Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Third Sunday of Easter. Our Church Services this morning are at the usual times of 9.15 at St Agnes' and 11.00 at St Thomas'. If you are unable to be with us in person, you can find resources below to worship at home.
Our first hymn this morning is "In Christ Alone"
Today's Gospel
1 John 3: 1-7Children of God
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Reflection
In this extract from John’s first letter, there are two powerful phrases that jumped out at me.
The first is: ‘No one who abides in him sins’. That’s pretty scary at first glance. I think we all have to admit that we are not perfect. We all have our ‘off days’ and some days are worse than others. We all recognise that we sin from time to time.
It’s perhaps easy to say that, ‘it’s in our nature; everybody tells a lie at times or cheats at something. When we do, we may try to make ourselves feel better by telling ourselves things like, ‘it was justified because….’ , or ‘Well no one got hurt because of what I did, so what’s the problem?’
But John is not saying we can never sin and he is not saying that as soon as we sin we are damned because we have let Satan take advantage of us. Rather, he is saying that our focus needs to be on being Christlike.
Of course that means truly saying sorry when we have fallen short of expectations, and it also means we should look for righteous things to do. The more good things we do, the more we abide in Christ.
Here are a couple of examples: When was the last time you were praying or in church and it crossed your mind to do something wrong or dishonest? Or, if you are reading a piece of scripture, would you ever consider jealous or vengeful thoughts or actions? Hopefully not.
The reverse is also true, if you are feeling unrighteous and make time for Jesus, then you will find yourself being guided back along the right path and wanting to express your regret for your sins.
I have to confess, a few hours before writing this I had been really angry about something. It doesn’t matter what it was, but it took quite a while to get my head back in gear, to calm down and pray and let Jesus do his stuff. It would’ve been impossible to begin to write this reflection whilst being even remotely angry. The reality is, the more we do to abide in Jesus, the more we become righteous.
Which brings me nicely to the second phrase that struck me, ‘See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God.’ That is how God see us - His beloved children. That is why He sent His son to die for the forgiveness of all our sins. The more times we do what we know is right, the more we abide in Jesus and live up to what it means to be a child of God.Paul
Our Prayers
Loving Father,
Thank you that love each and every one of us as your children.
Help us to live our lives by following the example of your Son Jesus,
So that when He is revealed, we will be like him,
and all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "I Danced in the Morning (Lord of the Dance)"
