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From Leslie Griffiths, Methodist Minister:

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This is my MOT season – no it’s not my car but me that needs checking out. The four days that begin today encompass all the values against which I’ve pitched my entire life. Everything I consider most sacred can be squeezed out of what happened during this period though, admittedly, the original events took place thousands of years ago. Even so, they maintain a dynamic energy which continues to hold me (and millions like me) to account and send me on my way equipped to live the kind of life that seems most meaningful to me.

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Today, Maundy Thursday, the Queen will be giving small gifts of money to 92 people, the same number as the years she’s lived. Is that what today’s all about? Yes and more. Much more. This is the day when Jesus, my very very special hero and friend, shared a meal with his followers knowing it would be the last time he was going to do that. He’d preached and practiced a life centred on love – love for God and love for neighbour. But his teaching was about to be tested in the most radical way. If he blinked now, if he ran away from the challenge facing him, if he gave in to the pressures of the moment, all his fine words would amount to very little. His guts, his downright courage, were and remain astonishing. The following day he was going to die for his cause and three days after that would come the vindication of everything he stood for.

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So this is the day when many people around the world mark the courage it takes to live a life based on love. It’s so refreshing to honour and to follow someone who not only said it but did it, someone who not only preached it but put it into practice, a man who walked the talk. That’s the way I’d like to live my life. And that’s why I like to approach the themes of this season like a well-worn car in need of testing. All I can hope is that it will return me to the road fit for purpose, ready to face the challenge of another year.