Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Fourth Sunday after Trinity. Our Church Services today are at the usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes' and 11 am 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 "Love is His Word"
Today's Bible Reading
2 Corinthians 6:1-13Paul’s Hardships
As we work together with Christ, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain. For he says,
“At an acceptable time I have listened to you,
and on a day of salvation I have helped you.”
See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation! We are putting no obstacle in anyone's way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, but as servants of God we have commended ourselves in every way: through great endurance, in afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labours, sleepless nights, hunger; by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, holiness of spirit, genuine love, truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; in honour and dishonour, in ill repute and good repute. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see - we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.
We have spoken frankly to you Corinthians; our heart is wide open to you. There is no restriction in our affections, but only in yours. In return - I speak as to children - open wide your hearts also.
Reflection
Before discussing the text of the passage above, it might to be useful to provide some background for context.
It is clear from the Paul’s wider exchanges with the Corinthians that the newly formed church has not been fully supportive of Paul’s ministry, and that they have also struggled amongst themselves to get along together and fully accept the Gospel teachings.
In 1 Corinthians, we can see evidence that the new believers in Corinth have argued about several key elements in the Gospel; the importance and greatness of the gifts of the Spirit, and the resurrection to name but two. This in turn has led to disputes over leadership and forms of worship, and risks undermining the fundamental foundation of their new church.
Hence the opening plea in verse 1: “As we work together with Christ, we urge you also not to accept the grace of God in vain.”
Paul is worried that his preaching has not been successful and, despite previous attempts, his teaching has still not fully landed as intended with the Corinthians. He stresses that unless they accept and believe in the risen Christ then their faith is meaningless and empty.
Notwithstanding his frustration, Paul therefore implores them to open wide their hearts and fully accept the transformational power of God’s word through the Gospel. He reminds the early church that in order to become true Christians, they need to use the gospel to establish the pattern of their behaviour.
Paul also wants them to understand that, despite his anguish and annoyance, he still loves them and wants to support them in filling the emptiness in their faith.
He therefore outlines a whole raft of personal sacrifices he has made in order to bring them and other fledgling Christian communities the good news of Jesus.
To put it another way, he is outlining his credentials, and the personal sacrifices he and his followers have made in order to demonstrate how important faith in Jesus is to him, and how passionate he is about helping the Corinthians to fully understand the significance of the gospel.
As well as exasperation, Paul also reveals a sense of impatience and encourages the Corinthians to stop procrastinating. He urges them to act with a sense of urgency and stop squabbling amongst each other when he writes; “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” In other words there is no time like the present to get on with loving each other and living the Christian life.
But what does all this mean for us?
I think sometimes, like the Corinthians, we can look around the church or our local community and fail to see how we can live more faithfully.
Are we doing enough to love one another? Are we truly inclusive and understanding of others, or are there some groups that we might be judgemental about? Are we brave enough to stand up for the rights of minorities, or do we worry too much about what others might think? Are we prepared to put our heads above the parapet to do what we know is right?
As Paul shows us, failing to love one another, for whatever reason, is a sign of accepting the grace of God in vain.
Now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation. Now is the time to stand up and be counted and show our love to those who need it most. Paul
Our Prayers
Loving God,
We praise you that through Jesus we can be part of your loving church.
Open wide our hearts
that we may show generosity and love,
to remember that there are always others more needy,
who need our love and support.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "Brother, Sister, Let me Serve you"
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Third Sunday after Trinity. Our Church Services today are at the usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes' and 11 am 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 "Abba, Father, Let Me Be"
Today's Gospel
2 Corinthians 5:6-10,[11-13],14-17 The Ministry of Reconciliation
We are always confident; even though we know that while we are at home in the body we are away from the Lord - for we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.
[Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others; but we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences. We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you.] For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all; therefore all have died. And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them. From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way. So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!
Reflection
In my last reflection, there was much about God knowing us and our motives. Nothing is hidden from God. So when we read the following line in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians it is perhaps somewhat sobering: “For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil”.
But before you start to despair, let’s look at the wider context of what Paul is saying. He starts with the words, ‘We are Confident’.
Confidence is a wonderful thing, we might rephrase it as reassurance or even faith. Paul is speaking after Jesus has risen from the dead and ascended into heaven. Jesus is no longer with us.
But Paul advises us that while we are away physically from the Lord, we should always be looking to please Him. However, that is not just because of a fear of judgement day, but because Jesus loves us so much that He died for us, so that we may live no longer just for ourselves, but also for Jesus and to follow Him.
Yes of course Jesus has left us in the physical sense, but He promises that we can be reunited with Him through confidence and faith in a lasting relationship that will endure forever.
Sometimes it’s hard when someone we love has to leave. Think perhaps about the first day a child leaves home for school. You worry about them; are they having a good time? Are they overwhelmed and crying because they miss you, or have they fallen and grazed a knee?
Then they come home and tell you all about everything and all is hopefully good. They may only be away for a short while but, because we have a loving relationship with them, we want to make sure that they are still fine and we miss them.
Similarly, some families have relationships where one of the parents work away from home for extended periods. Think of people in the armed forces, oil rigs or maybe long distance lorry drivers. Just because they aren’t physically with their families doesn’t mean for one minute that they love them any less that someone who is fortunate enough to come home every day. It doesn’t mean they aren’t thinking about each other all the time.
Though we may be physically distanced, we still live in the bonds of a loving relationship. I think that is the message that Paul is making to the Corinthians in his letter. We as Christians all have a personal relationship with Jesus. While He is no longer physically present among us and we do not know when he will come again, we can live our lives in the knowledge that we are deeply loved, forgiven and treasured by Him.
That is what gives us confidence and spiritual meaning in our lives. That is our faith.
There are times in all our lives when we feel down; whether it’s about work, finances or the state of the world in general. Sometimes it’s because we regret things we may have done wrong or have deliberately avoided. As I said last week, we are all human and make a mess of life at times.
But, because God loves us, He sent His only son, so that through Him we may be reconciled by His grace and love. Because God wants to have that lasting and loving relationship with every one of us.
As Paul says, We can be confident we are loved. Paul
Our Prayers
Almighty and everlasting Father,
We praise and thank you
for your presence in our lives
For the gift of the Holy Spirit to guide us
and to bring us ever closer to your Son
For your love and mercy,
even when we get things wrong.
Help us Father to have faith and trust in you.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "O, For a Thousand Tongues to Sing"
Notices
The Confirmation Service for our Mission Community will take place at 2.30 pm this Sunday at St Thomas’ Church. Most of the candidates are from our own churches, so please do come along to support and pray for them as they take this important step on their Christian journey.
St Thomas’ Sunday School, with the help of the Ladies of Leesfield, invite you all to a Wimbledon Afternoon Tea on Saturday 29th June, 2 pm in St Thomas’ School Hall.
Tickets are £10 per adult (children free), and are now available from Karen or Lesley.
Everyone is most welcome to join us for an afternoon of lovely food and great fun.
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the Second Sunday after Trinity. Our Church Services today are at the usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes' and 11 am 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 "Amazing Grace"
Today's Gospel
Genesis 3:8-15The Fall of Mankind
They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?” He said, “I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?” The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” The Lord God said to the serpent,
“Because you have done this, cursed are you among all animals and among all wild creatures; upon your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life. I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
Reflection
We find ourselves today at the beginning of the Bible and the first thing that strikes me is the wonderful imagery that is painted of God the creator. He has just created everything in heaven and on earth, filled it with every plant and creature in nature and finally created Adam and Eve; His finest creation, His children.
Then we are told, “the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze”.
Just take a moment to let that image sink in.
I don’t know how many of you have a garden of your own or enjoy going looking at other gardens, be that in a stately home or maybe a friend or relatives garden.
How satisfying and relaxing that can be, as you listen to the sounds of the birds and maybe a fox barking in the distance or something rustling through the undergrowth.
Our God isn’t a far distant God; here is God wandering amidst His own creation, looking for His children, wanting to be with them and in communion with them. But Adam is futilely trying to hide from God because he and Eve have disobeyed Him and eaten from the forbidden tree of knowledge. Adam is ashamed and doubly exposed; exposed by his nakedness and also exposed by his shame, because he has disobeyed God’s one command.
Of course they cannot hide from God because He sees everything. As we read in Luke 8:17, Jesus [God], tells the people, “For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.” God knows our every thought and motive.
But it’s in our nature to try and conceal things when we get it wrong. Hopefully, we feel sorry and say sorry, but that doesn’t stop people from trying to conceal things if they can. We are all tempted, sometimes in small ways like eating the last biscuit in the packet even though we promised it to someone else, or we missed a meal with a friend because a better offer came along, like free tickets to see a show or go to the cinema.
Sometimes it might be much bigger. We only have to look at some if the big scandals that have happened in the news recently such as the Post Office debacle or the contaminated blood tragedy.
These are examples where folk have been made aware that something was fundamentally wrong but people involved at all levels tried to hide the full truth and magnitude of what was going on and bury their heads in the sand. These people were trying to hide from the spotlight of truth, because they valued the reputation of themselves and their organisations above that of those who had been wronged.
When we try to hide what we have done wrong, we are trying to turn away from our responsibility and moreover the chance to put things right and make amends. It takes courage and integrity to admit when we get things wrong but when we don’t, no matter how clever we might think we are, we can never hide things from God. A God who loves us and wants to forgive us when we mess up.
God gives us free will and just like Adam and Eve that presents us with the uncomfortable predicament that we will sometimes get things wrong because we give in to temptation.
So what do we do when the Satan has led us astray and we’ve tried to cover something up but have still been found out. Like Adam and Eve we are exposed. Quite often the next weapon in the arsenal of sin is to apportion the blame to someone else. Adam blamed Eve, Eve blamed the serpent and serpent had no one to shift the blame to. You could almost feel sorry for the serpent even though it is instigator of the fall of man – perhaps not!
Sometimes, things might be partly someone else’s fault but we should never deflect the blame entirely to them when we know we have a responsibility to put our hands up and share our part of the blame.
Whatever the reason for our sins, we all seem to have a capacity to be led astray at times. Sometimes through temptation and sometimes through ignorance or lack of understanding.
We started by thinking about God’s creation but how often do we inadvertently contribute to climate change because we don’t take time to think about the consequences of our actions.
The punishment for Adam was to be cast out of the Garden of Eden, but we have the chance to be redeemed. Just like God sought out Adam, Jesus came to seek us out and He has promised that when we turn to Him and believe in Him, He will show us the way back to an eternal paradise, thanks to God’s unbounded love for His children. Paul
Our prayers
Loving Father,
We thank you that despite our transgressions,
You come to look for us,
That though your Son Jesus Christ,
You have given us a path to righteousness and forgiveness,
so we may once again be united in communion with you.
Welcome to Sunday Worship in Leesfield Parish on the First Sunday after Trinity Sunday. This morning we have a Service of the Word at 10 am at St Thomas' Church, and there is no service at St Agnes'. As we are in the school half-term holidays, there is no Sunday School today, and families are most welcome to join us in Church for the whole service.
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 "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind"
Today's Gospel
Mark 2:23-3:6Lord of the Sabbath
One sabbath Jesus and his disciples were going through the grainfields; and as they made their way his disciples began to pluck heads of grain. The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the sabbath?” And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need of food? He entered the house of God, when Abiathar was high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and he gave some to his companions.” Then he said to them, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath; so the Son of Man is lord even of the sabbath.”
Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there who had a withered hand. They watched him to see whether he would cure him on the sabbath, so that they might accuse him. And he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Come forward.” Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good or to do harm on the sabbath, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent. He looked around at them with anger; he was grieved at their hardness of heart and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. The Pharisees went out and immediately conspired with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
Reflection
Jesus said, “The sabbath was made for humankind, and not humankind for the sabbath”
What does that mean? Does it mean we can do whatever we feel like on the Sabbath because we’re not meant to work on the Sabbath?
For Jews, the Sabbath is on Saturday because in Genesis it was the last day of the week. God created the world in six days and on the seventh day he rested. As Christians, we have adopted Sunday as the Sabbath because it reminds us of the day that Jesus was raised from the dead.
Whichever day we call the Sabbath it is meant to be a special day - a ‘Holy’ day. By Holy we mean it is ‘set aside for divine purpose’. Although we should worship and thank God every day, the Sabbath is set aside especially for the purpose of glorifying God. So how do we keep this day holy – set aside for divine purpose? Do we treat it like a Saturday with an hour set aside to go to church or listen to a worship programme?
Jesus’ words that Sabbath was made for mankind help us understand God’s intention. Just as God provides food for our physical nourishment, He knows that we need spiritual nourishment and rest. Just as God set aside Holy time to rest and reflect on what He had achieved during the creation of the heaven’s and earth, He expects us to set aside Holy time in our lives to reflect and meditate on our past week. This is not just about going to church, singing and praying, and hopefully hearing an inspiring sermon; it’s about setting that extra time to look back and think about where you have seen God at work in your life during the past week and reflecting on what you might do differently in the coming week that will draw you nearer to Him.
So when you get up next Sunday morning, before you look at your phone to catch up on Facebook or read the paper, just take a few minutes to think about what you might do to nourish your spirit and take advantage of the Sabbath that was made for mankind. Paul
Our Prayers
Most Merciful Father,
We thank you for endless love and for all the good things that you do for us.
Help us to use your Holy day to reflect on your grace and mercy
And to feel spiritually fulfilled by your presence.
Amen
Today's final hymn is "You Shall Go Out With Joy"
Notices
Our usual 10 am Service of Holy Communion is on Tuesday at St Thomas’, and Worship for all Generations is at 6.30 pm on Tuesday and Wednesday at St Agnes’.
Next Sunday’s services will return to their usual times of 9.15 am at St Agnes’ and 11 am at St Thomas’.
This Thursday, we are invited to join the Royal British Legion at the War Memorial in Lees Cemetery at 10.30 am, as we remember together the 80th Anniversary of the D-Day landings. This is followed by refreshments in St Thomas’ community Room.
Then on Saturday, 8th June from 1 pm, there is an event at the British Legion Club on Princess Street, Lees. This includes entertainment and food, and all are welcome to join the celebrations.
The Confirmation Service for all our Mission Community will take place at 2.30 pm on Sunday 16th June at St Thomas’ Church. Please do come along to support the candidates from our churches.
Tickets are now available for the Wimbledon Afternoon Tea, at 2 pm on Saturday 29th June in St Thomas’ School Hall. Tickets are £10 per adult, and free for children. Please see Karen or Lesley for tickets.
