Sunday Worship 14th March

Sunday Worship on the Fourth Sunday of Lent

Mothering Sunday

Welcome to our Worship on the fourth Sunday of Lent. Our Sunday service has now resumed at St Thomas' Church, but if you, or members of your family, are in a vulnerable group you are strongly advised to remain at home to worship. This morning's Worship is led by Revd John Faraday. If you can't be with us in person, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page, or you can find links to other services on our facebook page - Leesfield Parish

Our first hymn this morning is "Amazing Grace"

 Today's Gospel

John 3:14-21

Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.

“Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For all who do evil hate the light and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed. But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.”

Reflection - 'God So Loved The World ...'

It was in the Sinai desert about three and a half thousand years ago that Moses had one of his many problems with the people he was leading across the wilderness into the promised land. When the people had been unfaithful, God sent snakes into their camp, many people were bitten and some died.

The people turned on Moses and Moses prayed. God’s answer must seem a strange one to us today. Moses was to make a model snake and when the people looked at it they were made well. I think that the whole reason for this event was seen when Jesus came. He said that He, Himself would be ‘lifted up’ on the cross so that the sin of people could be forgiven by God.

I am a sinner!... and so are you. As one preacher said, “There are skeletons in every cupboard!” I do not need to convince you of this as every honest person realises it! We would all be devastated if all our sins became publicly known. Yet they are known to our perfect Lord, and sin is an offense to Him. What can we do about it? How can we be accepted by our Lord God Can we do enough good things to win Him over? The wonderful answer is that we do not need to! God did all that was needed through Jesus. Jesus lived for us. He was the only one who lived a perfect life. He was the Son of God yet He knew all about the temptations that He could face. As our reading says:

God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. (John 3:16, probably the best known verse in the Bible.)

Living faith in Jesus is all that is required! I am convinced that many people have this faith but not the joy that goes with it because they still think that they need to do something about it! The answer is to believe God’s word and rest in it. That does not mean we should happily carry on sinning because when we appreciate Jesus’ love and sacrifice we will not want to sin. Forgiveness is complete!

Recent readings have looked at the temptations of Jesus. He refused the temptations to easy living, popularity and power. Many of our temptations stem from these three roots. At the cross Jesus was to face more of the great temptations. He must have been sorely tempted to hate his persecutors. He was tempted to let the fear of death overcome Him. He had the temptations to hate God and hate others, all made worse by the extremes of pain that he was suffering. Did Jesus fall to these temptations? No! He proved that by what He said to people and to His Heavenly Father. (“Father, forgive them”… “Woman, (Mary) this is your son (John)”… “Father, into Your hands I commend my Spirit”.)

We give thanks to Jesus for His amazing love for us. His love is not emotional feelings or frilly words. He proved that so clearly in His life, death and resurrection.

The desire of the Lord is that all may be saved, but we also read:

Those who believe in him are not condemned; but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they have not believed in the name of the only Son of God. (John 3:18)

That verse prompts us to pray. Let us pray for ourselves, that we are not just saved but have the peace that goes with it.

Let us pray for people around us, that the things we say and do will attract others into the joyful faith of Jesus.

Let us pray for the world. May the people who are preoccupied with the horror of Covid realise the love of God and the new life it can bring to those who trust.

May God be with you all in your life today and into the future whatever the future brings.

A Mothering Sunday Reflection from Bishop Mark

Our Prayers

Merciful Lord,

absolve your people from their offences,

that through your bountiful goodness

we may all be delivered from the chains of those sins

which by our frailty we have committed;

grant this, heavenly Father,

for Jesus Christ’s sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour,

who is alive and reigns with you,

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and for ever.

Amen. 

Our final hymn for today is "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling"

 

Sunday Worship 7th March

Sunday Worship on the Third Sunday of Lent

Welcome to our Worship on the third Sunday of Lent. Our Sunday service has now resumed at St Thomas' Church, but if you, or members of your family, are in a vulnerable group you are strongly advised to remain at home to worship. This morning's Worship is led by Revd David Halford. If you can't be with us in person, you'll find everything you need to worship from home here on this page, or you can find links to other services on our facebook page - Leesfield Parish

Our first hymn today is "Be Thou My Guardian And My Guide"

Today's Gospel

John 2:13-22

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking of the temple of his body. After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. 

Reflection

His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 

This one line is at the heart of today’s Gospel reading. Jesus is at the beginning of his ministry and has come to Jerusalem for one of the most important celebrations of worship in the Jewish calendar, The Feast of Passover. He has come to give thanks to God for saving the Hebrews in Egypt and he has come to the Temple to worship God publicly with others.

 

It was very important to Jesus that people should worship the Father in corporate worship as well as privately. It was a reason to collectively show how much we appreciate God in our lives. 

It is perhaps poignant that I am writing this reflection on the eve of a PCC meeting where we have the huge responsibility of deciding whether or not to re-open church for Sunday worship after the ‘lock-down’. It is not an easy decision and whilst we have a duty to ensure our church family in Lees are protected as much as possible, it is clear from the conversations and emails from many of you that we should get back to church as soon as it is safe. We have a yearning to worship the Father together as group – it’s not just something to do on Sunday because it’s the ’done thing’. I would even say that when we do get back to Sunday worship there will be an air of anticipation and excitement for many. Similarly, Jesus was excited to be going to the Passover celebrations at the Temple.

When he gets there what he sees infuriates him. If I were to ask you to describe Jesus as a person you would probably start saying adjectives such as compassionate, loving, caring and of course ‘meek and mild’. You probably would not start by describing him as violent, angry and destructive. So what could cause such a reaction?

It was customary for people to make a blood sacrifice as a mark of atonement for sins and depending one’s financial ability this might range from a small bird (pigeon or a dove), to a lamb or an Ox. But in this temple they were told what they had brought was not clean enough and had to buy another. Also, as gentiles the worshippers would not be allowed into the main temple area to worship but would be expected stay in the courtyard outside.

To put this into context, imagine on Easter Day you have walked all the way to Oldham Church, probably in the rain, for a special service. Firstly, you are told that you can’t actually go into church – you’ll have to worship in Tommyfield market at the side of the church building. Then having brought along your own things for religious rituals you are told they are not good enough, and you have to buy the official church approved goods at a massively over-inflated price. These approved items often being shoddy and much worse quality that what you had in the first place.

Next you have to pay the church a tax, but before you do you need to buy the official church currency to pay the tax. To do this you have to go to the money-changers and also pay a significant fee for doing it. A bit like foreign exchange commission.

Finally, the icing on the cake is that when you try to worship, it’s almost impossible because of the noise of the market, and the animals and people. 

This is what Jesus saw in the Temple – the Temple officials and leaders had turned the opportunity for praising God into an unholy excuse for bartering, swindling and cheating the poor.  This incensed Jesus so much that he ‘lost it – big style’ This was not an anger based on selfishness and sin as we might show if someone had upset us, rather it was a fury because these people were blatantly denigrating God and the Temple. 

 

This was not any small rant. Jesus first take time to fashion a whip, a weapon and release God’s wrath such that everyone - man, beast and fowl were scattered. 

Jesus could see that they had totally lost purpose and moved from worshipping God to worshipping money.

Money is of course essential but we all have to be careful to not let our hearts be consumed by the love of money rather than the love of God. May we all be consumed by Zeal for God and his house and I sincerely hope and pray that we will all be able to meet and worship together soon.

Our Prayers

Holy Father we give you thanks for our PCC members,

And ask that you will guide them and grant them wisdom

To deliberate and make the right decisions on our behalf.

God our Father,

You invite us all to be your chosen people

You gave us your son Jesus as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins

And through him built an eternal temple. 

Let our hearts be filled with your love and zeal to worship you.

Amen

This morning's final hymn is " Forty Days and Forty Nights"

 

Mid-week Joy 3rd March

 Mid-week Joy

Welcome to our mid-week celebration of all the great things happening in Leesfield Parish and beyond.

Our Sunday service details will be here at the weekend, but there's so much more we would love to share with you in the meantime.

Worship for all Generations (in person!) is back at St Agnes' Church this evening, but if you can't make it you can find a recording on our facebook page tomorrow - Leesfield Parish 

Virtual Sunday School children have been busy having fun during February with Chinese New Year, the Pancake fundraiser and learning about Lent.  Many are doing something for someone else by having a clear out over the 40 days to give items to charity shops when they reopen or collecting food for the foodbank.  Why not join us?  

Also, Harvest Queen Annie and her retinue are offering a Special Cake Box for Mother's Day - these boxes will have 4 delicious homemade cakes / biscuits which will be delivered with a special message from you 🙂   Only £5 a box!  

Order soon by calling Karen Jakeman on 07525 333638 or emailing her at karen.jakeman@mad-mutts.co.uk.

As our schools go back next Monday we send our best wishes to all the children and staff. Today's musical item is St Seachnall's Virtual School Choir singing "Count on Me" by Bruno Mars.

And this Friday is the World Day of Prayer, which we would usually mark by holding a joint service with our friends from Churches Together in Lees and District. To join with Christians around the world in prayer you can view this video.