Dear All
Fourth Sunday of Lent / Mothering Sunday 2022 St Andrew’s
Today Robin and Fraser very kindly took the service in my absence. I hear it was a lovely service for Mothering Sunday. Thank you, Helen for creating the posies!
I’m hopefully on the mend and will be back next Sunday.
Let’s hope the glorious weather remains for the walk on Saturday!
Notices for this week:
Tuesday 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room.
Thursday 10am Sung Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House
Zoom Lent Group 7pm Thursday 31st March – postponed
Church Walk Saturday 2nd April – meet 10am Tesco car park followed by soup lunch in the hall. See attached flyer
Readings for next Sunday – 5th Sunday of Lent / Passion Sunday – Isaiah 43:16:-21 Philippians 3:4-14 John 12:1-8
Further news from the diocese and church can be found on the St Andrews website. Click on the link below.
https://standrewsmilngavie.church.scot/
Fraser’s sermon notes from this morning
MOTHERING SUNDAY 2022
(Joshua 5: 9-12) 2 Corinthians 5 :16-2 Luke 15: 1-3 and 11- 31
Collect : Almighty God, grant that we, who are weighed down by our sins, may be relieved and encouraged by your grace ;
Through Jesus Christ our Lord who lives and reigns with you
In the unity of the Holy Spirit
One God world without end. Amen
Mothering Sunday (Mothers Day USA 8 May) Our tradition dating to times when young people went into service away from home to work. Mid Lent was ‘refreshment Sunday, returning home and going to church with family, and in their mother church’. Locally and more recently Evensong in the Cathedral as the ‘Mother Church.’ More universally in our modern society it is a time to think of all that mothers contribute in nurturing, supporting and seeing children through their growing and maturing years.
Mothers have been much in the news recently – Ukraine
Nazanin Zaghara Ratcliffe. Jeremy Hunt ex foreign Secretary said it had taken far too long. Had people stopped pestering successive ministers in her case? Robin pointed out to me that in meetings he had been told that single letters normally were politely pushed aside, but multiple letters from different people did have an effect. Recent case of friend , mother and grandmother, who had written to Russian Embassy in London. Brave act?
The theme of today’s readings is reconciliation. Much needed in so many facets of life today.
In 2 Corinthians the readers are reminded that Christ had reconciled men to God, not counting our sins and failures against us. ‘He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.’
Not necessarily easy as Prodigal Son parable shows. Think what it took for the son who had chosen his own freedom to admit he had messed up his life. Think of the feelings of the son who had stayed at home. Think of the father who loved them both. That is God’s way.
Enjoy the family time of this special day, and carry the message to us as a Christian congregation. He has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation.