Dear All
Today was Passion Sunday which marks the beginning of Passiontide.
Over coffee we celebrated my birthday with delicious chocolate cake, thank you all so much for the beautiful flowers and all the birthday good wishes.
The Bishop’s Lent Appeal this year is for the Mothers’ Union’s Away From It All (AFIA) project which provides holidays for families who would not otherwise be able to get away for a break. There are several ways of giving
- Take a Lent box home and return to the church after Easter
- Donate in the basket which will be on the coffee table during the remainder of Lent
- make a payment to the church bank account, clearly labelled Lent Appeal. The account is St Andrew’s Church Vestry, sort code 80-08-98 account number 00794929
There is also a Just Giving page online – Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway is fundraising for Mothers Union Diocese of Glasgow & Galloway (justgiving.com)
This Week
Tuesday – 10am Prayer Group in the Garden Room
Thursday 10am – Said Holy Communion followed by coffee in Friendship House
Church Walk on Saturday 1st April – We meet at 10 am on Saturday April 1st at Balmore. Cars can be parked beside the old nursery beyond the former Coachhouse. The walk is along the Kelvin, across the fields to the canal, and back from Cadder to Balmore, c 3 ½ miles. Soup and cake back at St Andrew’s c 12.30,
Services for Holy Week
Wednesday 5th April Said Holy Communion 11.30am – All Saints
Thursday 6th April 10am Sung Eucharist for Maundy Thursday – St Andrew’s
Friday 7th April 2pm – Good Friday – Service of the Cross – St Andrew’s
Readings for next Sunday – Palm Sunday – Philippians 2:5-11 Matthew 26:14-27:66
Today’s readings – Ezekiel 37: 1-14 Romans 8:6-11 John 11: 1-45
It’s an intriguing fact that at this stage in Lent the lectionary treats us to extraordinary long gospel readings. I don’t think this is necessarily part of a Lenten penance or some elaborate endurance test because all the readings are great stories from St John’s gospel.
We started with the Samarian women at the well two Sundays ago, last week it was the healing of Bartimaus and this this week we have the raising of Lazarus. The story of Lazarus, one of the most extraordinary miracle stories of Jesus or signs as they are called in St John’s gospel. It is a story full of emotion, sadness, disbelief and wonderment. But essentially it is a story that speaks of new life.
In fact, all our bible readings today focus on God bringing new life. In Ezekial in the valley of dry bones, the bones are given flesh, God breathes on them and they are brought to life. In the John’s gospel Jesus brings new life to Lazarus. In Paul’s letter to the Romans, he continues the theme, he says “And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.”
And so, through these readings we are invited to consider how God can bring new life to us.
In the gospel the story begins with Mary and Martha sending an urgent message to Jesus, telling him of Lazarus’ illness and urging him to come immediately to them. Jesus, oddly, delays his visit to Martha and Mary for two days. He then tells his disciples that Lazarus’ illness will not lead to death but is rather for “the glory of God”.
Wounded by Jesus’ apparent failure to appreciate the urgency of the situation. Martha cannot contain her grief and distress, she goes out to meet him unable to disguise her pain and frustration. “Lord if you had been here my brother would not have died”. Jesus’ reply is brisk and to the point. “Your brother will rise again” he says.
Jesus then says to Martha “I am the resurrection and the life, those who believe in me, even though they die will live”
It’s interesting to notice the tense used here “I am the resurrection”. Jesus is already talking of himself as the resurrection, and this was before the crucifixion. He is already raising people out of death, to new life. He is already transforming people, so that their lives become like nothing they could recognize before.
As we approach Holy week and Easter the theme of resurrection in this story is wholly appropriate and it reminds us too, that by trusting and believing in Christ we may also bring personal resurrections to our own lives.
The passage continues in the present tense in Martha’s reply. “Yes Lord, I believe that you are the messiah…that you are the one coming into the world.”
Again, it is an active word, a continuing, not a onetime event. Jesus doesn’t just come into the world – he is coming into it, continually. Always entering into our lives. And then we have the shortest verse in the Bible, and one of the most powerful – “Jesus wept.” “see how he loved him,” responded the crowds.
Christ’s humanity – God is not untouched by our pain and suffering. That’s why God comes to us in the person Jesus, in the incarnation – to reach us by walking beside us in our struggles and enduring his own, experiencing life as we do.
The human element of this story continues in Martha’s initial response to Jesus “Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died”
How many times do we offer this type of complaint up to God, blaming God for what goes wrong in our lives? Sometimes it’s hard to know how much God intervenes and, in a sense, it will always remain a mystery. But the key thing here is trust. Trust that God is with us, cares for us, loves us and will ultimately sort us. “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God” Jesus says to a distressed Martha.
The readings today talk of new life and new beginnings. So, may we pray today that God will continue to breathe new life into us and into the life of this church, into our post covid world, our relationships and into our very souls.
And that we may allow the power of his resurrection spirit to work in each one of us of us encouraging and inspiring us to believe that in Christ all things are made new and that we will be God’s Easter people.