Hello everyone,
Welcome to the latest issue of our church newsletter. Our newsletter is sent out regularly to share reflections from services, Bible readings and church news to our church family. You can find previous issues on our church website here.
We would love to hear from you and are always looking for uplifting and encouraging content to share in future issues of this newsletter. If you have any ideas or content that we can share, please do email them to Louise (publicity@christchurchuxbridge.org.uk)
Please note that there will be no newsletter on 29 March or 12 April due to the Easter weekend and school holidays.
Opening Prayer
Jesus, king extraordinary,
you call us to fight with you against the world’s evils,
but you also promise us peace and reconciliation.
As we seek to understand you better,
give us courage to follow your example,
patience to keep working at self-control and peace-making,
and thankful hearts for the power for good your love brings.
Amen.
(Taken from Roots)
Reflection from 17 March
Readings – Psalm 51: 1-12 and John 12: 20-33
Today we hear about some Greeks who come to Philip. We don’t know if they know Philip; maybe he’s just the one on the edge of the crowd that’s near enough to get to. They come to him and tell him they want to speak to Jesus. Philip, however, does not approach Jesus directly. He goes to Andrew and then the two of them go to Jesus, but they know full well that this these Greeks will be welcomed. It’s really strange because apart from that bit – “we want to meet Jesus” – we never hear about them again. Did they meet Jesus? Well, we assume so, but you don’t get told.
“We wish to see Jesus.” Everyone is important as far as Jesus is concerned. He has already got a reputation for speaking to those who are not worthy of speaking to. Servants, women… he spends time with them, to the shock of everyone else. In the opinion of the religious authorities of the time, he’s a very young upstart that should not be allowed to talk at all. He does things that upset them right from the beginning.
In order to understand exactly what the significance is here, I think we have to go back very briefly to the previous chapter, chapter 11, where we have the account of Lazarus dying. He’s a great friend of Jesus, as are indeed Martha and Mary, his sisters. And so, they send to him in desperation, saying “come, your friend Lazarus is dying,” but Jesus carries on doing what he was doing and it takes him several days to get there. And by the time he gets there, Lazarus has been dead for four days and he’s been buried. He’s in a tomb, sealed in. Jesus travelled there, but he was too late.
I think it’s great the way Mary walks up to him and says, “If you’d have arrived on time, my brother wouldn’t be dead.” So, Jesus travels there and then he gets the equivalent of a good telling off from Mary. That doesn’t stop Jesus in any way at all. He raises Lazarus from the dead. It’s very interesting the way it happens because he talks about grave clothes that Lazarus is wrapped in as if they are trapping him from being free again. And if we think about that for a minute some of the rules that the Pharisees and the Sadducees have put in place are very much like grave clothes. They are holding people down; they are holding people in their place and Jesus wants to set them free.
And now these Greeks speak to Jesus just after he’s really cheesed off the Pharisees again by raising someone from the dead. And how dare he do that? We have the whole Palm Sunday where people shout Hosanna. How dare he bring the people to him? Look, they’re all following him. What are we going do to stop this? And why do they want to stop it? Because what Jesus is saying brings people back to God and shows them a new and free way to worship, free of the restrictions that have been added? No, they want to stop it because they see their power base dwindling before their very eyes.
I’m sure you’ve heard it said before that the Pharisees were basically righteous people. But they had lost their focus. Their focus was on how good they were, how bad everyone else was, and therefore how much they needed to do to control these people who are not following God the right way. That’s what it’s all about. Sometimes you hear Christians say the words that you are a sinner and you’ve fallen short of the glory of God. And I want to say no, no, no. Don’t say that. WE are sinners and have fallen short of the glory of God. We’re not there to condemn somebody else. We are the same. We want to open people’s eyes, and the Pharisees kind of thought they were doing that. But they weren’t.
What they were actually doing was making life a lot more difficult. They condemned Jesus’s miracles. They condemned his teaching. The people listened because what Jesus was saying was fresh and new. But what Jesus also said is that you have to lose your life to follow me. The life of the world that is all about self, about doing the best thing for number one has to go; that life has to be gone. The life we have to follow is the one where we put Jesus first. And if we’re putting Jesus first then we’re putting our love of neighbours first. And when people come to us, like those Greeks came to Philip, and say, “I want to see Jesus,” it’s up to us to take them to Jesus and introduce him. And people do that in many, many different ways.
Have you heard of Albert Schweitzer? He was a Lutheran pastor and trained in theology and music. He became a famous musical scholar and an organist. He enjoyed a very comfortable life. But at the age of 30, he decided he had to do something different, and he enrolled in a 7-year course to become a medical doctor. And upon graduation, he could have set up practise in Paris and he would have earned quite a lot of money. But what he did was he raised financial support, and he took himself and his wife off to Africa. He went to Gambon and spent his time setting up a medical practise and helping people to receive medical care, that they would otherwise never have received. He found his work rewarding, but it was extremely frustrating too, because sometimes when he would tell people what they needed to do to get better, they wouldn’t do it. And one day he said to his assistant, “what a blockhead I was to come out here!” and his assistant replied, “Yes, doctor. Here on Earth, you are a great blockhead, but not in heaven.”
Whatever we might think of Albert Schweitzer and his work, you could be sure that God honoured what he did. He honoured the service that he gave to others. Jesus said whoever serves me, the Father will honour. And we are called to serve Jesus, aren’t we? We are called to share his love with all of those that we meet.
I love this time of Lent. It’s one of my favourite times. The thing about I love about Lent, and Advent, is that they are both times when we are called to reflect. To reflect on our lives as Christians and to reflect on our journey with God. We’re actually called to take time to think about how our journey is going in preparation for what comes next. And of course, what comes next here is we travel that horrible journey of Holy Week; that really tough journey that we have to remember what Jesus did for us. Until we get to that glorious time where we remember that he rose from the dead to give us our salvation, we remember the love that he showed us then. As we travel through each and every day, we remember that wonderful salvation and how exciting it is to be part of that journey to have Jesus as our Lord so that we share that love, we share that joy, we share that welcome with all of those that we meet.
Whoever serves the me the Father will honour. And that’s the thought I want you to leave you with today as we travel this Lent journey: whoever serves me the Father will honour. As we continue to work to build towards being inclusive, as we seek to welcome all, we serve the father. And whoever serves him, whoever serves Jesus, whoever serves the Father, whoever serves the Trinity will be honoured. Amen.
Revd Margaret Dudley
Readings for 24 March
Mark 11: 1-11
Jesus Comes to Jerusalem as King
As they approached Jerusalem and came to Bethphage and Bethany at the Mount of Olives, Jesus sent two of his disciples, 2 saying to them, “Go to the village ahead of you, and just as you enter it, you will find a colt tied there, which no one has ever ridden. Untie it and bring it here. 3 If anyone asks you, ‘Why are you doing this?’ say, ‘The Lord needs it and will send it back here shortly.’”
4 They went and found a colt outside in the street, tied at a doorway. As they untied it, 5 some people standing there asked, “What are you doing, untying that colt?” 6 They answered as Jesus had told them to, and the people let them go. 7 When they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks over it, he sat on it. 8 Many people spread their cloaks on the road, while others spread branches they had cut in the fields. 9 Those who went ahead and those who followed shouted,
“Hosanna!”
“Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!”
10 “Blessed is the coming kingdom of our father David!”
“Hosanna in the highest heaven!”
11 Jesus entered Jerusalem and went into the temple courts. He looked around at everything, but since it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the Twelve.
Further readings from the lectionary this week are as follows:
- Mark 14: 1 – 15:47
- Isaiah 50: 4-9a
- Psalm 31: 9-16
- Philippians 2: 5-11
Readings for 31 March
John 20: 1-18
The Empty Tomb
20 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4 Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came along behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7 as well as the cloth that had been wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate from the linen. 8 Finally the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9 (They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10 Then the disciples went back to where they were staying.
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12 and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”
Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”
16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”
She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).
17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.
Further readings from the lectionary this week are as follows:
- Acts 10: 34-43
- Psalm 118: 1-2, 14-24
- 1 Corinthians 15: 1-11
Our worship
We meet at 11am for our Sunday services, which are also live-streamed on our YouTube channel. If you wish to view our services online, you can find them at https://www.youtube.com/@christchurchuxbridge
You can also view a recent service on our church website. Our service this week for Palm Sunday will be led by Christ Church member, Louise George. You can find the order of service here.
If you are unable to join us in person or online for our Sunday services, but would like to receive a recording of them on a memory stick to watch at home, please let us know.
Forthcoming services
24 March – Christ Church worship group
31 March – Revd Jon Dean (URC minister) – Holy Communion (Easter Sunday)
7 April – Genevieve Musey (Methodist local preacher)
14 April – Christ Church worship group
Church charity news
Church charity coffee mornings
There will be coffee mornings to raise money for Communicare Counselling Service on the following dates:
Saturday 30 March
Saturday 13 April
You can find more details about Communicare Counselling Service, our church charity for 2023 at:
https://christchurchuxbridge.org.uk/activities/churchcharity2023
Good Friday Walk of Witness
Friday 29 March, 11am
This year’s Good Friday Walk of Witness will take place on Friday 29 March. The walk will start from St Andrew’s Church at 11am and will process down the High Street with stops at the Civic Centre and Uxbridge Underground station and will finish with a short passion play outside St Margaret’s Church. There will be refreshments available in St Margaret’s Church following the passion play. All are welcome.
Hillingdon u3a Singers concert
Welcome Spring
Sunday 24 March, 5pm at Christ Church
Hillingdon u3a Singers present ‘Welcome Spring’ – a concert with songs by Hillingdon u3a Singers featuring additional items by Hillingdon u3a Guitar Group and Hillingdon u3a Ukelele Group. Tickets cost £10 for adults (£3 children) and are available from members of the groups or on the door before the performance.
Dates for your diary
| 24 March | Welcome Spring concert |
| 29 March | Good Friday Walk of Witness |
| 31 March | Extraordinary Congregational Meeting |
| 2 April | Service of thanksgiving for Vida Edgeworth |
| 3 April | Welcome Wednesdays |
| 17 April | Welcome Wednesdays |
| 24 April | CTU Bible study starts |
| 27 April | Preach with a view social event |
| 28 April | Preach with a view joint service at Ickenham |
| Farewell service for Revd Dong Hwan Kim at Ruislip Manor Methodist Church | |
| 19 May | Congregational Meeting |
| 8 September | Congregational Meeting |
| 24 November | Congregational Meeting |
Children’s Corner
Praying for other churches
w/c 24 March
This week we hold the following churches in our prayers:
- Harrow & Hillingdon Methodist Circuit staff
- URC Metropolitan North Local Area Group
- Churches Together in Uxbridge
w/c 31 March
This week we hold our own church, Christ Church, in our prayers.
Closing prayer
Thank you, God, for each and every one of your amazing people, every one of them unique.
We thank you that your love is always there for us and reaches to every place and part of the whole world, and all the millions and billions of people, in every generation.
May that inspire and encourage us to be loving to all whom we meet in our day-to-day living.
Amen.
(Adapted from Roots)
