Dear friends,
Welcome to this week’s regular update, and I do hope that you are well?
REMINDER - there is a drop-in Vigil starting this evening at 6 pm at St Hilda’s Church in Egton. We’ll be praying for peace throughout the world and especially in Israel and Gaza. Feel free to come for any period of time between 6 and 8 pm. If you can’t make it, please put a candle in your window this evening. We can all make a difference to our world because we are all joined together through prayer.
Please find below a copy of the sermon I preached at Glaisdale this morning along with the readings we had for this week: Bible Sunday. Thanks to Paul Wood for being our sidesperson, Alan Palmer for acting as our lay Eucharistic assistant, Andrea Foord for playing for us this morning, and Vicky Ford for reading our Epistle, We had a wonderful time with some amazing singing! If you’d like to help with any of the roles that help make our services such special times please get in touch.
The report from the ‘Where next? Charting the future’ Benefice Forum meeting is now available for you to read at this link: https://www.achurchnearyou.com/benefice/43-109CM/news/114752/
Thanks for all the replies from those able to help with giving the kitchen in St Matthew’s, Grosmont, a big deep clean. We now have enough volunteers. Thanks to those volunteers - someone will be in touch in the next week with further details.
Finally my usual request - if there’s anyone you think would find this update useful please ask them to subscribe via this link: http://eepurl.com/izDueg. I do hope that you are still finding these weekly updates useful? Please let me know via: [email protected].
With prayers and all good wishes,
Anthony
Church Services, Events and Meetings Coming Up
All details are on our website, including dates for upcoming PCC meetings and our Remembrance Sunday services. Please visit: middleESKmoor.org
Today’s Collect Prayer - for Bible Sunday
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them, that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever,
Amen.
Reading from Colossians 3:12-17
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body.
And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Reading from Matthew 24:30-35
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see “the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven” with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
‘From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates.
Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.
Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Sermon at Glaisdale, St Thomas’
May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts together be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our rock, and redeemer. Amen.
Today is Bible Sunday, the day we dedicate to celebrate the gift of God’s word. We received God’s word just now in our two readings from Paul and Matthew. So, my question for you all to consider this morning is: what do those Bible readings mean to you as Christians?
I’m going to focus mainly on the Colossians’ reading. I think it tells us how we need to live our lives as Christians. It gives us important information we need to know. And if anybody here thinks they already know it all, me included, then we probably need a timely refresher.
So, let’s have a look at this letter that Paul is writing to the Colossians. They lived in an area that’s part of Southern Turkey today. Paul writes his letter in prison, and, despite his situation, locked up in a prison cell, Paul remains committed to the flourishing of the Christian faith. Paul writes with a wise mixture of teaching, praise, encouragement and rebuke, when necessary. He tailored his letters for each church he wrote to, and he seems content with the news coming back from the Colossian church. Earlier in his letter, Paul recounts the habits the new believers in Colossia had abandoned, which, as Christians, we too should abandon. Those habits make you feel good in the short term, make you self-centred, or lead you to start worshiping idols.
Paul praises the believers in Colossia for casting those habits aside. He used language that compared the removal of those immoral habits to removing garments, or clothes. As the Colossians were reclothed with their new moral code their transformation into Christians was complete. However, being a Christian was, and is, a life-long commitment of continuous renewal. In that ongoing process we become ever closer to the image of Christ. Paul says we should be clothed in garments of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Those garments should be worn every day; we need to ensure we keep our clothes on! It’s love that does that: love is the glue that stops us losing our garments of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.
I wonder, are you wearing the clothes you wore yesterday, the day before or the day before that? Of course not! Or, at least, I hope not! The clothes we wear, of course, need to be washed, ironed, repaired and generally maintained to keep them in as good a condition as possible. But sometimes we might not notice that our clothes smell, or that there are mud splatters, or that we’ve got a tear somewhere: then we need somebody to tell us; someone to graciously suggest that we need to mend our clothes. In the same way, our garments of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience need to be maintained. To do this, Paul suggests we should help each other: sometimes through teaching, and sometimes with rebuke, but always with wisdom. All this should be straight forward. We can wear compassion, kindness, humility and meekness can’t we, even if we need to smarten up at times? But we also need to be able to forgive. And, if we’re trying to be even more like Christ, then surely forgiveness should be part of our learning and teaching too? Put simply, God forgives us our wrongs, and if we are willing to accept that forgiveness, then we should equally forgive others.
It’s easy to forgive somebody who bumps into us. We can forgive somebody who damages our car. We can forgive somebody who’s hurt us in thought or deed. But I admit that sometimes it’s taken me years to forgive people for hurtful actions towards me, and hurtful words spoken to me. And it becomes harder to forgive when serious harm or death results. That’s when our faith is truly tested. But with the help of God we can still forgive. Gordan Wilson, from Northern Ireland, illustrates this well. His daughter died in the Enniskillen IRA attack in 1987. Soon afterwards he publicly forgave the bombers. He said, ‘…I bear no ill will, I bear no grudge… I will pray for these men tonight and every night’.
Amazing words. Difficult words to say.
I’d like you to imagine now, for a moment, a world where the people of every home, town and nation live in compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience. Where people are glued together by love and forgiveness. Where the peace of our Lord Jesus that rules in our hearts, breaks out and is felt throughout the world.
Take a moment to imagine that perfect world.
It’s difficult for me to imagine, in these current times, what such peace would feel like.
War and conflict have been rife for years. We’ve all been shocked and overwhelmed by the reports of carnage, bloodshed and deaths in Gaza and Israel.
In our minds we can see, amidst mounds of rubble, that child, stood…
unmoving…
silent despite the noise and chaos…
their eyes seem blinded by grief…
they focus on nothing…
their face is dust covered…
clear only where tears have run.
The history is long and the situation complex.
It’s likely some of us view one group as being more responsible than the other. And I know that I’m not the only one who avoids discussing the conflict because I’m fearful as to how my feelings about it will be perceived. I might be judged by what I say.
Wherever we stand though, it’s evident that race, faith and politics have become mixed up. So mixed up that thousands of innocent bystanders are suffering. People have been tortured and murdered in cold blood, raped and kidnapped. And those who already lacked sufficient food, water, fuel, housing, education and healthcare are disproportionately suffering more and more, hour by hour. Yet, despite the odds, forgiveness and peace were trying to break in before those horrific acts of 7 October.
The Parents Circle Family Forum brought together families from both sides where a relative had died in conflict.
Hand in Hand encouraged and nurtured integrated schools for Israeli and Palestinian children living in Israel.
Road to Recovery had Israeli volunteers driving Palestinian patients from West Bank or Gaza checkpoints to hospitals in Israel for treatment.
And forgiveness and peace continue to try to break in. Individuals are daring to speak out. Israeli Jewish peace activists have been arrested for putting up posters which have simply said, ‘We will get through this together,’ in both Arabic and Hebrew.
Udu Goren, also Jewish, continues his peace activism despite accusations of being anti-Semitic, a traitor, a hater of his own people. More widely known is Yocheved Lifshitz, the hostage who turned back towards her Hamas captor as she was released to take his hand and say ‘Shalom’ - peace. It’s been suggested she said that to protect her husband Oded who remains a hostage. But Oded and Yocheved are peace activists. Both were volunteer drivers taking Palestinians to their hospital appointments. Their daughter when asked whether this would end her parents’ dream of living in peace with their neighbours, said, ‘No, no, no… If anything, this makes me more resolved.’
Peace and forgiveness, breaking in.
People clothed in garments of compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.
Back to my question for this week: what do this morning’s Bible readings mean to us as Christians?
I think of the children in Lealholm church for their Harvest Festival last Friday afternoon, united as they sang. Children, staff and parents arrived at the service, weary after a busy half term, but they left full of joy! And that makes me think of Paul’s words as he closes his letter telling us to sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs to God in gratitude for all that we’ve received. So, for me, today’s readings help me to dare to imagine the joy and celebration that would come if peace covered all the lands of the Earth.
And, in our Gospel reading, Matthew reminds us that eventually heaven and the Earth will pass away, but God’s “words will not pass away.”
The words written in the Bible will not pass away.
The words written in the Bible are truths for all eternity.
Paul’s words to the Colossians are truths for all eternity: truths for us to live our lives by today and every day.
Let’s continue to be encouraged by the words of Paul: to live our lives with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness and patience.
Let’s learn to forgive with grace.
And let us pray that the peace of Christ that rules in our hearts breaks free to bring unity and peace to the whole world.
And let us do all these things in the name of our Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God through him.
What do today’s Bible readings mean to you?
Amen.
The Reverend Anthony Bennett
Interim Minister – the Benefice of Middle ESK Moor
middleESKmoor.org
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Thanks to my wife, The Reverend Dr Sam Mawer, for sharing her draft sermon for this morning with me - it formed the basis of what I have prepared for today.
These two books, edited by Jane Williams, are continuing to be very helpful with planning my sermon writing:
Williams, J (2009), Ed., ‘Lost for Words, A Sermon Resource for the Anglican Three Year Cycle,’ Redemptorist Publications, Chawton, UK.
Williams, J (2011), Ed., ‘Lectionary Reflections, Years, B and C.’ Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London, UK.