Secondary: Current Assemblies

NO MORE LOST CAUSES

By Brian Radcliffe

Suitable for Whole School


Aim

To consider the implications of the Easter Resurrection story.

Preparation and materials

• Prepare four readers to take part.
• Suggested music: ‘Beautiful Day’ by U2.

Assembly

1. We sometimes speak of a situation being a lost cause. What do we mean by that phrase? Here are a few examples.
   
   Reader 1:  I’ll never get on that course I wanted to start. The deadline for applications was yesterday and I totally forgot to post mine. It’s lying on the table at home with a first-class stamp on the envelope. But it’s no good there. It should be at the college. I’ll have to wait for a whole year for another opportunity. It’s a lost cause.
   
   Reader 2:  This plant is never going to flower again. I left it on the windowsill while I was on holiday and the sun dried it up. The leaves are brown, the soil is like dust. Mum used to love its flowers. She’s going to kill me. It might as well be thrown on the compost heap. It’s a lost cause.
   
   Reader 3:  With two minutes of extra time to go, we’re two nil down in the final. They’ve got us penned back in our own penalty area and it’s surprising we’ve not conceded a third or even a fourth goal. We can never win now. It’s a lost cause.
   
   Reader 4:  He (or she) is never going to trust me again. Just when he needed me to stick up for him, to give him my support, I sloped off. I’ve let him down big time. We’ll never be friends again. It’s a lost cause.
   
2. You get the idea? It felt rather like that to the friends and followers of Jesus at the end of that Friday when he was executed on a cross by the Romans. It was quite a while before he died, but when he gave his final cry it was obvious it was over. All those hopes of the good times to come: the new kingdom Jesus had promised, the end of Roman oppression, God triumphing over evil, all gone for ever. Just another lost cause. It’s no wonder they slipped away quietly to hide somewhere safe. The Romans might be after them next.
   
3. Except … except that’s what makes the Easter story so significantly different. Two days later, all trace of the battered, bloodstained body had disappeared from the tomb in which it had been buried soon after Jesus’ death. Not only that, the living, walking, talking Jesus actually appeared again to every one of those friends and followers. The person they’d seen die on the cross had somehow been raised back to life. Not only had the lost cause been won but Jesus promised that this was only the beginning. Out of his victory over death there was to be a new world order in which all he’d talked about was going to be possible. From that first Easter Sunday there was to be no such thing as a lost cause. For 2,000 years Christians have believed in the power in the risen Jesus Christ and they claim that hope, healing, freedom and reconciliation have been evidenced right across the world.
   
4. The resurrection of Jesus on that first Easter Sunday morning is, for Christians, symbolic of the power of God to bring good out of apparently hopeless situations. Let’s imagine, for instance:
   
   Reader 1:  I sent the application form in anyway. It turns out that they were so impressed with what I’d written that they want to offer me a place on the course. Naturally, I’ve learned my lesson, though. I won’t forget to post an important letter again.
   
   Reader 2:  I carefully removed all the brown leaves and gave the plant new soil and plenty of water. This morning I discovered a new green shoot.
   
   Reader 3:  I think you can guess what happened. If not, ask any supporter of the opposing team.
   
   Reader 4:  Sorry was all it took. It helps repair so many broken relationships. Neither of us wanted it to end.

Time for reflection

Spend a moment considering the following thoughts. You may wish to turn them into a prayer:

Be thankful for hopeless situations in your life that have been amazingly saved.

Be sorry for the damage you have knowingly and unknowingly done to the relationships you’ve lost.