Sermon Christ Church Brentor Sunday 28^th May 2023        Pentecost

(Psalm 104v26-37)1Corinthians 12v3b-13 Acts 2v1-21

Happy Birthday to you all.

No, I have not gone completely bonkers, it is all of our birthdays today.

You and I are members of Christ’s body, the Church, and today-the day of Pentecost, is traditionally celebrated as the birthday of the Christian Church.

But why did God chose this time, 50 days after the resurrection to send the Holy Spirit on those early believers and so birth the Church? Any ideas?

Well let us cast our minds back to the early summer of the year AD30.

As we have read the streets of the city of Jerusalem were bustling with many pilgrims who had gone up to obey God’s command to keep the second of the three principal feasts of the Torah, the feast of Shavuot or Pentecost, which occurred 50 days after Passover.  But why this time?

God keeps perfect time in his plan of salvation and knew that the second Temple in Jerusalem of Jesus time would soon be destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. Then the Jews would have no place for their sacrificial worship system and would replace that by the services in their synagogues and where they focus on the reading of the Torah, the law given to Moses. The Jews then started to celebrate Shavuot as the time when the Torah was given on mount Sinai. But God was about to introduce and break forth upon the world a new order, the time of the Church, and Jerusalem was full of pilgrims so what better time could there be. I am sure that there is some much deeper theological reason, but I am happy with this simple explanation!

So the disciples with Mary and the other women and followers were also in Jerusalem, in obedience to keeping the feast and Jesus words to wait for the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit. They were all assembled in the same upper room where Jesus had shared with them the last supper and they were waiting, waiting as Jesus had told them at His ascension just ten days earlier, waiting for the promise of the Father. 

Perhaps the best contender for this location is probably the site of a later Christian Synagogue at where now stands the Cenacle and below which is the location of king David’s tomb.

Do you like me ever find waiting a bit of a problem? We live in a society that increasingly wants everything now, but as believers we are to be separate, to be different, we are to wait upon the Lord. Do you recall the promise written in Isaiah the Prophet (40v31), “but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint”.

It seems increasingly more difficult even for believers to be able to take time out, to be still and through the scriptures and prayer to listen to what the Lord has to say to us. I need to work at making that a priority.

So as they waited there then came a sudden sound from heaven, that of a rushing wind, tongues of fire came and rested on each one of them, and each began to speak in strange tongues as the Holy Spirit descended and gave them utterance. I guess they were taken aback never having experienced anything like that before. I wonder what you would make of that if God would now sent upon us here that same Holy Spirit?

We then read that those around who heard this commotion going on said  the disciples were drunk. But no, it was only 9am as Peter pointed out.

But where did that occur? I can’t believe that so many pilgrims were out of the city in the region of the upper room to here that, it is much more likely that those ecstatic believers had moved on to the Temple Courts where the many visiting pilgrims were gathering.

And those strange tongues were recognised as actual languages, but how could such uneducated Galileans speak them? And we know the answer, by the Holy Spirit giving the words to them.

Peter was then quick to recognise that this was rather like a prophecy from the first of the minor prophets, Joel (2v28-29), spoken some 800 years previously. “Then afterwards I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams,
and your young men shall see visions. Even on the male and female slaves,
in those days, I will pour out my spirit.” Peter recognised that God was fulfilling that prophecy by sending his Holy Spirit upon all peoples, and is still giving dreams and visions to many of our persecuted brothers and sisters today.

Even though there were such a diverse number of countries represented by the many pilgrims present, they each heard the disciples speaking in their own native languages. How could that be? And we know the answer to that also, the same Holy Spirit gave them understanding, I suggest somewhat better than Google translate! 

But surely this is not for now, it is a thing of the past isn’t it, well is it? Let me tell you a little story. When I was in Jerusalem some years ago I visited the Syrian Orthodox Church of St Mark. This is said to be built upon the site of the house belonging to Mary, the mother of John Mark the evangelist, and also claims to be the site of the upper room. Inside there is also an icon supposedly written by Luke the Evangelist of the Virgin Mary and child but now dated to the sixth century.

I spoke there to a Nun who had come from Iran and she shared a tale of a visitor who had entered the church some time before and was listening to her recount the history of the church. Some while later that same visitor returned with another and went up to the Nun as she was again telling the history of the church and asked her to speak in Hebrew and not in English as she had done before. The Nun replied that she did not speak Hebrew, but I heard you last time speaking Hebrew was the visitors response. What do you make of that? Rather like on that first Pentecost day I should say.

There are many other stories to share but we have no time for them now.

There are many stories of people and churches speaking in tongues today.

Robbie Meredith of BBC news NI, wrote in 2014 that there are estimated to be some 584 million Christians worldwide, that is over a quarter of the world’s Christian population, that practice this same phenomena today.

And let us remember that St Paul said to the Corinthian Christians, “I want you all to speak in tongues” (1Cor14v5) and “I thank God that I speak in tongues more than you all” (1Cor14v18). And even our own Archbishop Justin admits to speaking in tongues before breakfast.

As we have read there are many gifts of the Holy Spirit so not all believers are given or even want to speak in ‘tongues’, they are gifted in other ways to build up the body of Christ and to serve him.

But most people who speak in tongues do not speak in these ‘tongues of men’ that is in natural earthly languages. Saint Paul writing in first Corinthians (13v1) says, “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging symbol.” 

In this passage Paul refers to the tongues of angels, something that was also known before the Christian Pentecost in Hebrew religious practice. It is mentioned in the ‘Dead Sea scrolls’ and in the ‘Testament of Job’.

These ‘tongues of angels’ are the tongues that some believers use in their individual and private practice, and one generally has no understanding of what it means. So why use it? Well, again Paul tells the Corinthians (1C14v4-5) “ Those who speak in a tongue build up themselves, but those who prophesy build up the church. Now I would like all of you to speak in tongues, but even more to prophesy. One who prophesies is greater than one who speaks in tongues, unless someone interprets, so that the church may be built up.”

Here Paul is encouraging the use of tongues as a means that God uses to build up our spiritual life. There is much more that could be said but that requires some detailed study, what we must be careful of is not to let this issue be divisive between believers.

The giving of the gift of tongues at Pentecost was a dynamic sign from God that He was birthing a new movement, the Church, to take His message of love and reconciliation into all the world.

The gift of tongues is only one of the many gifts of the Holy Spirit that God has for us now that He has breathed on us the promised Holy Spirit, as the Lord Jesus did in the upper room upon His original disciples.

St John tells us in his first epistle (1John3v1) that God has given us such love that we can be called “children of God”, and because we are now God’s children, He has many things still to reveal to us. One of those things is that when Jesus will be revealed for all the kingdoms of the world to see, we His children will be like Jesus. Now that is a promise to help us all as we walk our own pilgrim path and I would suggest that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost was the beginning of a great journey and adventure that God has called you and I to share both with Him, and with our families, friends and neighbours.

Let us pray: (From Daily Prayer Psalm 97)

Most high and holy God,
enthroned in fire and light,
burn away the dross of our lives
and kindle in us the fire of your love,
that our lives may reveal the light and life
we find in your Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

Sermon St Eustachius 9.45am Sunday14 May 2023  6^th Sunday Easter Year A

Paul Mars Hill Sermon    Acts 17v22-34  John 14v15-21   (1Peter 3v13-end) (Psalm 66v7-end)

May God the Holy Spirit open our hearts and minds to hear His voice. Amen

I wonder how often you may have heard someone say “O my God”?

Perhaps, if you can think quickly enough, which is not one of my best traits, I can always think of what I should have said about 2 minutes too late, you could say back to them “And what god is that then”.

This is rather like the situation that Saint Paul found himself in when in Athens around the year AD 50 when on his second missionary journey to Philippi, Thessalonica, Berea, Athens and Corinth.

Luke tells us in our reading from Acts, that while Paul was waiting for Silas and Timothy to join him in Athens, his spirit was provoked as he saw the city full of idols, full of many false gods. Although in Paul’s day Athens was not at its zenith, one of its most prominent features was its numerous pagan temples. In fact Petronius, a Roman courtier during the time of the emperor Nero, made the satirical comment that it was easier to find a god than a man in Athens. Paul took this diverse mix of gods as a cue to give a sermon after seeing an altar with the inscription ‘to an unknown god’.

But before we look in more detail at this famous sermon I want to ask a question. Why do we not use the name of our God, the one and only, true and living God? If we did, it would be clear that YAHWEH is distinct and different from all the false gods that abound in our world today. Those of you who may have visited places like India will be aware of the many  divinities worshiped there. Today however we live in a culture where we have to be careful what we say so that we give no offence. I wonder what ever became of ‘the offence of the cross’ that Paul speaks of to the Galatians (5v11). Using the true name of God does has significance.

We often hear in the media that an Islamic terrorist has cried out ‘Allah Achbar’ which they then translate as ‘god is great’. But which god is great? What it actually means is ‘Allah is greater; I leave you to make your own deductions as to what that implies and points to.

So what do we know about Paul’s time spent in Athens? 

First Luke tells us that while Paul was waiting for Timothy and Silas he reasoned with the Jews that he found in the synagogue in Athens. This was typical of Paul, to first seek out the diaspora Jewish community and to give them the opportunity to hear the gospel but usually they rejected that offer.

So Paul went to the market place or, as it was known, to the Agora, and there he met with the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers. It would seem that some of them wished to hear what this ‘babbler’ had to say to them for ‘He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities,’ for Paul was preaching ‘Jesus and the resurrection’, a new concept for some of them (Acts17v18). 

Would it not be great today, both in this country and wider afield, if there were more evangelists raised up who could engage in preaching ‘Jesus and the resurrection’, and calling people to repent. Please make that a prayer, a prayer for revival in our country as we have seen in the past. Pray for a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit to come upon our society.

The men of Athens then took Paul to the area in the city known as ‘the Areopagus’. The Areopagus is the ‘hill of Ares’ the Greek god of war, and it was where a long established body met that held extensive authority over both the civil and religious life of the people of Athens.

It would seem that the Athenians liked nothing better than spending time ‘telling or hearing something new’ (v21), and just to cover all the options, they had also erected a shrine to ‘the unknown god’ A second century geographer called Pausanius mentions there were also shrines with that same association in both Olympia and Pergamum. Paul stood up in the middle of the Areopagus and addressed the Men of Athens.  

This address by Paul on ‘Mars Hill’ is the most detailed in his missionary career that is recorded in the New Testament. It touches on five main issues: The ignorance involved in pagan worship (vs23)

  That there is one true creator God whom we should worship (vs24-25)

  The relationship of God to humanity (vs26-28)

  That God cannot be fashioned into idols of silver or gold (vs29)

  And that now is the time to bring ignorance to an end & Repent (vs30-31)

How many of these same issues are still appropriate to society today? 

I would suggest all of them. Human ignorance of YAHWEH, of the One True and Living God, does not seem to have changed over the course of two millennia despite our advances in knowledge, science and technology. Moral development has sadly not kept apace.

In fact Pope John-Paul II called the modern media-the new Areopagus. This shows to us Christians the urgent need to declare and make clear our beliefs and ideals to the disbelieving society in which we live. A society which has made silver and gold the idols of modern materialism. As Peter said in our epistle “Always be ready to make your defence to anyone who demands from you an account of the hope that is in you”. That implies that others when looking at us recognise we have a great hope, that of eternal life.

One result of Paul’s address was that ‘some men joined him and believed’ (vs34). One of those was an Areopagite, a member of the Areopagus. He was a lawyer-judge called Dionysius, and also a woman named Damaris. According to the early Church historian Eusebius, who lived in the late third century, following his conversion Dionysius became the first Bishop of Athens and was later martyred in Gaul in AD 96, needless to say he is considered the patron saint of lawyers.

In his address Paul makes reference to two quotations from pagan Greek writers that he, and his hearers, would have been familiar with. Most of us have probably never realised that these were pagan quotes.

The first ‘In him we live and move and have our being,’ comes from a hymn to the Greek god Zeus, penned by Epimendes of Crete around 600 BC. 

When Joy and I were on a short break in Crete a few years ago, one of our guides made reference to a derogative comment from this same Cretan poet referred to in Paul’s letter to Titus (1vs12) where he says, “Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons”. I am not sure that would pass for political correctness today! 

The second quotation Paul makes is from the Stoic poet Aratus who lived around BC 320, “For we too are his offspring.”  

What is interesting with both of these quotations is that although they come from so called ‘pagan’ poets, they do reflect a similar understanding to ours of the inter-relationship of God and humanity. 

For in Him-God we do indeed live, move and have our being, and we are children of God, God’s offspring, created in His very own image.

But Paul then makes a new and significant point, the time of ignorance is now past, for like us Paul knew that Jesus had come and revealed to us the full nature of God and of His Holiness. 

As a result we need a new relationship with God, not one dependent on sacrifices made to idols of silver and gold, but we have to repent of our former ways and turn to the true God as the one who is to judge the world. 

Judgement is not something that sits comfortably with many in today’s society. But as God is Holy he must judge the world for our rejection of him, but it will be a judgement in righteousness through the one who lived a truly righteous life, Jesus, who God raised from the dead and through him has reconciled us to himself if we but put our faith and trust in Jesus.

So are you rejoicing brothers and sisters, that having put your faith and trust in Jesus all the many promises found throughout the scriptures become personally true for you? For those who do believe one of those beautiful promises is that ‘as far as the east is from the west, God has removed our transgressions from us’. I hope I heard an Alleluia, after all this is the Easter season.

When Paul delivered this sermon, I believe that he had the express hope that his hearers would respond and put their trust in the one true and living God YAHWEH, who has been revealed and made known to us through our Lord Jesus. Paul expressed that believe for all people when saying (vs27) “God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us.”

And what a comfort those words are for us who do believe, our God is not far from us, He is not just close to us, He indwells us by His own life giving Holy Spirit.

We shall shortly go on to obey our Lord’s command to remember him, and to meet with him as we take the bread and the wine at his table. 

So let us this Eastertide remember that “Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us, and so let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven of corruption and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth”. 

If we have humbled ourselves before the cross of Jesus and repented of our sins, we are promised God’s forgiveness and a share in the life eternal. But we must also remember that we are then called to go out into our communities, in that resurrection power of the risen Lord Jesus, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, to love and to serve one another. Let us always remember that Jesus, King of the universe, came to love and serve, not to be served.    Amen

Let us pray:

In the face of Jesus Christ

your light and glory have blazed forth O YAHWEH,

God of all the nations;

may we, with all your people,

make known your grace and love

and walk in the ways of peace;

to the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord, our Saviour and coming King.

Amen

 Sermon  St Mary Sunday 11am 7 May 2023 Year A Easter 5  

Acts 7v55-60 1 Peter 2v2-10 John 14 v1-14

Let us Pray;

Our Gospel reading this morning contains one of the greatest readings from all of scripture, “In my Father’s house are many mansions, I go and prepare a place for you”. This is a promise of great comfort to all of us who believe and have put our faith in Jesus as our Lord. It is one that is so often read at funerals for that very reason, it brings to us comfort when we hear those words from the Lord that he said to his disciples at the last supper. As we gather again together to remember him around the Lord’s table, just as he commanded us to do at that supper, those words should bring comfort to us all as we remember what Jesus has promised is in store for us as believers.

Those words recorded by Saint John are meant not only to bring comfort but also to transform the way we as Christians should view and face up to death. Death for us is not something to dread and it is certainly not the end. It is the beginning of the most wonderful experience and existence that we could ever imagine. As Saint Paul said to the Corinthian Christians (1Cor2v9), “What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”

Can we ever even begin to appreciate a little of what it will be like to dwell with God, to dwell with our Lord Jesus. We shall not just dwell with God, we shall be part of His new great enterprise of ‘making all things new’ as Saint John tells us in his Revelation (21v1f). And if you look at the way we humans have abused and despoiled the beautiful and magnificent creation God has placed us in, you may appreciate what an essential part that will be in rebuilding this earth as God intended and as it was in the beginning.

You may ask but how do we do that? Well we shall not be able to do that with our present physical bodies, we shall be given new ‘resurrection’ bodies described later by Paul in Corinthians (1Cor1542-44) like this, “What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body”. As to the actual nature and capabilities of that ‘new body’ I for one certainly wait with great anticipation to find out. It will be like the resurrected body of our Lord as he entered the upper room on the first Easter evening. It will be like those bodies given to Adam and Eve in the garden before they disobeyed and death entered the human race. They will be the form of bodies that God always intended for you and I. No more sorrow, sickness or pain, do you not long for a body like that?

It was so interesting that at yesterdays coronation the Gospel reading was taken from Jesus manifesto delivered in his home synagogue in Nazareth where Jesus quoted from the prophet Isaiah.

Jesus proclaimed, ‘good news for the poor, release to the captives and liberty for those who are oppressed’-not speaking of those rightfully detained in our prisons, but of the millions held in subjection by oppressive regimes, and of sight for the blind’.

What an amazing time we have to look forward to, but also changes that we are meant to help initiate while we are still in these our mortal bodies.

The martyrdom of Saint Steven who was the first of many Christians called to surrender their lives down through the ages as they remained faithful to our Lord, just as many of our persecuted brothers and sisters are still called to do today.  

Steven, as he was dying was given a vision into heaven itself, visions that have also been the case for many others, and as are still occurring for some today. You may have heard of some people who have experienced such near death experiences and lived to recount what was seen, but be careful with these. 

Steven was not scared to face his death, and like our Lord prayed for those stoning him saying “Lord, do not hold this sin against them”. That was such a heartfelt prayer of forgiveness, but not a prayer easy to repeat without the power of the Holy Spirit. And what was the vision granted to Steven at that moment? He saw into heaven itself, which must have been such a comforting sight at what was a moment of intense agony. And what did he see?

He saw our Lord Jesus standing at the most commanding of positions, standing at the right hand of God our Father till all his enemies become his footstool. A position from where we know that Jesus, who is our great high priest, always lives to make intercessions for us. And that is another comforting promise, and a promise given to sustain us in our pilgrim walk through this physical realm. A promise before we, at some time and we never know when, will enter that spiritual and eternal realm to join with our Lord Jesus and with all the Saints.

Finally let us remember the words we read from Peter and words of what God has for us who believe. Words to comfort us all together in the body of Christ, his Church, and something that will be fully realized in the life to come for we are to be ‘a royal priesthood, a holy nation’, a people set aside to love, serve and worship God.

Let us pray:

Risen Lord Jesus, your wounds declare your love for each one of us and for all the peoples of this world, as we consider the wonder of your risen life, give us like your servant Steven compassion and courage to risk ourselves for those we love and serve, to the glory of God our Father.Amen

 Sermon  St Mary Sunday 11am 30 April 2023 Year A Easter 4  

Acts 2.42-47 Responsory ‘Easter Anthem’ 1 Peter 2v19-25 John 10 v1-10

Let us Pray;

As we continue through the joy of this Easter season, just a few words from me this morning, starting with the words from the end of Acts chapter 2 which I believe are so pertinent at this time, “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers”. That is one of my favourite scripture verses as it describes how the Church should function; just as we are this morning as we gather together to ‘remember him’. It also reminds us that we form part of an unending line of witness to the truth of the Gospel, a witness that goes back to the very time of the victory of the resurrection itself.

Our prayers need to cry out to God that as with the apostle’s of that time of the fledgling Church, once again the Church may have the goodwill of all the people, for today we see such antagonism from many quarters. And how wonderful it would be if we saw again ‘the Lord adding daily to our number those who are being saved’. Pray that we may see this Church, and all our Churches, filled as in past years with people praising and thanking God. That the Holy Spirit will again come to this nation in revival power and transform our values to those of the scriptures.

We heard Peter write in his epistle, “For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the shepherd and guardian of your souls”. Let us give thanks for God’s grace that is indeed true for us, but how much we need to see that also become true for the people of this, and every land, as the time of our Lord’s return becomes ever nearer. Saint Luke (18v8) tells us that Jesus asked the question “when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” What will be the answer to his question? Principally the answer depends on us, how His Church responds.

One of the often used pictures of God throughout the scripture is that of a shepherd. Psalm 23 immediately comes to mind, “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want”.

But Jesus also takes up that picture and applies it to himself as we read in our Gospel, describing himself as ‘the Good Shepherd’, a term he uses three times in just a few verses. For us as believers that term ‘Good Shepherd’ is a comforting thought as we think of the care that our earthly shepherds devote to their flocks. 

Jesus calls us ‘his own’, we are his own sheep, and wonderfully he calls us each by our name for he knows us so intimately. As our ‘Good Shepherd’ Jesus is also there to lead us, his desire for each one of us is that we hear his voice and then to follow after him. In Jesus day, the shepherd always went before the flock to lead them, they followed because they recognized his voice and his alone. How we need to tune our ears and our spirits, tune them to hear and recognize Jesus voice from among all the distracting noise that surrounds us in this chaotic and bustling society we now find ourselves living in.

Jesus then concludes his short discourse with one of the most wonderful and powerful of promises within the scriptures, a promise for an experience that should transform our lives and set us apart as God’s special people. He reminds us of why he Jesus came and endured the agony of the cross, why he rose triumphant from the grave, as he says “I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly”.

Some translations say “so they may have life in all its fullness”. That fullness of life is why God the Father sent his beloved Son to die on Calvary’s tree. A fullness that we experience when we have become reconciled to our Holy God and Father through putting our faith and trust in the Lord Jesus. We can then walk in communion with God as we read Adam and Eve did in the coolness of the garden. We can experience the intimacy of the life that God intended for each one of us even from before the very beginning of creation. 

Is that not something to give great thanks and praise for this Easter time? 

Let us pray: The shorter Collect for this fourth Sunday of Easter.

 

Risen Lord Jesus, faithful shepherd of your Father’s sheep:

teach us to hear your voice and to follow your command,

that all your people may be gathered into one flock,

to the glory of God the Father.Amen

 

Dear Friends,

As I write on a bitterly cold day, I notice that in the orchard snowdrops are presenting themselves like a carpet of white, while the daffodils with bent heads not liking the cold, wait for the warmth from the sunshine to straighten them again, the green shoots from the crocus bulbs are peeping through and the primroses are showing their faces making us smile.

All this is a sure sign that spring is not far away. Signs of new life are all around us. Also, the season of Lent meaning spring began on Ash Wednesday when all who came to church were ashed with the sign of the cross although the vicar sparkled like star dust, and we took those crosses with us out into the community for all to see and question.

Over the past year we have found ourselves experiencing really challenging times which has knocked our equilibrium and many have felt insecure, lonely, anxious, stressed and unloved. The newspapers and television have brought us pictures of war, flood, famine violence, earthquake and disaster and following on from covid our minds just cannot process all these things, it is just too much. Since Christmas I have been challenged by those who are questioning “if your God is a God of love tell me why these terrible things are happening.”  

For Christians, the Church’s holy seasons of Lent and Easter hold the key to an understanding of this.  Holy Scripture, in the Book of Genesis, reminds us that we live in a fallen world, not a perfect one, as far as humanity is concerned.  The world works via the mechanisms of physics, chemistry and biology and, therefore, Corona virus, cancer and other diseases routinely disfigure the natural world, as selfishness, cruelty and violence do so in members of the human race.

The point of the Incarnation of the Word made flesh is that Jesus, the chosen one of God, God himself, came to live and suffer among us as one of us to reveal what true unconditional love looks like in human shape and, to restore the beauty of the love, we name as God, in our lives and the lives of those around us.  Those who can’t accept God, because of the presence of suffering in the world, are looking at the situation the wrong way round.  God is love, and to follow the teachings and example of Jesus is for humanity to learn how to show compassion and unconditional love to one another in times of suffering and pain.  That is why the cross makes most sense when it has a figure of the crucified Christ upon it: our salvation was wrought upon the cross, which is a powerful symbol of the outpouring of unconditional love for us all.  That love touches our lives in the presence of Jesus as the body of Christ in the consecrated bread and wine of Holy Communion.  That is the source of resurrection love, given freely for us – which begins to heal the pain and suffering of the world and makes the broken whole, as we open our hearts to receive God’s grace in our lives.  

As we follow the road of the cross this Lent with Jesus, let us find ourselves coming ever deeper into his presence, Remember, “Lent” comes from the old English word from which we get “lengthen”, it means to grow.  Lent is the Springtime of the soul; a time when, this year, we need to be kind to ourselves and prune away, through prayer, all that which has caused us to suffer and be anxious and afraid, that we might grow strong and flourish in the light of God’s healing love – given to us by Jesus Christ.

I pray that we have a good Lent together,

With every blessing,

Revd. Sue