What does God want?

We crowd sourced the ten commandments this morning.  How many could people remember between them?  What sorts of things ought to be in the list?

The three most widely remembered commandments are do not kill, steal or commit adultery.  So we prayed for those bereaved by recent highly publicised murders, victim support and families which have been broken up.

We thought that 'you shall not covet' might be one of the least remembered, but actually it came half way up the list - and was expressed as 'do not be greedy' by some.

It was 'you shall not have graven images or idols' which hardly anyone remembered to be one of God's commandments.  We thought briefly about the way things like cars, celebrities and  money might actually make this an important commandment for today.

And the extra things?  Jesus' teaching to love our neighbours as ourselves was widely remembered.  'Respect the world and all that is in it', 'make peace' and 'seek and offer forgiveness' were among other suggestions.

Ten Commandments

A journalist once pulled off a sting by phoning several Bishops and asking whether they could list the ten commandments.  Most couldn't off the top of their head so he was able to write the spiteful piece he had planned.  They are part of one of the set readings for Sunday.  We will have a go at seeing how many we know between us and be introduced to those which easily slip our minds.

Birthday gifts

Artwork developing during the service last Sunday morning - the image of Mary is copied from a window in St Nicolas' where the service took place.  It was our openness to God' s gifts which we were exploring - and Mary's birthday was the peg on which this was hung.

Mary's birthday

7th September is (almost) the traditional date for the birth of Jesus' mother, so God's gifts to her and us will be our theme on Sunday.  The picture is one taken almost exactly a year ago of an African pilgrim group singing its way round the church which is (one of) the traditional sites of her birth in Jerusalem.

God's abundance

This is the theme planned for Sunday.  We are going to explore the prophet Isaiah's "Why hunger for what will really not satisfy?  Let the one without money come, buy and eat!"

How we really are

Here is the banner we made at the beginning of the month - each smudge or blob is someone's acknowledgement of how this text from St Paul applies to his or her own life.

Human being in a pickle

We don't always do what we tell ourselves we will do.  We are often very inconsistent in what we criticise.  Two of the Bible readings set for Sunday make these two points.  So our First Sunday Thing this month (on 6th July) will encourage us to confess what we do wrong (which is a regular part of almost all our other services in church) and anoint each other with a tiny bit of oil (which is a much more rare way of declare healing and forgiveness).  We will make an unexpected discovery beneath a gravestone and find out whether it is harder to frown at a joyful ditty or smile at a dirge.