Please turn off your mobile phone during worship. Please note a hearing loop is installed on the right hand side of St Barts.

Toilets are located in the front of the Hall. First Aid Kits are located in the Church & the Hall.

"Sharing the Good Life"

Reflecting on Christmas Day 25th December The Word made flesh …

For many people, the love and affection for a baby or a young animal is instinctive.

2

WELCOME

Babies, cubs, kittens and puppies draw out of us a natural, tender and unforced love. This is the ultimate image of who God is for us: The Word made FLESH in a vulnerable baby.

We are, and God is, that soft substance of skin, muscle and fat surrounding the skeletons of humans and other creatures. Flesh.

To embrace God means to embrace flesh.

Flesh is a celebration. It is through the medium of skin and the language of touch that we learn to love and be loved. It is through our flesh that we experience the spectrum of emotions and the pleasures life has to offer.

Flesh is a celebration, but it is also the source of pain and fragility. Through flesh we name our vulnerability.

We are our flesh, God is Flesh. Our Flesh bodies is where and how God meets us; not through some invisible inner core.

The opposite of flesh is not spirit, but stone.

A refusal to acknowledge our flesh bodies is to be less than fully human.

Some parts of the church have taught us to be suspicious of our flesh-bodies. Ritual celibacy, and the over-focus on sexuality as evidenced in the recent same-sex debate, is not sanctioned nor endorsed by God.

The church has wounded us deeply in our flesh; tragically this has been through the sexual crimes of some church leaders against the most vulnerable; but also through centuries of teaching us to hate our bodies.

This Christmas season we are invited to be a friend of God by learning a deeper friendship with our bodies, our frailty and our vulnerability. The writer of Hebrews states that we have an altar – it is where God is found and God has met us in the flesh.

Reverend Dr Desiree Snyman Author of the above and the following reflections.

3

Reflecting on Luke 1 for 24th December 2017 My soul proclaims God…

The Song of Mary, called the Magnificat, is one of Christianity’s great gifts to the world. For millennia it has been whispered as a fervent prayer on the courageous breath of martyrs; prayed confidently day my day by those in religious orders compelled to keep an evening office; it has been sung by the greatest choirs because the world’s best musicians have connected the Magnificat with sound that has caressed the ears of

the faithful and the disinterested alike. The ‘Song of Mary’ or the Magnificat is a song of hope contradicting the world’s wisdom. She is so confident of God’s promised future, the new and restored and transformed creation, that she sings it in the past tense. Political and economic powers have already been dethroned. The hungry are already fed. Being a contemplative, she has been blessed with double vision. She is given a glimpse, a vision of a transformed world, and she believes that the reign of God and this world are on an unavoidable convergence course. With eyes of faith and a hopeful ear, she is able to discern that the future God has planned is bleeding back into the here and now. Mary is remembering forward. This is called hope. As a hope-filled contemplative, Mary caught a glimpse of the transformative reign of God in all its fullness. She had the vision, the excitement the joy and she restlessly went out and lived it. This Christmas, let us try and catch a glimpse, though mystical encounter with the new born Christ, of the transformative reign of God. As you spend time with loved ones, as you relax and enjoy yourselves, sit back and savour the kind of world God wants his entire creation to enjoy. Then go out and relentlessly pursue the vision in your daily lives. May the joy of the vision ignite us and spur us on.

4

Reflecting on Christmas 1 the 31st December 2017…

The Mother Tongue

Hans Urs Von Balthazar once wrote: “After a Mother has smiled for a long

time at her child, the child will begin to smile back; she has awakened love in

its heart, and in awakening love in its heart, she awakes also recognition.”

Ronald Rolheisers says: “Awakening love and recognition within a child’s

heart is a result of more than just the mother’s smile, her voice is also

important. Mothers don’t just cuddle babies and smile at them, they also

speak to them. It’s this, hearing the mother’s voice beckoning the child to

come outwards towards a bigger world even when there isn’t yet any real

understanding of what’s being said, that’s vital in bringing a child to

self-awareness and speech. We come out of the darkness and chaos of

infancy precisely to the extent that we are called out by voices that cajole,

caress, reassure, and keep forever luring us beyond ourselves.

5

During the early critical months of a child’s life, it’s the mother’s voice that

does most of this. That’s why the first language we learn is called our

“mother tongue.” It’s the mother’s voice that first caressed us and lured us

out of unthinking, inarticulate darkness.

In the Christmas Season we celebrate the Word made flesh who dwelt

among us. What is the purpose of God the Word?

Rolheiser answers: “The purpose of God’s word is not, first of all, to

challenge us towards charity, social justice, morality, or even to the worship

of something higher or to form community among ourselves, important

though these are in themselves. Christ came, as God’s incarnate Word, to

bring us life, light, and love. This means that Christ came to do what our

mother tongue does, namely, to call us out beyond the fear, darkness, and

chaos that prevents us from entering the world of self-expression, thought,

and conscious love.”

Reflecting on Epiphany for the 7th January 2018

The wise people from the east seek

the one who is born under a new

star – Jesus the Christ. These sages

have access to the places of power,

they seek information about Christ

from Herod. The encounter is filled

with irony. They ask about the one

who is born king of the Jews from

Herod who is king of the Jews. A

further irony is that Herod has the

Scriptures, he has the Scriptures yet

is blind to the presence of Christ.

6

A warning for us who hold the Scriptures dear. The magi make a mistake

when they look for the king in Herod’s palace: when the privileged seek

salvation in the places of power, the consequences for the vulnerable are

brutal. It is a mistake to seek God and salvation in the places of power. The

God of the Scriptures is made manifest among the least, the lost and the

little. What this makes real for us is that mystery is a reality that surrounds us

all the time (as Rohr says, either God is in all things or we have lost the

capacity for seeing God at all). God is made manifest in a house and not a

palace. God manifests God's love, God's mystery in weakness and

vulnerability yet it comes as a threat to our comfort; a threat to our fear of

change. Jesus is a threat to Herod.

The Passage ends with “they left by another road”. A change of direction is a

symbol of conversion. Having worshipped Christ, having encountered

salvation, the wise leave by another road. They lead changed lives,

transformed lives. We too must leave today by another road, a road that

leaves behind fear.

7

Reflecting on The Beloved for 14th January 2018

“You are my beloved with whom I am well pleased…”

Becoming the beloved is the origin and fulfilment of life in the spirit. Our key text for today is the words that God says to Jesus: “you are my beloved. With you I am well pleased.” These are the words that each of us needs to accept in our own hearts. God says to each of us: “you are my beloved child. With you I am well pleased.” Knowing and experiencing that we are deeply loved by God is what the spiritual life is about. God says these words of affirmation to Jesus at the start of his ministry. Jesus has not done or achieved anything yet. Jesus had not earned God’s favour. Yet God says to him: you are my beloved. It is the same for us. God is pleased with us because God is pleased with us. We do not need to do anything or achieve anything in order for God to like us. God accepts us.

Becoming the beloved is the origin and fulfilment of life in the spirit. From the moment we claim the truth to being the beloved we are faced with the challenge to become who we are. Our question today is how can we be God’s beloved?

8

Worship events 2018

Sundays in January 2018: St Bartholomew's: 9am (only 1 combined service) St Peter’s an St Paul’s Tregeagle: 10am (14th and 28th only) Sundays in February 2018: St Bartholomew's: 8am and 10am St Peter’s and St Paul’s Tregeagle: 10am (11th and 25th only) Ash Wednesday St Bartholomew's: 14th February 2018 6pm Contemplative Church St Bartholomew's: Every Thursday at 6pm beginning 15th February 2018 Fun Families get-together Messy Church families and others are invited to slip n slide, splash n dash on Sunday 11th February 2018 at 4.30pm at Paul & Lesley Earner’s home. Ask the office for details.

Play Place 2018 Recommences for the New Year on

Thursday, 8th February 2018 @ 9:30am

9

Manna and Mercy A brief history of God’s unfolding promise

to mend the entire universe! Manna and Mercy is a journey from Genesis to Revelation. It tells the story of the God of the Bible who is active in our lives.

This course is designed to help you: 1. Deepen your relationship with God. 2. 2. Equip you with tools and knowledge to understand

the Bible better. 3. Discover what God's purpose for you is.

What to bring: • A Bible, pen, journal and a happy smile • A healthy packed lunch and brain food snacks

(e.g. nuts, fruit, water) • Suggested donation: $30

Weekly Sessions Tuesdays 6pm - 9pm

20th Feb 18 - 20th March 18

Weekend Retreat 23, 24, 25 Feb

Friday 6pm—9pm and Saturday 10am—4.30pm

Sunday 6pm-9pm

OR

10

Reflecting on “Christian calling” for 21st January 2018

Contagious Christians

The invitation today is for us to be Contagious Christians. A true life Parable explains how. Nick, a first year student at University, was infected with Chicken Pox. Within a month, students at the university were able to tell with conviction who had been in contact with Nick. Fairly good looking people became red and blotchy. Good humoured people became grumpy. They changed. Their change was visible to see. A month later, even more people were feverish, spotty and grumpy. At this stage you knew that they had either been in contact with Nick or one of his friends, it was hard to tell. Nick infected others with Chicken Pox leaving a visible change in their lives. We who are in Christ and are infected with Christian Pox are to allow the radical transformation into conscious love we have experienced to infect others.

May you come to hear the divine whisper naming you and calling you for a special work of love. May you be contagious with grace and share this love with others. May each of you, empowered by the presence of Love, offer life-giving love to the world that God loves.

11

Reflecting on Mark 1: 21-28 for January 28th 2018 Breaking the sabbath

The human race is desperately religious. Religion means that something must be done from our side to fix our relationship with God. Nothing can be done, stop trying! In the old days we tried to perform sacrifices to win God’s favour; that didn’t work. Then we tried strict obedience to the letter of the law; that didn’t work either. The Gospel truth is that: “While we were yet sinners God died for us!” That is the good news about grace. We are saved by grace through faith.

I like Phillip Yancey’s definition: Simply put, grace means that there is nothing that you can do to make God love you more. There is nothing that you can do to make God love you less. Grace is God pouring the essence of who God is into our very souls. Grace is God’s reckless, extravagant and abundant love affair with us.

Grace is ultimately relationship.

The Christian faith is not about religion, it is about the message of the free-gift of God’s grace.

What better moment to break religion and allow grace to flood in! Jesus heals on the Sabbath disobeying the rules and leaving the law in tatters. Grace floods in and life is transformed.

Grace transforms, it changes you from the inside out. It changes the world. Grace is God’s acceptance of you. My deepest and honest prayer for each of you is that you would experience first hand, anew or for the first time the truth of the Scriptures that God pours God’s spirit into our heart and the Spirit testifies to us that we are the children of God, that we do belong to God in the deepest and most profound way. That God is ours and we are God’s. Our response to that is faith, it is saying yes to God.

Through grace we can be transformed and also become agents of healing and transformation: A light to the nations so that God’s love and salvation will reach the ends of the earth.

12

13

Thought for the Week from Mothers Union Australia - Sunday 24 December 2017

Christmas ‘Joy to the world! The Lord is come’. With gladness we greet this holy day and hear the familiar words of Scripture. We prepare our hearts to give him room, to receive our King in Word and Sacrament. We sing his praises and all this on behalf of those who cannot, who dare not, who know not the truth and grace with which He rules the world.

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.

John 1:14 Two hundred Mothers’ Union members are spread across the Diocese of Europe. Let us pray for them as they respond to the needy by supporting food banks and women’s refuges in Malta, for example. We thank God for the development of Mothers’ Union in Antwerp.

Thought for the Week from Mothers Union Australia - Sunday 31 December 2017

New Year ‘The north wind is tossing the leaves, the red dust is over the town, the sparrows are under the eaves and the grass in the paddock is brown, as we lift up our voices and sing to the Christ-child our heavenly King’. The opening lines of William James’ Australian carol bring us to earth in the heat of summer, they keep alive our continuing joy during the twelve days of Christmas and the renewal of our sacred and secular lives.

Give thanks to the Lord for he is good, his love endures forever. 1 Chronicles 16:34

We pray for our members in Sierra Leone that the New Year will bring great blessing for them in their fellowship together and their service in God’s world. Members are passionate about keeping girls in school, and supporting women and girls wanting to access education. Mothers’ Union see the detriment effects of illiteracy of 46% of women aged 15-24 on personal and family life and the country as a whole.

14

15

Reading for 31st December 2017: Luke 2:22-40

Reading for 7th January 2018: Matthew 2:1-12

Reading for Christmas Day 2017: John 1:1-14

Reading for 14th January 2018: Mark 1:4-11

Reading for 21st January 2018: Mark 1:14-20

Reading for 28th January 2018: Mark 1:21-28

Reading for 24th December 2017: Luke 1:26-38

16

Please keep this Bulletin until the end of January 18 as there will be no bulletin until the weekend of the 4th February 2018.

From everyone in The Alstonville Parish:

May you all enjoy a Holy, healthy

and happy Christmas

and may the New Year be full of peace,

power and purpose.