Our readings today were the Great Commission in Matthew and Paul's "use of his freedom" in 1 Corinthians
We had a guest preacher this morning, a retired Anglican bishop. He started by asking why most of us are perfectly comfortable talking about Jesus here in church, but are reluctant to do so outside of that setting. A bit of audience participation followed to enumerate the benefits that our faith brings us. We are perfectly happy to tell people about all sorts of good things, but not the good news of the gospel. We do not all have the oratorical skills of Paul, or his persistence in adversity. But we can be real with other people, showing them Christ in the way we live.
We had the death of John the Baptist, which was super challenging because we had three different preachers/writers trying to find the Gospel in that text (or more accurately, imported from elsewhere--so grim).
Yes. I only alluded to the Gospel, and preached on Ephesians 1.3-14, noting that Paul wasn’t writing from some academic ivory tower, but in prison himself and unsure whether the door would open to liberty or execution.
How do we live as God's people in a changing world? Where do we look so that we can live fruitfully? Three words: Loved (God is perfect love), Grounded (anchored in the word of God which is scripture), Accompanied (by the Holy Spirit).
Acts 8: 1-25. Simon the "magician" in Samaria offers Peter money to have the power to impart the Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands, and is admonished for thinking that God's gift could be obtained with money. The "prosperity gospel" was not mentioned specifically, but our preacher made the wider point that we cannot bargain or make contracts with God by thinking that either our money or our time can buy His favour
That was a long way to come just for a Sunday morning. Hope he got travelling expenses!
Haha. He's a member of a religious order and is based in their house in Chester. Our diocese has quite a lot of members of religious orders from the developing world. We are served at the moment by a couple of Indian priests from the next door parish. Their sermons are refreshing because the cultural references are slightly different.
Miracle of loaves and fishes. Visiting preacher from Africa. Being generous is a sign of God's love. So be generous.
John's version of this I presume?
In which case, same passage, but the theme was gratitude and its role in the life of the Christian. I am trying to remember the key text as it was not the one I would have chosen, maybe I better listen again when it comes out on Podcast.
Miracle of loaves and fishes. Visiting preacher from Africa. Being generous is a sign of God's love. So be generous.
John's version of this I presume?
In which case, same passage, but the theme was gratitude and its role in the life of the Christian. I am trying to remember the key text as it was not the one I would have chosen, maybe I better listen again when it comes out on Podcast.
Same passage here (with the complementary reading from 2 Kings) so I talked about bread.
We had variations on the lesson of the Loaves and Fishes, and a pretty hefty chunk of commentary about the Paris Olympics opening ceremonies. (RC Parish)
We all like a good grumble; negativity brings us together. God's people are different in that we can look back on the faithfulness of God and look ahead to the promises of God. In communion, where Jesus gave thanks in the worst of circumstances, we look back, we look ahead, and we trust God.
From shrinking back to stepping up: how do we have courage?
1. If the opposition seems too big compare your doubts to who God is.
2. Encourage each other - Be More Caleb.
3. Know that God has a great purpose for us.
Twice? In exactly the same words, or do you mean the preacher recycled his ideas?
I know we had to avoid doing that, given that we've been taking the Gospel from the same discourse of Jesus for three weeks. It's so easy to just repeat things three weeks in a row.
In exactly the same words, morning and evening.
It is slightly annoying, as the choir often forms the majority of the congregation at Evensong, and some of us will have attended the morning Parish Communion too.
But I have every sympathy for our priest who has five churches and scarcely any help. Yesterday’s Evensong was her third or fourth service.
It happens every month. Sometimes I appreciate having a second time to absorb the sermon, other times less so.
Paul in Damascus and Jerusalem (Acts 9:20-42) led to a three point sermon.
Witness - our lives should point to Jesus
Warning - we should expect persecution
Welcome - God welcomes everyone, so should we.
Today is a one-off Sunday in between finishing our series on Handling Change last week and next week starting our new series working through the gospel of Matthew. So let's talk about Matthew: The Great Commission in the final chapter reminds us of the book of Daniel and how God has all authority there and in Matthew Jesus says he has all authority so he is, therefore, God. The good news is for all nations, disciples are to be made in all the world, Jesus promises to be with us all the time.
Wasn't complaining, just commenting. But it's very hard to concentrate on playing the organ when there are families with noisy kids with noisy bangy toys right next to me.
Psalm 73
Envy is the green-eyed monster that can break our relationships with God and others. We need to focus on him when we start to feel it and remember he is Grasping hold of us, Guiding us and bringing us to Glory
I think the Gospel element of the Lectionary is really hard in these four weeks. Possibly if you sat down some time in mid-July and worked out a series of four sermons on the latter part of John 6 you could do something with it, but in each week you’d be wanting to refer to parts not yet read, or parts read in previous weeks. And really John 6.24-end needs to be read as a whole, not in four separate chunks.
Yep. The Great British Bake Off has Bread Week. The lectionary has Bread Month.
I was on the rota to preach yesterday. It’s worked out this year that we’ve had a different person preaching for each of the John 6 weeks - which doesn’t necessarily help, as I wasn’t there every week and so didn’t know what everyone had already said. So I abandoned the gospel and tackled Ephesians 6 instead, and looked at why the Bible has so much fighting in it (mostly literal in the OT and figurative in the NT) and how we reconcile that with a desire for peace.
Embarking on our journey through the Gospel of Matthew, we look first at the genealogies that no one ever reads so we're going to.
Are we descended from Adam, who messed up big time and blew it all, or from Jesus who will never do that?
How come women are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus? Tune in next week to find out.
I once heard a fantastic sermon from Rowan Williams on the genealogies. He picked three really obscure names and pointed out that they are not referred to anywhere else in scripture, but the fact they are mentioned they were crucial to the story
I've always loved the way that God referred to Bathsheba as "the wife of Uriah," giving him the honor of a spot on Jesus' genealogy--which is more than David deserved by his behavior.
On the other hand, one could say that it diminishes her status, by making her the mere accoutrement of her husband rather than allowing her to stand in her own name.
You could, but given that the occasion for her spot in the list was rape, she herself might have preferred it otherwise. Particularly as so many assholes down though history have put the blame on her…
Like Gaul it was a sermon in three parts.
a) Birthday of Mary - I zoned out
b) Season of Creation - I perked up a bit
c) Today's gospel about the man born deaf and dumb. Interesting point was that he has no name and could stand for us all because we all need to open our ears and mouths to hear and defend the gospel.
Christmas came early to our place this morning with Matthew 1:18-25.
Joseph was a man of the law - Mary's pregnancy would have brought shame on him - but also deeply open to the Spirit. Jesus is already central to the story: he is Immanuel (God with us) and Yeshua (the one who saves). God sent his Son to die for us, to rescue and save us.
Comments
Jesus is coming: be ready.
We had a guest preacher this morning, a retired Anglican bishop. He started by asking why most of us are perfectly comfortable talking about Jesus here in church, but are reluctant to do so outside of that setting. A bit of audience participation followed to enumerate the benefits that our faith brings us. We are perfectly happy to tell people about all sorts of good things, but not the good news of the gospel. We do not all have the oratorical skills of Paul, or his persistence in adversity. But we can be real with other people, showing them Christ in the way we live.
How do we live as God's people in a changing world? Where do we look so that we can live fruitfully? Three words: Loved (God is perfect love), Grounded (anchored in the word of God which is scripture), Accompanied (by the Holy Spirit).
Look after your Leaders (whether official or unofficial)
Look after yourselves
Look after each other
Haha. He's a member of a religious order and is based in their house in Chester. Our diocese has quite a lot of members of religious orders from the developing world. We are served at the moment by a couple of Indian priests from the next door parish. Their sermons are refreshing because the cultural references are slightly different.
John's version of this I presume?
In which case, same passage, but the theme was gratitude and its role in the life of the Christian. I am trying to remember the key text as it was not the one I would have chosen, maybe I better listen again when it comes out on Podcast.
Same passage here (with the complementary reading from 2 Kings) so I talked about bread.
Rejoice and be glad;
Because God has made the world for us to delight in it;
God has saved us;
and God has given us each other to give each other joy.
I Thessalonians 5:16-18
We all like a good grumble; negativity brings us together. God's people are different in that we can look back on the faithfulness of God and look ahead to the promises of God. In communion, where Jesus gave thanks in the worst of circumstances, we look back, we look ahead, and we trust God.
(Yes, it was a communion service.)
It's OK to be sad - but keep on meeting with your Christian brothers and sisters for support.
We are uniquely made by God and so have worth in His eyes. He shows this in His love and care.
From shrinking back to stepping up: how do we have courage?
1. If the opposition seems too big compare your doubts to who God is.
2. Encourage each other - Be More Caleb.
3. Know that God has a great purpose for us.
We had the same sermon twice, but I still did not take much away from it.
I know we had to avoid doing that, given that we've been taking the Gospel from the same discourse of Jesus for three weeks. It's so easy to just repeat things three weeks in a row.
It is slightly annoying, as the choir often forms the majority of the congregation at Evensong, and some of us will have attended the morning Parish Communion too.
But I have every sympathy for our priest who has five churches and scarcely any help. Yesterday’s Evensong was her third or fourth service.
It happens every month. Sometimes I appreciate having a second time to absorb the sermon, other times less so.
Maybe it was Matthew 19?
Just a thought...
Paul in Damascus and Jerusalem (Acts 9:20-42) led to a three point sermon.
Witness - our lives should point to Jesus
Warning - we should expect persecution
Welcome - God welcomes everyone, so should we.
Wasn't complaining, just commenting. But it's very hard to concentrate on playing the organ when there are families with noisy kids with noisy bangy toys right next to me.
Envy is the green-eyed monster that can break our relationships with God and others. We need to focus on him when we start to feel it and remember he is Grasping hold of us, Guiding us and bringing us to Glory
I was on the rota to preach yesterday. It’s worked out this year that we’ve had a different person preaching for each of the John 6 weeks - which doesn’t necessarily help, as I wasn’t there every week and so didn’t know what everyone had already said. So I abandoned the gospel and tackled Ephesians 6 instead, and looked at why the Bible has so much fighting in it (mostly literal in the OT and figurative in the NT) and how we reconcile that with a desire for peace.
Guilt.
Objectively, it's all OK - Jesus has got this.
Subjectively, "Get some therapy"
Embarking on our journey through the Gospel of Matthew, we look first at the genealogies that no one ever reads so we're going to.
Are we descended from Adam, who messed up big time and blew it all, or from Jesus who will never do that?
How come women are mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus? Tune in next week to find out.
It helps to have a good memory of the more scandalous bits of the Old Testament.
I once heard a fantastic sermon from Rowan Williams on the genealogies. He picked three really obscure names and pointed out that they are not referred to anywhere else in scripture, but the fact they are mentioned they were crucial to the story
a) Birthday of Mary - I zoned out
b) Season of Creation - I perked up a bit
c) Today's gospel about the man born deaf and dumb. Interesting point was that he has no name and could stand for us all because we all need to open our ears and mouths to hear and defend the gospel.
Joseph was a man of the law - Mary's pregnancy would have brought shame on him - but also deeply open to the Spirit. Jesus is already central to the story: he is Immanuel (God with us) and Yeshua (the one who saves). God sent his Son to die for us, to rescue and save us.
God keeps his promises (He promised the return from Exile)
God moves hearts (Cyrus' and the people)
We are weak but He is strong.