25/8/24
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team.
Click below to read this week's information and latest news.
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Services this week
Sunday 25 August
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion 11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
4pm - St Margaret's evening worship
Tuesday
4.30pm bible study with Farsi translation
Thursday
10.30am Venerable Bede - Holy Communion
Dates for your diary
Sunday 31 August
12-3pm - St John's Summer Fayre
Thursday 19th September
7pm - PCC (with Archdeacon of Northumberland)
Sunday 29th September
11am Harvest festival at St Margaret's Scotswood, NE15 6AR (no other services this day)
News
St John's Summer Fayre
Saturday 31st August - 12-3pm
St John's Benwell Village, NE15 6NW
You are invited to St John's for their summer fayre! There will be stalls including cake, crafts, tombola, new and nearly new clothes, raffle, plants, bric-a-brac. Also homemade soup and a bun for £1. Dogs welcome!
Thank you from David and Elspeth
David and Elspeth would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped make last Sunday so special. We were both overwhelmed by the love and support from you all. The music group did a fantastic job, the flowers looked lovely, the food and the cake were great, and we had loads of positive comments from visitors and friends. Yvonne Greener sent us all out with an inspiring message adding to the prayers and good wishes of all attending. Thank you too for all the encouraging messages and cards, and of course for the gifts, which we look forward to putting up once we move as a reminder of the parish. Elspeth adds an extra thank you for the gifts of flowers which are brightening up the Vicarage as we embark on clearing and packing. It is not possible to say individual thanks for everyone or everything, but we felt the day really made a good ending to what has been a wonderful thirty-nine years of ministry the last eight in ‘probably the best parish in the Diocese’.
A great day out in Cullercoats!
Just over a week ago we took a group of kids to Cullercoats for a fantastic day out! Thank you so much to the Cullercoats Watch House, CBK Adventures, and Bills Fish and Chips for giving the kids such a memorable day out paddle boarding and exploring Cullercoats and its history.
We stand against racism in the west end
On Wednesday our clergy and others joined the 3000 strong anti-racism rally on the West Road to show that we value our diverse community, that refugees are welcome here, whereas hatred and prejudice are not. We are delighted that a peaceful protest showed the best side of our community.
No one should have to feel unsafe in their own community, and we will always do what we can to protect all in this area. We encourage you all to overwhelm any prejudice with kindness, and to continue living with love for your neighbour.
Thank you for supporting Benstock '24!
Embrace - Gaza appeal
The people of Gaza are living through an unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Israel’s response has led to indiscriminate civilian suffering, with residents forced to move from place to place in search of safety. Food and medical supplies have all but run out; water, electricity, and fuel have been cut off.
The people of Gaza were already on their knees with 80% of residents reliant on humanitarian aid to survive. Please, can you make a donation into help in their hour of need?
You can donate online, by clicking below, or by calling 01494 897950. Your gift will support Embrace’s Christian partners in the immediate aftermath of this humanitarian crisis and to help to heal the wounds it’s caused across Israel – Palestine.
Sunday Worship
Sunday 18 August 2024
Trinity 12
Green
Readings
Ephesians 6.10–20
10 Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his power. 11Put on the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For our struggle is not against enemies of blood and flesh, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. 13Therefore take up the whole armour of God, so that you may be able to withstand on that evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. 14Stand therefore, and fasten the belt of truth around your waist, and put on the breastplate of righteousness. 15As shoes for your feet put on whatever will make you ready to proclaim the gospel of peace. 16With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
18 Pray in the Spirit at all times in every prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert and always persevere in supplication for all the saints. 19Pray also for me, so that when I speak, a message may be given to me to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,20for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it boldly, as I must speak.
John 6.56–69
56Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. 57Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. 58This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live for ever.’ 59He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum.
60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, ‘This teaching is difficult; who can accept it?’ 61But Jesus, being aware that his disciples were complaining about it, said to them, ‘Does this offend you? 62Then what if you were to see the Son of Man ascending to where he was before? 63It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. 64But among you there are some who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the first who were the ones that did not believe, and who was the one that would betray him. 65And he said, ‘For this reason I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’
66 Because of this many of his disciples turned back and no longer went about with him. 67So Jesus asked the twelve, ‘Do you also wish to go away?’ 68Simon Peter answered him, ‘Lord, to whom can we go? You have the words of eternal life. 69We have come to believe and know that you are the Holy One of God.’
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
John Nicholson
Malcolm Smith
Paulette Thompson
John Peterson
Maria Hawthorn
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis & Pauline Nelson
Michelle Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan & Maureen Taylor
Irene Foskett
Pat Law
Moe and Mary
Hilary Dixon
Lynn Mosby
Irene Scaife
Baby Alice Rose, Jodie and family
Christina Wilson
Diane Humphrey
Rest in Peace
Lorraine Atkinson
Baptisms
Harrison Anderson
Other
Lydia and Sam in thanks for the birth of Thomas
David and Elspeth
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.
Sermon
Revd Chris
Take up the armour of God.
Sometimes the language of the Bible might sit uncomfortably with us. Personally, I do not find military metaphors all that helpful, for example I’m not a fan of the hymn ‘Onward Christian soldiers marching as to war’. I think Christians should work towards an end to war, and certainly not rejoice in symbols of violence. Yet Paul says we need to be prepared for attack, to get ready for battle, we need to kit ourselves out in the ‘armour of God’. We need to put on the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes to proclaim peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit.
*
Maybe this appeals to those of you who read, watch, or play fantasy. It reminds me of the ‘Chronicles of Narnia’, when Aslan grants the children different gifts, a sword and shield, a bow and arrow, a healing potion- something that each of them will need. There is something romantic about the idea of battle, armour, medieval knights, heroism and magical objects. The appeal, I think, is that through our imagination we could be characters who matter in a greater story, we may be more than what others have realised. We may have hidden power and ability.
*
Of course, romantic ideas of battle may mean something very different to those who have known the reality of war. Millions do not have a choice about war, they are surrounded and shaped by it, and the ability to protect oneself is everything. I can only guess that military symbols could either be terrifying, or images of hope and emancipation when persecution and death are all too close.
*
However, there is something different about this passage from Paul. He uses military images, but the pieces of the armour stand for decidedly unmilitary things. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, shoes to proclaim the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. We are armed for battle with truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, spirit.
*
If we think about it, armour is meant to be something that protect. It makes up for our deficiencies protects us when we are weak and vulnerable. The armour of God is meant to turn things on their head. We do not need to be strong and heroic, because God is strong for us. We do not need to make ourselves heroic when we know we cannot, but accept the love that God has shown us in Jesus Christ. In our weakness God will be strong, in our world of abuse God brings justice.
*
In the Gospel passage Jesus says to his followers ‘I have told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted by the Father.’ This is a promise, not a threat. This is not Jesus saying that you shall be cast out if you do not get everything right, but Jesus saying the battle has already been won. This is about inclusion not exclusion. And some of the disciples that turn away do so because they cannot imagine following a someone that would lead them towards weakness and death.
*
Standing up for truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, spirit may not seem like things that protect us, they may even make us vulnerable. But we live in our world where human nature can be competitive, destructive, but also human social, selfless and loving. Humans are capable of great evil and great good. This is the real battle, the battle that Jesus won for us. Through the cross Jesus has turned our greatest display of evil into the image of goodness, the meanness of humanity and turned it into God’s generosity, taken death and turned it into life.
*
Jesus shows us that God’s compassion is greater than the murderous passions of our world, that God’s glory can and does shine even in the darkest night of human savagery, that God’s forgiving love is greater than our paralysing awareness of sin, that God’s way of life is greater than our way of death. We are called to the greatest war, a battle to build up and not destroy, a battle to bring an end to violence, a battle to transform every heart, a battle that has already been won.
*
Amen.
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