Zoom session – Sunday Service 28th June at 11am

by church news | Jun 27, 2020 | Front Page

There will be a Zoom session between 11am & 12 noon, so if you would like to join, please email office@kewparishes.plus.com so that a Zoom link can be provided

Bible Study for the twelfth week of the Covid 19 church building closure

by church news | Jun 24, 2020 | Front Page

Section 1: Jeremiah 28: 5-9

Prayer: Lord God, help us to read your word with open hearts and enquiring minds, that we may learn your ways and understand the extent of your love. Amen.

Read the passage through twice:

Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. He said, “Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”

Background

There were many prophets at the time of Jeremiah, and Hananiah was one of these. He had prophesied that all the problems between Israel and Babylon would be over soon, and the plunder from the Temple that Nebuchadnezzar had taken away with him, and the Israelites that he had enslaved would all be restored within two years. Our text takes up the story at the point that Jeremiah answers Hananiah’s prophetic claims.

Some questions

Jeremiah speaks in public, with a loud voice, ensuring that everyone in the Temple precincts can hear what he has to say. There is great courage in his stance. Last week we read about his agony as a prophet – consumed by the word of God, on fire within if he does not speak, mocked if he does utter God’s message. What is his mindset as he takes on Hananiah?
There is savage irony in Jeremiah’s reply to Hananiah. Is this acceptable in a prophet?
How does Jeremiah know that Hananiah is making it all up? What if he is wrong?
Hananiah’s prophecy is entirely understandable – it reflects the desires of the nation as a whole. How easy is it to delude ourselves about God’s plans?
Is Jeremiah prepared to be proved wrong? Does he leave open the possibility of God overturning the current crisis?
Jeremiah’s lesson from history is not very promising. What is he really getting at?
Which is easier – to prophecy war, or to prophecy peace? And which, if the prophet is making the whole thing up, is most likely to come true?
How credulous were people in Jeremiah’s time, if there we so many conflicting ideas coming from prophets?
Who or what is the equivalent of Hananiah today? Are they in the Church? If not, where are they and how do they get their message across?
Who or what is the equivalent of Jeremiah today? Are they in the Church? If not, where are they and how do they get their message across?
Have you ever believed that you have a message from God to give to people? If yes, how did you go about it? If no, why not?
Jeremiah is a classic “prophet of doom”, but he is preaching God’s truth. Can there be any joy in the life of prophet?
Should we be looking for modern-day prophets amongst our community? If so, how will we spot them?
There is vitually no “good news” in anything that Jeremiah says. The people of his day longed for good news, as we do today. Is there anything positive that we can garner from this passage?
How does this passage address our current situation? Does it provide any comfort?

Read the passage through again, out loud if possible

Review

What has this passage taught you about

God?
Jesus Christ?
The Church?
Our current situation?

Prayer: Loving God, your purposes are deep and your plans run for generations. Give us patience to see you at work over a long period of time, and grace to rejoice in your good outcomes. Amen.

Section 2: Romans 6: 12-end

Prayer

Read the passage through twice:

Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

What then? Shall we sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means! Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

I am using an example from everyday life because of your human limitations. Just as you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness, so now offer yourselves as slaves to righteousness leading to holiness. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness. What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? Those things result in death! But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Background

This text continues directly from the passage we read last week. Paul is hammering away still at the notion of grace which, he says, transforms a negative slavery to sin into a positive slavery to righteousness. He explores other possible objections to what emerges from these words, and finishes with a fine flourish.

Some questions

The imagery of sin continues to evolve. Now Paul talks of sin “reigning” in our mortal bodies, as if it were a monarch of some sort. Does this suggest that sin is an external force that can take us over?
Paul also suggests that “any part of yourself” could be used as “an instrument of wickedness” – what does he mean by this?
Paul instantly reverses his image, as he has done throughout this passage, from sin to righteousness, from death to life. As a result, he suggests that “every part of yourself” can be offered to God as an “instrument of righteousness”. What does he mean by that?
If “sin shall no longer be your master”, what has replaced it?
What exactly does Paul mean by “you are not under the law, but under grace”?
This is a recapitulation of the argument he has dismissed earlier in the passage – that we could sin so that grace may abound. Just because we are no longer subject to the strictures of the Mosaic Law does not mean that we can abandon all notion of righteousness and carry on as we were, because our sins have been forgiven in Christ.
Paul returns to the condition of a slave – we are either slaves to sin, or slaves to righteousness – those are the two options.
Obedience is at the core of Paul’s argument here – obedience to what?
How are we “set free from sin”?
There was a process by which slaves could be freed – they could buy their freedom, or their owner could set them free, which is known as “manumission”. Which of these is Paul thinking of here?
Paul is very matter of fact about slavery – he does not question it, and is happy to use it as a means of explaining our transformed state in Christ. In our current situation, how helpful is that?
The language becomes ever more lurid from this point on – “you used to offer yourselves as slaves to impurity and to ever-increasing wickedness” – is this purely rhetoric, or is Paul highlighting something fundamental about the human condition?
As he has consistently done throughout this passage, Paul inverts the slavery to sin into slavery to righteousness once again, only this time he adds “leading to holiness”. This is a big step up from simply “doing the right thing”. How?
How can holiness be the result of being a slave to righteousness?
Paul is looking for a complete rejection of the Roman Christians’ former life – it is something of which they are to be “ashamed”, and the result of such activity is death. Is Paul being a little harsh on ignorant pagans?
When he gets to the alternative that is offered in Christ, Paul is expansive: “you … have become slaves of God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness and the result is eternal life”. Slaves could benefit from their owner’s generosity, but it was wholly dependent on that movement from owner to slave: it could not happen the other way round.
Paul finishes this section with one of his most celebrated aphorisms: “the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord”. The contrast could not be starker.
Go through this sentence carefully, balancing off wages/gift, death/eternal life, self/Christ Jesus our Lord, to understand fully the enormity of what Paul is suggesting.
What is the difference between gift and wage? Which would you rather receive?
What reaction is Paul expecting from his readers? How do you react?

Read the passage through again, out loud if possible

Review

What has this passage taught you about

God?
Jesus Christ?
The Church?
Our current situation?

Prayer: God of grace and mercy, open our hearts to the extravagance of your gifts to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. May we be ever grateful to you, and strive for righteousness and holiness all our days. Amen.

Section 3: Matthew 10: 40-end

Prayer:

Read the passage through twice:

Jesus said to the twelve: “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. ⁴¹Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. ⁴²And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

Read the passage through again, out loud if possible

Background

These verses continue Jesus’s charge to his disciples as he sends them out to preach the Kingdom of Heaven and to heal the people they meet. In them, Jesus offers encouragement to them in their mission, with the promise of rewards for services rendered.

Some questions

These verses start off well – Jesus is being very clear – to welcome a disciple of Christ is to welcome Christ, and to welcome Christ is to welcome God the Father. However, that is a big claim to make – do the disciples really understand what Jesus is saying?
How frequently do we see God at work in Christ, as distinct from Christ at work? Is there a difference?
Once we have got through these complexities, Matthew’s Jesus becomes increasingly runic. What is a prophet’s reward? And how does it differ from a righteous person’s reward?
What is the difference between a prophet and a righteous person?
How might God use a prophet rather than a righteous person? And why might God send a righteous person rather than a prophet?
Would you ever use one of those terms of yourself? If yes, when, how and why? If not, why not?
The section on giving a cup of water is particularly obscure. There has been no mention previously of “these little ones”. Who are they? They appear to be restricted to Matthew’s Gospel, and so possibly relate to people within the community to which he is writing.
Why would these “little ones” even require “a cup of cold water”? What does that suggest about their living conditions?
What else might be going on here? There have been suggestions of groups of mission workers who were known as “the little ones”. Some have argued that “little ones” only refers to children in the gospels, but how could that be true of this context?
Many commentators suggest that Matthew’s readership is suffering persecution of some sort – might that be a reasonable explanation?
Clearly we would rather be those handing out relief rather than needing the support of others. However, in these strange and changing times, perhaps we are more in need of the intervention of others than we think.
Given the whole tenor of this passage is about reward, how would we reward someone who was either a prophet, or a righteous person, or a disciple, who came and offered us their support?
Really, this entire chapter is about mission. Matthew’s readership are involved in mission, and the writer supplies them with examples of the early disciples’ involvement in mission. What does it say for us today?
Is this passage, and the preceding verses which we have read over the past two weeks, an encouragement to mission?
Is there anything you would do differently to extend the mission of the Church after reading this chapter?

Review

What has this passage taught you about

God?
Jesus Christ?
The Church?
Our current situation?

Prayer: Gracious God, you send us out into the world with your message of love and acceptance. Enable us each day to take each opportunity you put before us, that we may demonstrate your love and your generosity in every department of our lives. Amen.

Sunday 21st June – activity sheet

by church news | Jun 21, 2020 | Front Page

Download the activity sheet below – enjoy!!

Activity-for-2nd-Sunday-after-Trinity Download

Sunday 21st Service (with audio)

by church news | Jun 21, 2020 | Front Page, Sermons

Our worship together is in the name of the + Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen

Grace, mercy and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ be with you:

and also with you.

Hymn: Praise my soul the king of heaven https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sx1eMwlDFb8

Let us pray

Almighty God, to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden: cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you, and worthily magnify your holy name; through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Confession:

Brothers and sisters, as we prepare to celebrate, let us call to mind our sins.

Most merciful God, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
we confess that we have sinned in thought, word and deed.
We have not loved you with our whole heart.
We have not loved our neighbours as ourselves.
In your mercy forgive what we have been, help us to amend what we are,
and direct what we shall be; that we may do justly, love mercy,
and walk humbly with you, our God. Amen.

Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent,
have mercy upon you, +pardon and deliver you from all your sins,
confirm and strengthen you in all goodness, and keep you in life eternal;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

.

Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on earth.

Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father,
we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory.

Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Lord God, Lamb of God,
you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us;
you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer.

For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord,
you alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of God the Father. Amen.

Let us pray

O God, the strength of all those who put their trust in you, mercifully accept our prayers and, because through the weakness of our mortal nature we can do no good thing without you, grant us the help of your grace, that in the keeping of your commandments we may please you both in will and deed through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord. Amen.

Jeremiah 20: 7-13

Jeremiah reading

You deceived me, Lord, and I was deceived;
    you overpowered me and prevailed.
I am ridiculed all day long;
    everyone mocks me.
⁸Whenever I speak, I cry out
    proclaiming violence and destruction.
So the word of the Lord has brought me
    insult and reproach all day long.
⁹But if I say, “I will not mention his word
    or speak anymore in his name,”
his word is in my heart like a fire,
    a fire shut up in my bones.
I am weary of holding it in;
    indeed, I cannot.
¹⁰I hear many whispering,
    “Terror on every side!
    Denounce him! Let’s denounce him!”
All my friends
    are waiting for me to slip, saying,
“Perhaps he will be deceived;
    then we will prevail over him
    and take our revenge on him.”

¹¹But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior;
    so my persecutors will stumble and not prevail.
They will fail and be thoroughly disgraced;
    their dishonor will never be forgotten.
¹²Lord Almighty, you who examine the righteous
    and probe the heart and mind,
let me see your vengeance on them,
    for to you I have committed my cause.

¹³Sing to the Lord!
Give praise to the Lord!
He rescues the life of the needy

From the hands of the wicked.

This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God

Romans 6: 1-11

Romans reading

What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? ²By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer? ³Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? ⁴We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. ⁵For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. ⁶For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— ⁷because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. ⁸Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. ⁹For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. ¹⁰The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. ¹¹In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

This is the Word of the Lord Thanks be to God

Hymn: There are hundreds of sparrows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHg_0VPgBQI

Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John

Glory to you, O Lord.

Matthew 10: 24-39

Matthew reading

Jesus said to his disciples,“The student is not above the teacher, nor a servant above his master. ²⁵It is enough for students to be like their teachers, and servants like their masters. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household! ²⁶“So do not be afraid of them, for there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. ²⁷What I tell you in the dark, speak in the daylight; what is whispered in your ear, proclaim from the roofs. ²⁸Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. ²⁹Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. ³⁰And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. ³¹So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. ³²“Whoever acknowledges me before others, I will also acknowledge before my Father in heaven. ³³But whoever disowns me before others, I will disown before my Father in heaven. ³⁴“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— ³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’ ³⁷“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. ³⁸Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. ³⁹Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it.

This is the Gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, O Christ.

Sermon – Richard Austen

Sermon

It is widely held by Biblical scholars that, while Matthew’s Gospel is the first which we find in the New Testament, it was actually written down about fifty years after Jesus ascended into Heaven. In the verses we have heard today, Matthew appears to collect together a number of related sayings of Jesus having to do with committed discipleship in the face of conflict.

Much of this passage is about persecution and suffering for being a follower of Christ.

Ever since Christianity came to these shores, and certainly since the arrival of St Augustine in 597, Christianity has been the norm, the mainstream in England, right up until recently.

Christians were not maligned for their faith here. Nobody threatened their lives. Being a Christian did not require cross-bearing, it was just the thing to do and in some eras you were persecuted if you were not, at least nominally, a Christian. There was persecution elsewhere in the World, there still is, but here in England life has always been relatively easy for Christians.

But even here things are changing, we are no longer the norm really. Just after Easter I read a circular from the local Council. In it it said that “Holy week and Passover are over and we approach the Holy Month of Ramadan”. No mention of Easter, the most important festival in the Christian calendar and Christianity was clearly just another religion. It seemed that, to the writer, Easter was perhaps just about bunnies and chocolate and not worth mentioning and maybe not even a religious festival at all. Our biggest challenges are probably going to be overcoming such ignorance, more than anything else.

The media delights in portraying Christianity in a negative light, but would not dare to make fun of other religions. It ignores the church’s good work, but delights in reporting its misdeeds. I have often wondered why this might be and I have a few thoughts. A lot of people who mock Christianity come from Christian backgrounds and traditions. They have decided they are far too sophisticated to believe all this nonsense and wonder how intelligent people like us could possibly do so. So we are fair game for ridicule. And it is safe to knock our faith, while it is not safe to knock others. But equally it is perhaps almost patronising to people of other faiths, almost treating them as if they are less sophisticated and need humouring when those who would mock us appear to treat them with deference. This actually dishonours other faiths as well as ours. No faith should be dishonoured. But people of my generation who have rejected Christianity do mostly know something about it. It is the succeeding generations who have not been taught about it by their non believing parents, who I worry about. To them Christianity, if it even crosses their radar, really is just another religion. It is all rather sad.

So perhaps we might be nearing the time when we will find our faith to be a mystery to many people and difficult to witness to. In the future some of the difficulties and challenges which Jesus speaks about in this Gospel passage might become more real to western Christians, just as they are to so many of our brothers and sisters throughout much of the World. Christians might learn again what it means to suffer with Christ—to bear a cross—to be persecuted—to find families divided over issues of faith—to suffer abuse and ridicule.

Just as Jesus faced opposition and, ultimately, the cross, so Jesus’ disciples will face persecution. And he meant us as well as those in say Pakistan or Vietnam or Indonesia or China and many other places.

So, what should we do? Well we are not to tiptoe around the truth in the fear of inviting mockery or persecution. We should not be silent. We should wear our faith with pride. God loves us and God will protect us and has a place waiting for us with him in Heaven. We should proclaim our faith from the rooftops as Jesus tells us to do.

Moving on, many Christians today tend to think of God’s love rather than God’s judgment. However, this passage and many others like it make it clear that God will reward the faithful and punish the unfaithful. Perhaps in some ways we have lost our sense of awe in God’s presence. It is important, however, to fear and respect God for he has ultimate authority over everything. He is our Lord and friend, but he is not our mate. He is compassionate and full of love, but he must be treated with reverence and respect. And he demands that we do not deny him, that we stand up for him. If we acknowledge Jesus before other people, Jesus will acknowledge us before the Father in heaven. However, if we deny Jesus before other people, he will deny us before the Father. It is a bit like a courtroom with Jesus in the role of potential Barrister. If Jesus is our Barrister, we cannot lose. If Jesus declines to take on our defence, we cannot win. Thus, our actions in this life have eternal consequences, because Jesus is watching us and assessing us. It is not all a free lunch, it involves commitment and respect and a public witness of allegiance to him, even in the face of opposition or even persecution.

Jesus requires us to take up our cross and follow him. It is not an easy command to follow. But many have done so over the centuries and many have sacrificed much for Jesus – even lost their lives, or their livelihoods, their freedom, their families. But they are the ones who have found their lives, their salvation and their joy. The sacrifices we need to make are probably not quite so dramatic. But we do need to follow their example, loving, serving, honouring our Lord in whatever way we can and never, ever denying him. Hallelujah!

Prayers – with thanks to Liz & Alex Coulson

Prayers

Let us pray for the Church, for worshippers of the Lord Jesus Christ, for followers of other faiths, for those who are beginning their journey in faith, and for those for whom religion is not a part of their daily lives.

We pray for Father Peter and the wonderful support network of St Luke’s and The Barn, we pray for everyone who helps deliver these services physically and digitally and we pray for the entire community that says hello in the street, gives a passing nod or wave.