St Nicholas Parish Church Fleetwood. Week beginning 5th March 2023
We seek to be a church that lives by faith, is known by love and
is a voice of hope to the community we serve.
Website https://www.achurchnearyou.com/church/11671
Sunday 5th March 2nd of Lent
8.30 am Holy Communion in Church
9.30 am Worship on Zoom
10.45 am Holy Communion in Church Sidespersons: Elizabeth & Margaret. Reader: Karen
4.00 pm Family & Co in the Broadway Rooms
Tuesday 7th March
2.00 pm Holy Communion in Church
Thursday 9th March
10.00 am Community Coffee Morning & Warm Hub in the Jubilee Room
Friday 10th March
9.00 am St Nic’s Little Gang in the Broadway Rooms
11.45 am Lent Lunch at St David’s Church Larkholme Lane
Saturday 11th March
10.00 am Messy Church in the Broadway Rooms for all the family
Sunday 12th March 3rd of Lent
8.30 am Holy Communion in Church
9.30 am Worship on Zoom
10.45 am Holy Communion in Church Sidespersons: Susan & Christine. Reader: Elizabeth
4.00 pm Family & Co in the Broadway Rooms
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Lent 1 Sermon on Genesis: The sermon last week which focused on Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden has caused one or two folk to ask some questions and to think a bit deeper about the issues that were raised. It’s one of the wonders of scripture, in that you can read and hear the same passage time and again and then suddenly it speaks to you in a new way. Here is some more of Genesis for us to ponder.
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the
garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the
garden. But the LORD God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ He answered, ‘I heard
you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.’ GENESIS 3:8–10
Where are you?? God is not asking because he needs directions. He knows precisely where they are. As he knows precisely where we are. Despite their rebellion, he doesn’t kill them, he doesn’t drag them angrily from their hiding places. He comes down ‘in the cool of the day’, as was his habit, and invites them into a conversation. He wants their fellowship. As he wants ours.
Perhaps God’s question is a question for us, however long we’ve been coming to church. Lent, after all, is a time to reflect, to let God strip back the layers so we might know him better. Where am I in my relationship with him? What might I be hiding? Perhaps I am too busy, too afraid, or too ashamed to walk with him ‘in the garden in the cool of the day’? How are my relationships with others? Perhaps I am harbouring anger, envy, or jealousy. Are there things I have not done that I ought to have done? Things I have done that I ought not to have done? God’s question is an invitation to allow him to bring to light those things he wants to help us with. Where are you? If you aren’t sure, if perhaps there are things hidden that you don’t even know are there, then one of David’s prayers gives us a way forward: ‘Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.' (Psalm 139:23–24)
And he will. Because ‘the way everlasting’ is what he has wanted for us – from the beginning.
Please also remember in your prayers: Rev Jane Everitt, Rev Martin Keighley, Elizabeth King, Chris Kelsall, Michaela Jones, Janice Porter, Mark Price & Lucy Adamson. And the families of, Josie Gibson, Stan Kirkham, Ray Merrison, Norma Newton, & Gordon Smith whose funerals are due to take place.