Why are we here at all? Why have a Holy Trinity, Hoghton – or any church for that matter? We’re here because of the God we know and worship. It might look a bit arrogant to say “we know God” but the Christian claim for 2000 years is that God has been working very hard to BE KNOWN.

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There’s no secret about it. God sent his Son into the world to give himself a human face. Anyone would struggle to reach up to God – but what if God came down to us and met us in terms we could understand?

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Jesus spoke using ordinary language. He had a knack for communicating deep things very simply. He did things no ordinary human could do, and they were all pointers to what God is actually like. He has a character and personality. He has desires and plans, and we feature in them.

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And then Jesus died, horribly, by a Roman method of execution. He’d done nothing wrong except ruffle the feathers of the establishment of the day, and show them up for the hollow men they were. That dreadful day, it looked like the end, for Jesus, and for everyone else who’d been following him.

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Except it wasn’t. He’d been dropping hints beforehand that his death was meant to happen. We, the human race, keep trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, but we can’t. We keep sliding back into the same old bad habits. If there’s to be any hope for us, someone from outside, someone not infected by our failures, needs to rescue us.

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Jesus is that person, and his death was no accident or miscalculation. His God-given task was to take all the grot and mess in humanity – yours and ours – on to his own shoulders, bear the responsibility for it all, and pay the penalty.

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And then he was alive again. His tomb was empty. His followers kept seeing him. He was alive, and still is. The deal was done - paid on the nail. The human mess that sets up a barrier between us and God has been dealt with. We can be free to enjoy God for ever – and it’s all there for the asking.

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We said God had plans for us. Good ones. Plans to set us free from our own limitations, our own guilt, our hurts and hang-ups. Saying “Yes” to his offer of forgiveness and freedom starts to make all these things possible.

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You can be part of that too. You can know what it is to be on the receiving end of God’s extravagant love, starting now, and lasting for ever.

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Drop in and see us some time, and ask us some more about God’s plans for you. We’re not perfect. We never claim to be. We’re all “works in progress” here. But we know what it is to be set free to begin again.

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Holy Trinity, Hoghton is a Church of England Church within the Diocese of Blackburn.