Sunday 30th August

 Sunday Worship 30th August

St Thomas' Church welcomes you to a Parish Eucharist at 10 am. Our visiting Priest for today is Reverend Professor Mike Donmall, an Associate Priest from the Saddleworth Team.

We follow all of the advice from the Government, the Church of England and Manchester Diocese to ensure your safety. The wearing of face coverings is mandatory unless you are exempt from this requirement. Please do bring your own if you can, but we do have a limited supply of disposable face masks if you need one - so don't let that stop you from joining us. 

The latest local restrictions do not affect the numbers of people we are able to seat at our service, as we already have enough space to allow safe distancing. Please do remember though that socialising with people from outside your household before and after the service is not permitted at present.

Your own home is still the safest place to worship, particularly if you are shielding or in a vulnerable group, and you'll find everything you need here on this page.

This morning's first hymn is "I Watch The Sunrise" -

Today's Gospel reading -

In this gospel passage we are told what is important about being Christian. Consistently through Jesus’ teaching we are told there are three things people must do if they are to lead the Christian life. They must deny themselves. By this he does not mean the rather ordinary idea of giving up something (as for example in Lent).  This is only a small part of what Jesus meant by self-denial. To deny oneself means to say no to self and yes to God in every moment of life. God is to become the ruling principle of life. They must take up a cross – that is to say they must take up the burden of sacrifice. Christians must abandon personal ambition to serve Christ. They may discover the place where they can render the greatest service is somewhere where the reward will be small. They must follow Jesus Christ. Christians walk in the footsteps of Christ wherever that may lead.

None of this is easy – this is a hard passage for us to live up to. The passage goes on to talk of losing and finding life. There is something here about the difference between living and existing. Jesus gives us a recipe for life, not just for living.

We have to remember that Matthew was writing around 80 to 90 AD and was therefore writing in some of the bitterest days of persecution. In the passage is a warning that the time might come when people could save their lives by denying their faith, but if they did so they would really be losing life. We don’t live in those times, we are not persecuted for our faith, but there is still a sense in which those who play for safety cease to be truly human, since human beings are made in the image of God.

And there at the end of the passage is a warning and a promise.

The warning is of judgement. There is no escape from the fact that Christianity teaches that after life comes the judgement, and we need to take this with the previous section of the passage to see what the standard of that judgement will be. Those who give themselves for others are the men and women who receive heaven’s praise and God’s reward.

And the promise. What he said about many standing there not tasting death until they had seen the kingdom was divinely true. There were those standing there who saw the coming of Jesus in the coming of the Spirit at the day of Pentecost. Well within the lifetime of those who heard Jesus speak, the kingdom came with power. 

This has to be taken closely with the early part of the passage. Jesus warned his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, and that there he must suffer many things and die. But the cross was not the end. After the cross there came the resurrection. The cross was not to be the end. It was to be the beginning of the unleashing of that power which was to surge throughout the whole world.

And here again is the promise – no human action can hinder the expansion of the kingdom of God.

Our prayers for today -

And our final hymn for today is "Now Thank We All Our God" -