Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Sixth Sunday of Easter. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.15 at St Thomas'.
If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find resources below to worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "Longing for Light, We Wait in Darkness"
Today's Gospel
John 14:15-21 The Promise of the Holy Spirit
Jesus said, ”If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever. This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
”I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me; and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.”
Reflection
Our Gospel passage today is a continuation from last week, where Jesus is comforting His disciples following his disclosure that he will soon die. It’s part of what is known as Jesus’ ‘farewell disclosure’ during the Last Supper.
Last week we looked at Jesus’ message to follow Him, and what that meant following His commandment to love one another and follow His example. Here we see Jesus emphasising that same message – He starts by making it clear that the only way to show how much they love Jesus is keep His commandments. Jesus isn’t looking for signs of sorrow and mourning, He is looking for positive love in the way they love others as He loved them.
As I think about this, I try to put myself in the disciples’ shoes – they’ve been following Him for a few years and witnessed some pretty awesome events, and heard first hand how Jesus interprets God’s word in a new and refreshing way. So they must be thinking, How do we follow an act like that? How can we possibly follow Jesus’ commandments and live up to His example without Him by our sides to guide us?
Jesus, of course, knows and understands their innermost doubts and so He promises to ask the Father to send another advocate - the Holy Spirit. A comforter who will abide in them and be constantly guiding and encouraging them, strengthening them as they grow in the power of Christ to go forward and spread the good news of the risen Lord.
Jesus is addressing the questions and doubts that we heard about in last weeks reflection. But more than that, He is alluding to nature of the Spirit and the need to be open to it through our faith in Jesus and the Father.
When he says, “This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him”, Jesus is describing those who are still alienated from God and the knowledge of His son. Importantly, that does not mean that an unbeliever cannot become a believer. Everyone is capable of becoming a believer and turning to faith - that happens to people every day. It is up to the disciples and followers here and now, who have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to channel that precious gift and share it as widely as possible.
I mentioned the doubt that the disciples must have felt, being daunted at the challenge of carrying on Jesus’ footsteps after He had gone. How would they spread the message without Him?
I suspect many of us feel like that from time to time, and I’ve heard the worry expressed by several people in our churches. Sometimes it is voiced in words such as, ‘Why do so few people come to church nowadays?’
We too need to have faith and follow Jesus’ commandment to love one another and trust in the Holy Spirit that was sent for all to enable us to be active disciples. We can follow the examples of the first disciples and pray together and for each other, especially those who have yet to come to faith.
Perhaps as part of our personal prayer and reflection, we could pose these questions to ourselves – “ When and how did I show love to someone today?” Or maybe, when did I fail to show love to someone today? Whatever our answer is, we can pray that the Holy Spirit will help us to be truthful in our response, and if need be, encourage us to do better next time.
Because the Holy Spirit is not sent to judge us or to make us feel bad The Holy Spirit is sent to be alongside us, to guide us and comfort us and help us to carry on Jesus’ mission.
When was the last time you talked to someone about your faith either to your family, friends or even a stranger? If we don’t talk about Jesus to anyone outside church, how can we share the our faith effectively. Pray that the Holy Spirit will guide us to share our faith and give the Spirit an opportunity to bring more people into the joy and love of our gracious Father.
Paul
Our Prayers
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the blessing of your Holy Spirit,
to be alongside us,
guiding, comforting and strengthening us.
Send us out each day in confidence,
to proclaim our faith to those we meet in our life journeys,
And bring new followers into your kingdom.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "Breathe on me, Breath of God"
Notices
Ascension Day is this Thursday, and there will be a service at St Thomas’ Church at 7 pm.
This week is Christian Aid Week, and we are having a ‘Big Brekkie’ on Friday 15th May from 8.45 to 10.45 am to raise funds for Christian Aid, so please come along and join us if you can.
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Fifth Sunday of Easter. Our Church Service this morning at St Agnes' is at 9.15, and St Thomas' service is at the slightly later time of 11.30.
If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find resources below to worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "New Every Morning is the Love"
Today's Gospel
John 14:1-14 Jesus Comforts His Disciples
Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”
Reflection
You could be forgiven if you feel a little confused after listening to John’s Gospel reading today. Here we are 5 weeks after Easter, when Jesus has risen and has been seen by Mary, the disciples and many others since his resurrection, and yet we find ourselves back in the room at the last supper.
So to remind ourselves of the context, Jesus and the disciples are at the Passover meal and in the course of the evening he had told them some pretty bad news. Firstly, He’s told them one of the disciples will betray him to the Romans, then He’s told Peter that he will deny knowing Jesus 3 times before day break, and last but not least that He will soon be killed. Even as He is now speaking to them, Judas is undertaking his act of treachery.
A short while before, he was washing their feet and giving them a new commandment to love one another, and now he’s turned the whole mood upside down. It’s hard to imagine the atmosphere in the room and how the disciples must have felt. After all, they have left everything behind to follow Jesus, and they realise as well that their own lives are also at risk. Apart from being confused they must have felt very vulnerable and frightened.
So Jesus tries to reassure them. He loves them and wants to set their minds at rest. He shifts their minds and their focus away from fear, and calls them to have belief and faith. He wants them to understand that death is not the end, and that they can have eternal life through faith and trust in him. He says; “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.” Jesus starts to outline why they should trust in Him, even after he is gone. He lays out the case in plain language and says, “I am going to prepare a place for you”.
When Thomas is still puzzled, Jesus elaborates and says to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know Him and have seen Him.”
Then Philip joins in the questioning, asking Jesus to show them the Father. Thomas and Philip were willing to ask the questions that were no doubt troubling the whole group, because at this stage of course, they had not experienced the glorious resurrection of Jesus. In their minds they didn’t know where Jesus was going to. They hadn’t yet fully grasped that Jesus was divine and was God.
Of course they wanted to believe and trust in Jesus, but they were totally perplexed. So, in the short time they had before Jesus left them all alone, they absolutely wanted to understand how they would go about following him.
They needed to know how to get to this wonderful dwelling place which Jesus was going to prepare for them. It must have felt like Jesus was making lots of reassuring promises but hadn’t given them all the pieces to the jigsaw. And perhaps there is a hint of frustration from Jesus when he says to Philip, How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? “
The disciples were looking for a physical map to follow, but Jesus wasn’t talking about following a route map, He was talking about following in His ways and teachings. Something that the disciples wouldn’t fully understand until after his resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, when the missing pieces of the jigsaw would fall into place.
So what does this say to us here in Hey and Lees? The message is exactly the same. Jesus calls each and every one of us to follow Him. To live the way that He showed His disciples, following His commandment made at the last supper, to love one another as He loved us. He calls us to believe in Him and whilst we haven’t physically seen Him, we witness Him in the Good news of the Gospels, and we see God in all creation and His grace in the miracles that continue to happen across the world.
When we believe and trust in Jesus, He will show us the way to God’s dwelling place where He prepares a place for all who believe and trust in Him. But He won’t send us a link to Google maps in our ‘in box’, because in verse 3, Jesus promises “I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” Paul
Our Prayers
Risen and reigning Lord,
Strengthen our faith and trust in you,
that our troubled hearts may be assured
that you have gone to prepare a place for us,
so that where you are, we may be also and
that the Father will come to us through you.
Amen
Todays final hymn is "Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer"
Notices
Our Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM) will take place at St Thomas’ Church at 12.15 pm on Sunday 17th May. On that day we will have a Parish Eucharist at 11.15 am at St Thomas’, and there will be no service at St Agnes’.
The APCM is where we review the parish activities and finances for the previous year, and elect Churchwardens and parish officers for the coming year, so it’s really important that as many people as possible attend.
There is a great need at both churches for people to step up into various roles, not only for what we see at worship on Sundays and midweek, but also for everything that happens in the background to enable Leesfield Parish to continue to thrive at the heart of our community.
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Fourth Sunday of Easter. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.15 at St Thomas'.
If you are unable to be with us in person, you will find resources below to worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "Loving Shepherd of Thy Sheep"
Today's Gospel
John 10:1-10 The Shepherd and His Flock
Jesus said, “Very truly, I tell you, anyone who does not enter the sheepfold by the gate but climbs in by another way is a thief and a bandit. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep hear his voice.
He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice.
They will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” Jesus used this figure of speech with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
Reflection
In various translations of John 10 we may read about sheep pens, rather than folds. For many, this conjures up the image of the type of sheep pens we often see in the UK which are used for temporarily restraining small numbers of sheep before they are sheared.
If you walk along the hills above Oldham you will invariably see sheep roaming the fields and moorland day and night and they are seldom locked up.
Part of the reason for that is that we have very few predators such as wolves who would attack and kill them.
So, like me, you might find it hard to visualise what a sheep pen or sheepfold looks like. In the picture above, is a typical example of a sheepfold from ancient Israel which would not be dissimilar from those in biblical times when Jesus was alive. They were often built of stone and sometimes topped with thorns to deter thieves and predators. Shelters like this would vary in size and were usually built in a valley or on the sunny side of hill where there was protection form cold winds. In smaller folds like the one above, a watchman or shepherd would sleep at the gate or entrance overnight and act as a human gate.
The presence of a large number of sheep in the Holy Land was significant, as both Jews and Arabs relied on them for their livelihood, which is one of the reasons sheep are referred to so much throughout the Bible.
The shepherd would lead the sheep out to pasture every morning and would look after them, making sure they are well and not lame. I suspect most of us have never worked on a farm but it is not difficult to appreciate that over a short period of time the shepherd gets to know his sheep well, their habits, idiosyncrasies and behaviours very well. If you’ve ever had pets I’m sure you will be able to relate this. Similarly the animals get to know and trust the shepherd and they are wary of strangers. You can see this if you go for a walk in fields - sheep will always run away, but when the farmer comes along they run towards him or her.
So it was in the scenario Jesus outlines. The sheep would recognise the shepherd and be happy to follow him out of the fold to graze, knowing that he would lead them to good pasture where they would be safe. But if a stranger tries to entice them out they would be reluctant. Perhaps they remember past times when they were led out by a stranger and were separated from each other and their lambs were taken. Or they were abandoned in a place where there was little pasture to graze on.
Jesus says, “they will not follow a stranger, but they will run from him because they do not know the voice of strangers.” John points out that some did not understand Jesus, so Jesus clarifies that the point of the parable is not about the shepherd – it’s about the gate. A closed gate serves to keep the sheep in safety within the fold, but an open gate is the way to a source of life giving food and sustenance. To find that source of abundance of life we must go through the gate and follow the one that we can trust.
We are invited through Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross to walk through the ultimate gateway – because what God has given us through Jesus is ultimate security in the knowledge that we are forgiven people. We are free to wander in God’s unending pasture as His children and help one another flourish. We are free to put aside our fears and uncertainties to embrace the grace of God. We are free to live as God wanted us to live when He created humankind - loving caring people being what he intended us to be.
Paul
Our Prayers
Heavenly Father,
You call us by name and know every one of us.
When we are tempted to stray, guide us by your voice.
You are the gate that leads to eternal life,
strengthen our faith to trust in you
and guide us into the pasture of everlasting peace.
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "All People that on Earth do Dwell"
