Jesus' temptations

At the beginning of Jesus’ ministry he spent forty days in the desert. He faces different temptations, and responds to each one with a verse of scripture. Sometimes we may assume this was very easy - he is the Son of God and can chose exactly the right bit of scripture to combat any temptation. But in reality he was also a human being who was genuinely famished and tempted - wrestling with what would be the right things to do in his ministry. And each of the verses of scripture come from just one part of the Bible (a couple of Chapters of instruction to God’s people following the Ten Commandments) - so it doesn’t look as if he is producing the best answers from different parts of scripture but rather worrying away at the implications of these important few Chapters. This is the story we will focus on when we meet on Sunday.

Plans for 1st March

We’ve now got our plans in place for our third First Sunday Thing.

There will again be a quiet half hour Communion service in the Lady Chapel at 9.30 a.m. for those who want to attend this as well as or instead of the activities later in the morning.

After refreshments when people arrive in time for 10.30 a.m., we will again be able to join in different activities in different parts of the church. People will be able to join a group or move about between them.

As it is the first Sunday in Lent we will be creating things to explore Jesus' being tempted in the wilderness.

A musical group will be preparing voices and instruments to sing 'man shall not live by bread alone'; we hope to build up quite a dramatic round of singing.

A drama group will be preparing a sketch about the temptations of celebrity.

An art group will be making a large representation of the kingdoms and powers of the earth.

Two others groups will be learning about what keeping Lent means and looking at what is in the Lord's Prayer.

The parish's Youth Group will be demonstrating its wii and other activities.

After a while, we'll again be bringing all this together in a short act of worship.

And a report from the diocese's newspaper says he'll try to join us as well.

Looking towards the cross

This sign post was one product of last week's event and service. It points back to Christmas (all the pictures on that side are from Christmas cards) and forwards towards Good Friday (very different pictures on that side). This is where the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple stands: welcoming the baby but warning about where his life will lead. It is also quite a peculiar place in the year 'half way between equinox and solstice'.

Our second go

We had over eighty people of all ages with us this morning, and there seemed to be quite a buzz, so we hope people thought it helped them worship. It is difficult to judge which groups will attract most attention: last time I said I was surprised that quite so many joined the group exploring the Tear Fund link with Ecuador and this time I was surprised that there wasn't more of a queue wanting to have a go at the hand bell ringing which looked and sounded so good; I guess we need to go on providing quite a variety rather than narrowing choices down to what we predict will be most popular. The music group chose 'My eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord' which was a welcome different take on the prophet in the Bible reading saying that he could die in peace now that his elderly eyes had seen God's salvation in the child Jesus who he recognised to be the glory of God's chosen people.