7th Sunday of Easter Readings: Acts 16v16-34; Psalm 97; Revelation 22v12-14&16-17&20-end; John 174v20-end. Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. A Word: In the Book of Acts, we hear that Paul prays for a slave girl to be rescued from her gift of premonition, foresight and divination. But when she was delivered from her misused gift, her owners were so irritated, annoyed and angered that they detained Paul and Silas and hauled them before the magistrates with false allegations. As the slave owners’ false allegations were supported by the crowd, the magistrates ordered that Paul and Silas be beaten and jailed securely. However, God had a plan to bring something good out of this unpleasant, scary and painful event. For an earthquake shook the ground so vigorously that all of the prisoners’ chains fell out of the walls and the doors of the prison opened wide. The jailor was woken up by the commotion and was about to kill himself because he assumed his prisoners had escaped. But, Paul stopped him by letting him know that the prisoners were all still there. The jailor found this so unexpected and extraordinary that he asked Paul and Silas how he could be saved and they explained that he was to believe in the Lord Jesus. The jailor must have been convinced by this because he took Paul and Silas home and after he and his whole household heard the word of the Lord, they were all baptised. An amazing account of God at work in the world, an account that I believe shows us that even in difficult times that God is able to transform even the worst of things into his mission. But what is God’s mission? The psalm tells us that the Lord is a righteous and just king, a glorious and powerful presence, the one who should be worshipped by the whole of creation. For the Lord our God reigns high over all the earth, taking care of his faithful people, a people called to worship God with songs of rejoicing and prayers of thankfulness. When I consider God’s mission and what we learn about in scripture, I believe that this psalm tells us that God’s mission is a call to look beyond ourselves to the God who made the whole of creation. To look to the God who is calling us back to himself through worship in our lifetime and to live with him forever after we die. This is a mission that I believe Jesus handed over to his disciples. For in the gospel of John we hear Jesus’ prayer for all who are his followers. As we hear, Jesus prays that we will all be joined together as one. Jesus also prays that the world may believe that he was sent to us by the father who loves us all. Finally, Jesus prays that we will see him in his place of glory. Because of this prayer, I believe the mission of the church is to proclaim that the God who loves us wants us to go and tell others that Jesus calls us to come to him and be saved. Finally, in the Book of the Revelation, John tells us that he met with the risen and ascended Lord Jesus in a vision. In this vision Jesus says that he is going to return to judge us and give the right to eat the fruit of the tree of life to everyone who wants it. Jesus also tells John to tell others to come and to share this call with others. From this vision, I believe that as Jesus followers, the Church; our mission is being called to tell whoever we can that Jesus wants all of us to come to him to be saved. For once we have done this – it is then up to them. One glorious mission, God’s hope for the world, shared with his body, the Church. The mission to save the whole of creation. Let us Pray: O God the King of glory, the one eternal God and father of Jesus send your holy spirit upon us. Strengthen and confirm us in your mission to preach the good news of Jesus. Help us to live the good news we proclaim. Lift us to the place where Jesus has gone. Amen Thanks for joining us today.
Opening Prayer Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord's Prayer Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be they 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 them that trespass against us. Deliver us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. AmenA Thought for Today: Today we remember that Jesus returned to heaven where he now reigns and prays for us until his return. (Acts 1v9-11)Prayer for Ascension Risen Christ, you have raised our human nature to the throne of heaven: help us to seek and serve you, that we may join you at the Father’s side, where you reign with the Spirit in glory, now and for ever. AmenPrayer of blessing May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all, now and evermore. Amen.Closing Note This message is sent to you with love and prayers as: a word of encouragement and a sign of hope in these quite extraordinary times.
6th Sunday of Easter Readings: Acts 16v9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21v10&22-22v5; John 14v23-29 Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. A Word: In the gospel of John, Jesus tells us that he was sent to us by his father. He also said that if we love him that we will keep his word. In return, for keeping Jesus word, his father will love us and live within us. This will be through the holy spirit who will live within us to teach and remind us of all we need to know. Other scriptures tell us that the holy spirit is powerful and amazing. For through it we are transformed, made new and changed into God’s people. Through the holy spirit God speaks to us in many and varied ways and calls us into his mission and ministry. Through the holy spirit we are given the ability and skills we need to do God’s bidding. In the other readings for today we hear about God speaking to his people through visions. In Acts, we hear that Paul had a vision of a man from another land calling to him and asking for help. Prompted by this vision, Paul and his companions visited the Roman settlement in Macedonia. Here they proclaimed the good news and spoke to people by the river where the locals went to pray. It was here that a rich woman named Lydia heard about Jesus. After Lydia and her household were baptised, she invited the missionary deputation to stay with her. This vision was a calling to action by God which is quite different to the other vision in the Book of the Revelation. In this other vision God shows John the new Jerusalem, the place that we call heaven. A place where there is no night because all of it is the temple of God filled with the light and glory of God. A place with a river carrying the water of life, bordered by trees that produce life giving fruit and leaves that heal the nations. For this is a temple that is open forever. A temple that welcomes in only those whose names are written in the Book of Life. A temple where those who can enter will see God face-to-face, and will worship God in the heavenly realm and reign with God forever. I believe that the Book of Life referred to in this vision is something that the early followers of God must have known about because in Psalm 67 we learn that God will review our lives and appraise us justly. So, what is the meaning of our scriptures today? I believe that we are being reminded that the holy spirit is at work in the world, teaching and reminding us of many things. For God speaks to us in many and varied ways and visions are just one of the ways. For God is able to speak to us through inner promptings, by our reactions to the bible, in unexpected revelations, in times of prayer, in what we witness in the world all around us, in how we feel about life, in the messages brought to us by others as well as through hearing God speak to us or in seeing visions. But however, we hear the spirit speak to us, Paul teaches that we must be careful. For he teaches us to discern the promptings we receive and make sure they are really from God. I believe that after his vision that Paul must have shared it with his companions and had a conversation about its meaning. I believe this because the reading tells us that Paul and his companions were convinced that the vision was God’s call to them to mission and together they decided to go. From this, we learn that when we hear God’s promptings we should speak to others about what we have been prompted about. Then we must pray for the wisdom to understand what it is that God truly wants of us and them await God’s reply. For as we heard in Acts, when we follow what God truly wants of us other people are brought into the life that Jesus is pointing us to within God’s kingdom. So, like our ancestors in faith in the psalm for today, lets ask for God’s grace and blessing so that God’s ways will spread to the ends of the earth. Let us Pray: Almighty and eternal God, our father and redeemer. You have saved us from the power of darkness; you have given us the water of eternal life; you have brought us into the kingdom of your son. Help us this day by making us thirst for your spring of life, the source of all goodness. Raise us to everlasting joy by helping us to keep in mind that though the death of Jesus we are recalled to a life without end. Keep us in your family of faith by your continued presence in our lives. Lord in your mercy, hear our prayer. Amen Thanks for joining us today.
5th Sunday of Easter Readings: Acts 11v1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21v1-6; John 13v31-35. Let us pray: May the words of my mouth and the thoughts and meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our redeemer. A Word: In Acts we hear that Peter was told off by the Jewish followers of Jesus for welcoming, visiting and eating with gentile believers. In reply, Peter told them about a vision he had from God. In this vision Peter was offered all sorts of creatures to kill and eat but, as many of them were forbidden in Judaism, Peter refused to eat them. When this vision occurred a second time it came with a voice that told Peter that nothing that God has made clean is forbidden. After this vision occurred three times, three Gentile men arrived from Caesarea and invited Peter to go with them. Prompted by the Spirit, Peter went with them to a man’s house, where he was told that the man had been visited by an angel. This angel instructed the man to send for Peter because Peter had a message that would save him and his whole family. After this, Peter shared the good news of Jesus and as he did, the holy spirit fell upon them, prompting Peter to recall the prophecy that John baptised with water but they would be baptised with the holy spirit. Having seen this happen to the gentiles, Peter knew that the gentiles were included in God’s plan and Peter’s witness testimony was enough to convince his Jewish Christian hearers that all was in the hands of God. I believe that this reading tells us that it is God who calls his people back to him and that we as his messengers here on earth are simply sent to open doors for all those that God is calling into his Kingdom. As messengers I believe that we have a special role to fulfil. For as we hear in the gospel of John, before he completed his mission and returned to heaven, Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment : to love one another as he has loved them; so others will know they are His disciples. In our time, in this place, this is the commandment we are called to fulfil: to love one another as Jesus loved us; so others will know that we are His disciples. I also believe that our readings today are a call to see that God’s kingdom is one that begins here on earth and continues into eternity. An eternity that we hear about in the book of Revelation. For in this book, John describes a new heaven, a new earth and a new holy city of Jerusalem that will one day replace all that we know right now. For it is a place in which God will live alongside humanity forever, in a place in which God will make everything new by erasing sorrow, death, crying and mourning. This is a gift that God wants all of his creation to have because God loves us so much. It is a gift we do not deserve and it is a gift we can do nothing to earn. I believe that this generous and gracious gift of love that God has for his creation is something that the psalmist understood because in Psalm 148 the whole of creation is called to praise God. Let us Pray: Almighty and eternal God, whose son Jesus is the way, the truth and the life; the one who has opened the gate of everlasting life by overcoming death. Put into our minds the desire to do good, and the grace to fulfil it, so we can follow Jesus by rejoicing in his truth and sharing in his risen life. Amen Thanks for joining us today.
