Sunday's coming!

            This is Wolfsdale Chapel's anniversary   our readings will be  Psalm 23 (sung version); John 10:1-10; Godly Play story of The Beatitudes   On this anniversary Sunday it is good to remember God’s guidance through the years and give thanks that the same God is with us to guide us today. How do we find God’s guidance for us in the years to come?   We have heard in John’s gospel how Jesus tells his followers that he is like a good shepherd. Of course, he’s drawing on a very familiar Psalm, Psalm 23 where God, the Lord, is my shepherd.   This may be the Psalm we know best, probably because is our Christian faith it is impossible not to associate the car of God the Shepherd with the care of Jesus our Lord. Even without that connection, in its original Hebrew Bible context, it is a lovely picture of God’s care. God is the shepherd who cares for us, his sheep. He gives us a place...

            Luke 24: 13- 35   At the Bible exploration group on Tuesday, we were looking at the journey those two disciples make, on the evening of the first Easter Sunday.  (using the Trussell Trust "Walking Humbly" Bible study booklet)   We thought about -         how they were feeling -        how Jesus joins them -        the importance of them inviting Jesus in -        and the moment of revelation of who Jesus is. We also wondered what it might mean for us.   How the two were feeling The two people are grief-stricken, puzzled, desperately questioning all that has happened. It is Easter Sunday, but they have not yet grasped the Easter message that Christ truly is risen. And so they begin their journey home, grieving and puzzling and constantly stumbling over their own lack o...

  In the first part of the service, we are hearing the Godly Play story "the Faces of Easter" you can watch a version   here  John 20: 19-31 is then the reading.  The reflection follows      Today’s gospel reading is from the gospel of John. John himself tells us he is not writing ‘everything Jesus did’, but telling us about the signs – helping us all to understand who Jesus is.   Thomas gets labelled ‘doubting’ because of this moment, in the week after Easter Sunday. He was not there when the other disciples first see the risen Jesus. But he had seen and heard so many of the signs of who Jesus way. And in then end that helped him to make sense of the fact that the risen Jesus was now standing in front of him, on this first Sunday after Easter.   We have heard the Godly Play story “Faces of Easter” reminding us of the whole of Jesus’ life:   Birth – his family. Thomas would have known Mary, Jesus’ mo...