SUNDAY WORSHIP online Sunday worship podcasts Morning Worship Morning service sheet Hymn words (both services) Evensong Evensong service sheet In Church Please note – you must wear a face covering in church unless you are exempt.
10 am Holy Communion in church 4pm Outdoor Church in the churchyard 6.30pm Evensong in church Wednesday 9.15 am Morning Prayer Friday 10.30 am Friday Group on Seal Recreation Ground in groups of six, socially distanced. Sunday Aug 30 in Seal Church 10 am Holy Communion in church 4pm Outdoor Church 6.30pm Evensong
On Zoom this week Zoffee – Zoom chat at 11.15am on Sunday morning Wednesday Zoom Church 11 am
Zoom Children’s Choirs: Wed 5pm and Thurs 4pm email sealpandp@gmail.com for links
Wednesday at 7.15 pm Adult Choir on Zoom email philiplebas@gmail.com for link
Trinity 11 The theme which connects today’s readings is Rock, often a symbol in the Bible for all that is trustworthy and solid. God is described as a Rock in the Old Testament (Deut 32.4, 1 Samuel 2.2, Psalm 18.2) and in the New Testament, the same imagery is used of Jesus, (1 Corinthians 10.4). Stone was, and still is, an important building material in Israel; it is a stony, rocky landscape, its hills peppered with caves, natural or made by humans. The most impressive stone building that most people at the time of Jesus would have known was the Temple – Its stones represented the permanence of God’s commitment to his people, and when the Temple was destroyed, first by the Babylonians in 586 BC and then by the Romans in 70AD. Its destruction provoked massive spiritual and political crises on both occasions, and the only accessible remaining section of wall is still a place of prayer and longing for the Jewish people, who welcome those of other faiths to pray alongside them there, as Philip and I discovered last year. The early Christians, though, saw Jesus as the Cornerstone of a new Temple, built with Living Stones, his followers. In Christ, and in the community that met in his name, God could be encountered even if the old place of encounter, that beautiful Temple in Jerusalem, was ruined. Human beings have always been attracted to stones, though, imbuing them with significance. I have often laid my hands on the stone pillars in the South Aisle of Seal Church, and wondered about the masons who cut them back in the 13th century, the pilgrims who carved crosses into them and all those worshippers who have touched them since. It is no wonder that the sheer longevity of stone reminds people of the faithfulness of God!
- Are there stones which are special to you? An old house? An historic monument? A natural stone feature? What is it about them which draws you to them?
All Age resources |
No comments:
Post a Comment