The message delivered on Good Friday during the Easter season at the Calliaqua Methodist Church was one of forgiveness and love.

Delivering the sermon was the former politician Alpian Allen who based his scripture on some of the last words Jesus Christ decreed before dying on the cross. {{more}}Allen noted that as the Roman soldiers nailed the hands of Jesus to the cross and some that gathered mocked at his suffering, Jesus was still thinking of others and asked God to ‘forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He noted that this type of love is paramount. He preached, “Nothing is so rear and so lovely as when we are insulted by friends and follow the example of Jesus Christ and forgive.”

Allen stressed that people who know better especially Christians must forgive as Christ demonstrated this throughout his life no matter the persecution he faced. He noted that Christ did not entertain feelings of resentment and condemnation but instead pleaded like a good lawyer for mercy from God the Father the ultimate judge. He said that such love is beyond all human understanding and to pray for those persons is the high point of human endeavour. He addressed the congregation with; “When we do this we win the highest of all victories. We know not what we do when we stray from the straight path.”

Allen also pointed out that people need also to ask for forgiveness, “there are moments when we hurt the human spirit. For example when we glance someone with an evil eye, when we refuse to help others who are suffering, we wound more deeply than you can ever think, we dismiss our actions as a mere passing irritation but we have sown deep distresses that may take weeks, months and even years to heal.”

The Methodist preacher also chided persons who go around spreading gossip and try to damage the reputation of people. He said, “many people set others up just to see how they would react to their mischief and many times their children are also the ones to suffer because of the damage done to the names of their parents. It weakens the children’s self respect. When we lead people into temptation we contribute to the destruction of their souls.”

The congregation listened attentively as Allen stressed that Jesus wants everyone to be more patient with one another and this could be done if people were more prayerful. He indicated that people are aware when they are sinking in sin and lamented, “the person who cheats the income tax department may still enjoy good health, may prosper in his business but deep down inside his soul he knows that his self respect is going gradually. Only God almighty knows the inner misery of all those people.”

Allen urged the congregation to live a higher life and to prepare their souls for the heavenly life and to focus on Jesus Christ who suffered, died but rose again so that all could live, and a live a life of forgiveness.