Sunday 1st December 2013

This is the Jesse Tree created and decorated by the families at St. Peter’s Time for God service on Advent Sunday, 1st December 2013. The Tree and its symbols speak to us of Jesus and the amazing things done by all those throughout the Scriptures who told us of His coming and remind us of who He is.
The Jesse Tree is named from Isaiah 11:1: "A shoot will spring forth from the stump of Jesse, and a branch out of his roots". The branch shows us how fresh hope can come out of sadness and new vision out of disillusion, and so the tree tells the 4000 year old story of God’s faithfulness throughout the Old Testament, the bringing of hope in Advent, and brings the whole story afresh to us in our time.
 
We had a wonderful morning with much discussion about various of the 24 readings and the children threw themselves wholeheartedly into the construction project.   With songs such as Shine Jesus shine; Make way, make way; and He’s got the whole wide world in His hands, our worship was both thoughtful and inspiring.  A really great way to begin Advent. Thank you everyone for all your hard work.  
And so I wish you all a very blessed and joyous Christmas and a New Year filled with the Peace of Christ.
Dcn. Olivia
 
(symbols from Reformed Church Press & Carolyn Pikoulas for Faith magazine: Readings from E.S.V.)

 

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Sunday 27th October "Are you a tax collector?"

We continue to follow readings from Luke's Gospel as we are currently in year C of the readings cycle. Today's reading was from Luke 18 vv. 9-14 in which Jesus tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector.

Parables are stories based on everyday life through which Jesus teaches a particular truth. They can be Short Sayings:
e.g. “You are like light for the whole world”    Matthew 5:14
Longer Sayings:
e.g. “No-one uses a piece of new cloth to patch up an old coat, because the new patch will shrink and tear off some of the old cloth, making an even bigger hole”
Mark 2:21
or Complete Stories like:
The Pharisee and the Tax Collector          Luke 18:9-14

The Pharisees were Jews who based their teachings on the Pentateuch (the first five Bible books: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy).
But they added extra rules, e.g.  Fasting twice a week (instead of just on Day of Atonement - once a year) and giving a tythe of extra things.

In the story the Pharisee prayed:  I,   I,   I,    I  ....  really saying "Aren't I good!!
The tax collector, however, knew he was a sinner and asked for forgiveness.

Jesus said the tax collector was the one who went home justified  (just as if he had never sinned).

What about us:
We need to be humble too and make sure that we are right with God, not trying to give a good impression to other people. Our relationship with God is the most important.

Jesus in the Temple Precincts

 

Artist's Impression of the Royal Porticos of the Jerusalem Temple 

 

We enjoyed such a really great morning of teaching, thoughts sharing, maps exploring and breaking open the scriptures.  We thoroughly delved into the shape and structure of the Temple and why Jesus would have been in the Colonnade – (because it was Cold – right!) and which was where all the rabbis would teach their students. We talked about Jesus setting the captives free, looking at his words and deeds; giving sight to the blind, making the deaf hear and the lame, walk, which was how he showed his true Sovereignty, and which comforted the imprisoned John Baptist.

We thoroughly went into the true nature of Christ’s  Kingship, that of Servanthood : “I have come not to be served but to serve …”  Being an outward sign of this, we explored the deep holiness of the foot washing on Maundy Thursday – and indeed why the clergy carry out this simple and meaningful act of Christ’s own ministry.

We looked at Jesus’ promises of Eternal Life, of his presence with us always, the tremendous nature of His trust in us, the nature and the ‘how to’ of Unity. We discussed the two great Commandments he gave us – loving God, each other – and oh yes, obedience always playing a large part, but not forgetting that we always have a choice.

Thank you to all who helped with music, prayers, setting up and everything else –and of course a special Happy Birthday to Toby whose 13^th Birthday it is.

We enjoyed singing:  Jesus is Lord, Meekness and Majesty, Thank you Jesus, The Lord’s my Shepherd (Stuart Townend), Bind us together and Our Lord reigns.  We even heard a poem from the Celtic Tradition all about the Good News that is Jesus.

May God’s blessings fill your week my friends.

Our Lord reigns – indeed He does!

Alleluia – Christ is Risen:  He is Risen indeed – Alleluia.

Dcn. Olivia

This week's reading can be found here.

 

A New Way of Seeing

 

This week in TFG we reflected on the ways in which we choose not to see what is around us.   

Our Gospel reading from John 9 told of Jesus' encounter with a blind man.  The disciples' immediate concern was to ask whose fault the man's blindness was.   By contrast, Jesus' was to heal the man and make him see.  That is where the trouble started.    Because Jesus did not fit into the religious leaders' understanding of who had the power to heal people and when, they refused to admit that the man had been healed.  In the end, Jesus accuses them of being blind because they could not see and accept what he was doing.

We too have our blindspots.  And one of the blindspots we seem to have as a society is poverty.  The recent repoprt from the churches Joint Public Issues Team The Lies We Tell Ourselves: Ending Comfortable Myths About Poverty identifies 6 myths about poverty, which though prevalent in British society, are just not true.   The report itself as well as various additional resources can be found here.   The Applecart Theatre Company's short video which we saw can be seen here.

As I said in the talk, the message of Easter is all about God's love.  Faced with the blind man, Jesus did not see a puzzle to be solved but a person to be loved.   The disciples, however,  saw someone to be blamed  ...  although they weren't quite sure who !   

In much the same way, faced with the poverty we see around us, many of us find it easier to hold on to the things we read in the papers or hear from our friends and work colleagues than  to ask the difficult questions about ourselves and our society.

Thank you to all who contributed to our discussion.   Whether you were with us or not, you are invited to read and reflect on the report itself, or the accompanying resources, and do what you can to speak the truth about poverty.   

The report closes with the following call to the churches (that's us !):

Churches have a special interest in speaking truthfully about poverty. Both the biblical warnings of the prophets and the example of Jesus teach us to pay special attention to the voices of the most vulnerable and underprivileged. The systematic misrepresentation of the poorest in society is a matter of injustice which all Christians have a responsibility to challenge.

As a coalition of major British Churches, we want to create a new story; one grounded in truth, compassion and hope. Part of our calling as Christians is to seek after truth, and that means facing up to our own blindness as well as calling others to account.  Collectively we have come to believe things about poverty in the UK which are not grounded in fact. We need to develop an understanding of the depth and breadth of UK poverty that is compatible with the evidence available. Just as importantly we need to match the language of public debate with the reality of people’s lives. It is a task we must approach with humility; one which puts the lived experience of poverty at its heart, and one which is committed to truthfulness – no matter how uncomfortable we find those truths to be. Please join with us in this challenge.

 

Peter King

All Age Praise

 

 

We had a wonderful time this morning at TFG; we celebrated Jesus is Risen and sang songs of Thanksgiving and Celebration. We also sang ‘We have a King who rides a donkey’ and talked of the true nature of service.

Splitting the story of Thomas in half, we talked about the saint, who was brave enough not to follow the crowd while the children did all sorts of craft activities. Then swopping over, the adults went and made prayer promises while I spoke with the children and asked them how they could help their families. There were some very interesting responses, with one 3-year old promising to help ‘Daddy wash the car’ – while her sister said she would help with the washing up. Another 5 year old would be doing the cooking from now on (which rather worried her mum!) – and all in all we had an amazing and very heart-warming time.

The ‘grown-ups’ took time out to explore each other’s faces; an interesting experiment which showed that people looked at the person and not the superficial - possessions, beauty or achievements. Indeed they looked at the person behind – just like Jesus does, who loves us all for whom we are and not what we have. The prayer promises, finally fixed to the Easter Cross and the children’s poster of ‘helping hands’ have both been displayed in church.

We sang songs of being freed by Jesus, and closed with ‘Thine be the Glory’ with a little impromptu band of children and their instruments.

And so we were finally ready to go out into the world, loving and serving Jesus,  just as he first loved and served you and me.

Happy Easter! 

Alleluia – Christ is Risen! 

He is Risen indeed – Alleulia.

Dcn. Olivia

Sunday 17th February - "Jesus tempted too!"

Who among us has not been tempted at some time?  Very few, if any, I should think.  Today we are surrounded by temptations of every kind - chocolate when we’re on a diet; stationery in the cupboard at work.  But is the temptation wrong in itself?  No, only if we give in to it.  
Jesus was tempted by the devil soon after His baptism. Very often temptation comes when we have had a great spiritual experience.  At His baptism, God had said to Jesus “You are the Son of God”.  The devil set out to make Jesus prove that this was true.  The temptations with which Jesus was presented were those of provision, power and protection.  The devil used Jesus’ hunger after fasting.  He very often attacks at our weakest point.  You might wonder how the Son of God could be tempted at all, but he was absolutely human as we are and he understands our temptation moments because he’s experience all of human life. 

Jesus was then tempted with being King over all the nations but only if he worshipped the devil who reckoned he had power over all things.  We must be aware of the devil’s existence but not give him power and authority because Jesus took that away from him on the Cross.

The devil was not giving up and took Jesus to a high point on the temple in Jerusalem, the most sacred place for Jews.  He suggested Jesus that if he was the Son of God and threw himself down,  the angels would hold him up!

Each time Jesus was presented with a temptation he countered it with a quotation from Scripture (all from the Book of Deuteronomy which underlines the Ten Commandments).  On the third occasion, the devil tried to use Scripture too.

Now realising he was beaten, for the moment, the devil slunk away and waited for an opportune moment in the future to continue his attack on Jesus.  Many times in his ministry, Jesus must have been tempted;- all the demands on him by the people to heal; they were expecting him to become a hero, ridding them of the Roman occupation; demanding signs from heaven to authenticate his authority from God.

So why was Jesus tempted at all?
 

 *Temptation is part of all our experiences.
 *Jesus was human and divine
 *Temptation destroyed Adam but Jesus is the new Adam.

Resisting temptation can make us stronger in our faith and as people. But God, in his mercy, will always give us a way out.   (1Corinthians Chap. 10 v.13) 

Elizabeth Ewen

Sunday February 3 - Candlemass

Candles and lanterns abounded and songs about Jesus being the Light of the world were sung with heart and soul by nearly 70 worshippers - an extraordinary morning.  We sang ‘The earth was dark’ immediately followed by ‘Colours of Day’. We had great fun with ‘Jesus’ love is very wonderful’ and then we made lanterns – yes we added cut out yellow candle flames (which I have to admit looked a bit like rabbit ears!).

We spoke of Simeon by using an interactive version of the story in Luke 2. ,sang ‘Light of the World’ and then made a Giant Candle of Hope to which we added our messages of Faith, Hope and Love for 2013 which will be displayed in church – keep your eyes open, for you can’t miss it when it goes up!

We talked of how we can be mirrors of Jesus’ love in the world and closed our morning by singing ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ while the big people waved (very carefully) their little candles around and the children jumped up and down with their paper lanterns. As we didn’t have our hands free for the clapping bit in our last song, we were all stamping our feet.  What a wonderful time of worship.

Every blessing and much joy to you all for 2013.

Deacon Olivia.