Stoke Holy Cross Church
Stoke Holy Cross Church meets every week (in 2 different places), but there is loads happening throughout the village all through the week, as we try to follow Jesus together with all of our lives. You can find out more about our different services and groups for people of all ages in other sections of the website, but we would love to either have you come and visit us on a Sunday or at a midweek group, or contact us if you would like us to come and visit you instead! There are some contact details for key people in this church on the left of this page - otherwise you can click on the Who's Who section at the top of this website...
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Rob's message for October
Posted: Wed, 1 Oct, 2025 (1 day ago) by Rob
As I write, I’m looking ahead to this weekend, and like every year, remembering back to September 1999. It was the first time I went and visited Christoph and his parents in Germany, after I got to know him when he spent some time at our school in England. At that point my German was particularly bad, so I didn’t really understand what his Mum was saying to me that first evening, but I was fairly sure she was talking about watching something on the television. “Lassneit!” she kept saying, with increasing exasperation. “Lassneit! Lassneit! Lassneit of the Proms!”
Suddenly we were both speaking the same language again, and we settled down for the usual combination of old favourites, strange modern classical music, and all those famous songs that everyone really looks forward to.
The Bible is full of famous songs, in books like the Psalms, but some of the most amazing singing comes towards the end, in Revelation. While sometimes reading it can seem like engaging with a foreign language, or listening to some very strange and unfamiliar themes, in the end the bits of the book we remember are those famous words about what we have to look forward to.
It's not really surprising that in the Messiah, surely one of the best pieces of classical music ever written, the climax comes with one of Revelation’s amazing songs: “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain.” I’m just putting it on again to listen as I type this bit. As they sing over and over “forever and ever”, the music going higher and higher, it’s as if my eyes and my heart lift with them, to look at Jesus, seated on the throne in heaven. And as I do, I agree with the choir that he is worthy of all power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.
What is so very striking of course, is why – why is Jesus worthy? – and there again, the song, and the Scriptures, are clear. It is because he is the Lamb who was slain, giving himself up for all of us. And this is for everyone: it’s not a choir just of Norfolk villagers, but a great multitude of tribes and tongues and peoples and nations.
That evening I spent in Germany all those years ago, finding something we had in common in spite of our differences, has stayed with me ever since. But you and I can look forward to something that is not just for an evening, or for once a year, but forever. One day we will be with Jesus, who is seated on the throne, forever. And ever. And ever. Amen…
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