Weekly letter from St Luke's - 8 March 2024

Dear Parish Friends

The builders have started on site with temporary fencing being erected and the demolition team starting work on the inside of the house. Temporary toilets have been installed to the north of the church, and a drop-off area in front of the house was being prepared when I saw them this morning. Inside the church we have removed three pews (they are safely stored) to create an area at the rear of the church for meetings, morning tea etc.

Our Sunday morning's services will be as usual at 7am (Holy Communion) and 9am (Family Communion with Zoom streaming). Children's Church is still on, and there will also be a Bush Ministry Stall. The notice paper and 9am service sheet are available via the links below. To mark this as a more solemn season, I encourage you to arrive early for the services, Five minutes before the service starts I will ring the bell and read the sentence of the day and we will then sit in silence for prayer before the bell is rung again and we sing the opening hymn.

Our gospel reading this Sunday from John 3 opens with John drawing an analogy between the story from Numbers 21 (which we also read) where Moses lifts up the bronze serpent in the wilderness so that all who look to the serpent might be saved from death from poisonous snakebites, with Jesus' prediction of his passion (lifting up). But there is a distinction. In the Old Testament story those who 'look' at the serpent 'live', but John tells us that those who 'believe' in the Son of Man 'live eternally'. To believe requires more involvement on our part than mere looking, it is a verb, an action to which we are called as those whom God loves.

Finally, the fourth Sunday in Lent is also known as 'Refreshment Sunday' (a break in the middle of the austere Lenten season), or 'Mothering Sunday' (when traditionally people would return to their mother church, but now a time to give thanks for all who share a mothering role with us). Simnel Cake is associated with this day and we will have some to share on Sunday.

Yours in Christ

Rev'd Timothy