CHURCHES: Who is your bridge over troubled water?

When you’re weary, feeling small, when tears are in your eyes, I will dry them all. I’m on your side, when times get rough, and friends just can’t be found...

When evening falls so hard, I will comfort you... When darkness comes, and pain is all around, like a bridge over troubled water, I will lay me down.

His song finishes with: sail on, silvergirl, sail on by, your time has come to shine, all your dreams are on their way, see how they shine... Like a bridge over troubled water, I will ease your mind...

Paul Simon said that his silvergirl was his wife Peggy Harper, who was just beginning to go grey at the time. Tragically, his bridge collapsed in 1975 when they divorced.

The song was popular with the hippy generation, so many people thought that the silvergirl was a syringe and that it was heroin that would ease their minds.

Tragically, millions found this bridge always collapsed into even deeper troubled waters.

So, when you hear this song, who or what is your bridge over troubled water?

Here is a much older song. But you are a shield around me, O Lord... I lie down and sleep; I wake again, because the Lord sustains me. (Psalm 3:3-5).

Where does comfort like this come from? Two thousand years ago, they took Jesus down from the cross and laid Him in a tomb.

But God raised Him from the dead, and He appeared for many days to those who came with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem, who are now His witnesses. (Acts 13:29-31).

Here is someone who understands what it is to be weary and feeling small, who has been through the darkness and who has suffered pain all around. Here is someone who can lay down with you in sorrow and will lay down with you in death.

Unlike Paul Simon’s silvergirl Peggy, unlike the hippy’s silvergirl of drugs, Jesus will not let you down. He is the unbreakable bridge across the sorrows of life and the darkness of death.

Why not cross that bridge this Easter? Start by going to church and speak to someone who can tell you more.

Rory McClure

Pastor, Parkside Evangelical Church

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Upcoming events

• On Good Friday, March 30, there will be an open-air performance of The Easter Story in Littlehampton High Street, starting outside Kamsons, from 10.15am to 11am, followed by refreshments and hot cross buns at the United Church.

• Messy Church will be at All Saints, Wick, on Friday from 3.15pm to 5pm. Open to all families, with games, crafts, activities and competitions and then a free meal.

• Lyminster Church has an Easter-themed craft morning in Wick Hall on Saturday, March 31, from 10am.

• Littlehampton Baptist Church is holding a lunch at 1pm on Sunday, April 8, for those who once attended the church but have since moved away or become housebound. This will be followed by a short Thanksgiving Service at 2pm. Local transport can be arranged. Those interested should contact the church office on 01903 717961.

• There will be a coffee morning and bring and buy sale on Saturday, April 14, from 10am to midday at Parkside Evangelical Church, St Floras Road, Littlehampton, raising money for Operation Romania Trust.

• A Free Alpha Course is held on Thursday mornings from 10am until 11.30am at Littlehampton Baptist Church in Fitzalan Road, starting from April 19. It answers questions about Jesus, the Bible, faith, prayer, heaven, life, death and more? Those interested should contact the church office on 01903 717961.

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