Services this Sunday for The Alde Sandlings Benefice
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Aldeburgh |
10.30am |
Holy Communion |
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Aldringham Friston |
11.00am 9.00am |
Service of The Word Holy Communion |
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Knodishall |
9.00am |
Morning Prayer |
Collect
Almighty God, who alone can bring order
to the unruly wills and passions of sinful humanity:
give your people grace so to love what you command
and to desire what you promise,
that, among the many changes of this world,
our hearts may surely there be fixed
where true joys are to be found;
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
Jeremiah 17.5-10
Thus says the Lord: Cursed are those who trust in mere mortals
and make mere flesh their strength, whose hearts turn away from the Lord. They shall be like a shrub in the desert and shall not see
when relief comes. They shall live in the parched places of the wilderness,
in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed are those who trust in the Lord,
whose trust is the Lord. They shall be like a tree planted by water,
sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes,
and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought, it is not anxious,
and it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is devious above all else;
it is perverse who can understand it? I the Lord test the mind and search the heart, to give to all according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doings.
Second Reading
1 Corinthians 15.12-20
Now if Christ is proclaimed as raised from the dead, how can some of you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain, and your faith has been in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that he raised Christ—whom he did not raise if it is true that the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised. If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile, and you are still in your sins. Then those also who have died in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died.
Gospel Reading
Luke 6.17-26
He came down with them and stood on a level place, with a great crowd of his disciples and a great multitude of people from all Judea, Jerusalem, and the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They had come to hear him and to be healed of their diseases; and those who were troubled with unclean spirits were cured. And all in the crowd were trying to touch him, for power came out from him and healed all of them. Then he looked up at his disciples and said: ‘Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. ‘Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled.
‘Blessed are you who weep now, for you will laugh. ‘Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice on that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets. ‘But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. ‘Woe to you who are full now, for you will be hungry.
‘Woe to you who are laughing now, for you will mourn and weep. ‘Woe to you when all speak well of you, for that is what their ancestors did to the false prophets.
Post Communion
Merciful Father,
who gave Jesus Christ to be for us the bread of life,
that those who come to him should never hunger:
draw us to the Lord in faith and love,
that we may eat and drink with him
at his table in the kingdom,
where he is alive and reigns, now and for ever.
BANK HOLIDAY & STAFF TRAINING CLOSURE DATES
The surgery will be closed for staff training on Wednesday 09.03.22 from 13.00.
When the surgery is closed please call NHS 111
Peninsula Practice Patient Experience Survey
Healthwatch Suffolk (HWS) is working with Peninsula Practice and the Patient Participation Group to evaluate the support and services provided by the practice.
Now, as a patient at the practice, we would like to hear about your views and experiences again to see what’s working well and what could be improved.
This information will help Peninsula Practice develop future plans to provide the best healthcare possible for you.
How to take part [Online]
The survey will be open until the 18st March 2022. You can complete the survey by going to: https://www.smartsurvey.co.uk/
s/PeninsulaPractice2022/
The survey should take around 10 minutes to complete.
Paper copy surveys should be returned via freepost to: Freepost HEALTHWATCHSUFFOLK
This survey is also available in Easy Read. Please call the practice on 01394 411641 to request an Easy Read version. www.thepeninsulapractice.co.uk
Sermon preached by The Revd Mark Booth at
Aldeburgh 6th February 2022
OT Isaiah 6.1-8 ~ Isaiah’s Vision of God
NT Luke 5.1-11 ~ Jesus calls his First Disciples
Our lessons today provide us with:
- two examples of religious experience: VISION & CALL;
- two contexts for that experience: place of WORSHIP & place of WORK;
- two reactions, or consequent stages in the journey of faith: CONVICTION of sin & COMMITTMENT of life.
Isaiah’s VISION of God and Christ’s CALL of Peter and the first disciples illustrate for us how compelling and life-changing Christian experience can be.
Alas, they may also leave us with a sense of OBLIGATION that we also have to experience such a vision and such a call, in such terms, in similar dramatic form, if we are to be ‘proper Christians’.
Biblical passages such as these may leave us with a sense of FRUSTRATION & DISAPPOINTMENT that such experience seems beyond the grasp or ordinary, everyday folk like you and me. As if it is reserved for ‘high-flyers’, for the ‘better class’ of believer, for the specially ‘gifted’.
May I dare to reassure you: such things are not matters of human DESERVING or MERIT. They are not the ENTITLEMENT of a few. Rather, they are of God’s GRACE & LOVE.
These things are certainly no justification for that predatory preaching which seeks to pressure people into believing. The Christian life is surely not about what God wants FROM us, but what God wants FOR us. The call to faith is about OFFER, not DEMAND. Conversion and commitment to Christ is about INVITATION, not COMPULSION. The life of faith and discipleship, of following Jesus, is about God’s Holy Spirit BECKONING us, not BULLYING us, bringing us along with Him, not breaking us down.
Coming from the fish and chip end of the business as I do, I trust I may be forgiven for having a vision of God rather less exalted than that of Isaiah. I sometimes think that my vision of God is of a white, male, English, Methodist, who wears a beard and sandals, reads the Guardian and lives on a cloud suspended two miles above Aldeburgh . . .
No doubt your vision of God will be refracted by the material of your life and be just as personal, just as idiosyncratic. All our visions of God will be illumined by our joint experience of God’s revelation, by our common human needs and by the unique particularities and peculiarities of our experience of Creation, of Church and of Community.
What is your vision of God?
How did it, does it, come to you?
What difference does it make to your faith and life?
What difference does it make to your view of the Church, of Society, of our way of living and being together, of our politics, of our world order?
Think about your vision . . .
Talk about it . . .
Write about it . . .
Represent it in your art, your craft, your labour, your profession, your toil, your everyday tasks . . .
Dwell on it . . .
Examine it . . .
Look more closely at it . . .
Listen more carefully . . .
Reflect on what you see and hear . . .
Consider what you make of it . . .
Ask yourself about it . . .
Ask yourself what it means to you, what it means for you . . . ?
What did it mean for Peter, James, and John to have such a vision of God in Christ, to actually see God, not in all his holiness, high and lifted up – in the place of worship – God in all his divine glory – but God entered into our human condition – in the place of work? What did it mean for those first disciples to see God in the mundane actuality of their ordinary, everyday, lived experience, in their place of work, with all its constraints and opportunities? What did it mean for them to encounter God in their harsh reality, in their same old same old, and then, in difference, in change, in amazement and in wonder . . . ?
For both the Old Testament Isaiah and the New Testament Peter, James and John – and for so many others in the life of the early Church and ever since – their vision, their experience of God – however high and lifted up, however ‘low’ and simply present – led to a sense of call and to a response to that call which meant their leaving their nets behind them, following the way, the truth, the life of Jesus, in the power of his Holy Spirit, and going on, as reported later in the New Testament, to turn the world upside down.
Now, I do not mean to denigrate or diminish the possibility today of people experiencing such visions and calls marked by such drama, immediacy, and power.
I do, however want to assert, and proclaim that for many, maybe for most, of us:
- A mere glimpse may be enough, a flickering adjustment in perception, one of those changes or chances of this fleeting world . . . One such small, not necessarily earth-shattering, event, may be sufficient to alter our view, to deepen our grasp of the reality of God and ourselves . . .
- A whisper may be all it takes – a door slightly ajar, a crossroads, a path seldom or never before taken – to bring about difference, to take us in a new direction, to open up new ways of being, new fields of service, new depths of love and faith . . .
Vision and call may be part of God’s revelation and purpose for each one of us, not only in the apparently supernatural, but in a host of simple ways.
God reveals his saving love and transforming will for us, not only in the place of worship, but also in the place of work; not only on the Road to Damascus (or even the Highway to Hell); but on the High Street, in the ‘fast track’, in the slow lane, on the long and winding road, along the dusty path, the old railway line, the beach, or the track around the marshes
God makes himself known to us mostly in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, in the movement of his Holy Spirit, blowing where and when he wills.
God envisions us and calls us however God wills: in signs and wonders; in word and sacrament; in the ordinary, everyday, gradual unfolding of life and faith; and in our growing awareness and perception – step by step, little by little, bit by bit; all by his grace and love alone and to the glory of his name. Amen.
NOTICES
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World Day of Prayer |
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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. All requests by 4pm on Thursday please |
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Bell Ringers at Aldeburgh Parish Church |
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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. The Trussel Trust Organisation Food banks in our network have seen an increase in the number of food parcels given out over the last year due to Coronavirus, so any donations are much appreciated. You can find out which items your local food bank is most in need of by entering your postcode here – https://www.trusselltrust.org/give-food/ |
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Looking for something to read? No doubt you have seen our beautiful library of books in our Visitors Corner. Please could we encourage you to take one home to read and perhaps tell us what it meant to you. We hope to put a few out in the Bible slots in the pews which you are very welcome to take home to read otherwise please leave them in situ. Thank you Jill Brown |
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Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. Friday 18th February 6.30pm Aldeburgh Parish Hall A potential long hoped and prayed for return to a face to face Pilgrim Worship and shared supper gathering. More details to follow.. Saturday 26th February online Zoom Pilgrim Fun Quiz from 7pm (please note change of date) Just for fun from the comfort of your own armchair…Please email Sue and Richard if you can provide a round: |
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A message from Adrian Brown – Would you like to donate to our Church? We hugely rely on regular donations to enable us to open our doors daily for people to visit and worship in our beautiful church. Can you help, but haven’t got the cash on you? We now have a contactless terminal next to the sidespeople handing out service booklets so donations may be made before or after a service, or why not sign up to the Parish Giving Scheme and donate as often as you want. Ask a Church warden or sidesperson for more information. |
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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/ Church of England Facebook page Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/ St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page |
