Services this Sunday for The Alde Sandlings Benefice
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Aldeburgh |
6.30am 8.00am 10.30am |
Benefice Sunrise Service -Thorpeness Beach Holy Communion Holy Communion |
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Aldringham Friston |
11.00am 9.45am |
Holy Communion Holy Communion |
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Knodishall |
9.00am |
Holy Communion |
Message from Revd James Marston
Tomorrow, we celebrate the great feast of Easter as we mark the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Amid the excitement and joy of the fresh start that Easter brings to us all on our journey of faith, I think we can also take a moment to congratulate ourselves and our communities as we look back over the last few months.
All the church communities have pulled together in order to continue with worship and the pastoral care required by a lively and thriving benefice as best we can, and for that we can be grateful and proud.
Tomorrow we rejoice in the good news of the risen Christ and at this time the Alde Sandlings benefice is looking towards the future with a new priest-in-charge due to be among us in a few short weeks.
This is a time of good news indeed and we have much to celebrate and much to look forward to.
Happy Easter to you all.
James
Let us pray
God almighty, we praise your holy name in this joyful Eastertide. We thank you, Lord, because through your death and resurrection we have won the victory and your redeeming grace and love. Loving Father God, fill us with new life so that we may love one another and do what you want us to do in sharing your love with those who don’t know you. In Jesus’ name we pray.
Amen
Collect
Lord of all life and power,
who through the mighty resurrection of your Son
overcame the old order of sin and death
to make all things new in him:
grant that we, being dead to sin
and alive to you in Jesus Christ,
may reign with him in glory;
to whom with you and the Holy Spirit
be praise and honour, glory and might,
now and in all eternity.
First Reading
Isaiah 65.17-end
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be, and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord—and their descendants as well. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent—its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
Second Reading
Acts 10.34-43
Then Peter began to speak to them: ‘I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all. That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree; but God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all the people but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.’
Gospel Reading
John 20.1-18
Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, ‘They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.’ Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went towards the tomb. The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples returned to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. They said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping?’ She said to them, ‘They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.’ When she had said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, why are you weeping? For whom are you looking?’ Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, ‘Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned and said to him in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said to her, ‘Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” ’Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, ‘I have seen the Lord’; and she told them that he had said these things to her.
Post Communion
God of Life, who for our redemption gave your only-begotten Son
to the death of the cross,and by his glorious resurrection
have delivered us from the power of our enemy:
grant us so to die daily to sin, that we may evermore live
with him in the joy of his risen life;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Sermon preached by The Revd James Marston at
Aldeburgh 10th April 2022
Palm Sunday
There is an old joke among clergy, what is the difference between an organist and a terrorist. The answer, of course, is that one can negotiate with a terrorist.
Indeed, since I have made the transgression from church organist to church clergyman I’m not sure that we clergy are always the easiest with which to engage with what people nowadays call “constructive talks” when they want their own way.
Indeed, there is another old joke.
What have a clergyman and a shoe got in common? The last thing to go is the tongue.
And over the last three years that I have been among you it may not have escaped your notice that not only do I like my own way, but I also like the sound of my own voice.
But today, after that marathon reading- the Liturgy of the passion – in which we heard the story again of the arrest trial and execution and death of Jesus, I cannot help but think that the scripture does the talking.
We retell the story on Palm Sunday not for the clever exegesis or apposite exposition of subtle biblical hermetic by the priest, we retell it because it simply serves to remind us of the horror, injustice, and violence of the cross. The death of our God whom we worship today is part and parcel of our faith.
Indeed, Palm Sunday itself, in which we celebrate the victorious entry of Jesus into Jerusalem is something of a bittersweet moment. Jesus, who has been exercising his ministry for three years comes up to the capital city in triumph, to be met just a few days later with the most appalling humiliation.
We approach Holy Week with all this in our minds and in our hearts, that before the glory of the resurrection which we celebrate a week today, the church tradition takes us again through the emotions and highs and lows of the story we have just heard and know so well.
This is because, it seems to me, we all need to hear the story of our faith, our story, again and again. Faith, belief in the risen Christ, is so full of doubt so full of difficulties and so full of challenge that we need to be reminded often of why we believe at all.
Repeating ourselves also points towards another aspect of faith that is its often easy to forget and it is this, that our Christian journey is not a sprint but a marathon. Taken step by step over months, years and decades as we come closer to God.
Indeed our Lent course this year – a simple weekly bible study meeting with which I admit to facing with some trepidation, I thought it might get in the way of the other things I seem to be up to – has taught me a lesson and it is this: That listening is far more important than talking and that by listening it became obvious to me that there is still much I can learn from other Christians around me about our faith, and still much insight I have yet to discover.
I doubt I am alone in this, I suspect we all need to be reminded, all feel we must try harder, all feel there is so much we don’t know about the beliefs which we claim we espouse.
So my challenge to you and to me this Palm Sunday, is to embrace this Holy Week, use it as a reminder and a chance to re-spark that curiosity which brought us to faith in the first place. Read the passion liturgy again, talk to others around you about what that which you discover or notice. Ask questions, seek God.
We are on a long journey together and it is only together that we can take those small steps into the mystery of the Easter on which rests the extraordinary Christian faith.
Amen
Next Week
Sunday 24th April
Second Sunday of Easter
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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- Church of England Facebook page Church of England YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/ St Edmundsbury Cathedral Facebook Page https://www.facebook.com/ |
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Easter Messy Church A huge thank-you and well done to everyone who supported and helped at our Easter Messy Church last Saturday. We had a really wonderful attendance; 35 children and 36 adults.
It was such a joyful morning and so good to be back after an enforced two year break due to Covid! Thank you again for being part of this extremely valuable ministry with children and families in the heart of our community. Do take a look at Fran’s beautiful art project on the display board and the prayer tree in the children’s area at Aldeburgh church to see some of what we got up to. Revd Jo |
We wish you all a very
Happy Easter
NOTICES
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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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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. |
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Pilgrims Together on Wednesdays The Pilgrims worship together every Wednesday. Friday 22nd April F2F Pilgrims 6.30pm Aldeburgh Parish Hall Celtic Worship followed by a time of fellowship |
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