Grapevine: News from the Parish - 17th February 2021

Our vision is to be church at the heart of our community

17th February 2021

Dear Friends,

"Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me"

(Psalm 51:10)

Hello again! We hope you’ve managed to have a good week and that you and your loved ones are safe and well.

Today is Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent. During this season of Lent, we are invited to pause and ask, “How is my journey with Jesus going?” Am I dawdling and distracted? Am I running too far ahead of him? Have I wandered from the pathway? Lent challenges us to be open and honest with ourselves and with God.

Lent also challenges us to strip away those barriers of security that protect us from having to face the suffering of so many and so much of the world. Lent isn’t easy! Lent comes to make its appeal, to remind us that it is possible to create something new within ourselves and around us. This ‘new thing’ is only possible because God is always faithful. He is always rich in goodness and mercy, and he is always ready to forgive and start afresh. With confidence in God, let’s pause with Jesus for these 40 days of Lent, allowing him into our hearts, and allowing him to direct our vision to the things that HE sees as important.

With our love and prayers
from the Parish Ministry Team

BIBLE READING FOR THE WEEK
Matthew 6: 5-13 The Sermon on the Mount
(NIV UK)

‘And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. ⁶But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. ⁷And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. ⁸Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.

⁹‘This, then, is how you should pray:

Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
¹⁰Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
    on earth as it is in heaven.
¹¹Give us today our daily bread.
¹²And forgive us our sins,
    as we forgive those who sin against us.
¹³Lead us not into temptation,
    but deliver us from evil.

Thought for the Week

In our Gospel reading this week, Jesus continues his famous Sermon on the Mount. Here he is teaching his disciples how to pray. He teaches us that prayer is a deeply personal thing between us and God. We can of course pray in public, as we do in Church, but the motivation of such prayer is not to show people how good we are at praying. The motivation is to build and strengthen our relationship with our Father in heaven – not to impress people on earth. Jesus advises us to find a quiet place, and to pray quite simply. He invites us to address God as Father.

What an awesome privilege we are given, to be able to come to the Creator of the Universe as his children. We are to come acknowledging our Father’s perfect goodness and desiring his kingdom of perfect goodness be present and real in this world, for all Creation for all time. We come as children, asking our Father to provide us with all that we need (not all that we want!) and just enough for our present needs (not more than enough for years to come.) Why? So that we come to him every day, maintaining our relationship, and keeping it strong. We come to our Father in sorrow for the wrong things we have done and the right things we have failed to do, asking his forgiveness, and asking him to help us forgive others who may have wronged us.

Carrying hurts from our past is a huge burden that many of us carry. It can take great strength to forgive those who have hurt us, but God is able to give us that strength and relieve us of that burden - every day if need be. Those hurts still matter, of course they do, but the burden of carrying them passes to our Father. Finally, we come asking our Father to protect us from the temptations and dangers that face us in life. (‘For thine is the Kingdom etc…’ was added by the Church as a finale of praise.)

The Lord’s prayer helps us to pray, but we have a Father who longs to hear from us at any time with anything that concerns us, so next time you are sitting with a cup of tea or coffee, why not just speak to him … He’s longing to hear from you.

Prayers for the Week
In your prayers this week, please include the following:

For God to give us all a pure heart and a steadfast spirit
For the lonely and the anxious
For our health services and key workers and all those who are sick and awaiting medical treatment
For those who mourn, thinking especially of the loved ones of David Birchall
For everyone to be patient with the Covid-19 restrictions
Wisdom for our Government planning easing of lockdown
For fair treatment of all nations in the vaccine supply

Helpful Telephone Numbers

The Parish
Revd John Cook, Vicar - 0118 940 2202
Revd Steve Turville, Curate - 0118 901 6720
Lucy and Rosalyn in the Parish Office* - 0118 940 2300
(* Open Wednesday & Thursday: 10am - 1pm during February.
Answerphone monitored regularly outside office hours)

Diocese of Oxford Sunday Service - 01865 920930
Dial 01865 920930 and once connected, dial 0 for the full version of the service, or dial 1 for a short version. Standard call rates apply.
There will be a brief silence before the service starts.

Church of England DAILY HOPE - 0800 804 8044
The phoneline – available 24 hours a day – has been set up particularly for
those unable to join online church services.

One Front Door: Citizens Advice
0300 330 1189 (Wokingham Residents) 0300 330 1189 (RBWM Residents)
Are you needing more support during this pandemic? One Front Door is here to help you; from collecting prescriptions and connecting you with someone to talk to; to delivering food and other essentials.
For residents of Windsor and Maidenhead, please call and leave a message. An advisor will call you back within 2 working days.