9/7/23
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
Jump to:
Dates for your diary
Wed 12 July
PCC - 7pm at Ven Bede
Sun 23 July
4pm - St Margaret's Patronal festival
Tues 25 July
Trip to Holy Island with Newburn parish
Sun 30 July
11am - St James Patronal festival, team service
14-18 August
Holiday club at St Margaret's
26 August
'Benstock' Festival/concert at St James
Services this week
Sun 9 July
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
4pm - St Margaret's Evening Worship
Thurs 13 July
10.30am - Ven Bede Holy Communion
News
Exhibition of Something Wonderful - 13 July
You are invited to an exhibition of the Something Wonderful Art Club consisting of mini solo exhibitions of over 20 members, each will be sharing their artwork and stories.
The opening night will be in St James' church hall in Benwell (NE15 6RS) on Thursday the 13th July between 4pm and 8pm.
The exhibition will continue until the 14th September and end with a Fundraising Auction where all displayed artworks will be on sale.
Holiday club - 14-18 August
This August you are invited to our freeholiday club at St Margaret's! Aimed at primary school children there will be crafts, games, activities, awesome stories from the Bible and more. A healthy lunch will also be provided every day with a family BBQ on Friday at 1pm.
St Margaret's Patronal festival - 23 July, 4pm
Celebrate St Margaret of Antioch's day with us at St Margaret Scotswood on 23rd July!
At 4pm at NE15 6AR.
Trip to Holy Island with Newburn Parish - Tues 25 July
Join us for a day trip to one of the most beautiful places in the UK! Lindisfarne or 'Holy Island' is a tidal island and pilgrimage destination off the coast of Northumberland, once home to the great Northern Saints of Aidan, Cuthbert, and others. We will be travelling with members of Newburn Parish with Revd Allison Harding.
There are free tickets available for asylum seekers and children. Otherwise we are asking for a donation of £10 for the coach, but please do let us know if you are on a low income as we do not want to prohibit anyone going. There are limited spaces so priority will be given to those who have not had the chance to visit the area before!
Please email church@benwellscotswood.com with your name(s) if you would like to come or speak to Revd Chris or David if you have any questions.
The coach will leave from St James early in the morning (exact time TBC). The stunning island can be reached twice a day, and those who are able are invited to walk the traditional pilgrims' way across the sands. Others may travel on the coach!
St James Patronal festival - Sun 30 July
We will have a team service on 30 July at St James, it will be St James' day and also Dominic's final service with us!
Come celebrate with us and say goodbye to Dominic at 11am.
(please note there will be no other services that day)
Benstock! Sat 26 Aug
There will be an open mic followed by a concert held on the 26th August at St James Church (not the football stadium), and we need volunteers to help run it. If you’re free that day and would like to help out, email Echo at garrattecho1@gmail.com, or talk to Echo and we can find a job that you’d find fun.
If you know any band that could play a set, email Echo, and if possible provide a video or recording of some of their stuff.
And if neither of those apply to you, keep an ear out in the notices over the next few weeks, as tickets will be on sale soon.
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.
Sunday Worship
Sunday 9th July 2023
5th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 9
Green
Sermon
Revd Chris
“My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
I have to admit it doesn’t always feel like it. Following Christianity seems to, quite often, bring pain and restriction. Sometimes it can feel tempting to cast the yoke aside and have a tantrum at God. Sometimes we are sick of the suffering that is beyond our control – surely if it was beyond our control then it is God’s fault? Sometimes we are sick of the social pressure of living up to our faith – do we have to be good all the time? We want to behave badly, say the vengeful thing that will cut deeply, or give ourselves over to the oblivion of substances and fun. Sometimes it is the tiredness of having to always justify ourselves – we have had to run so far to find a safe place and yet I am still not welcome? Sometimes it is the existential pressure of whether it is real at all – what if my children don’t come to church? What if I die and discover we’ve built a life around something that never existed?
The burden of being a Christian leads us time and time again into awkward, tiresome, uncomfortable moments.
But, how much of the burden do we pile on ourselves? How much of it is because we make demands of ourselves and our fellow believers, to look and act how we expect? How often we make life difficult for ourselves by demanding things remain the way we are used to, by refusing to try new things, by avoiding working with new people, or by resenting those who have been there before. How often do we assume our way is the right way?
In our Gospel this is what Jesus is criticising. Once again he flips the criticisms of opponents on their head. He says they’re like little children ‘sitting in the market-places and calling to one another, “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.”’ The people are saying “I expected you to do this, and you didn’t”. It’s your fault you aren’t what I expected.
Jesus is saying the problem isn’t that I don’t live up to your expectations, the problem is what you were expecting was wrong in the first place.
Again and again, Jesus reminds us to look beyond the complexities we create for ourselves to delve beneath the surface, to look at what truly drives us and guides us. Again and again, he reminds us that his way is simple, and should always be so, if we believe God cares for us and wants to know us, then why would it be difficult? Why would he send his Son to us then make us jump through hoops, responding to the impossible whims and expectations of others? Jesus tells us there are only two commandments on which everything else hangs – to love God and to love neighbour. Jesus urges us to go forward with simplicity - “My yoke is easy, and my burden is light” because it really is not difficult. Be kind to yourself and others, accept that you are loved by God, and love God in return.
The Christian way is simple: love God and love neighbour- easy! However, of course, if we carry a lighter burden, that also means we are better able to walk the harder paths. We are called to walk the difficult way, through the dark places of grief and suffering, the way to the cross.
Yes the burden Jesus puts on us is easy, but the Christian way is the hardest way. We walk the way united by our faith in Jesus, with all sorts of different experiences, abilities and opinions. We walk with others who are joining the path at different points, who are just starting out and do not know the way, with those who have grown arrogant and self-congratulatory in their knowledge. We encounter all sorts on the path, yet we have the same yoke – to love God and neighbour.
What that love looks like is different with every person and every twist and turn of the path. There is no map, there are no rules. We are called to apply the simple command, to love, in the most complex and difficult of situations. The simplicity of Christian love, the easiest of burdens, takes us to the darkest and most difficult places.
What love looks like, by its very nature, is different every time and with every person. We are called to offer love, not easy answers, to love one another even if we disagree, to love equally the one who is difficult to be around, to offer kindness to others whether we think they deserve it or not, to offer welcome without prejudice to those who are different to us. To forgive those who hurt us, to reconcile with those different to us. And there is no list of easy instructions for how to do this. How we love others is different every time and in every situation. We have the easy burden, but we have a burden nonetheless, we have our own responsibility to work out what love is like time and time again.
Sometimes we wonder if we can ever navigate the impossibilities of love and have the stamina to continue along this path. But we can, because, whatever our weaknesses, we also go with Jesus’ promise: “I will give you rest”. You have no map, but the greatest of guides, God himself. Jesus takes you to the places of rest along the way. Because sometimes, the journey really is too much. Jesus offers us forgiveness for when we have got it wrong, reconciliation when we are separated, he gives us places to put our baggage down for him to carry. He gives us encouragement to carry on, water and food of teaching and community, and the confidence that he has already walked the way to the cross, and shown it ends in resurrection.
Rest now, but once we are finished here, continue on your way, albeit with the lightest of burdens.
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:
Maria Hawthorn
George Snowdon
Ellis Nelson
Pauline Nelson
Michelle Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan Taylor
Maureen Taylor
John Taylor
Kathleen Germain
Irene Foskett
Herbert Agbeko
Lorraine Atkinson
Rest in peace
May Taylor
Texts
Collect
Almighty and everlasting God,
by whose Spirit the whole body of the Church is governed and sanctified:
hear our prayer which we offer for all your faithful people,
that in their vocation and ministry
they may serve you in holiness and truth
to the glory of your name;
through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
or
Almighty God,
send down upon your Church
the riches of your Spirit,
and kindle in all who minister the gospel
your countless gifts of grace;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Reading
Romans 7.15–25a
15I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. 17But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. 19For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. 21 So I find it to be a law that when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with my mind I am a slave to the law of God, but with my flesh I am a slave to the law of sin.
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 11.16-19, 25-end 16 ‘But to what will I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the market-places and calling to one another, 17 “We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we wailed, and you did not mourn.” 18For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, “He has a demon”; 19the Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, “Look, a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners!” Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.’* Jesus Thanks His Father 25 At that time Jesus said, ‘I thank* you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; 26yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.* 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him. 28 ‘Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Post Communion
Grant, O Lord, we beseech you,
that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by your governance,
that your Church may joyfully serve you in all godly quietness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.