m sure that you can imagine my relief when I saw a group of familiar teenagers in a queue and they seemed just as pleased to see me. Before I knew what was happening I was heading through a turnstyle and paying for a ride, it was only when I was sitting in a car thet I learned that I was on the Grand National roller coaster. By today’s standards the Grand National is pretty tame, but I am no lover of big dippers and tried to put on a brave face.
Checking on Wikipedia I learn that the ride lasts approximately two minutes and twenty seconds and the cars travel at around forty miles per hour. These were the longest two and a half minutes of my life, I was terrified and big man that I try to be, I put on the best show possible that I was loving the experience. In truth, I was sure that I was going to die and this was made even worse because I knew that I was responsible for the group of young folk who looked to be genuinely having a brilliant time, screaming, laughing and waving their hands in the air. There was one thing that kept me going throughout the whole experience and that was that in a short while the thing would come to an end. I was concerned that as I alighted the car that my legs would turn to jelly and I would end up on my knees.
I have only been daft enough to go on one other roller coaster in the next forty odd years and being a loving parent, I took my daughters on Thunder Mountain in Disneyland Paris. I hated it and vowed never again.
In these weeks leading up to Easter in the Christian tradition, we try to re-live the events leading up to the Easter story and this Sunday is often referred to as “Passion Sunday” next week we will mark the triumpal entry of Jesus and his group of disciples into the city of Jerusalem and the beginning of the events that led up to his crucixion. I believe that as Jesus travelled to Jerusalem with his disciples, he knew what was ahead of him, what danger he was facing. My fear of being on a roller coaster was as nothing compared to what he was facing. We often refer to difficult times in our life as it being a roller coaster ride.
Around the world today there are people living with real fear and on this passion Sunday the jouney of the next two weeks is very real for them. We think of people whose lives have been impacted by wars, not only in places like the Middle East and Ukraine, but it is believed that there are over a hundred armed conflicts in the world with around 110 milion people displaced because of war. We remember the Meningitis B scare in Kent, we might well all know people who are finding life difficult today because of bereavement, illness, poverty and a host of other issues.