Listen: Simon Hansford, of Uniting Church in Australia, tells Ben McEachen that Easter people can make all the difference
By Ben McEachenWednesday 13 Apr 2022Hope MorningsEasterReading Time: 1 minute
Simon Hansford knows that God’s love for people is a profound truth but we need to be careful about how we share it.
The Moderator (leader) of the Uniting Church in Australia, Synod of NSW and ACT, Simon warns that we can be “cruel” in the way we present God’s love amid tragedy or suffering.
“Where is hope found?” Simon asked on Hope Mornings. He believed it is found in the Easter events of Jesus’ death and resurrection, flowing through God being present in the “most awful moment in human history”.
“But just saying to someone in Ukraine right now, ‘Don’t worry. God is with you; God loves you’, would be cruel,” he said.
“We have to find a way of talking about it that makes sense to them, in that disaster.”
One way of being able to do that, according to Simon, is for followers of Jesus to remember they are human ambassadors for God.
Similar to Jesus, Christians can seek ways to “bear witness to God” in their community.
“The challenge for the Church is, rather than preaching all the time – although preaching is vitally important – it’s actually being there with people,” Simon said.
“Sitting with them. Attending to them. Serving them. Nurturing them. Weeping with them and leading them to life.”
Listen to the full interview with Simon Hansford in the player above.
Feature image: Photo by Mads Schmidt Rasmussen on Unsplash