23/7/23
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team
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Dates for your diary
Sun 23 July
4pm - St Margaret's Patronal festival
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 23 July
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service at St James (Parish Eucharist)
4pm - St Margaret's Patronal festival eucharist
Thurs 27 July
10.30am - Ven Bede Holy Communion
News
St Margaret's Patronal festival - this Sunday 23 July, 4pm
Celebrate St Margaret of Antioch's day with us at St Margaret's Church Scotswood on 23rd July! There will be refreshments after.
Join us at 4pm at NE15 6AR.
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)
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 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.
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.
Addison Court Sunday Fun day - 6 Aug
Addison Court are holding a fundraising event from 1.30pm on Sunday 6th August.
Haig Crescent, NE15 6AW
There will be stalls, face painting, raffle, crafts, hook-a-duck, refreshments and more!
There are also tables available for £5 if you would like to run your own stall. Please speak to Daniel if you are interested.
Fundraising questionnaire -
Several members of the congregation have been meeting to come up with fundraising ideas to raise funds for vital repairs and upkeep of the churches in our parish.
We are hoping to get some ideas of what kind of fund-raising events you would like to see happening across all 4 churches and weigh up which events would be most cost effective and how much people would be willing to pay at these events.
The questionnaires will be handed out in church, please return them to a member of clergy, churchwarden, or Kath McIntyre (administrator) who will treat all the information confidentially. Or you can download it and send it back to us at church@benwellscotswood.com
Junior church
We love kids to be fully part of our community and worship. To do this we want to make sure they are safe.
We will now ask all parents to complete a short form the first time they bring their children. This will include information about allergies etc. The helper at the children's table will have forms available, as will the wardens and welcomers at the back of church.
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 23rd July 2023
7th Sunday after Trinity
Proper 11
Green
Sermon
Revd David
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Amen
Anybody visiting my garden will know straight away that I am not really a gardener. My excuse is always I haven’t the time, but I suspect the real problem is my heart’s not in it. Yes, there are lots of weeds. So, reading this story today is a bit of a relief. The non gardeners parable. In answer to the perennial rest day question ‘Shouldn’t you go out today and do some weeding?’, In addition to the usual answer, ‘well I would do but it does look a lot like rain’ I have a new one ‘I don’t think that’s a good idea at all, weeding will only do damage, let the weeds and flowers come up together- Matthew 13 vv 29-30’ I can’t wait to try it.
Of course, these stories of Jesus, the parables, are not meant to be taken literally, often called parables of the Kingdom, they use everyday images and experiences. but when heard as Jesus intends them to be heard, they answer questions, not about farming or fishing or how to bake, but about how God is at work establishing his Kingdom in the world.
Or in this case perhaps they address a different question. Why does God so often appear to be uninvolved in the world? Where is the kingdom?
Evil seems unchecked, ‘the wicked are in great prosperity ‘says the writer of the psalms and it hasn’t changed much from his day. How can this be? Why doesn’t God sort it out?
What does the story say in answer to that? Wait. Be patient. God lets the good and the bad exist side by side, the wheat and the weeds, but the time will come when they will be separated. Why? Why not now? The story says it’s too soon, that pulling up the weeds now could harm the good seed, it can only come at the proper time.
I wonder what that means, somehow the mixed bag that is our life, with both good and bad intertwined is a part of God’s provision. Tearing out the bad now would only do more harm. The presence of the bad is somehow needful for the good to continue to grow and so become the best it can. Maybe you can think of an instance in your life when something that seemed bad or indeed was bad turned out to have another side to it.
St Paul, in the reading from the Romans, describes the pains of the whole of creation as somehow being the birth pangs of a new age. Clearly birth pangs are something many of us, including St Paul, can have only had indirect experience of, but the idea is clear, suffering can be necessary, for only through it can something new and wonderful come to be. The sufferings of this present age he says are not worthy to be compared with the glory to come.
Again, he calls for patience. Let’s be clear this is not the patience of the stoic philosopher who suffers because there is no choice and wishes to make the best of a bad job. This is a patience that firmly believes that, because of what Christ has done, all our experiences can be turned to good and something better is on the way.
For Paul this is ’’the freedom of the glory of the children of God.’ In the parable it is the time ‘when the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.’
So, the parable invites us to look to the future with longing and fervent hope. When we struggle, and things seem bleak to lift up our eyes to the promise. It won’t always be like this God is preparing good things for those who love Him.
But the story can also have a message for how we are to live with one another even now. Just as the Lord shows patience so should we. It warns us against the simplistic urge to sort everything out straight away. Unlike the Pharisees or the Qumran Community of his day Jesus makes no effort to separate himself from the world. He mixes with sinners and tax collectors. Doors are kept open, boundaries are fluid, and He calls all kinds of people. How do we know the wheat from the weeds? How do we judge? The ‘good’ can turn out to be bad, the ‘bad’ can turn out to be good. Saul before his conversion no doubt thought he was pulling up the weeds, it just happened to be the body of Christ.
Which is not to say evil can simply be ignored, or that we don’t have to struggle against it, my weeding excuse was never really going to work. St Paul in our reading even talked about ‘putting to death the deeds of the body’ and we know Jesus too could speak severely ‘if your hand offends you chop it off..if your eye offends pluck it out.’
There is certainly a place for the struggle against evil, in ourselves and in the world, but this story is a reminder that there is a place for serenity too.
Our urge to do good should be tempered with gentleness both in our dealings with others but with ourselves too. Paul’s conversion came from learning to trust in a righteousness not of his own making but that comes as a gift from God. The future we hope for is already at work wherever the gospel is proclaimed.
This traditional prayer asks for the balance we need
God give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot be changed, courage to change the things that should be changed, and the wisdom to distinguish the one from the other. Amen
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Maria Hawthorn
George Snowdon
Herbert Agbeko
Ellis Nelson
Pauline Nelson
Michell Wilson
Peter Wilson
Alan Taylor
Maureen Tayor
Kathleen Germain
Irene Foskett
Lorraine Atkinson
John Taylor
Diane Curran
Hilary Dixon
George Grant
Rest in peace
Angie Newman
May Taylor
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
Lord of all power and might,
the author and giver of all good things:
graft in our hearts the love of your name,
increase in us true religion,
nourish us with all goodness,
and of your great mercy keep us in the same;
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
Generous God,
you give us gifts and make them grow:
though our faith is small as mustard seed,
make it grow to your glory
and the flourishing of your kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Readings
Romans 8.12–25
Romans 8.12-25 12 So then, brothers and sisters,* we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— 13for if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry, ‘Abba!* Father!’ 16it is that very Spirit bearing witness* with our spirit that we are children of God, 17and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ—if, in fact, we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him. Future Glory 18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in* hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes* for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
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 13.24–30, 36–43
The Parable of Weeds among the Wheat 24 He put before them another parable: ‘The kingdom of heaven may be compared to someone who sowed good seed in his field; 25but while everybody was asleep, an enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and then went away. 26So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared as well. 27And the slaves of the householder came and said to him, “Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? Where, then, did these weeds come from?” 28He answered, “An enemy has done this.” The slaves said to him, “Then do you want us to go and gather them?” 29But he replied, “No; for in gathering the weeds you would uproot the wheat along with them. 30Let both of them grow together until the harvest; and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Collect the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.” ’ Jesus Explains the Parable of the Weeds 36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples approached him, saying, ‘Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.’ 37He answered, ‘The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man; 38the field is the world, and the good seed are the children of the kingdom; the weeds are the children of the evil one, 39and the enemy who sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. 40Just as the weeds are collected and burned up with fire, so will it be at the end of the age. 41The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will collect out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all evildoers, 42and they will throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. 43Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Let anyone with ears* listen!
This is the Gospel of the Lord. All: Praise to you, O Christ.
Post Communion
Lord God, whose Son is the true vine and the source of life,
ever giving himself that the world may live:
may we so receive within ourselves the power of his death and passion
that, in his saving cup, we may share his glory and be made perfect in his love;
for he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.