16/1/22
News from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Clara Peeters, Still Life with Flowers, a Silver-gilt Goblet, Dried Fruit, Sweetmeats, Bread sticks, Wine and a Pewter Pitcher, 1611,
Oil on panel, Museo del Prado, Madrid
Dates for your diary
Sun 23 Jan - services in all churches
9.30am St James
10am St Margaret's
11am St John's
11am Venerable Bede
Sun 30 Jan - Candlemas
11 am - Celebration service at Venerable Bede for baptism families
Sun 20 Feb - services in all churches
Times TBC
Sun 27 Feb - 'Carnival' experimental service
11 am - Venerable Bede
Wed 2 Mar - Ash Wednesday
Services TBC
News
Candlemas - Christening celebration
Sun 30 Jan, 11am
At Venerable Bede Church West Road, NE4 8AP
Were you, your children, or another loved one, baptised (christened) at one of our churches*? Or have you acted as godparent for someone?
We are holding a service of celebration for all who have been baptised in Benwell & Scotswood Team Parish and you are invited!
Sunday service - change of time to 11am
From Sunday 23rd the time of our 'hub' service at the Venerable Bede will begin half an hour later at 11am.
We hope this will make it easier to hold worship in all our churches on Sundays and reach more people in our community.
This will last until Easter when we will review whether the new timings have been successful.
Worship Texts
The Collect
Almighty God,
in Christ you make all things new:
transform the poverty of our nature by the riches of your grace,
and in the renewal of our lives
make known your heavenly glory;
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.
Reading
1 Corinthians 12.1–11 Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says ‘Let Jesus be cursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
Gospel
John 2.1–11 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine gave out, the mother of Jesus said to him, ‘They have no wine.’ And Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, what concern is that to you and to me? My hour has not yet come.’ His mother said to the servants, ‘Do whatever he tells you.’ Now standing there were six stone water-jars for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons. Jesus said to them, ‘Fill the jars with water.’ And they filled them up to the brim. He said to them, ‘Now draw some out, and take it to the chief steward.’ So they took it. When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom and said to him, ‘Everyone serves the good wine first, and then the inferior wine after the guests have become drunk. But you have kept the good wine until now.’ Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
Sermon
Revd David
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen
Epiphany. The church season that follows Christmas and where we are today. It’s not a very common word but you may have heard it outside church as in someone having an ‘epiphany moment’. A moment of awakening or revelation. It comes from the Greek words, epi = on, upon and phaine= to shine. The meaning is something like shining upon or shining out. So Epiphany is the shiny season. But phaine can also mean not just any light but a light shining from heaven, a divine light, so not just an ordinary shining but God’s shining out and another word we use for that is Gods’ glory. Epiphany is the season of the shining out of God’s Glory. We heard first about the light that shone as the Magi came following the star then how the Glorious Trinity, God as Father Son and Holy Spirit was revealed in the Baptism of Jesus, and today we heard how
Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory.
On the face of it might seem a strange way for that glory to shine out. Many of Jesus’ miracle are responses to urgent need, people come to him in desperate straits ‘my daughter has just died’, ‘my son has a devil’ the lepers who plead ‘sir if you will you can make us clean’ the madman who sits by the graves cutting himself with stones and no one can chain him all these appeal to Jesus from the depth of their need and he heals them. Would it not be better if one of these wonderful healings had been the first sign of glory?
But no, today, what do we read? What is the pressing need? -The wine gave out. They’ve run out of booze. It’s been a great wedding party, everyone’s been enjoying themselves, but no one noticed the stocks getting lower and lower, now it’s all gone. Well surely that’s a sign, a sign they should be packing up and heading home.
So when Mary says ‘They have no wine’ we can quite understand Jesus’ reply ‘what is that to you and me?’
- so what if the host has been too mean or the guests too greedy, so what, what on earth has that to do with God’s glory?
But, Jesus knows what he is to do. Mary says ‘do whatever he tells you’ and when they draw off from the pots of water it is no longer water but wine. About an extra 120 gallons or so, and not your bargain Asda bottles either, you have kept the good wine until now.
That should certainly keep the party going!
But why? what are we to make of it? It’s an unnecessary and over the top miracle. But maybe that is the point. Glory is not about necessity but about abundance about going above and beyond, about extravagance. Going beyond, going over the top fits with what the gospel is all about, yes God meets human need but he does it beyond anything we can imagine or deserve
“Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him
God’s goodness, mercy and love overflow there is a super abundance and the gallons and gallons of new wine are a sign of the glory of that overflowing over abundant love.
Remember the story of the woman who came with the expensive ointment and poured it over Jesus’ feet. Judas: said it was a waste, it should have been sold and the money given to the poor, but Jesus welcomed her act as a sign born out of a generous love.
Gospel means good news it is about joy it is life-affirming it promises abundant life ‘I am come that you might have life and have it in all its fullness’
Sadly Christianity has not always succeeded in communicating this, if our faith is sometimes unfairly portrayed as anti-life, a ‘kill joy’ religion, perhaps it is because Christians have sounded more like Judas, forgetting how that joy, celebration and abundance are the fountainhead of our belief. The first of the signs is there for a reason.
But before we end lets recall that this first sign is also a miracle of transformation water must become wine it must be changed.
Jesus says elsewhere no one puts new wine into old skins else they will burst; new wine needs new skins. The old ways are not enough, our faith is life affirming, but it is also life transforming. What passes for joy in the world’s eyes can be hollow –‘eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.
New wine new skins. Jesus brings the possibility and promise of transformation but the passage to a life of what the hymn writer call ‘solid joys and lasting treasures’ is harder for the world to receive. It is not difficult to gain followers if all you do is turn water to wine you will soon be most popular person in the pub but it will not always be like that for Jesus. Again he says elsewhere ‘As long as they have bridegroom with them they will rejoice’, referring to himself ‘but the time will come when he will be taken away’. In the reading we heard there is more than a hint of foreboding as he tells Mary ‘my hour has not yet come.’ His hour when it comes will not just be one of glory but of suffering. Lifted from the world in His cross and passion. Wine will continue be a sign of Gods glorious, generous never ending love. but the first of the signs is linked inextricably with what is, if you like, the last of the signs when Jesus on the night before his Passion sits down with his disciples and tells them ‘I will not drink wine with you again until I drink it anew in the kingdom of God’ ; and then, in the action we imitate and repeat today, takes bread and wine, offers them and shares them, ‘This is my body,… this is my blood.’
God’s Glory shines out in this sign of abundant love and life, it is life affirming but also at the deepest level life changing.
Jesus did this, the first of his signs, in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him. In this our Eucharist as Christ’s undying love is poured out anew may we too find ourselves transformed as we receive that blessing. Amen.
Intercessions
To add names to the prayer list please email church@benwellscotswood.com
Prayers for others:
Dominic, Frances, James, and the new baby
Donna Krol
George Irving
Alistair
Esther Kolie
John Nicholson
Alan Robson
Peter Wilson
Esmaeel
Liz Holliman
Joan Finley
James, Christina, Anastasia, and Xavier
Ali Zareie and his family
The Riches Family
Jill Sorley
Joyce Phillips
George Snowden
Claire Mozaffari
Herbert Agbeko
Edward Fraser
All those who are struggling at home or in hospital with Covid-19
Rest in Peace
Karen Petrie
Other intentions
Those preparing for baptism
Post Communion prayer
God of glory,
you nourish us with your Word
who is the bread of life:
fill us with your Holy Spirit
that through us the light of your glory
may shine in all the world.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.