Today at our churches
St Stephen's Church
Revd Peter Mallinson took today’s service. Father Peter focused on the 12 apostles in the Gospel reading. Twelve is also a dozen. He drew a parallel to the Dirty Dozen movie: men whom the world did not hold in high regard were chosen and with the right moulding from an unconventional leader, they succeeded in their difficult mission.
Jesus is also.an unconventional leader who picked 12 ordinary men with no specific qualifications for an unprecedented mission. Jesus even said the mission would be like sheep going into the midst of wolves.
Today we are the current “dozen” for Jesus. The dangers are not as big as for the apostles, but our faithfulness is required. Ordinary people are called to share the Gospel.
It was really good to have Father Peter with us!
St Leodegar's Church
Revd Roger Pullen took the Holy Communion service today at St Leodegar’s. We had 14 people in the congregation. Jo Williams and her granddaughter, Lois, took the prayers, and Naomi played the organ for us today. Today’s sermon focused on Simon (the zealot) who was a political rebel who wanted to free the Jewish people from the Roman government. Simon had a ‘holy zeal’ (passion for God) – we examined his intense human ambition, comparing it with the loving grace of Jesus. Simon learned to channel his fight against Rome into sharing the good news of God’s love. The lesson is that Jesus calls all types of people.