We keep a few moments of silence as we prepare ourselves to stand before Almighty God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.‘Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord; give praise, O servants of the Lord, you that stand in the house of the Lord, in the courts of the house of our God. Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good; sing to his name, for he is gracious.’ (Psalm 135:1-3)Hymn: A man there lived in Galilee...Philippians 3: 4b-14Let us come to the Lord, who is full of compassion, and acknowledge our transgressions in penitence and faith: Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in what we have thought, in what we have said and done: through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We have wounded your love, and marred your image in us. We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past and lead us out from darkness to walk as children of light. Amen. May Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon us, pardon and deliver us from all our sins, confirm and strengthen us in all goodness, and keep us in life eternal: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Prayer for the day: Gracious Father, you gave up your Son out of love for the world: lead us to ponder the mysteries of his passion, that we may know eternal peace through the shedding of our Saviour’s blood, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.John 12: 1-8Let us kneel before God in prayer, asking for his cleansing love to be known to all people. We pray for St Peter’s Church, that your will be done, and for our work to be blessed; We pray for our world, that all of its creatures will thrive, and for peace in Ukraine; We pray for our friends, families and community, that we may share in the love of Christ; We pray for people who are sick or suffering, that they will know healing and strength; We remember the departed, and pray for all who mourn.Let us join in the words of the Lord’s prayer, whoever and wherever we are: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hymn: And can it be...May Christ give us grace to grow in holiness, to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow him. And may the blessing of God Almighty who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon us and remain with us always. Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord, in the name of Christ. Amen.
John gives us a beautiful story full of symbolism as Jesus now sets his face towards Jerusalem to face betrayal torture and brutal death. Mary and her siblings Martha and Lazarus were close friends of Jesus and shared love, laughter and hospitality with him in their home. Mary loved to listen at the feet of Jesus and on one occasion was rebuked by Martha for not helping her in the kitchen. However, Jesus said that Mary had chosen the better part, the main thing being to be with him.The sisters had previously witnessed the miracle of Jesus raising their beloved brother Lazarus from the dead and they are hosting a meal. In today’s reading Mary is once again at the feet of Jesus in a radical act of pouring expensive spikenard oil from an alabaster jar, (used for anointing a dead body), onto Jesus feet and massaging them with her hair. Spikenard has stress relieving properties to bring calm as well as use for burial.Mary emptied her jar and herself for Jesus in an intimate act that was very radical as women would only let down their hair for their husbands or in mourning. Mary gave Jesus all she had, her costly perfume, her physical extravagance, her vulnerability, skin to skin contact, touching, soothing, embracing. A Sabbath of skin, salt, sweat, tears, perfumed feet, unbound hair. Our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit and Mary worshiped Jesus. She knew in her heart that Jesus needed to be extravagantly loved at that time and she provided for his need. Judas, however, asked why the oil was not sold and the money given to the poor? He didn’t say this out of concern for the poor because he fiddled the books. Jesus replied, echoing Deuteronomy 15:11, that we will always have the poor (therefore be openhanded). Jesus identifies with the poor as refugee with nowhere to lay his head, betrayed, rejected, a man of sorrows. He is also Priest, King and Prophet to be anointed. Mary saw all of this paradox with her heart. She was fill of gratitude.Jesus knew he would not be around for much longer and accepted Mary’s gift offering as a blessing and blessed her too.Jesus had been tempted in the wilderness to feed the world but knew that man shall not live by bread alone but by the word of God. He came to show the way of God’s radical and abundant love for us as the servant king, and would soon be washing his disciples feet and instructing us to do the same, to love one another as it is by this we will be known as his disciples. John does not give us a Last Supper to remember but the image of Jesus bent down washing the dirty feet of his disciples, a towel around his waist. Imagine if in our Communion Service we said the words ‘ on the night before he died Jesus washed his disciples feet. Do this in remembrance of him’?Mary knew the importance of living in the moment and grabbing the opportunities in front of her. It is tempting to save things for a rainy day but we come into the world with nothing and go out with nothing. Let us celebrate the gifts that God has given us in this world for this world and give abundantly while we can to those in front of us here and now.Let us spread our fragrance as Mary did, permeating our homes, streets and communities with our unique God given beauty. May our hearts and homes be like that home in Bethany and May the Lord Jesus make himself at home in us.Angela Stewart, Lay Minister
Do you like playing number games like Sudoku or are you more a word person and love Crosswords or Wordle? A lot of Jews loved playing with numbers and when we read a Gospel like Matthew we often don’t realise that there is a number game going on in the background. At the beginning of Matthew’s Gospel is his genealogy where he makes a list of descendants going from Abraham to Joseph. There are 14 in the list until you get to King David, then 14 to the Exile and then 14 to Joseph. What we often don’t appreciate is that Jews gave the Hebrew letters of the alphabet numerical values. If you add up the values of the word DAVID in Hebrew the total is 14. Not only is David (King) mentioned in the list but the number game repeats it 3 times. Anything mentioned 3 times tells us it is important to the writer. So Jesus is a descendant of King David, surprise, surprise the Jews believed that the Messiah, the Christ, would be a descendant of David. Indeed the gospels make the point that some did’t believe Jesus to be the Messiah because he came from Galilee. There is a reinforcement of this as Matthew quotes from the Old Testament to show the connections between Christianity and the Jewish Scriptures. Guess how many quotes there are from the Old Testament, yes there are 14 quotes. Is that the only number game? No, the Transfiguration tells of Jesus meeting with Moses on the Mount. In order for Moses to enable the Hebrew slaves to escape from Egypt, guided by God, he performs 10 miracles or plagues as we call them. In Matthew’s Gospel he writes about the 10 miracles that Jesus performed.By playing the number games Matthew is teaching us how Moses, King David and Jesus are inextricably linked, this is all part of God’s plan! It is surprising how much we learn when facts are reinforced by games. Parents and teachers have been doing this for years and often we don’t even realise how much we are learning. This is just one aspect of what we are giving thanks for on this Mothering Sunday, that those who love us and care for us have helped us by making learning fun. To all of you Mums, Dads, teachers, friends and carers thank you for all you do in helping us to grow up and mature, not only as human beings but as followers of Jesus Christ.Thank you,Andrew SSL
Lord, direct our thoughts, and teach us to pray. Lift up our hearts to worship you in spirit and in truth, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.‘I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord; let the humble hear and be glad. O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt his name together.’ (Psalm 34:1-3)Hymn: Come down, O Love Divine...Colossians 3: 12-17Let us come to the Lord, who is full of compassion, and acknowledge our transgressions in penitence and faith: Father eternal, giver of light and grace, we have sinned against you and against our neighbour, in what we have thought, in what we have said and done: through ignorance, through weakness, through our own deliberate fault. We have wounded your love, and marred your image in us. We are sorry and ashamed, and repent of all our sins. For the sake of your Son Jesus Christ, who died for us, forgive us all that is past and lead us out from darkness to walk as children of light. Amen. May Almighty God, who forgives all who truly repent, have mercy upon us, pardon and deliver us from all our sins, confirm and strengthen us in all goodness, and keep us in life eternal: through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Prayer for the day: God of compassion, whose Son Jesus Christ, the child of Mary, shared the life of a home in Nazareth, and on the cross drew the whole human family to himself: strengthen us in our daily living that in joy and in sorrow we may know the power of your presence to bind together and to heal; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.Luke 2:33-35Please see the Message from the Minister.Let us kneel before God in prayer, asking for his cleansing love to be known to all people. We pray for St Peter’s Church and our Mother Church throughout the world, that we will be known as your disciples by the love we show to one another; We pray for our world, that all of its creatures will thrive, and for peace in Ukraine; We pray for all mothers and those who have mothered others, along with our friends, families and neighbours - that relationships will thrive and community spirit will grow; We pray for people who are sick or suffering, that they will know healing and strength; We remember the departed, and pray for all who mourn.Let us join in the words of the Lord’s prayer, whoever and wherever we are: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hymn: For the beauty of the earth...May Christ give us grace to grow in holiness, to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow him; and may the blessing of God Almighty who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit rest upon us and remain with us always.Let us go in peace to love and serve the Lord, in the name of Christ. Amen.
