10/9/23
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Services this week
Sun 10 Sep
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
4pm - St Margaret's Evening Prayer
Thurs 14 Sep
10.30am - Ven Bede Holy Communion
Dates for your diary
Sun 24 Sep
1pm - celebration of Lay Ministry at Newcastle Cathedral
Sun 1 Oct
11am - Harvest celebration
and change of hub service location to Venerable Bede.
News
Buy Something Wonderful! Art club auction
The art club are holding an auction on 21st September to raise funds for the Something Wonderful project!
The Tyneside Irish Centre have very kindly given us a venue - 43 Gallowgate, NE1 4SG.
Doors open at 4pm with the auction starting from 5pm.
We have over 120 paintings for sale created by people that are attending Something Wonderful project.
You can currently view the paintings during the week at St James Benwell.
Come along to support the creativity that is evolving in the heart of the West End of Newcastle.
Lay Ministry celebration service
We are so proud of the 6 members of our community who have been training for the last year to become Authorised Lay Ministers in worship and pastoral care.
We'll be celebrating with them 1pm at the cathedral on 24th September - come and join us!
Harvest festival
We will be holding our annual Harvest festival at 11am on Sunday 1st October at the Venerable Bede.
We will have a bring and share supper after. So please bring a dish!
Please also bring donations of non-perishable food items and toiletries. These will be given to the foodbank. You will also be able to give financially if you prefer.
This will also be our first hub service back at the Ven Bede, the hub service will continue there at 11am on Sundays for the rest of the winter.
(Please note this will be a team service so there will be no other services in the team that day. This is a change to the original date to enable us all to attend the celebration of lay ministry on 24th September)
Benstock 2023!
Here are some images we have shared to social media of the awesome night that was Benstock 2023
A huge thank you to everyone who has made Benstock happen! With special mention to Echo Garratt. It has been an amazing event that has brought people together, celebrated music and community, and raised money for the Something Wonderful project.
Sunday Worship
Sunday 10th September 2023
14th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 18
Green
Sermon
Revd Chris
You must have had that feeling when someone has annoyed you so much, but you only think of a good reply several hours later. The things we wish we could have said, the perfectly worded cutting remark, and their shocked response. Rarely does this happen in the moment.
Some friends were making fun of me because the other day I had used an app to get a taxi, and along the way the driver said some rather offensive things about other religions. I tried to challenge him, but it descended into a silly argument and I just couldn’t think of any of the right things to say in the moment. So I gave what I thought was a really harsh response. I gave him a 3 star rating on the app. My friends of course laughed at me as apparently this was a very British response, and apparently knocking 2 stars off isn’t harsh at all.
Ultimately, I do think it was important to challenge that man’s prejudices, but did I do it in a way that helped him to learn and grow, or even allowed me to grow? I don’t know.
Today I want to talk about what we do when things go wrong. But I want you to think of this as a two-part sermon. The reading today describes how we should handle conflict in the church. Next week the reading is about how we forgive and grow from there.
I find today’s reading oddly encouraging, as that it shows that things have always been imperfect from the very beginning and practical solutions have always been needed. Jesus may be perfect, but his disciples aren’t.
It shows the inevitability of mistakes, it is inevitable that every single one of us will be distracted by our desires and act selfishly at some point, and that shows in the church that we are. The church, both as the worldwide institution and our local community, will not get every decision right. By becoming part of this community we are not committing to a blameless existence, but we are committing to being people who choose to be together despite our differences and imperfections. We are committing to being people who learn together and grow together.
The way we commit ourselves to this community is ultimately through baptism, whether you are baptised as a baby or as an adult, we have an ongoing commitment to those baptismal promises, to be a people who die to our old selves and rise into new life with Jesus Christ. Through baptism we accept that God welcomes us and transforms us, and calls us into new life, again and again.
In baptism we go through a physical act, a ritual that physically shows something that we know to be spiritually true. Similarly, in the rest of our lives, we must make real what we believe to be true. If we believe God wants goodness for his world and for us to be the best that we can – how do we make that belief a reality?
Today’s Gospel reminds us that in our all too real, and all too messy relationships, God is there. “For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.” Very often we end up quoting this, usually it is when only two or three people have turned up for a service. But rarely do we mention the first part of the passage, which describes the difficult practicalities of being a community.
It tells us the Church is a place where we should tackle things, and tackle them properly, because the grace of God is not just there ‘despite’ the imperfections, but grace is made known in the weaknesses and difficulties when any two or three people get together. When we tackle those things, the aim is not to win the argument. And it is never ever about making someone else feel small. It is about being a community that helps each other to be the best that we can, that helps each other to become bigger and better people together, and ultimately knows we can only do it with God’s help.
I don’t necessarily think we have to follow the exact methods of the passage which suggest ‘having it out’ in front of the whole community. But what I do want to see is a community where we feel safe to say when something seems wrong or when we are hurt. We should argue with each other, we should express anger and hurt, and name injustice. We are a community that are meant to disagree, but through it show love, patience, forgiveness, and allow for God’s transforming grace.
If you feel something is wrong then say it. But I want you to say it with love, I want you to say it with openness to finding a solution. You should talk openly to each other, to us, but when you raise an issue, ask yourself: am I doing this to win an argument, to hurt someone else because I am hurting, or am I doing this to give us all the chance to grow?
This is not a place where we make demands and ultimatums when things are not to our taste, this is not a place where we try to control others. Like the passage suggests, there are times when we have to say ‘no, not here’, when we draw a boundary against injustice and kick out certain behaviours. But the time for that is when there is abuse, when there is maliciousness, or unfounded hatred and prejudice. Anyone is welcome here, but your hate is not. If we exclude, it should never ever be for the sake of our own power, but to protect others. It must always be done with love, and done well. The time to exclude is not if we don’t like things done in a new way, if we don’t like a style of hymn, or the way somebody looks or acts.
It would worry me if a church or community tried to hide the imperfections and silence those things which are difficult to hear. It worries me when a church or community does not have the humility to learn or grow, because that suggests the place is lacking in grace. Can Jesus truly be there if our imperfections are not revealed in his light? Can Jesus truly be there if we gather in his name and yet do not allow ourselves transformed by his grace?
When you are challenged, I want you to respond with a listening ear, with humility, and with love also. This is a place where we should be able to bare our imperfections for all to see and help one another with them. I want us to promise to be an imperfect community where we can get things wrong. But I want us to promise to be to be a community that deals with those wrongs, that loves unconditionally, that helps each other learn and grow. We should disagree with one another, but always remember we are united by something much bigger. For Jesus says: “where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.”
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Esther Kolie
Maria Hawthorn
George Snowdon
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis Nelson
Pauline Nelson
Michell Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan Taylor
Maureen Tayor
Irene Foskett
Lorraine Atkinson
Diana Humphrey
Rest in peace
George Grant
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.
Collect
Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
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.
or
Merciful God,
your Son came to save us
and bore our sins on the cross:
may we trust in your mercy
and know your love,
rejoicing in the righteousness
that is ours through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Readings
Related:
Ezekiel 33.7–11
7 So you, mortal, I have made a sentinel for the house of Israel; whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall give them warning from me. 8If I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked ones, you shall surely die’, and you do not speak to warn the wicked to turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but their blood I will require at your hand. 9But if you warn the wicked to turn from their ways, and they do not turn from their ways, the wicked shall die in their iniquity, but you will have saved your life. God’s Justice and Mercy
10 Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: ‘Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?’ 11Say to them, As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?
This is the word of the Lord. All: Thanks be to God.
Gospel Reading
Hear the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to Matthew. All: Glory to you, O Lord.
Matthew 18.15–20
15 ‘If another member of the church sins against you, go and point out the fault when the two of you are alone. If the member listens to you, you have regained that one.* 16But if you are not listened to, take one or two others along with you, so that every word may be confirmed by the evidence of two or three witnesses. 17If the member refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if the offender refuses to listen even to the church, let such a one be to you as a Gentile and a tax-collector. 18Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. 19Again, truly I tell you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20For where two or three are gathered in my name, I am there among them.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Post Communion
Lord God, the source of truth and love,
keep us faithful to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship,
united in prayer and the breaking of bread,
and one in joy and simplicity of heart,
in Jesus Christ our Lord.