The people did not know My Life Flows on in Endless Song, so we used Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine.
They need to learn “My Life Flows On”/“How Can I Keep from Singing?”
(Though I will admit it’s one one of those hymns that can either plod along or be wonderfully exuberant, depending on the accompaniment and the accompanist.)
The sabbath was an important part of Israel's identity; is there value in it for us? It is a gift meant for blessing (made for man), an invitation to stop working, stop wanting and stop worrying. What it looks like depends on us (what is rest for some people is work for others).
Most of Jesus' teaching in the final two weeks of his pre-resurrection life was about his second coming. Will we be ready for him when he returns?
We are justified by faith, but we will be judged by our works.
Jesus cursed Jerusalem, and when he cursed the Fig tree, this was a symbol of Israel and so Israel was cursed because they hadn't done works of faith (as the history of Israel shows).
We will be cursed if we haven't done works of Faithfulness (Matt. 24:45-51), Preparedness – Ten Virgins (Matt. 25:1-13), Fruitfulness – Talents (Matt. 25:14-30), and Kindness (Matt. 25:31-46).
Jesus is the King who obeys. He was willing to be our Passover lamb. He was obedient up to and including a horrible death. We pray "your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven". That starts with following Jesus' example and being obedient in our own lives.
Mark 14:43-15:15
Jesus is the King who stands firm and gave his life for his enemies – for people like us – that we might be rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into his kingdom of light.
The church carries the good news about King Jesus to the ends of the earth. We need to pray for opportunities to share the good news, for confidence and for conversions.
Luke 19:28-40
The narrative of Palm Sunday encourages us to celebrate and worship the king. It also challenges to ask ourselves which crowd we are in - the one that cheers for Jesus or the one, later in the week, that cries out for his death?
Our Palm Sunday sermon differentiated between the crowd that trusted Jesus and cheered Him in and those that did not trust Him so tried to put up road blocks. There were also plenty of people in the middle. We were encouraged to take a step towards the trusting end of the spectrum.
I was unexpectedly operating the visuals and had drunk more tea before the service than I would normally when on duty. I thought that I would pop out during the sermon as I had nothing to do during that section of the service (not all preachers depend on images on screen!) but was drawn to stay in and listen. Fortunately my bladder held out.
We had two preachers (two services)— one contrasting Jesus’ reign with the current corrupting emphasis on power, which cannot save; and the other pointing out that everything used for Palm Sunday was borrowed by Jesus and later returned—except our sin and shame, which he borrowed and did not return to us.
When Jesus on the cross declared that "It is finished" the word means that he completed what he came to do and is in the continuous perfect form: it was finished, it is being finished and will continue to be finished.
Good Friday.
After the reading of St John's account of the Passion I really wanted to be left in peace. We don't usually have a homily on Good Friday, however we did yesterday. It was not welcome, and when he started on the Seven Last Words about ten minutes in, I honestly could have thrown a book at him to shut him up.
John 20: 1-18
We usually like things to be full, but some things are better empty - email inbox, laundry basket, nappies! Leading to . . . The Empty Tomb
1. It's real (Not sure the evidence offered by our preacher would hold up in court)
2. It's personal (Mary's experience was deeply personal, and ours can be too)
3. It's not just for me (Mary shared her experience with others, and so should we)
At Matins we had a general thing about being born again, fresh start in life, etc. Lasted exactly 5 minutes because we had another service straight afterwards.
Communion service we had 5 minutes on the surprise that must have been felt by the women who found the empty tomb.
We had a Pastoral Letter from our wretched bishop to mark the death of Pope Francis. It did not mention a single one of the issues that Francis was so eloquent about, but instead banged on about his being the successor of St Peter.
Supposedly based on the Road to Emmaus narrative and actually a rehash of this story about a painting entitled "Checkmate." If I recall correctly the (somewhat tenuous) link was that Jesus is God's one more move, Jesus being who they met on the road.
Just as in Habakkuk's time, ours is a world of injustice, violence and destruction. Just as Habbakuk does, we should cling to God: trusting in His character, His covenant and His control of the World.
Peter and Paul both have highly significant encounters with Jesus because of the hard callings each will have to follow. Every person’s every encounter with Jesus involves some call or encouragement to follow. That may be ‘great’ things, ordinary faithfulness, or simply ‘having done all, to stand’.
(In passing we often, like Ananias, and in a different way like Peter, behave as if God doesn’t know what is going on.)
I didn't listen as I was far too pissed off about the opening hymn being left off the order of service. Not sure how I was supposed to know, osmosis?? Happens far too often
Irritating. Was it a hymn that was sung that you didn’t know about, or one that you expected but was not sung?
It was one I didn't know about until it was announced. It was very frustrating as each week I enlarge the music to A4 to suit my limited vision and then had to play from the hymnal which is a size or two smaller. I sure made my feelings known to the person(s) concerned. Luckily it was one we sing regularly
No matter how bad things seem (and there is plenty happening in the world right now) God is in charge.
There will come a time when the knowledge of God will be ubiquitous.
In the meantime, walk in faith.
Our service was a big celebration of the completion of a large building project on our building which has been taking place over the last couple of years. The sermon was therefore about what the church is. It is the people, not the building, and if there is a building it is for the glory of God.
Today is Shepherd Sunday so we got 12 minutes of platitudes about being a pastor, looking for lost sheep, we should all try to be shepherds, blah, blah, blah.
This was our All-Age service with some young families but the Archdeacon approved priest made no attempt to address the children at any stage. The wretched man read the whole thing, looking down at his script for 90% of the time - I've heard more animation in the Shipping Forecast. 😡
I've heard more animation in the Shipping Forecast. 😡
Which, I've discovered to my slight annoyance, is now broadcast at around 5.30am on DAB - it used to be on Long Wave but that has been discontinued. That's the time I'm driving to the swimming pool (well, not every day); I used to listen to the news then, but no longer.
Yes, although a former Minister of mine wrote an M.A. paper which aimed to prove that the men chosen to carry out the practical tasks of the church (Acts 6) should not be called Deacons. I disagree!
Habakkuk 3
The secret to rejoicing in difficult times is to rest in God and reflect on His goodness and what he has done for us in the past - with the certain expectation that He will do more for us in the future.
On what is the Biblical meaning of the word "love" and actually said something I have not heard 20,000 times before.
That eros was about attraction to the other, that philo was about associating with the other and that agape was about desiring the others good. He also started this off making it very clear in that the meanings historically depended on when the word was used.
I doubt the sermon lasted ten minutes, he still managed to be clear, have a good message and be intellectually balanced. Quite a feat.
Continuing the series in Matthew's gospel, we have reached the Sermon on the Mount and the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9): Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Whatever our experience of our earthly fathers, we must look to God's example of fatherhood first and in prayer we can enjoy:
1. The fatherliness of God (his love)
2. The fatherhood of God - we are adopted as sons and daughters, because Jesus died for our sin which was in the way of our relationship with God.
We are praying to a triune God to whom we have direct access in Jesus' name, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
Unity in Christ.
A most timely sermon, based on today’s Gospel, as we are in interregnum, and there are rumours and speculation about which strings are being pulled, by whom and in which direction.
The Lay Reader who took the service today (not one of our usuals) started by saying they had been expecting us to be celebrating the Ascension (we weren't, we did that on Thursday) and so preached on "How did the disciples feel watching Our Lord being taken up into heaven". Since no one will ever really know it was all pretty pointless - I listened for 3 minutes then used the time more constructively re-pointing a psalm.
Continuing through the Gospel of Matthew and homing in on the Lord's Prayer in fine detail: "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
The Father has a kingdom and we're asking that his kingdom of righteousness, justice and joy will come to earth. If Jesus the King is here, so is the kingdom; Jesus is the kingdom in a person of self-giving sacrificial love and the church is, or should be, a glimpse of heaven.
Christ has ascended to heaven where he is reigning with the Father over all things. The Christians in Colosssae were being encouraged to look away from Jesus for their salvation. But Jesus is so glorious that we shouldn't be doing this. We could consider that Jesus is the gate to an Aladdin's cave of treasure - and gates are dull. But in reality he is the greatest treasure we could find.
2 Corinthians 5:11 - 6:12
Sounds as though the theme at our place was similar to that posted by @Nenya , although using a different Bible passage.
Be reconciled to God and one another. It's no use praying "Thy Kingdom Come" then sitting back waiting for it to happen. "Thy will be done" requires action from ourselves
Acts 2: 1-21 (what else could it be today?)
Pentecost and the power of the Spirit didn't just appear from nowhere. It was preceded by a time of waiting and praying.
Acts 2:1-6, 12, 14-24, 32-39
The Holy Spirit is for all believers - He powers us for service.
He chooses which gifts to give us, but we should always concentrate on the Giver not the gift.
The most important role He has is to point us to Jesus through illuminating the Scriptures.
For once today's stand-in priest delivered a sermon (10 minutes on the nose) that was worth listening to. He preached about the marvel of the disciples being able to speak in many languages, and how we could interpret this not just as a sign that we should be open to being multi-lingual (cue polite laughter from the congregation) but also that God/Spirit may speak to us through the language of music, art, nature, science, etc, and we in our turn could speak to others through various means. A more interesting "take" than I've heard in a long time.
Comments
The people did not know My Life Flows on in Endless Song, so we used Blessed Assurance, Jesus is Mine.
(Though I will admit it’s one one of those hymns that can either plod along or be wonderfully exuberant, depending on the accompaniment and the accompanist.)
The sabbath was an important part of Israel's identity; is there value in it for us? It is a gift meant for blessing (made for man), an invitation to stop working, stop wanting and stop worrying. What it looks like depends on us (what is rest for some people is work for others).
Most of Jesus' teaching in the final two weeks of his pre-resurrection life was about his second coming. Will we be ready for him when he returns?
We are justified by faith, but we will be judged by our works.
Jesus cursed Jerusalem, and when he cursed the Fig tree, this was a symbol of Israel and so Israel was cursed because they hadn't done works of faith (as the history of Israel shows).
We will be cursed if we haven't done works of Faithfulness (Matt. 24:45-51), Preparedness – Ten Virgins (Matt. 25:1-13), Fruitfulness – Talents (Matt. 25:14-30), and Kindness (Matt. 25:31-46).
Jesus is the King who obeys. He was willing to be our Passover lamb. He was obedient up to and including a horrible death. We pray "your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven". That starts with following Jesus' example and being obedient in our own lives.
Jesus is the King who stands firm and gave his life for his enemies – for people like us – that we might be rescued from the kingdom of darkness and brought into his kingdom of light.
Will you and I stand firm for him today?
The church carries the good news about King Jesus to the ends of the earth. We need to pray for opportunities to share the good news, for confidence and for conversions.
The narrative of Palm Sunday encourages us to celebrate and worship the king. It also challenges to ask ourselves which crowd we are in - the one that cheers for Jesus or the one, later in the week, that cries out for his death?
I was unexpectedly operating the visuals and had drunk more tea before the service than I would normally when on duty. I thought that I would pop out during the sermon as I had nothing to do during that section of the service (not all preachers depend on images on screen!) but was drawn to stay in and listen. Fortunately my bladder held out.
Jesus suffered dreadfully for us. Do we give him a high enough position in our life?
After the reading of St John's account of the Passion I really wanted to be left in peace. We don't usually have a homily on Good Friday, however we did yesterday. It was not welcome, and when he started on the Seven Last Words about ten minutes in, I honestly could have thrown a book at him to shut him up.
We usually like things to be full, but some things are better empty - email inbox, laundry basket, nappies! Leading to . . .
The Empty Tomb
1. It's real (Not sure the evidence offered by our preacher would hold up in court)
2. It's personal (Mary's experience was deeply personal, and ours can be too)
3. It's not just for me (Mary shared her experience with others, and so should we)
The women at the tomb had experienced disappointment. But this was turned around by the fact of the resurrection.
Our disappointments in life can be turned around by trusting in the resurrection, because it has changed everything.
Communion service we had 5 minutes on the surprise that must have been felt by the women who found the empty tomb.
In a society which is becoming evermore disconnected and isolated, how do we connect both with God and each other?
By basing our discipleship around the revealed word of God, being interested in other people's stories, and bring people into God's better story.
Just as in Habakkuk's time, ours is a world of injustice, violence and destruction. Just as Habbakuk does, we should cling to God: trusting in His character, His covenant and His control of the World.
(In passing we often, like Ananias, and in a different way like Peter, behave as if God doesn’t know what is going on.)
It was one I didn't know about until it was announced. It was very frustrating as each week I enlarge the music to A4 to suit my limited vision and then had to play from the hymnal which is a size or two smaller. I sure made my feelings known to the person(s) concerned. Luckily it was one we sing regularly
No matter how bad things seem (and there is plenty happening in the world right now) God is in charge.
There will come a time when the knowledge of God will be ubiquitous.
In the meantime, walk in faith.
This was our All-Age service with some young families but the Archdeacon approved priest made no attempt to address the children at any stage. The wretched man read the whole thing, looking down at his script for 90% of the time - I've heard more animation in the Shipping Forecast. 😡
Yes, although a former Minister of mine wrote an M.A. paper which aimed to prove that the men chosen to carry out the practical tasks of the church (Acts 6) should not be called Deacons. I disagree!
The secret to rejoicing in difficult times is to rest in God and reflect on His goodness and what he has done for us in the past - with the certain expectation that He will do more for us in the future.
Make the choice to rejoice!
That eros was about attraction to the other, that philo was about associating with the other and that agape was about desiring the others good. He also started this off making it very clear in that the meanings historically depended on when the word was used.
I doubt the sermon lasted ten minutes, he still managed to be clear, have a good message and be intellectually balanced. Quite a feat.
Whatever our experience of our earthly fathers, we must look to God's example of fatherhood first and in prayer we can enjoy:
1. The fatherliness of God (his love)
2. The fatherhood of God - we are adopted as sons and daughters, because Jesus died for our sin which was in the way of our relationship with God.
We are praying to a triune God to whom we have direct access in Jesus' name, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
A most timely sermon, based on today’s Gospel, as we are in interregnum, and there are rumours and speculation about which strings are being pulled, by whom and in which direction.
The Father has a kingdom and we're asking that his kingdom of righteousness, justice and joy will come to earth. If Jesus the King is here, so is the kingdom; Jesus is the kingdom in a person of self-giving sacrificial love and the church is, or should be, a glimpse of heaven.
Christ has ascended to heaven where he is reigning with the Father over all things. The Christians in Colosssae were being encouraged to look away from Jesus for their salvation. But Jesus is so glorious that we shouldn't be doing this. We could consider that Jesus is the gate to an Aladdin's cave of treasure - and gates are dull. But in reality he is the greatest treasure we could find.
Sounds as though the theme at our place was similar to that posted by @Nenya , although using a different Bible passage.
Be reconciled to God and one another. It's no use praying "Thy Kingdom Come" then sitting back waiting for it to happen. "Thy will be done" requires action from ourselves
This was well illustrated to be understandable by all ages.
Pentecost and the power of the Spirit didn't just appear from nowhere. It was preceded by a time of waiting and praying.
The Holy Spirit is for all believers - He powers us for service.
He chooses which gifts to give us, but we should always concentrate on the Giver not the gift.
The most important role He has is to point us to Jesus through illuminating the Scriptures.