Tapton Church Blog

Leader:    Mark Taylor  from Newark

what have these three symbols in common  ?

an x  a heart   a rose      Love                                                                                                                                                                   Not only should we love our family and friends,   those we know   we should also love  those we dont know, people we meet in the street, on the bus, people who are different   in nationality   creed

Readings :    Leviticus 19  9-18       Luke 10 25-35

The Good Samaritan story    An expert in church law  asks Jesus  how he can get into heaven   Jesus tells him to love your God with all your soul  mind and heart and your neighbour  as yourself   and that is all you need    In Leviticus  God gives us other instructions

God wants us to love one another     Jesus is asked “who is my neighbour?”   our neighbour can be anyone  regardless of beliefs and doctrines   nationality sex  none of these things matter  – caring does.  Put people into categories   will not do  everyone is a potential neighbour.

Led by Rev Suzanne Nockels

Readings:  Isaiah 1: 10-17   and Matthew 5: 38-45

Suzanne asked ‘When was the last time we were really peaceful?’

Do we bring peace into situations arising around us?

Is Matthew 5 rubbing salt into open wounds?

There is always more than one way to resolve a situation we find ourselves in

Some of us travelled up to Harden Congregational Church near Bradford to join Dr Walter Riggans and friends from other churches for  a discussion on Why Jesus told parables,     An extremely interesting  thought provoking day coming away full of thoughts.  Thanks to Harden CC for providing a lovely lunchand hosting the event.

Leader : Suzanne Nockels      31st October is Halloween,  All Saints Day and Reformation Day

Suzanne put on a white sheet  to pretend she was a ghost for halloween  – scary ? a disguise.  All the time we wear a disguise in our lives,  we put on a good face for the world,   underneath there are  shadows, scary moments, .  we are not honest about how we feel.    Martin Luther wanted to change things that were scary    and he managed that – if we ask Jesus and His father for help we can overcome the scary things in our lives.

Reading          Daniel 7 1-10   13-19  A scary passage about four beasts.

As President elect of the Federation Suzanne has  been asked to attend some events – one being the cannonisation of Cardinal Newman at Westminster Cathedral (which she could not attend)       she told us about the Catholic  church and  Saints.      We would all like to be called saint   we meet people who we call saints  they show caring and love and ask for no reward for what they do      If we try we can all be better people.

Led by Mr Keith Bradley

Theme of Halloween – Pagan or Christian?

Considering origins of Halloween / Christian involvement / What the bible might say about the activities or beliefs.

Led by Mr Mike Warren

Mike related the story of Barnabus ‘the encourager’, friend of the friendless who came to follow Jesus also a friend of the friendless. Barnabus later encouraged Saul later to become Paul who changed from persecuting Jesus and his followers to become one of them.  Read about it in Acts 4 and 9.

This was followed by a sermon on Romans 15: 1-6 and Luke 4:16-24

Jesus, a visiting rabbi preaches from the seat of Moses in his home town. Jesus presented the 7 principles of his own ministry and as a template for the church.

Jesus was proclaiming that the reading from Isaiah 61:1,2 was being fulfilled by his presence but the people of Nazareth did not accept this son of Joseph as a prophet. They were then enraged that Jesus was saying sometimes God’s message would reach Gentiles rather than Jews.

Brick Church was well supported with young people designing and making ‘tables’ to support our harvest offering.

We heard how Jesus told a story of a great feast. Do we fail to appreciate what is laid before us and make excuses because we are too busy? Who do we forget to invite to the table?

Gifts donated during the service to be sent to the S6 Food Bank

Against a back drop of Lego ‘tables’ made during Lego brick church displayed on the window sills, corn dollies created by Lydgate school pupils draped around the pulpit and flowers throughout Rev Suzanne Nockels led our harvest festival.

Psalm 67:  May the peoples praise you God; may all the peoples praise you. The  land yields its harvest; God our God blesses us.

Harvest is a time when the community would come together to bring in the crop, hopefully sufficient to see them through the winter. A time of joy and relief if the harvest was good and a time to thank God

Deuteronomy 26 in the Hebrew bible

In biblical times the first part of any harvest was offered to God as a thanksgiving. Corn dollies were made from the first corn harvested. As then we should still always consider God first before all else.

Deuteronomy not only covers the harvest of crops but goes further  considering justice; slavery and workers rights.

God has a harvest so what does God wish to harvest? The bible refers to us as first fruit – One day good people will be harvested.

Revelation 14 may be heightened language illustrating John’s vision but still considers God’s harvest.  Written to persecuted Christians, John indicates how easy it would be to give up, however Revelation encourages us to keep going to a joyful harvest of peace and love.

One day God will complete his work and the whole harvest of the kingdom will be gathered in.

Leader : Suzanne Nockels

Readings :  Ephesians  2  4 6    Colossians 4  10 18     Jeremiah 29  10 14

Paul wrote to his friends from prison as our readings today show       We were very interested to hear from a prison visitor who told us about the routine of  a visit  and how faith has played such a great part in the work that is done.

We also heard from a reformed man who told us about his life from being in care at the age of five   the mistakes he had made  and the treatment he received in prison   which had made him think bad of everyone  until he met his visitor and was led to faith and a different lifestyle  which he has followed without fail for many years now.   Both these people made us realize what faith can do   how God can change lives  even of those who seem beyond help   they also helped us to understand a different world.       A very inspiring service.

Four of us went from Taapton to the Induction of the new minister Rev. Geoff Probert at Scunthorpe Congregational Church.  It was a lovely service and it was good that Keith as N E Area Chair and Suzanne as Federation President elect were there in an official capacity  as well as being personal friends of the church.