Evensong for the Fifth Sunday in Lent
On Sunday 25th March at 6.30pm in church, our monthly choral Evensong service.
Family Service at 9am for the Fifth Sunday of Lent
On the last Sunday of Lent, before we begin our journey through Christ’s death and resurrection, our readings give us a glimpse of God’s power and God’s promise.
In Ezekiel 37.1-14, the prophet has a vision of a field of dry bones being raised to life by the breath of God’s spirit. In John 11.1-45, Jesus’ final miracle is to raise Lazarus from the dead. These texts, together with the Easter story, are often used to support a belief in life after death: that when we, individually die, our life will continue with God.
They offer us a far more miraculous promise: that we, together, as the whole people of God, may be raised to new life now, in this time, in this place. These promises are not given to individuals but to communities: Ezekiel is told that the field of dry bones represents the people of Israel; Lazarus is not raised in private, it is his community that unbinds him and sets him free.
This is not hope for tomorrow but for today: how will we, as people of God, trust the promise God gives us that we have the power to transform our common life together and bring life to the world?
Mothering Sunday
Today is Mothering Sunday and our readings tell us the story of two mothers: Mary, mother of Christ, John 19.25-27 and Jochebed, mother of Moses, Exodus 2.1-10. Both stories reveal the cost of mothering: the effort it takes to nurture a child and keep them safe from harm, and the heartbreak that ensues when you can no longer protect them from the world.
They also tell us that mothering is for everyone: we all need to be mothered (not just as infants but throughout our lives) and we are all needed as mothers, whoever we are. The beloved disciple at the foot of the cross must now mother Mary in her grief; Pharaoh’s daughter, her foreign slave girls and Miriam, the little Hebrew sister, must work together to provide Moses with the mothering he needs to survive.
He will go on to be Mother to his people, just as Jesus will become Christ, our precious mother.
Third Sunday of Lent
We can all empathise with the people of God in Exodus 17.1-7, falling out and quarrelling when life gets tough.
How can they trust in God, how can they follow God into the future when they are struggling? The answer is found in trusting each other. In our gospel, John 4.5-42, Jesus begins the process of healing a quarrel that has gone on for much longer, that between the Jews and the Samaritans.
He comes to the Samaritan admitting his need of her, he is thirsty. When he offers her something in return, she asks first for this water for herself but soon she is hurrying to share it with the rest of her community.
When life is hard, the challenge for us is to trust, not only in God but in one another.
Lent Talks: Quakers in the 21st Century - Time for a new business model?
Our Lent Talk, Quakers in the 21st Century - Time for a new business model? by Simon Lawson is on Wednesday 15th March at 7.30pm at Church of the Holy Spirit Clapham, Narbonne Avenue, London SW4 9JU (nearest Tube Clapham Common or Clapham South).
Second Sunday of Lent
This week, our readings explore what it means to journey with God.
In Genesis 12:1-4, Abram leaves his home and all that he knows behind; he does not know where he is headed, only that God is leading him. In John 3:1-17, Nicodemus struggles following where Jesus leads; he is bewildered and uncertain. Jesus asks him to let go of all he holds close in order that he may begin again, be reborn, who in their right mind would want to start again?
Journeying with God requires courage, we risk the unknown, not just where we are headed but who we will become in the process.
Evensong for First Sunday in Lent
On Sunday 26th February at 6.30pm in church we shall hold our monthly choral Evensong service.
Family Service for the First Sunday in Lent
Today we begin our journey through Lent, a time when we reflect not only on Christ’s journey but on our own: who are we? What are we here for? Both of our readings explore the voices and opinions of others and how they impact on our own sense of identity.
Sunday before Lent
The Transfiguration serves to strengthen the disciples (and the subsequent readers of the gospel) in the face of suffering and hardship, but it is more than this: in the Gospel when the disciples get over their fear and look again at Jesus they see “only Jesus himself”, the ordinary, everyday Jesus that they are used to sharing their ordinary, everyday lives with. The message of the transfiguration is that the glory of God can be present in an ordinary human being: the light of God can be seen in the faces of friends and strangers and the power of God can break in at any time and in any place.
NEW! Family Service | 9am Every Fourth Sunday of the Month
Kids, bring your grown ups for juice, croissants and coffee from 8.30am, with the new Family Service incorporating Holy Communion at 9am. Starts 26th February!
Second Sunday before Lent
No worries! Who is Jesus kidding when he tells us not to worry (Matthew 6:25-34)? Worry is an essential part of life, it helps us to focus on what matters. And that’s Christ’s point, what does matter to us? When we focus solely on our own survival, success and security, worry has a tendency to grow exponentially, as we concentrate on what we lack and not what we have. Instead, Jesus asks us to shift focus and concentrate on the kingdom of God.
At first, this might appear to give us a whole pile of new worries: the health and well being of the whole planet and all people in it. The letter to the Romans 8.18-25, agrees: comparing this concern for the bringing in of the kingdom to the pains of labour.
Yet, the pains of labour are bearable because we know that we are bringing new life to birth. Happiness involves a certain level of self-forgetfulness, an ability to look beyond our own lives and see how they are intimately connected with lives of others and the whole of creation. In doing so we shift our focus from what we don’t have, to what we do have and how we can use it.
Candlemas
Today is the last outing for the Nativity figures until next Christmas; we celebrate Candlemas, the day when we turn our attention from Christmas and Epiphany towards Lent and Easter.
As we remember Anna and Simeon’s recognition of the infant Jesus as light of world, we commit ourselves to carrying that light into the world around us. Today we also welcome Hugo and Felix in baptism. Just as Christ was presented at the temple by his parents, Hugo and Felix will be brought to church to be recognised, not just as children of earthly parents but also as children of God.
Our gospel, Luke 2:22-40, the acknowledgment of the infant Christ as the place where earth and heaven meet. The story brings together male and female, old and young, rich and poor and human and divine, embracing all human life in the love of God.
We too are called to embrace the diversity of God’s people to become the place where Christ’s light shines.
Fourth Sunday of Epiphany
Who wants to be blessed if it means being reviled, persecuted, hungry and powerless? Blessed a word used to describe those whom God favoured. Micah 6:1-8 describes a people who are desperate to get God’s blessing. But, because they understand blessing to be about stuff, they give God stuff in the hope that he will give them more in return.
Micah disappoints them: God does not want your thousands of rams or your rivers of oil. Instead, God wants you to live lives of justice and mercy. God, it turns out is not transactional. God is relational: Yet we persist in thinking of God as some divine balancer of the books.
So, when it comes to the beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12, where the blessed are described as the poor, the meek and those who suffer, we tend to read them in a spiritual way: blessed are those who suffer in this life because God will compensate them in the next life. Nope! The beatitudes too are about relationship: that between those who mourn and those who comfort them; those who are hungry and those who feed them; those who suffer injustice and those who fight for justice. None of us are ever on one side or the other: at times we will need comfort, at times we will be able to offer it. The beatitudes tell us not that suffering is good but that relationship is good, community is good, connectedness is good. What do we need to be blessed? We need one another.
Lent talks
EcoChurch
Wednesday 8 March, 7.30p.m.
Allison Clark of St. Paul’s, Rectory Grove will talk about the role the church can play in encouraging change to preserve the planet.
Simon Lawson
Wednesday 15 March, 7.30p.m.
Simon is a Quaker and runs his business, Lawsons, on Quaker principles looking to avoid a culture of wilful blindness.
New year, new Sunday services...
ith the new year comes a new pattern to our Sunday services.
Every fourth Sunday of the month, there will be
a short Said Mass at 8a.m.
breakfast from around 8.30a.m.
our new Family Service at 9a.m. and…
a choral Evensong at 6.30p.m.
Each other Sunday of the month, the pattern will remain as before, namely
Pram Service at 8a.m. and
Parish Mass at 10.30a.m. (with Junior Church)
Third Sunday of Epiphany
The themes of enlightenment and revelation are central to epiphany, those “ah-ha” moments when we suddenly see things differently.
This week, our passages explore what comes after the moment of revelation. Isaiah 9.1-4, is largely concerned with encouraging his people to keep hold of hope for a brighter future but this future is to be created by a choice: a choice not to ally themselves with one foreign power or another but to ally themselves only with God.
In our gospel, Matthew 4.12-23, Jesus responds to the arrest of John by yet another foreign power by calling his first disciples. He too asks them to make a choice: whether to continue to ally themselves with the empire of Rome (which would have licensed, regulated and taxed their catch of fish) or to ally themselves with God’s kingdom. Such a choice comes at a cost. It involves confronting the darkness in their land yet it is only by doing so that the light will dawn.
The Baptism of Christ
Who do we think we are? Epiphany is the season of revelation; the stories that reveal Christ’s true nature also reveal our own identity as his siblings in the family of God.
Today, as we mark the baptism of Christ, we remember that we are baptised in the same spirit. In our gospel, Matthew 3:13-17, although John does not want to baptise him, Jesus insists, leading us to follow him. For Christ, as for Isaiah, 42:1-7, baptism is a recreation.
We are remade in the waters of baptism for a reason: we too are to take our place alongside Christ working for the renewal of all people and all creation; bringing light to the nations, freedom to the oppressed and carrying the spirit of God into the world.
Epiphany Sunday
The feast of the epiphany tells the story, in Matthew 2:1-12, of the magi travelling from the east to pay homage to the Christ child. The story reveals the true identity of that child: gold for ruling, frankincense for holiness and myrrh for dying.
The story of Christ is our story too: his identity reveals our true identity and tells us something about how we are to live, how we are to become truly human. The gifts given to the infant Jesus are not gifts for him so much as they symbolise the way in which he will be a gift to God’s world. We too are gifted and our gifts are only of any use if they are used for all of us.
The prophet Isaiah, 60:1-9, hints as this in his vision of human peace and concord: the light that shines on us becomes the light that shines from us. As we discern a new path, a new way home, for all God’s people.