Aldringham Church for Epiphany
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Services in The Alde Sandlings Benefice this Sunday
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Aldeburgh |
10.30am |
Benefice Holy Communion Commissioning of Elders |
Collect
O God, who by the leading of a star
manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth:
mercifully grant that we,
who know you now by faith,
may at last behold your glory face to face;
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.
First Reading
Isaiah 60.1-6
Arise, shine; for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you. For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you. Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. Lift up your eyes and look around; they all gather together, they come to you; your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses’ arms. Then you shall see and be radiant; your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you. A multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Ephah; all those from Sheba shall come. They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
Second Reading
Ephesians 3.1-12
This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given to me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ. In former generations this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: that is, the Gentiles have become fellow-heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power. Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that he has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.
Gospel Reading
Matthew 2.1-12
In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, asking, ‘Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.’ When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. They told him, ‘In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet: “And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.” ’Then Herod secretly called for the wise men and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, ‘Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.’ When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure-chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
Sermon preached by Bishop Sandy Millar
at Aldringham on Christmas Day, the second by The Very Rev’d Christopher Lewis at Aldeburgh on Christmas Day
First Sermon by Bishop Sandy Millar
Christmas Day; Gospel St John 1: 1-14
St John Chapter1…verse 12 …to all who received Him, to those who believe in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
I used to think that I understood St John’s gospel…that is until I came across St Augustine’s comment. “This gospel” he said “is an ocean in which an elephant can swim or a pool in which a child may paddle.” I have often studied it over the years and am still paddling happily!
I wonder if you have noticed that St John gives us no account of the practical aspects of Jesus’ birth at all. The accounts in the synoptic
gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, on the other hand, are factual, but they lack theological comment. They take us back to the early days of the Church…HE WAS BORN. However, this stage was quickly passed and believers started asking…”yes, yes, but WHY was He born?” John the Baptist supplied an answer to that important question when he pointed to Jesus “look…the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world and the One who will baptise with the Holy Spirit.” So then, we had the facts and their significance for us. But the question soon arose again in another form. “Why did He come and die for our sins?” The answer was like a flash of sunlight lighting up the faith of the Church…BECAUSE HE LOVES US… draws us to Himself and came to give us the opportunity to become a child of God by believing in Him, inviting Him into our heart and, as Jesus said to Nicodemus in John 3, by being born again, from above, by the Holy Spirit. “Nicodemus, you must be born from above.”
A few days ago, a friend of mine told me that he listened to an interview with a young man, the father of three young children whose lovely wife was killed in the Brussels bombings of 2016 and whose perpetrators are now on trial. Asked if he thought about those who had killed his wife, he
replied “their thoughts are in hatred and darkness and negativity. I don’t have hatred. It brings nothing to your life.” “ No,” he said quietly, “I am on a jihad of love.” He is a Muslem.
It is a strange way to put it, but isn’t that what God was embarking on in Bethlehem?
Second Sermon by The Very Revd Christopher Lewis
Christmas Day; Luke 2;1-20
Happy Christmas. Celebrate! Music! I can see that it would be wonderful to be a good musician. But there is one side which might be a worry. I could put it in the form of a strange question, namely ‘Where does the music go?’ After all, artists – good and bad – produce a tangible result, rather like carpenters. And the art of a farmer produces crops. But the music…. does it go off like a lost email, wandering about, with nowhere to rest its head?
There’s a poem by John Masefield (set to music – William Walton) which helps. It asks the question ‘Where does the uttered music go?’ And it gives an answer… music is basic to the creation and it goes to the heart:
What is this creature, Music, save the Art
The Rhythm that the planets journey by?
The living Sun-Ray entering the heart,
Touching the Life with that which cannot die?
And so the music is not wasted – for as the poem says, there is:
Within the emptiness, a gain,
Within the solitude, a grace.
Of course, you can’t measure the benefit/the gain, or indeed make it into one of those targets which get set for industry or maybe for hospitals, but the benefit is right there nevertheless.
We could go on and ask a similar question about loving attitudes and actions. God’s love. Where does love go? Is it mostly wasted – expended as it were pointlessly, wandering about with nothing to show for itself?
There is certainly a functional…ism which would write most of love out of the picture (maybe most music as well)….an attitude characteristic of Government, which prefers skills to education, immediate science to pure science or artistic imagination…. but we had better leave the assault on that attitude to another place…. although, as the Archbishop of Canterbury once pointed out, the policy leads Government to see religion as eccentric/odd. Whereas, in fact, religion is exploring the basic rhythm of the universe and of human beings in our response to God: what is the rhythm which we journey by? ‘Function’ will never get there, for it lacks the equipment to track worship, imagination, prayer, art, music.
Take examples. Is it worth expending lots of love on people who are very ill? The pragmatic view would say ‘no’, but the Christian faith would give an emphatic ‘yes’, as it did at the beginning of the Hospice Movement. The Hospices, starting from clear Christian beliefs about the dignity of each human being, took a time to make their point against the tide. I once worked as a student for a few weeks in a terrible geriatric hospital, where people came in at one end of the ward and died at the other. Usually after the deaths, a slick man (indeed they were men) who had not visited, would come in to sign some papers and make a few arrangements. It was as if the flow of love had been blocked and that it had had nowhere to go. The love that comes from God, can flow through us, and accord with the basic rhythm of life.
Where does love go? It comes from God, then… if it is allowed to, it flows through our hearts and from there it enables the world to find its true nature.
At Christmas we see this flow expressed in its simplest and most startling form. The Christmas message: that the best way to understand the rhythm of the universe and the flow of love is not even in a poem, but rather in a life lived, starting in a manger. At Christmas, in among the chaos and carols and shepherds and sheep, is a truth. The flow of love is like this or rather, it is this. Here at the first Christmas, heaven and earth
are so close that they touch. For the Father sends the Son to prove that love is never wasted, that we should never think of love as pointless, for it is the very root of things as lived by Jesus; that’s incarnation.
We can see that, both in the fact of the birth of Jesus, but then also in his life and teaching, death, and resurrection. Here is reality, for God is as he is in Jesus. I suppose the scientific atheists (Dawkins and Co) would see Jesus’ birth and life as a bit of a waste. A short life which added nothing to the economy, did not throw the Romans out, healed and fed some people, taught a lot of things which the establishment disliked, and ended in a criminal’s death.
Yet to see the point, we have to shift to….well, let’s say a more musical perspective. This is not waste, for the birth and the life, the teaching and the death, are there for a clear purpose. That wonderful musical Carol – ‘Tomorrow shall be my dancing day’ (I wish it got into more of the hymn books) – has Jesus explaining the incarnation to perfection: ‘Thus was I knit to man’s nature, To call my true love to my dance’. God knitted to our nature, and calling us to the dance of true life.
Once we have that perspective, have seen and known that truth, then, well then of course we can be pretty practical, quite instrumental about things. But God’s love will change what we do and how we do it. That is why preaching, for example, always opposes climate change deniers who say that we must concentrate only on our economy and its recovery. If you have the perspective of Christmas, of love, you just cannot say that. You need a new kind of practicality, which includes the plight of Bangladesh and of the Ukrainians. It does not prevent us being practical, but it is practicality rooted in love.
Christmas is a joy, a celebration of God with us, of love not wasted but rather channelled, as it has been through the millions of people who have alleviated suffering, worked tirelessly for peace, stood up to dictators, given shelter to the persecuted, coped with crises in their lives….and then in a perhaps more mundane way, been more involved in their communities, more generous with their money, more understanding of people who are different from themselves.
Where does the uttered music go? It goes to the heart for it reflects the very rhythm of the universe. It is not wasted and indeed, there is a result. In John Masefield’s words: ‘Within the emptiness, a gain, Within the solitude, a grace’. Love is similar. You cannot quantify or weigh it. It is best shown in a life lived and supremely in the life/ the birth which we celebrate today. The love Jesus brought is not exclusive to Christians. Yet it is Christians who carry much responsibility through grace to receive it and to act. It is not a waste. Today is a dancing day. Have a blessed and a happy Christmas!
Post Communion
Lord God, the bright splendour whom the nations seek:
may we who with the wise men have been drawn by your light
discern the glory of your presence in your Son,
the Word made flesh, Jesus Christ our Lord.
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Christmas 2022 at The Alde Sandlings Benefice Well, didn’t we do well!! We had a wonderful amount of people join us for our benefice christingle, and crib services, carol services, midnight, and Christmas day services. A huge thank you to all of our clergy, church wardens and deputies, treasures, sidespeople, sacristans, choirs, and of course organists. And not forgetting our cleaners and flower teams that made our churches look so beautiful and welcoming. How blessed are we, to have such a hardworking, talented team amongst our church families. THANK YOU A few photos of the Christmas celebrations
Christmas at Aldringham
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A VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU ALL
Next Week – Sunday 15th January
Second Sunday of Epiphany
NOTICES
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✟ In Memory of Canon John Tipping ✟ UPDATE |
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£££ Ways to donate to our churches within the £££ Your donations REALLY mean so much to us at this challenging time. No matter how small your donation is, it helps us keep our doors open, support our ministry and mission, and to help preserve our church buildings. THANK YOU SO MUCH Just click on the link to support any of our churches – |
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Lunchtime Classical Concert Series returns in 2023 Monday 9th January at 12 noon. Nadia Lasserson and musical friends return to Aldeburgh Parish Church. The programme will consist of rarely heard repertoire for two violins and piano by Handel, Moszkowski, Martinu and Shostakovich. Retiring Collection for Save the Children |
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✟ Morning Prayer across the Benefice ✟ Revd Sarah is bringing the benefice together in prayer each morning from 9-9.30am. People are very welcome to join, no regular commitment required, just pop along when you wish. Monday – Friston Tuesday – Knodishall Wednesday – Aldringham Daily at Aldeburgh, Monday to Saturday |
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✟ Church of England and Diocese Online Worship ✟ There are many online services you can view from the Church of England and our cathedral. Here are some links below. Church of England website https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/church-online/weekly-online-services Church of England Facebook page Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLecK8GovYoaYzIgyOElKZg St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/stedscathedral |
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Food Banks at the East of England Co-op Foodbanks provide a valuable service to those in need in our communities. The Aldeburgh Co-op and Solar in Leiston are doing a grand job in collecting food donations, which are collected regularly and distributed. So please look out for the various collection baskets. https://www.eastofengland.coop/community/foodpoverty/foodbank-support |
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Youth Club – We need your help! |
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Weekly Benefice Newsletter If you would like something added to the weekly newsletter that is relevant to the Benefice, please do let Claire know and we will do our best to include it the following week. |
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✞ Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays on Zoom ✞ Saturday 21st January Community Good News Faith Cafe @ The Outside Inn, Parrot Pub 9.30 – 10.30 A time for conversation, a hot drink and a croissant. A time to share and offer our thoughts and stories. Acts of kindness and good news within the Outside Inn and taken out into the outside world. Just for fun from the comfort of your own armchair…Please email Sue and Richard if you can provide a round: richard.bodek@btinternet.com Saturday 4th February Community Breakfast and Local Ramble starting 9.30 @ The Parrot As before, a delicious breakfast bap and coffee / tea combo for £6.50 is on offer at the Parrot, before we head out to explore local paths. Come just for breakfast and a catch-up with folk, come for just the ramble or come and enjoy both. (You don’t need to book in advance, you can decide on the morning.) To help with timing, if coming only to ramble then we generally head from The Parrot around 10.30am. Please do invite friends along. |
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Family Services at Aldeburgh We are delighted that you are joining us for this service on the first Sunday of each month. The 10am coffee, and a light breakfast beforehand is also turning out to be a great success. As we are all aware single use coffee cups are not good for the environment challenges, we are all faced with. So, we are starting a BYOM (Bring your own mug campaign). So next time you come, do pop your favourite mug in your bag. Doesn’t coffee always taste better in your own cup anyway. EVERYONE WELCOME |
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Safeguarding at The Alde Sandlings Benefice The care and protection of children, young people and adults involved in church activities is the responsibility of everyone who participates in the life of the Church. If you are concerned that someone you know is at risk of, or is being abused, or presents a risk to others, please seek advice form a Safeguarding Adviser or if necessary, report the matter to the Local Authority Social Care Services or the Police without delay. The Alde Sandlings Safeguarding Officer: |
