16/4/23
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Dates for your diary
Wed 26 April
9.15am Coffee, cake and craft, a group for all women at Ven Bede
10.30am monthly Holy Communion at Ven Bede
Sun 28 May
Pentecost Team service followed by the Annual Meeting (APCM).
Services this week
Sun 16 April
9.30am at St John's, Holy Communion.
9.45 at St Margaret's, Holy Communion.
11am at Ven Bede, Hub service (Parish eucharist).
News
Hub service moves to St James next Sunday
Don't forget that the 11am hub service will move to St James, NE15 6RS from 23rd April.
The service will continue there on Sundays throughout the summer months.
Inauguration of Bishop Helen-Ann
The Rt Revd Dr Helen-Ann Hartley, formerly Bishop of Ripon, will be installed as the new Bishop of Newcastle in at Newcastle Cathedral on Saturday 22 April.
Please keep her in your prayers as we prepare for this exciting new chapter in the diocese.
Spring Fayre at St John's
Sat 22 April, 12-3pm
Stalls include: Home baking, crafts, bric-a-brac, plants, and tombola. Soup, tea, and coffee will be available.
St John's Ferguson Lane, NE15 6NW.
Coffee cake and craft - a group for all women
Wed 26 April, 9.15am
On the 4th Wednesday of the month at the Venerable Bede Church, 9.15am-10.30am. Come and join us, spend time with other women, share a coffee and cake and try a Bible related craft. Upcoming dates:
Wednesday 26th April 9.15-10.30
Wednesday 24th May 9.15-10.30
Wednesday 28th June 9.15-10.30
For more info email benwellMU@gmail.com or speak with Leahan Garratt or one of the clergy.
Items for the notices
If you would like to announce something in the newsletter or the church service, please send the item in advance to Kath McIntyre at the church email address church@benwellscotswood.com
Please include details and no more than 2-3 short sentences about the item. If you have a preferred image please also include it in the email.
Please note, we don't want notices to become overly long and repetitive (or people will stop taking notice!) if it's not necessary we might not read out every notice or include it in the e-newsletter. Clergy and Churchwardens will sometimes use discretion about how and when to publish an item.
Worship texts
The Collect
Almighty Father,
you have given your only Son to die for our sins
and to rise again for our justification:
grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness
that we may always serve you
in pureness of living and truth;
through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Amen.
Reading
Acts 2.14a,22–32 14 But Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed them: ‘Men of Judea and all who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and listen to what I say. 22 ‘You that are Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— 23this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. 24But God raised him up, having freed him from death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. 25For David says concerning him, “I saw the Lord always before me, for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken; 26 therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced; moreover, my flesh will live in hope. 27 For you will not abandon my soul to Hades, or let your Holy One experience corruption. 28 You have made known to me the ways of life; you will make me full of gladness with your presence.” 29 ‘Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. 30Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. 31Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying, “He was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh experience corruption.” 32This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses.
Gospel
John 20.19–31 19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 20After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’ 22When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.’ 24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord.’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.’ 26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ 27Then he said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.’ 28Thomas answered him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ 29Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’ 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Sermon
Revd Chris Minchin
There is a lot I do not understand about the resurrection. In the ‘between’ time after Jesus rises again, and before he ascends into heaven, he is different. He appears and disappears, in locked rooms. Sometimes his closest friends do not recognise him - Mary Magdalene mistakes him for a gardener when she visits his tomb. The two disciples on the road to Emmaus talk with him for hours about scripture and only see who he is at the end of their long journey. Evidently there is something different about how he looks or talks, and the way he interacts with the world is different to before.
The promise of Christianity is that Christ is the first fruit of the resurrection, the one who leads us all into new life. We are told that our bodies and souls will be resurrected, transformed into something more and something better. This leads to all sorts of questions about how we treat our bodies - some question whether we should be cremated when we die, as surely we will need our bodies again. Some would argue that our earthly bodies are worthless shells anyway as everything will be totally changed. Others wonder how much stays the same- are our teeth straightened and bodies made slim? do we still retain disabilities? Our bodies are part of our identities and we must be very careful to not let our prejudices creep in - by saying that everything will be improved, whose bodies are we saying aren't good enough now and why?
In the gospel Thomas, ‘doubting Thomas’, Jesus chooses a particular bodily way to reveal himself. Through asking him to put his finger in his wounds - the wounds of the crucifixion are still there, and this is how Jesus identifies himself. There is so much I don't understand about this. Are his wounds now there forever? Do they still cause him pain? Will they heal? I do not know, but there they are, still part of his resurrected body, not erased or forgotten.
*
Paul talks about how when we are resurrected, we are different, like the difference between a seed and the plant. Buried in the ground, but springing forth into glorious life. Just as spring follows winter, life follows death. The same thing but utterly transformed, totally unrecognisable, yet the same, the little seed forgotten in the ground is the source of all that springs forth in green abundant life.
Just as Christ retained everything that made him God when he was born as a human, maybe he retains everything that made him human when he returns to God. His pain and frailty are not forgotten but are now made part of his identity as God. The trauma of the cross is not wiped away, but transformed into glory, forever part of what makes him a loving compassionate God.
And maybe this is what happens to us, the pain of the world is transformed into glory, as we enter into new life what has made us human is not forgotten as if it never mattered but transformed.
All of us carry around pain and trauma, physical, emotional and spiritual, the wounds of hurt done to us and, most painful of all, the shame of things we have done to ourselves and others. These things cannot be erased, and nor should they. Christ leads us into new life, and Christ’s wounds are part of his resurrected body. The wounds are no longer the source of weakness, but the expression of power. What was a sign of defeat and shame has become the sign of victory and unending compassion. We too then must trust that God can redeem everything, not make it so our wounds and experiences never mattered, but let them become a source of compassion instead of shame, a source of strength instead of weakness.
This is the power of God, what was seen as weakness by others, becomes a superpower. Whether that is your disabilities, your different way of being, or what you have experienced, don't remain a victim but use your experience to see where other may be hurting, use your experience of being overlooked to recognise the hidden beauty in others. Let your full self be transformed and born again into new life.
Intercessions
If you would like to add someone to the prayer list please email church@benwellscotswood.com
The name will stay on the list for 1 month unless requested to be long-term.
Prayers for others:
Michelle Madison
Lorraine Atkinson
Lyndsey Richardson
Christine, David, Philip, Neil and Steven
Elizabeth Taylor
Honar
Moe and Mary
Alison Campbell
John Taylor
Irene Foskett
John Nicholson
Alan Robson
Michelle Wilson
Joan Finley
George Snowden
Claire Mozaffari
Herbert Agbeko
Post Communion prayer
Lord God our Father,
through our Saviour Jesus Christ
you have assured your children of eternal life
and in baptism have made us one with him:
deliver us from the death of sin
and raise us to new life in your love,
in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit,
by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.