Sunday Worship
St Thomas' Church welcomes you to our Parish Eucharist for Bible Sunday at 10 am. Our visiting Priest today is Rev'd Paul Monk, Vicar of our near neighbours St Barnabas Clarksfield and Holy Trinity Waterhead.
We follow all of the guidelines to ensure the safety of everyone worshipping here, and we have ample seating to welcome families whilst maintaining safe distancing.
Immediately following today's service we will be holding our Annual Parochial Church Meeting, so if you're attending the service but not the meeting please do not be surprised when many of the congregation remain in their seats instead of leaving at the end of the service.
If, for whatever reason, you are unable to join us in church today, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page.
Our first hymn this morning is "We Have A Gospel To Proclaim"
Today's Gospel
Reflection
The Gospel passages from the last few weeks have all taken place in the period leading up to Holy Week. Indeed, this encounter takes place on the Tuesday of Holy Week just days before the Last Supper.
Jesus has been engaged in many lengthy debates with the Jewish religious leaders throughout the lead up this event and the leaders have repeatedly tried to test him and catch him out.
On this occasion the Pharisees challenge Jesus to state which of the commandments is the greatest. Jesus doesn’t hesitate and replies that, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.”
Jesus is referring to a daily prayer said by all faithful Jews which comes from Deuteronomy 6. At this point the leaders assume he has answered the question and are about to leave, but Jesus continues and tells them that, “the second greatest commandment is similar - ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’”
In so doing, Jesus brings together the importance of putting our love for God into our daily lives. To coin a phrase often used in management books, it’s about ‘walking the walk as well as ‘talking the talk’.
We cannot truly believe in God without it having an impact on the way we live our lives each and every day. The way we love God and go about our daily tasks are inextricably linked facets of our true faith. They cannot be distinct from each other.
If we are to love God with all our heart and our mind, we cannot compartmentalise this into worshipping God by just attending church and praying. We have to take that Love outside the church doors and worship him in the wider world from Monday through to the following Sunday.
In the Greek versions of the bible there are many words for love and each have subtly different meant meanings. One word ‘Eros’, is associated with passion or desire, what we might often think of in relation to someone close to us or about an affectionate relationship. But in this instance the word ‘agape’ used. This is not about raw emotion but about brotherly love. It’s about patience and generosity, it is loving-kindness and merciful action that is both generous and continuous.
Of course, loving your neighbour is not necessarily easy. We can all think of times when our patience has been tried, when tempers get strained and we find it hard not to bear a lingering grudge long after someone has upset us or wronged us. At times like this we might find it impossible to love our neighbour. The way God knows that we love him is by how we treat people. Whenever we demonstrate kindness, patience or gentleness, we see the Lord’s love at work through us, especially when the other person has been unkind and doesn’t deserve such pleasant treatment. God not only tells us to love our neighbour — God re-shapes our hearts to make it possible.
As Jesus shows us, by loving God we can get past the times when we would turn our back on our neighbour and by loving our neighbour, we show our love for God every day of the week.
This morning's prayers -
And our final hymn today is "Thou Whose Almighty Word"
