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Golders Green Parish Church – Newsletter
12 August 2020
Our guest contributor this week is Tony
About a week ago I finished reading first volume of a book called Paul and the Faithfulness of God. This is a book by a theologian and a former Bishop of Durham, N T Wright. I am not going to do a book review, because I cannot at this stage even attempt to reduce my 20 odd pages of notes into a side of a4.
What struck me in reading this book was what Paul understood the Kingdom of God to be: It was the family of God made up of people of all ethnicities and states - men women and children, slaves and free, rich and poor, irrespective of where we may have came from. So what I would like to do is to try and encourage us to engage with an aspect of Paul's writings and more importantly the central theme of Jesus' in John 17.
Jesus prayed before He was crucified that we would be one United family along with His disciples: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you." As you know, the 'alone' here refers to the first disciples, His apostles and others who were with them, the 'those who believe in me through their message' is you and me, the Jewish and Gentile believers who followed them and have followed over the centuries.
When Paul became a believer I wonder if he reviewed the entirety of our Old Testament and more, and came to understand something that Peter understood in Acts 10 that both Jews and Gentiles could only be saved, and thus become children of our Heavenly Father, through faith in the work of Jesus, His death on the cross for our sins, paying the price for our sins and being raised to new life confirming Scriptures that God's kingdom had now come to begin reign on earth. You see both Jew and Gentile are made in His image and therefore God provided a way for both to come back to Him in worship and to worship and serve Him. This is the gospel mystery that Paul talks about so much in Ephesians and Romans. He says
"In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." (Eph. 3)
I too came to the conclusion many years ago that there was no black or white in God's kingdom. Separate groups of believers was not in the plan for us: it was not God's plan and the early church fathers understood this. However, in many places where I went to church I was the only black person there. We need to remember that the early church was full of people from all known ethnicities of the Roman Greek world, even the church in Antioch had a mixed leadership of Jew and gentile.
So you may ask, why am I saying all this? Well, one of the main things the Gospel of Jesus does is to bring us all, gentile and Jew into one family in Him. We should remember this as this is in fact the foundation of the church, the reason for the foundation of Israel: Paul regards the Church as the new Israel. Without Jesus none of us could be a member of the family of God, of His kingdom.
The second is indeed good news to us all and so transformative of our lives. It is that because of what Jesus did in bringing us back to God, we are forgiven of our sins and therefore have a clean slate with Him. But it also means we can forgive each other and other people of the slights and hurts, the deep hurts of life, because we all meet at the foot of the Cross. Forgiveness is where all start from and we move on together to grow into the people He wants us to be, a people who witness in our lives together to the transforming work of God, who show to those around us that men and women of all colours can live and work together under God and for His Kingdom. This shows and fulfils the saying of Jesus that by our love for one another those not in the Kingdom will know that He is he Lord and Saviour of the world and we are His disciples (Jn. 13: 34-35). This is a different culture, not of this world but of Jesus, it is one that is counter cultural, one where we look after each other through the generations.
Originally I ended at the paragraph above, but I considered that there was something else I think we should understand - we, including me, need to commit to walking as His ambassadors. We need to be people who are in love with Him and each other and who desire to see our lives transformed by Him. The song of the week speaks of the picture in Revelation of the Lion of Judah and the Lamb of God, Jesus of Nazareth who is worthy to open the scroll before all tribes of the earth before the Father: He alone is worthy and we can picture ourselves in the throng before the Throne, on bended knee. If Jesus is worthy to do all this for us, should we not seek to love one another irrespective of our ethnicities?
Thank you Tony
A Hello to say Goodbye!
We are moving house and out of London. Therefore we need to say a fond farewell to GGPC!
Thank you all for welcoming us so warmly four years ago, especially Thea & Mariana. We have really enjoyed sharing our lives and faith with you.
All best wishes in Christ.
The Roberts Family
Daily Hope - The Church of England Phone line church service - is available 24 hours a day on 0800 804 8044 – has been set up particularly with those unable to join online church services during the period of restrictions in mind.
Please continue to pray for those who have asked us as a community to pray for them
Okey Jnr, Margaret, Yvone, Anna, Jason, Ian, Eva, Juliette, Ivor, Myfanwy, Tim and Dorothy
We at Golders Green Church will continue to offer a number of ways we can and will keep in contact though emailing and phoning each other, the use of Facebook and the website, sending out updates by supporting those who need shopping, prescriptions fetched, letters posted and anything else you may need if you are isolated at home, whether you are in the over 70-year-old age group, or, have underlying health conditions.
The important thing is, PLEASE LET US KNOW. We are drawing up a list of volunteers we can call on to help. If anyone wants to add their names to this, please email Rex rex@gg-pc.co.uk
Radio, Television and Online Worship
You may wish to join in worship during this time through television and radio.
Check online, in the Radio Times and elsewhere for details:
Songs of Praise BBC 1, Sunday afternoon, variable times
Sunday Worship BBC Radio 4, Sunday, 8.10am Choral Evensong BBC
Radio 3, Wednesday Daily Service
BBC Radio 4 (Longwave only), weekdays, 9.45am
Big Sunday Service Premier Christian Radio, Sunday, 7am, 8am, 10am Easter Sunday Eucharist A service is usually broadcast on the BBC on Easter morning
Free 24 hour telephone church service 0800 804 8044
Online resources Church of England Daily Prayer https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-service-dailyprayer
https://mailchi.mp/b9d86a4acdc7/coming-up-from-st-pauls-cathedral-1274047?e=377e26b1db St Paul’s Cathedral have a number of resources available for us to use.
Church of England Online Resources during this time https://www.churchofengland.org/more/media-centre/coronaviruscovid-19-liturgy-and-prayer-resources
Go On-line to " ps://www.achurchnearyou.com", put in Area or post code and find a local church that broadcasts Worship.
Prayers from Christian Aid https://www.christianaid.org.uk/pray/churches/coronavirus-prayers
https://pray-as-you-go.org/ Pray as you Go (a short service each day in the Jesuit Tradition)
LICC have some great resources on their website https://www.licc.org.uk/
Especially on Covid-19 https://www.licc.org.uk/ourresources/prayer-journeys/presence-pressure-purpose/
YouTube - Worship Video of the week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1D9AKqoSIU Oh Lord You´re Beautiful
Do you have favourite worship songs? Please email them to Rex at rex@gg-pc.co.uk