Sunday Worship 15th March

 Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, which is also Mothering Sunday.

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 "Lord for the Years"

Today's Gospel

John 19:25-27            Jesus entrusts His mother into John’s care

Meanwhile, standing near the cross of Jesus were his mother, and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene.  

When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing beside her, he said to his mother, “Woman, here is your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his own home.

Reflection

Today’s Gospel passage is perhaps one of the most harrowing and yet at the same time one of the most loving and compassionate parts of the Bible.

Harrowing, because we are at the point where Jesus is on the Cross where He will soon die. Harrowing when we think about His mother Mary at the foot of the Cross and what she is having to endure as she has seen Jesus, her beloved son,  criticised and victimised by the religious authorities and the Roman leaders. A mother who has seen Jesus betrayed by Judas, denied by Peter, one of His closest allies, and abandoned by most of the rest of His disciples and followers.

And now she stands at the foot of the cross, witnessing the way people are treating, deriding and spitting on her beautiful son as He is publicly humiliated with the indignity of death by public crucifixion. How much pain and suffering must she have felt as her heart was pierced, as she witnessed the horrific suffering of her eldest son?

   

Amidst this scene of anguish and torment, John, the only disciple to witness the crucifixion, tells us that as Jesus hung on the cross, He saw his mother. 

And we learn of the extreme compassion in Jesus’ heart with His concern for the pain His mother is going through. Let’s just think about that the level of selfless compassion that happens at that moment. Jesus is hanging on the Cross, near to the point of death, where He is about to sacrifice His life for the sins of the human race - and His immediate concern is for His mother and who is going to look after her. Added to the physical pain and torment He is going through, He has to witness the pain and agony His mother is going through as she weeps at His feet. 

His immediate thoughts are for her future and who will look after her and care for her when He is gone. (It is generally believed by most scholars that her husband Joseph had died by this time and as a widow she would have been left alone).

John describes this most wonderful act of compassion as Jesus says to her, “Woman, here is your son,” before saying to John, “Here is your mother.” In that moment Jesus is making sure His mother will be looked after.

It is a moment of both extreme sorrow and extreme compassion and love. 

Jesus’ interactions emphasise that caring for one another is at the heart of the Christian faith. He sees his mother’s pain, and ensures she has support in the form of his beloved disciple, John. In this act of compassion, Jesus is also tending to the loss and sorrow of John, who must also be deeply hurting for his friend who has been ridiculed and tortured and will soon die. 

On this Mothering Sunday we see how much Jesus loved His mother. There is a message in this passage about how we should remember our mothers and all the things they have done for us during our lives. They look after us and tend our wounds when we fall and scrape our knee. They listen to our troubles and heartaches and provide emotional support when things go wrong. They teach us to look after each other and of course they care for us; with the hundreds of mundane things; like washing and ironing, cooking meals and cleaning the house so it is safe for us. But most of all, through the example they set from the time we are first cradled in their arms, they teach us how to love. 

So on this special day, no matter how many things are going on in our lives - let us make some time to remember them and how they have loved us. Even if our mothers are far away or are no longer with us, let us hold them in our thoughts. And let us give thanks for their love by loving one another.

As Rudyard Kipling wrote: "If I were hanged on the highest hill, I know whose love would follow me most – Mother of mine, O mother of mine!"         

Paul

Our Prayers

Loving Father,

As your son hung from the cross,

He continued to show us how to love one another.

He commanded us,

to love one another, just as He loved us.

Help us, day by day, to follow his selfless example of 

compassion and love with all whom  we meet. 

Amen

Today's final hymn is "The King of Love my Shepherd is"

Notices

The Ladies of Leesfield meet this Tuesday, please see the notice below for details.

All of the Holy Week and Easter Services in the parishes of Leesfield and Hey are shown in the poster below.

Sunday Worship 8th March

 Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Third Sunday of Lent. 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 "As the Deer Pants for the Water"

Today's Gospel

John 4:5-42               Jesus and the Woman of Samaria

Jesus came to a Samaritan city called Sychar, near the plot of ground that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. Jacob’s well was there, and Jesus, tired out by his journey, was sitting by the well. It was about noon.

A Samaritan woman came to draw water, and Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” (His disciples had gone to the city to buy food.) The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (Jews do not share things in common with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” The woman said to him, “Sir, you have no bucket, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our ancestor Jacob, who gave us the well, and with his sons and his flocks drank from it?” Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come back.” The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband. What you have said is true!” The woman said to him, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you say that the place where people must worship is in Jerusalem.” Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will proclaim all things to us.” Jesus said to her, “I am he, the one who is speaking to you.”

Just then his disciples came. They were astonished that he was speaking with a woman, but no one said, “What do you want?” or, “Why are you speaking with her?” Then the woman left her water jar and went back to the city. She said to the people, “Come and see a man who told me everything I have ever done! He cannot be the Messiah, can he?” They left the city and were on their way to him.

Meanwhile the disciples were urging him, “Rabbi, eat something.” But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you do not know about.” So the disciples said to one another, “Surely no one has brought him something to eat?” Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to complete his work. Do you not say, ‘Four months more, then comes the harvest’? But I tell you, look around you, and see how the fields are ripe for harvesting. The reaper is already receiving wages and is gathering fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ I sent you to reap that for which you did not labour. Others have laboured, and you have entered into their labour.”

Many Samaritans from that city believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I have ever done.” So when the Samaritans came to him, they asked him to stay with them; and he stayed there two days. And many more believed because of his word. They said to the woman, “It is no longer because of what you said that we believe, for we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this is truly the Savior of the world.”

Reflection

As we journey though Lent, we are presented with repeated stories of transformation and the power of the Holy Spirit. Last week we looked at the transformation of Nicodemus from his first meeting with Jesus to His death on the Cross.

Today we look at the transformation and reconciling powers on a number of levels. Firstly the encounter between Jesus and the woman, and secondly the ethnic and religious barriers that are so wonderfully removed when the Samaritan community recognise Jesus as the Messiah.

In speaking with a woman Jesus’ actions would have been seen as outrageous. Rabbis were not to be seen to talk to women in public - it just wasn’t done. Even speaking to their wives and daughters was not acceptable. There were even Pharisees who were called ‘the bruised and bleeding Pharisees’ because they shut their eyes when they saw a woman on the street and so walked into walls and obstacles!” I have to admit, I do find that quite amusing. 

There may also have been potential sexual connotations, not least because of the number of relationships she had had. But this is Jesus, He sees the woman for who she is. He knows her whole life story and how sinful she is. Yet Jesus reaches out to the sinners because part of His mission is to reach out and save those who have fallen, including you and I. John later describes the awkwardness of the disciples when they return and see Jesus with the woman. They are obviously shocked, but remain silent, unwilling to challenge His behaviour. They had probably learned on several occasions that Jesus always had reasons for His actions which are often not obvious.  

John also mentions how Jews, “do not share things in common with Samaritans”. The people at that time would have been well aware of the extreme hatred between the two communities who had been fighting each other for several hundred years. So this is the most significant act of all, because although there is extreme hostility between the Jews and Samaritans, (we should remember that Jesus was a Jew), He chose to reveal himself to the Samaritans as the Messiah and Son of God. Moreover, He reveals how He has come to eliminate the barriers and hostility, not only between the Jewish man and Samaritan woman, but also He is inviting the non-Jewish people to be part of this new future. A future where all will worship God, not through sacrifices in different temples in Samaria and Jerusalem, but  together with a spiritual harmony in unity and worship of spirit and truth.  

In this week’s encounter, Jesus is offering an opportunity for miraculous reconciliation through faith and the power of the Holy Spirit. An opportunity that opens the way to reconciliation in one of the most pervasive and longest conflicts of the era.  John’s listeners are invited to witness the wonder of the transformation that happens, because the outcast woman chose to believe and then, through her faith, the community accepted the invitation of the Holy Spirit and chose to believe as well. As disciples, we too are called to profess our faith and extend that same invitation to all, to become united by the Spirit in the truth.

Paul

Our Prayers

Father God, we thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit.

That through faith and belief in you,

we can break down barriers and come together to worship in truth. We pray that we may labour and find new believers, to help others to live in harmony together and to bring peace in our world. 

Amen

Today's final hymn is "And Can it Be"

Sunday Worship 1st March

 Sunday Worship

Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Second Sunday of Lent, also the day for Church Action on Poverty. 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 "Beauty for Brokenness"

Today's Gospel

John 3:1-17 Nicodemus visits Jesus

There was a Pharisee named Nicodemus, a leader of the Jews. He came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do apart from the presence of God.” Jesus answered him, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born from above.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can anyone be born after having grown old? Can one enter a second time into the mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh, and what is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be astonished that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” Jesus answered him, “Are you a teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things?

“Very truly, I tell you, we speak of what we know and testify to what we have seen; yet you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you about heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.”

Reflection

Today we reflect on the visitation of Nicodemus with Jesus. 

Many argue that it is one of the most important stories in the Gospel, because of the important teaching about being ‘born again’ and ‘being born of the Spirit’. It highlights the concept of spiritual transformation which is fundamental to Christian faith and salvation. And as Nicodemus illustrates, it is not immediately easy to understand. 

This passage also reminds us of the unconditional love that God has for us in the that much loved and often quoted passage [John3:16]. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.”

But I want today to think about Nicodemus and who he was. Moreover, to reflect on his transformational journey which is often overlooked. 

Nicodemus is only mentioned in John’s account of the Gospel but is clearly significant. He is mentioned three times in John’s Gospel.  However, we do not always join the dots and see how Nicodemus’ journey of faith, and confidence and his recognition of Jesus as the Son of Man develops throughout John’s narrative. We will see how, each time Nicodemus is mentioned, his faith and his support for Jesus is growing as he is transformed by the Holy Spirit. 

We start with the first encounter in the reading above. We know that Nicodemus is a pharisee and a senior one at that because he is member of the Jewish ruling council, (the Sanhedrin). He would therefore be a learned and respected member of the Jewish community and also a man of influence and status.

It is reasonable to assume that not only has Nicodemus heard accounts of Jesus’ teaching and healing, he has also witnessed these first hand. He acknowledges that Jesus is seen as a ‘teacher who has come from God’. Yet he chooses to visit Jesus by night. 

He is clearly more than a little curious about who Jesus actually is and he obviously wants to know more albeit he is also cautious, because he is aware that many of his fellow pharisees see Jesus as a nuisance and a threat. Hence the reason why he visits at night under the cover of darkness. In this first encounter, Nicodemus is open minded about Jesus and his teaching and is also open to receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, even though he has not yet fully grasped what Jesus is saying.  

We next encounter Nicodemus in [John 7:50-52]. By this time, Jesus is really becoming a thorn in the side of the Jewish religious establishment. So much so that the Pharisees have issued arrest warrants for Him and sent the temple police out to arrest him on sight. It is now that Nicodemus finds the confidence to challenge the other religious leaders and question their decision to arrest Him. He argues that Jesus should be given a fair hearing, and in doing so, Nicodemus is berated for defending Jesus and is accused of being led astray by a false prophet. 

The final mention of Nicodemus by John is at the Cross. It is poignant event where Nicodemus helps Joseph of Arimathea take Jesus’ body down from the Cross, to lovingly prepare His body with spices, and wrap it linen according to the burial custom of the Jews.  [John 19:39-40].

For me this completes Nicodemus’ transformation, from cautiously curious enquirer to someone  who, despite the obvious danger, is willingly to publicly align himself with our Lord and Saviour. He now fully appreciates the message that Jesus shared with him on that first night. 

We don’t all get an epiphany moment where we are instantly enlightened. We don’t fully understand the divine mystery of God. But if, like Nicodemus, we are open to the work of the Holy Spirit, and we are willing to listen to and read what Jesus teaches, he will lead us on our journey of transformation of faith and fulfil His promise that we will have eternal life. Paul

Our Prayers

Loving Father, we thank You that,

You gave your only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

As we journey through our earthly lives,

let us be open to the work of your Holy Spirit. That our faith and belief will be stronger every day. 

Amen

Today's final hymn is "All My Hope in God is Founded"

Notices

Events for next weekend can be found in the posters below -