Pew Sheet for Sunday the 14th of April 2024. The Third Sunday of Easter
If you were lucky (or unlucky!) enough to live in the USA, then you might be marking ‘National Ex-Spouse Day’ today. The day was first conceived by the Reverend Ronald Coleman, a Kansas City clergyman in 1987, and observed by many both inside and outside the church since then. The day seeks to help individuals move on from the often-negative emotions they might feel about their former relationship or their former spouse by reflecting on the positive aspects of that relationship and looking at how it helped them become the person they are today, building perhaps, on the notion that what does not kill you makes you stronger. It might seem a bizarre concept, but some of the suggestions they make, including writing and sending a card or other gesture of goodwill or forgiveness to the former partner, make clear the Christian context in which the day was first conceived.
The first thing we learn from this, is how rapidly the reproach and shame once associated with divorce have given way to a healthier understanding marriage which no longer requires someone to stay in damaging or abusive relationships simply because the Church’s doctrine of ‘lifelong’ marriage makes it impossible to leave it should this occur. It reminds us that the Church of England’s (and many other churches’) doctrines of marriage have changed considerably over time, though some still consider it to be a salvation issue. If however, that which was once thought impossible is now permitted by the church (with fair and reasonable conscientious exceptions for clergy unable to perform second marriages), then one day, the same might be true for those seeking to marry a partner of the same sex in the churches they have loved and served all their lives. The appointment of the archbishop of York to co-chair the Living in Love and Faith (LLF) board responsible for implementing successive votes in General Synod supporting this change gives me hope that this may now happen, though it is sad (so far as I know) that it has no LGBTQI+ members given that decisions affecting LGBTQI+ peoples’ lives should not be made without them. Clearly there is still much to forgive and to atone for on this issue, which brings me to today’s readings, for our passage from Acts makes clear the need for individual and corporate repentance when the sins or mistakes of the past come to light, so that we may all, individually and collectively, receive God’s forgiveness.
Repentance is not something we discuss very much in the Church, though other churches seldom speak of anything else. It is however, a healthy and very necessary practice which we should all observe regularly so that we might know God’s righteousness not on account of our own actions, but because of Christ’s redeeming death and resurrection, as both John and Peter (through Luke) remind us in our readings today. Peter’s words here, like John’s, are often viewed through an antisemitic lens, particularly as Luke makes clear that Peter is not just addressing the Jewish leaders here. The more significant reading of the texts, however, is the implication that ‘all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God’ (Romans 3:23) and we are all equally responsible for making Christ’s death necessary. The key thing to remember is that forgiveness is always available to those who need it as a free gift of grace directly from the hands of the one whose hands were pierced for our transgressions, no matter who we are, our background, race, creed, colour, sexuality or indeed, our marital status, because God is by far, the best partner any of us could ever have!
Collect and Readings,
Collect
Risen Christ, you filled your disciples with boldness and fresh hope:
strengthen us to proclaim your risen life and fill us with your peace,
to the glory of God the Father.
Zephaniah 3:14-end
Sing aloud, O daughter Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter Jerusalem! The Lord has taken away the judgements against you, he has turned away your enemies.
The king of Israel, the Lord, is in your midst; you shall fear disaster no more. On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: Do not fear, O Zion;
do not let your hands grow weak. The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
a warrior who gives victory; he will rejoice over you with gladness,
he will renew you in his love; he will exult over you with loud singing
as on a day of festival. I will remove disaster from you, so that you will not bear reproach for it. I will deal with all your oppressors at that time. And I will save the lame and gather the outcast, and I will change their shame into praise and renown in all the earth. At that time, I will bring
you home, at the time when I gather you; for I will make you renowned and praised among all the peoples of the earth, when I restore your fortunes before your eyes, says the Lord.
Acts 3:12-19
When Peter saw it, he addressed the people, ‘You Israelites, why do you wonder at this, or why do you stare at us, as though by our own power or piety we had made him walk? The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our ancestors has glorified his servant Jesus, whom you handed over and rejected in the presence of Pilate, though he had decided to release him. But you rejected the Holy and Righteous One and asked to have a murderer given to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. And by faith in his name, his name itself has made this man strong, whom you see and know; and the faith that is through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of all of you. ‘And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers. In this way God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, that his Messiah would suffer. Repent therefore; and turn to God so that your sins may be wiped out.’
1 John 3:1-7
See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God; and that is what we are. The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God’s children now; what we will be has not yet been revealed. What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.
Everyone who commits sin is guilty of lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he was revealed to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him sins; no one who sins has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Everyone who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
Luke 24: 36b-48
While they were talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ They were startled and terrified and thought that they were seeing a ghost. He said to them, ‘Why are you frightened, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? Look at my hands and my feet; see that it is I. Touch me and see; for a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. While in their joy they were disbelieving and still wondering, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate in their presence.
Then he said to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you while I was still with you—that everything written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms must be fulfilled.’ Then he opened their minds to understand the scriptures, and he said to them, ‘Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things.
This Week’s Events
Monday 15th April
Bell ringing at 7.30pm in St Laurence. Contact Jan for more information on 07835 461361.
Tuesday 16th April
Zoom In Morning Prayer on Tuesday at 9am. Meeting ID: 748 9970 4493 Password: Trinity or contact Didier on [email protected]
Bible Study Group, 1st and 3rd Tuesdays at 10.30am. For more information contact Paula on 07722 808 988.
House Group, every Tuesday at 8pm during term time for tea, chat and a discussion about faith and the Bible. Contact Jo on 07803 942687.
Wednesday 17th April
Morning Coffee from 10.00-11.45 in the St Laurence Room.
Midweek Holy Communion on Wednesday at 12 noon at St Laurence’s.
Thursday 18th April
In Touch 2pm for refreshments and chat. Contact Anne on 01296 714 330.
Friday 22nd December
Junior Choir at 6.30 pm followed by full Choir Practice at 7.30pm. Contact Derry on [email protected] for more information.
