Sunday Worship 6th September
St Thomas' Church welcomes you to a Parish Eucharist at 10 am. Presiding and preaching today is our Area Dean and Vicar of St John the Baptist Hey, Reverend Lyn Woodall.
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 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 "Dear Lord And Father Of Mankind" -
Today's Gospel Reading -
Reflection:
In last week’s newsletter we looked at how we should respond when someone has wronged us. How we should take some time to point out the error of their ways to the offender, explain the pain and impact of their actions and give them a chance to hopefully say ‘sorry’.
In today’s Gospel passage we take things to the next level. We are asked to forgive someone who has transgressed against us, not once, not seven times, but seventy seven times. This is not Jesus showing us how clever a mathematician he is, it’s how Jesus explains by exaggeration that to love our neighbour we have to be prepared to extend forgiveness time and again. God’s ability to forgive shows no limits.
That is not to say we should repeatedly put ourselves in a vulnerable position or danger. We have a responsibility to call out what is wrong, name the offence and prevent it from happening again. If we are burgled, we would naturally look to improve the security of our property.
Forgiveness is not about just moving on and putting things behind us. Similarly it’s not about making excuses and perhaps taking the blame ourselves, for example by saying, “it might never have happened if I’d locked the door”.
Forgiveness is much more than that. It’s about putting the resentment and hurt away. If we are repeatedly replaying events, feeling angry deep down about what has happened and those who have hurt us, then our hearts are not yet ready to forgive.
That’s what often makes forgiving so hard. We are human and often our first reaction is of anger, bitterness and revenge. Often, we are surrounded by people who feel their own outrage and seek recrimination, saying things like – “They should have their hands chopped off!”.
All of this makes us relive the experience and makes it so much harder to let go of our own feelings of hurt.
Forgiveness calls for us to release the feelings that are causing us pain, to let go of resentment and relinquish our grudges. It requires us to open our hearts to hope and to think about what purpose God has for us going forward in our lives.
Jesus tells us that God’s forgiveness knows no bounds. He will be there to help us heal, and part of that process is to experience God’s grace through forgiving others in the hope that we are also forgiven when the time comes.
“…….Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.”
Our Prayers for today -
And our final hymn is "Alleluia Sing To Jesus" -
