Trinity High Wycombe and Cores End United Reformed Churches - Sermons 1 year ago. #AllAreWelcome

Introduction - Listening  Listening is not always easy  Distracting noises can get in the way and our minds can be elsewhere  Lots of other stuff going on in our minds can block out what we should be listening to Cores End garden birdsong  Silent slideshow - listen to the sounds around you  Reading - 1 Samuel 3, 1-20 A reflection by Ian Fosten from the Prayer Handbook&nbsp...

Meditation: Some of you will have been doing jigsaws over the Christmas period  A meditation on a jigsaw puzzle to reflect on our own lives and how the jumble of pieces is brought together  Prayer The picture of Christ knowing he is loved by God and pleasing to him Reading - Mark 1, 1-11 Talk: The news this week has been increasingly grim:   Spiralling COVID  numbers, schools c...

Talk - What does beginning mean to you What new beginnings have you made?  Life is not easy at the moment  Not easy for children finally being back in school  Not easy for people with medical needs delayed  Life is for new beginnings  Are you beginning anything new at the moment - a new book, puzzle or TV series  Beginnings in the world of nature - snowdrops and daffo...

Reading: Matthew 2: 1 – 12   Short prayer  Address:   2020 is dead and buried and some of us are thankful for that but its effect will remain with us for years to come  4 stories from the Church Times that define the past year: Covid-19 Black Lives Matter Climate Change Safeguarding  Matthew, the most Jewish of the gospels starts focusing on Gentiles 4 highlights from the...

Introduction: Rise and shine!  Have you taken down your Christmas decorations?  Christmas is not just a one day feast  Our knitted nativity scene is missing the shepherds but does have 3  strangers - the wise men  Matthew's story of the wise men is what we will be looking at today  Reminders of the stars made in the Junior Church service just before  Christmas, t...

Origins of carols as poems Introduction to In the Bleak Midwinter Written by the 19th Century poet Christina Rosetti  Set by Gustav Holst to music it soon became a favourite  It reminds us of Narnia where it is always winter  The harshness of the winter is contrasted with the warmth of a mother's milk  What can we give Christ today?  Carol - In the Bleak Midwinter - © Gera...

Thought - The gift we receive on the third day of Christmas.   Decoding the Christian code of 3 French hens and other items from the  song.   Three is a special number in the Christian faith, believed to symbolise the three gifts the wise men gave Jesus or maybe the three great virtues that Paul speaks about - faith, hope and love.  We all need those gifts in these challenging...

O Holy night We are not able to meet in person today Holy Night is regularly voted as the nation's favourite carol  Carols are seen as the songs of the people  Singing in groups has not been possible over the past months which is a loss  Reading - Luke 1, 46-55 Introduction to the first carol, Joy to the World  Our 1st carol is by Isaac Watts, based on Psalm 98 - Joy to the Wor...

Service start and opening prayers  Carol  Oh come all ye faithful - engage worship and lighting the advent candle ring  Advent candle song  Reading Luke 2 Carol O little town of Bethlehem - engage worship  Short message and prayers  Words from the carol  We've had many hopes and fears this year In all the messiness of life, Jesus comes to join us today, to share...

The full Carols by Candlelight service from 2020 00:00 Service Welcome, Carol Silent Night - Sung by TCE singers  00:04:40 Lighting Advent Candles & Prayer  00:06:08 Reading Isaiah 9.2 John 14,5 John 8.12, Luke 1.78 - Church Members on Zoom  00:07:00 Reading Luke 2 1-7 - Wendy  00:08:13 Reading Luke 2 8-10 - Matthew  00:09:48 Carol Hallelujah  - Lyrics Cloverton,...

Revd John Mackerness - Reflection - Who do you say you are?   Roots suggests playing a clip from a BBC comedy from a show "Keeping Up Appearances"  Hyacinth Bucket trying to live the dream but constantly coming a cropper  How we constantly try to put on a front and "over egg the pudding" to make our lives seem a bit more exciting  Sometimes the hardest place to be ourselves is...

Revd John Mackerness - Who do we say we are?  If I met you for the first time, how would you describe yourself?  "I'm a minister" might be a conversation stopper but "I'm an airport chaplain" might get you a bit further  How we describe ourselves depends on where we are and who we are with retirement or unemployment can be difficult as we don't have a good way of describing ourselve...

Reading Isaiah 40. 1-11 NIVUK    Reading Mark 1. 1 – 8 NIVUK    Short talk: ‘prepare for what?’  A key word in advent is "Prepare"  What are we preparing for? Buy a huge turkey or a small chicken?  Preparing is important but what happens if we have no clue what to prepare for  What can businesses do to prepare for what how the pandemic will evolve?  The...

Reading - Mark 13, v24-37 Prayer, Talk - hope and fears  So the countdown begins to whatever Christmas will be this year  Will you travel or stay at home?  The government says Christmas has been saved  Is the plan enough to save it from the excess and poverty, the stresses and strains, the mental pressures?  Advent helps us refocus on that first great mystery, God in a chi...

Talk - Have you put up the Christmas lights yet?  Light shining in the darkness  Remember Blue Peter Advent crown?  Walking the Way   Focusing on key words as we light the advent candles - today it is "hope"   Reading - Psalm 80, v1-7  Lighting of the first Advent candle, Advent prayer and Advent song

Reading John  Talk from Chris Stratta of The Leprosy Mission  Remembering carrying water up the hills in Lyme Regis to raise money for clean water in leprosy communities overseas  Feeling God prompting to go overseas at age 18  God showing how we can make a difference to one or two people is still worth doing  In life we make our mark and however small it is, it's still ou...

What do you think of when you hear the word leprosy? "Surely no-one today has leprosy?"  Every 2 minutes someone is told they have leprosy  Activity to show how leprosy affects us by interfering with how the brain feels and reacts to pain  Pray for people who have leprosy who can't feel pain   Introduction to the bible reading  Bible Reading: 2 Kings 5. 1-15a

Readings: 'A Simple Guide for Behaviour' Talk: Jesus and Jonah  The more we look at the story of Jonah, the more we realise how much Jesus was influenced by it Jesus, the great story teller  How different translations treat the humour in the reading from Matthew looking at how we treat others  Can we find new ways of being kind amongst all the restrictions of life in the 21st Centur...

Recap on Jonah story  We have been looking a the story of Jonah throughout Autumn and bring it to a close today  Jonah has a message and challenge, an inspiration and warning  Thanks to Janet (Tollington) and John (Campbell) for their help on this in our Tuesday reflections  Let's remember again where it all started with God calling Jonah to go to Nineveh  There's a (long)...

Reading - Matthew 5. 1 – 9 (NIVUK)  Short Address and act of remembrance  This year our remembrance has been overshadowed by the COVID pandemic with a smaller number able to gather at the cenotaph  The uncertainty over the US elections now beginning to clear but a divided nation needing our prayers  Our divided nation and world  This is a good moment for everyone from all...

Talk - Time flying by  We are conscious of time flying by, especially today with the two minutes' silence  Time can also stand still, in those 2 minutes, so much thinking goes on  Most of us today were born after the second world war  We can still remember the effect of war and make sure that such terrible events don't happen again  Poppy decorations from the Guides and Br...

Reading - Hebrews 11.39 – 12.3  Short Address: The cloud of witnesses pictured in the reading - like a full stadium urging us to keep going  "Yes, you can do this, don't give up on God or love"  Then the picture draws to something more personal - keep your eyes on Jesus and focus on what God wants us each to do  Picture him leading us in this great race  Fix your eyes on h...

Reading - Jonah 2. 5 -7 Talk - Link to Hope shoebox appeal - who we are and what we do

Commands and complications  The collision of One World Week and Black History Month  Genius is making complex things simple, not vice versa  1300BC when Moses came down with the Ten Commandments - nice, clear and simple but by the time Jesus came on the scene, just one commandment had evolved into 600 specific banns  The meaning of neighbour today and Levi's time  Who was...

Activity - How much rice?  Messy maths time  Grains of rice on a chess board  How would the world be if everyone was generous to two other people  Reading - Leviticus 19, 1,2 and 15-18