Sunday 9th February SALT and LIGHT

Matthew 5 vv. 13-20

 

This reading is part of the teachings of Jesus usually referred to as The Sermon on the Mount.

It may have been teachings from more than one occasion but gathered together in a block by the Gospel writer. It is based on SALT,  LIGHT and the writings of the LAW and the PROPHETS, all of which would have been familiar experiences of Jesus' hearers at that time.

 

We discussed various points that Jesus was making:

SALT

Salt adds flavour to the food

Salt helps to prevent the food going off

 

LIGHT

Jesus described himself as "The Light of the World". He says that his disciples will be that light when they are in the world.

So, the disciples need to be visible in all they are doing.

Light shows the right way to go.  People will look to the disciples to see the right way to live.

Jesus says that people who see the good works of the disciples will give glory to God the Father.

 

LAW and the PROPHETS

Jesus hadn't come to the earth to abolish the Jewish teachings of the past but to fulfil them.

Every detail of those teachings was important, particularly the 10 commandments.

It might be easy to keep some commandments and neglect others.

The Pharisees were criticised by Jesus for placing emphasis on keeping the letter of the law.

Jesus obeyed the true meaning of the Law. He summarised it as:

‘“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbour as yourself.”  All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.’

 

SO WHAT ABOUT US?

We need to live as Jesus intended his disciples to live.

 

We should be an influence for good in the world.

 

We should help people to come to know that, because Jesus died and rose again, we have the promise of forgiveness for what has gone before in our lives and the promise of eternal life after this one,      IF WE BELIEVE AND TRUST IN HIM.

 

 



Sunday 12th January The Baptism of Jesus

The Baptism of Jesus  Matthew 3 vv. 13-end

 

At the start of our talk, different people explained what their Baptism had meant to them.  Some had been baptised as babies, others as adults but all felt that it was quite a significant point in their Christian journey.

 

The reading was put in context. Before the Baptism of Jesus, John the Baptist had been going round encouraging the people to repent from their previous lifestyle because the Kingdom of God was near.  After His Baptism, Jesus was tempted by the devil in the wilderness.

 

We looked at the story of Jesus' Baptism, observing that the heavens opened and the Spirit of God descended on him LIKE A DOVE. It reminded us of the Creation story and also of Noah.

 

At the Baptism the voice said "This is my Son" and this phrase was used in Psalm 2 v. 7 also "The Beloved with whom I am well pleased" which can be found in Isaiah 42 v. 1

 

Thinking about what Jesus' Baptism could teach us, we realised that God uses us, like he did John the Baptist, despite our inadequacies.  We may need to set status aside (as John did) so that Jesus comes to the fore.

 

In other words,
Less of me, more of Jesus.

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