MENUMENU
  • Home
  • About
    • History
    • Meet the Team
    • The Parochial Church Council (PCC)
  • Contact Us


St Mary’s
Tottenham

Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!

— St Augustine of Hippo, Confessions
MENUMENU
  • St Mary's Church
        • St Mary’s Church

        • Choir
        • Mass & Prayer
        • Mass setting
        • Sunday School
        • News
        • Sermons
        • Boys' Brigade with Girls' Association
        • Fundraising
        • Find Us
  • The Good Shepherd Church
        • The Good Shepherd Church

        • Mass & Prayer
        • Sunday School (BLAST!)
        • News
        • Sermons
        • Tuesday Lunch Club (GSC)
        • Boys' Brigade with Girls' Association
        • Find Us
  • Other Services
    • Weddings
    • Baptisms
    • Funerals
  • Music
    • The Hill Organ
    • Concerts
  • Events & Activities
    • Christingle 2020
    • Holy Week & Easter 2023
    • Mothering Sunday
    • Fathers’ Day 2019
    • Good Shepherd Sunday
    • The Mothers' Union (SMC)
    • Confirmations 2019
    • Fireworks display
    • Christmas Activity Day
    • Suggested Reading
    • Harvest Festival 2020
    • Easter Activity Day
    • Senior Sunday School
    • Christmas & New Year
    • All Souls’ Day – 2nd November
    • Lent 2023
    • Study Group
  • Halls for Hire
  • Giving
February 24, 2019

SMC – 24th February 2019

Preacher: Fr Beer
Service Type: S. Mary's

The theme of today`s scripture reading is well summed up in the response to Psalm 102:  “The Lord is compassion and love”.
The Old Testament reading from 1 Samuel 26 shows the opportunity that King David had of being able to kill King Saul who had so badly treated him who had been utterly consumed with jealousy.   David`s servant Abishai even offers to kill Saul who was, like his exhausted men, in a deep sleep.   David resists the temptation and refuses to harm the Lord`s anointed.   They make off with Saul`s spear and the water jar and then, from a safe distance and on the top of a hill David shouts out: `Here is the king`s spear.   Let one of the soldiers come across and take it.   The Lord repays everyone for his uprightness and loyalty.   Today the Lord .ut you in my power, but I would not raise my han d against the Lord`s anointed.`   There is almost a sacramental nature in the anointing of the kings of Israel of old just as there is with the anointing of our own sovereign at her Coronation!    Just as Saul, and later King David, was set apart for their Kingship by God and anointed so in our own time this has happened to our Queen as it will happen again to the Prince of Wales when our Queen leaves this world!
The psalmist calls us to give thanks to the Lord and to never forget his blessings going on to say, “It is he who forgives all your guilt….who crowns you with love and compassion.” And again, “As far as the east is from the west so far does he remove our sins.   As a father has compassion on his children, the Lord has pity on those who fear him.”
St. Paul in those short five verses from chapter 15 of his first letter to the Christian at Corinth also shows what we shall be as children of God – that is children by adoption and grace through the waters of Baptism.   Just as Adam, the first man, became a living soul, so we become heavenly by nature through the waters of Baptism.   We were born in the model of Adam as the earthy man so on Baptism we were reborn as brothers and sisters of Jesus Christ by water and the Holy Spirit.
St. Luke in chapter 6 of his Gospel continues where we left off last Sunday moving on from the Beatitudes as taught by Jesus in the Sermon on the Plain to the radical teaching of how to treat others.   In this case Jesus seems to be teaching his disciples rather than the crowds when he says, `I say this to you who are listening:  Lo e your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who treat you badly.`   Even these words follow a little later: `Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your property back from  the man who robs you.` and yet later, `Instead, love your enemies and do good, and lend without any hope of return.   You will have a great reward, and you will be sons of the Most High, for he himself is king to the ungrateful and the wicked.`  `Be compassionate as your Father is compassionate.   Do not judge, and you will not be judged yourselves;  grant pardon, and you will be pardoned.`  We are reminded of what Jesus taught in response to the request, `Lord, teach us to pray.`   To which he responded, `When you pray say, “Our Father, who art in heaven……..   Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
The disciples, and indeed the rest of the crowd on that plain, would have been brought up on the Jewish Law`s idea of “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” – the old wreaking of vengeance.   We too in the ways of the world are tempted to that dog -eat-dog mentality.   The radical teaching  of Jesus would have come as a significant shock to his hearers for the process of salvation that he had come to establish would be based on forgiveness and, therefore, to be part of, and to belong to that process must put each one of us right out there in the front line of tolerance, forgiveness and love.
Lent is just around the corner, some ten days away, when we are called to repentance and penitence.   A wise spiritual director suggests, `Imagine yourself in front of a mirror, reflect on the failures and sin in your life.   Take as much time as you need but don`t become obsessional about it.  You re going to ask God for forgiveness, you are going to try to make amends wherever possible, an you want to move forward from here.    Ask yourself one simple question:   Can you absolve yourself before asking God to forgive you ?  Can you ask God to do something for you that you are unwilling to do for yourself ?    Guilt is not from God    Rather it is your own inability to forgive yourself.   I remember a very senior GP saying to me many years ago:   `What is wrong with you clergy ?   You are not teaching people about the Sacrament of Penance – the means of the assurance of God`s loving forgiveness.   If more people used a regular routine, say three or four times a year, of making their confession we would have many less people suffering from guilt and other neurosis.
In that part of the Lord`s prayer which I quoted earlier, `Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us` we are tempted to rattle it off through over familiarity without looking at the depth of what we are saying or the deep consequence of what we are saying.   We ourselves can lonely be forgiven by God if we ourselves are ready to forgive those who have offended us.
There is a proven power in forgiveness and love and the ability to turn the other cheek.  The bully cannot deal with the power of the one who won`t strike back, but often resorts to violence as the only way to silence their voice protest.   To err is human, to forgive is divine!   Of course, a Christians we aim to be bid-hearted, tolerant and patient but the ideal that Jesus sets before us is, “Be merciful, just as your heavenly Father is merciful.”

« SMC – 17th February 2019 GSC – 10th March 2019 »

Sunday Mass in 2023

Come for Mass at St Mary’s on Sundays at 10am and 12noon

Come for Mass at the Good Shepherd on Sundays at 5pm.

Morning Prayer is said at St Mary’s at 9.15am and Evening Prayer at the Good Shepherd at 4.15pm.

Weekday Mass Times in 2023

St Mary’s 9.30am Monday to Saturday except Tuesday at 7.30pm

Good Shepherd Tuesdays at 12.15pm often followed by lunch club

You also can say your prayers, light candles and look around our churches at this time.

Morning or Evening Prayer is said 30 minutes before the Weekday Masses at St Mary’s.

 

We’re two lively churches welcoming all to come and worship Christ as revealed in the Scriptures and proclaimed in the Church. We have a lot of laughter too as we seek to be more faithful and to usher in God’s Kingdom throughout Tottenham.

St. Mary’s Church

Sunday Masses at 10am and 12noon are lively affairs; with quieter opportunities for prayer during the week.

Join us at Mass & Prayer

The Good Shepherd

A smaller congregation that gathers for Mass at 5pm, seeking to remind the backstreets where we find ourselves that God loves us lots.

Join us at Mass & Prayer

Events

  • 10am Sunday Mass10am Sunday Mass
    11/06/2023
    10:00 am - 11:00 am

    St Mary’s Church
  • Sunday MassSunday Mass
    11/06/2023
    5:00 pm - 6:00 pm

    Good Shepherd
  • 10am Sunday Mass10am Sunday Mass
    18/06/2023
    10:00 am - 11:00 am

    St Mary’s Church
  • © 2023 St. Mary's Tottenham
    • Accessibility
    • Legal
    • Privacy
    • Safeguarding
    • Sitemap
    served by freshSPRING