Come and join us for the final Sunday of Eastertide! Our first reading is extraordinary; a woman called Lydia, who is clearly extremely well off as she sells Tyrian purple cloth (only to be worn by the Emperor and Senators), but invites Paul and Luke to stay in her house - the beginning of a house church.
The Gospel describes a paralysed man lying by the pool of Bethesda; he cannot get into it fast enough as the waters are stirred and others go ahead of him to take advantage of the phenomenon which they think will give healing. Jesus asks what seems a very strange question in the circumstances: 'Do you want to get well?' , and then tells him to take up his mat and walk. Perhaps Jesus is challenging us all as to whether we really wish to forsake our old, sinful life, take up our own mats which we've been lying on for so many years, and walk with him. Come and join us either in person or on the livestream.