Please forgive me – but I needed a holiday. I have found cover for Sunday Services in St Bartholomew’s (9:15am) and St James (11:15am), but I do all the website writing, recording, editing and posting myself. This website is quite new, so we haven’t developed a team to support it yet – perhaps in the next year. Normal service of online Holy Communion will resume next week – 6th September – when I return from holiday.
The Bible readings for this Sunday can be found on this link, or read in your preferred Bible translation: Exodus 3:1–15 and Matthew 16:21–28.
Highlights from the Old Testament reading that capture my imagination are:
- Moses turned aside to see the burning bush… when God saw that he had Moses’ attention he spoke to him
- God cares about the suffering of people
- Moses asked for a sign to give the people, and God gave him a sign which wouldn’t help until after the people had followed him out of Egypt, a kind of, “looking back: you’ll see it was true when it has come true”
Highlights from the Gospel reading that inspire me are:
- That even Jesus closest followers make mistakes sometimes
- To save my life I must let go of my life, because by holding on to my life I will lose it: the counter-intuitive truth of knowing God
- Jesus is beginning to talk openly of his divine relationship with God the Father
What are the questions or inspirations which jump out at you when you read this Sunday’s Bible passages? If you are looking for inspiration, why not read back through some of the real-life faith stories of the people from St James and St Bartholomew’s – and perhaps begin to write your own to share.
