Weekly Update #220 – 6 October

St Columba’s United Reformed Church

30 Northumberland Square | North Shields | NE30 1PW
Weekly Update #220 – 6th October 2024
From the Minister         Two Songs and Grandfatherly Advice About Money

pot of goldYou can tell that the 1970s were my teenage years. Those are the years from which I am most likely to remember and identify a pop song. Some of them featured money. In 1976 ABBA were singing, “money, money, money, must be sunny in a rich man’s world.” Three years later, that wonderfully named group, The Flying Lizards, proclaimed, “the best things in life are free, but I want money.” Perhaps I was prepared for their message by my grandfather (who died in that decade). He informed me that, “money might not make you happy, but at least you can be miserable in comfort.” Despite the best efforts of some of today’s “prosperity gospel” preachers, the Bible does not enthuse over money. Riches are regarded as a blessing, though over-attachment to them is problematic, especially when the poor suffer as a result. One New Testament letter even argues that “love of money is the root of all evil.” (1 Timothy 2:16) That’s an intriguing range of views to ponder upon as Saint Columba’s has its first financial stewardship campaign in five years. The good news is that we are not broke. The less good news is that there is a gap between what comes in each week and what goes out each week to keep the church running. That means we are relying on our (diminishing) reserves to keep going. We want to close the gap between income and expenditure through increasing our regular giving (though we recognise that not every church member can increase the amount they give). We’re not setting out to be rich, and the best things in life might even be free (like God’s love for us), so it’s not as if we are in love with money. We do want to have enough so that as a church we can continue to share the love of God with others as it has been (freely!) made known to us through Jesus Christ.

Trevor

Image by OpenClipart-Vectors from Pixabay.

The Flying Lizards – Money.
ABBA – Money, Money, Money.

Prayer

Lord God, we bring you the ordinary things of life – food and drink and money – and with them we bring ourselves. Take us, and our gifts of money, to do your work in the world; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Taken from an offertory prayer in “Worship From the United Reformed Church”)

Worship  Sunday 6th October

10.30 a.m.    “The Responsibility Is Ours”: a service focusing on Christian financial stewardship and the ongoing life of our church.

6.30 p.m.      “Have Your Cake And Harvest Hymns”: a joint evening service with St Andrew’s URC, Monkseaton. Members from our two churches will gather for tea, coffee and cake at Saint Andrew’s, and the opportunity to discuss, choose and sing our favourite harvest hymns – led by Louise Sanders and Trevor Jamison.

Livestreamed Worship from Saint Columba’s

To watch the morning service live, catch up with it later in the week, or view previous services,

Click here.

Sunday 12th October – Street Pastors

Street Pastors logo10.30 a.m.    A communion service, led by Trevor Jamison. At this service we will hear about the work of Street Pastors and a member of our congregation will be commissioned to work as a street pastor.

Logo: © 2020 Ascension Trust.

Bible readings

Job 1:1;2:1-10             Where bad things happen to a good person
Psalm 26                     God’s love and our behaviour
Hebrews 1:1-4;2:5-12  Jesus “tasted death” for the sake of everyone
Mark 10:2-16               Jesus’s challenging words about marriage, and about children

You can read the Bible passages online at https://www.biblegateway.com/

Reflection on the Readings

Job, his wife and friendsJob, as the saying goes, had it all: marriage, children, staff, property. And on top of it all he was, ‘blameless and upright.’ (1:1) He was a paragon of virtue in a biblical book written to help its readers ponder on how God lets even the most righteous people in the world suffer hardship and disaster, never mind the things that happen to the rest of us. It’s about how we should respond when such suffering comes along. You don’t have to read the book as though it is a history of events that occurred somewhere in this world many years ago (though you are free to do so if you wish). Instead, try reading it as a sort of fantasy novel in which suffering is the result of a challenge or wager between God and a heavenly being known as ‘the accuser’ (2:1) concerning how a person of faith will respond when life goes wrong. After a string of disasters in which Job loses his oxen, donkeys, sheep and camels to raiders, along with the lives of many of his servants (2:13-18), worse follows; his children are all killed when a great wind destroys the house where they are dining. (2:18-19) In his situation many would despair; some might curse God; Job does neither: ‘the LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be name of the LORD.’ (2:21) At this point in the story we are invited not to ask why a good person suffers. Instead, we are invited to ask what the good way is to respond when suffering comes our way.

Image: Job, his wife, and friends. Trinity Church, Boston. Creative Commons BY-SA 4.0.  Trinity Church, Boston – Job, from Art in the Christian Tradition, a project of the Vanderbilt Divinity Library, Nashville, TN. https://diglib.library.vanderbilt.edu/act-imagelink.pl?RC=51536 [retrieved October 2, 2024]. Original source: Image donated by Jim Womack and Anne Richardson.

A hymn that responds to the readings
By Gracious Powers so Wonderfully Sheltered – a hymn written in prison by the German pastor and theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a few months before his execution by the Nazis in 1945. It includes the hugely challenging verse, ‘And when the cup you give is filled to brimming / with bitter suffering, hard to understand / we take it thankfully and without trembling / out of so good and so beloved a hand.’
News and Notices

Funeral service details

The funeral service for Jim Carr will take place at the cemetery chapel at Preston Cemetery on Monday 7th October at 11.00 a.m.

The funeral service for Irene Dougal will take place at Tynemouth crematorium on Thursday 10th October at 11.15 a.m.

Pie and Peas Lunch and Quiz – Saturday 19th October, 1.00 p.m.

Tickets are now on sale for another of our highly popular pie and peas lunches (plus quiz). Tickets cost £8.00 and are available from Norma.

Next Update – Sunday 13th October

John Drew will edit the next Update.  Please get your information to him by Tuesday 8th October.

Keeping in Touch

You can contact your Elder, the Minister, or Church Secretary.

Minister: The Reverend Dr Trevor Jamison     Church Secretary: Alison Drew
minister.northshieldsurc@gmail.com               [email protected]
0191 290 1193         07896 899538                 0191 251 9774

Copyright © 2024 St Columba’s United Reformed Church, All rights reserved.

Registered Address:
St Columba’s United Reformed Church

30 Northumberland Square

North Shields, Tyne and Wear NE30 1PW

United Kingdom

St Columba’s United Reformed Church Charity is a registered charity in England & Wales, number 1164784.

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