Matthew 5:17-20 led to a sermon about Jesus' words from the sermon on the mount about fulfillment of the law.
The Old Testament is a bit like an embarrassing relative; we hope it won't say anything too inappropriate. In practice most Christians see some of the "moral" laws (e.g. ten commandments) as still applicable, some such as animal sacrifice as no longer necessary as Jesus has fulfilled them. What about dietary and other "holiness" laws? Our preacher suggested they were designed to teach about cleanliness v uncleanliness, but are no longer needed since Jesus shifted the emphasis to internal purity.
There was no mention of the Council of Jerusalem when it was decided that gentile converts should continue to observe the prohibitions on eating blood or meat containing blood. I think most Christians (including me!) negotiate this away by saying it was a "temporary compromise" designed to bring harmony between Jewish and gentile believers.
The Rich Young Ruler was asking the wrong question: we don't do anything to deserve eternal life - it's all down to what Jesus did.
The two areas that we most have to watch ourselves are sexual morality and use of wealth. We should follow John Wesley's advice -earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
Humility. The Christian walk is not just a ticket to heaven but is about living our lives as best we can in the power of the Holy Spirit. God alone has power and authority and we need to put God where he deserves to be. It is not about beating ourselves up or thinking of ourselves as constant failures, it is about thinking of ourselves less - less of me, more of God.
John 11--God sometimes does (and fails to do) things that leave us confused, angry, and frustrated with him, and that's a normal part of the Christian life. But even in the midst of that upset we still have Jesus--and his character is enough for us to trust him, even when we don't understand him.
We watched the livestream from our previous church, where the sermon was about how we should consider the cross, which gives us life for the world to come. The only reason Jesus came was to die for our sin in our place.
We had a simple retelling of Jesus' Passion from Matthew, as few of our people are likely to make it to Good Friday services--and frankly, we don't feel up to commenting on the crucifixion. So we just retell it.
The Passion is pretty much standard practice in most CofE churches on Palm Sunday. Usually from the gospel of that year’s lectionary, so this year it’s Matthew, next year it will be Mark. On Good Friday, traditionally the Passion is from John’s gospel
Jesus was the Ultimate Servant: he was able to serve God fully because he understood Who his Master was, what his Mission was, and what his Method was.
If we want to serve we have to know the same: know our Master, Mission and Method
On a slightly tangential note, anyone attending the daily Mass at Our Place during Holy Week will have listened to eight sermons by tomorrow lunchtime...and that doesn't include the two short homilies introducing the OT and NT readings at each of the Sunday Masses (FatherInCharge does this every week_.
A bit too much IMHO - I think that, at least on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, the words of the liturgy and the words of Scripture should speak for themselves...
East Sunday.
The resurrection was a powerful event - earthquakes etc.
Today often power = weapons of destruction. But not always. Like the power of the Artemis rocket to the moon, the power of the resurrection gives us hope.
Hmm. I found this totally misleading and inadequate.
(It was a baptismal service today - seven baptisms: a lot of visitors.)
The Bible tells God's story - and this story is also Jesus's story.
If we go to the Scriptures they will lead us to Jesus and into Life
A church is where we gather because of the resurrection.
Come and Join us if you are a Christian who believes in the Resurrection
Jesus has won the victory over death, but bad things still happen. This was the case in the time of Jesus - everything had changed, but nothing had changed. We take God's love into the world's situations, knowing that Jesus bears the open wounds of trauma and can understand our pain.
For the original witnesses to the resurrection, life couldn’t go back to what it had been, nor can it for us. We are called to move forward into resurrection and new life.
Our first experience of Breakfast Church at our new place, where the theme is Genesis and the story was Noah's Ark. God wanted to restore things as they had been in Eden by wiping out most of the creatures on earth. It didn't work. That's why we need Jesus.
After the resurrection Jesus sits down with his team and gives a Team Talk to encourage them.
He provides reassurance - all of us have been picked for his team
Grounding in the Scripture
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit
We are on his Team and equipped to meet the challenge of being his witnesses.
As is the C of E custom, our incumbent was taking a break on Low Sunday and preaching / presiding at communion fell to one of our retired clergy who has permission to officiate. For some reason he chose to preach on Psalm 100. I found it to be rather rambling with no clear direction or conclusion. Certainly not one of his better sermons.
Comments
What is our calling from God? We are all called to go and share God's love wherever we are and are not alone: Jesus sent out his disciples in pairs.
The Old Testament is a bit like an embarrassing relative; we hope it won't say anything too inappropriate. In practice most Christians see some of the "moral" laws (e.g. ten commandments) as still applicable, some such as animal sacrifice as no longer necessary as Jesus has fulfilled them. What about dietary and other "holiness" laws? Our preacher suggested they were designed to teach about cleanliness v uncleanliness, but are no longer needed since Jesus shifted the emphasis to internal purity.
There was no mention of the Council of Jerusalem when it was decided that gentile converts should continue to observe the prohibitions on eating blood or meat containing blood. I think most Christians (including me!) negotiate this away by saying it was a "temporary compromise" designed to bring harmony between Jewish and gentile believers.
The Rich Young Ruler was asking the wrong question: we don't do anything to deserve eternal life - it's all down to what Jesus did.
The two areas that we most have to watch ourselves are sexual morality and use of wealth. We should follow John Wesley's advice -earn all you can, save all you can, give all you can.
Humility. The Christian walk is not just a ticket to heaven but is about living our lives as best we can in the power of the Holy Spirit. God alone has power and authority and we need to put God where he deserves to be. It is not about beating ourselves up or thinking of ourselves as constant failures, it is about thinking of ourselves less - less of me, more of God.
Jesus was the Ultimate Servant: he was able to serve God fully because he understood Who his Master was, what his Mission was, and what his Method was.
If we want to serve we have to know the same: know our Master, Mission and Method
Jesus rejected violence. We should do the same.
Jesus was keen on forgiveness. We should be too.
A bit too much IMHO - I think that, at least on Palm Sunday and Good Friday, the words of the liturgy and the words of Scripture should speak for themselves...
The resurrection was a powerful event - earthquakes etc.
Today often power = weapons of destruction. But not always. Like the power of the Artemis rocket to the moon, the power of the resurrection gives us hope.
Hmm. I found this totally misleading and inadequate.
(It was a baptismal service today - seven baptisms: a lot of visitors.)
The Bible tells God's story - and this story is also Jesus's story.
If we go to the Scriptures they will lead us to Jesus and into Life
A church is where we gather because of the resurrection.
Come and Join us if you are a Christian who believes in the Resurrection
You are my Witnesses.
After the resurrection Jesus sits down with his team and gives a Team Talk to encourage them.
He provides reassurance - all of us have been picked for his team
Grounding in the Scripture
Enlightenment from the Holy Spirit
We are on his Team and equipped to meet the challenge of being his witnesses.