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**A Reflection on the betrayal by Judas for Wednesday of Holy Week by Rev’d Michaela Dean. To accompany Compline this evening.**

At the Passover table, Jesus sighed. He was low in spirit.

“One of you is going to betray me!” he said.

Looking around the table at each other, no one could work out who or what He meant. They all loved Him. They had all travelled this far with Him, what could he mean? Peter beckoned to John, the youngest of them who was reclining next to Jesus, to ask Jesus who did he mean? Jesus dipped a piece of bread into the dish. It was a sign of love and thankfulness to the one it was offered to. And in love Jesus offered it to Judas.

“Do it quickly1”, He whispered.

And so it began, His path to pain, and his path to glory.

The writer to the Hebrews is telling them and us that we too are on a path, he calls it a race, not a sprint but a race of endurance. Like the path of Jesus it will be hard and we need to prepare for it.

Shake off our burdens of sin, of pride, of doing it for our own glory, remembering all those others who have done it before are with us, urging us on. Doing it together and ensuring that the Church of Jesus survives and grows in that place. Today being Church, is difficult. We cannot meet up, not on Sundays, or for our Great Festivals. We are fed by strange methods of social media and the World Wide Web, but we are urged to keep on reading our Bibles, saying our prayers for ourselves and all those who are suffering at this time and for our world in its suffering. Our Church will continue and we will come out stronger at the end.

We too will glorify Jesus by our steadfast love and trust and witness to the world the love of God who is with us throughout this time of turmoil.

Amen ... See MoreSee Less

**Psalm 71.1-14 – A Reflection by Sally Clifton for Tuesday of Holy Week to accompany the service of compline.**

1 In you, O Lord, do I seek refuge; let me never be put to shame.

2 In your righteousness, deliver me and set me free;

incline your ear to me and save me.

3 Be for me a stronghold to which I may ever resort;

send out to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress.

4 Deliver me, my God, from the hand of the wicked,

from the grasp of the evildoer and the oppressor.

5 For you are my hope, O Lord God, my confidence, even from my youth.

6 Upon you have I leaned from my birth, when you drew me from my mother’s womb; my praise shall be always of you.

7 I have become a portent to many, but you are my refuge and my strength.

8 Let my mouth be full of your praise and your glory all the day long.

9 Do not cast me away in the time of old age;

forsake me not when my strength fails.

10 For my enemies are talking against me,

and those who lie in wait for my life take counsel together.

11 They say, ‘God has forsaken him; pursue him and take him;

because there is none to deliver him.’

12 O God, be not far from me; come quickly to help me, O my God.

13 Let those who are against me be put to shame and disgrace;

let those who seek to do me evil be covered with scorn and reproach.

14 But as for me I will hope continually and will praise you more and more.

As you look back over your life, do you remember those times when you struggled, suffered even. Perhaps those were the times when you prayed more fervently and more regularly; recognizing that when all else failed God was your sole help and refuge in times of trouble.

And even if you didn’t understand his modus operandi, somehow it came right in the end.

Perhaps, as a youngster, you tried to bargain with him that if he came through for you, you would be more devout in your prayer and praise. But as you grew in faith you realized that, whether you prayed or not, God was always there for you, wanting to comfort you, wanting to be your loving and supportive Father even when the rest of the world felt like it was completely against you. Prayer and praise, alone or with others, are the means by which we communicate with Him and this time is both precious and time well spent.

As we try to make sense of the world and the difficult times that we currently live in, we need to remember that many of those who have power and knowledge are just as bewildered as we are. They do not have the answers to our questions and so far, they have not been able to re-assure us. We, the people of faith know that God always comes through for his children. In our prayers and supplications, we plead with confidence, and praise with joy knowing that we are not alone in all this and God will be our rock and fortress as He was for our psalmist all those years ago. Amen ... See MoreSee Less

Please pray for those who have asked for our prayers this week.

**Sick ** Sue Crowden, Ruth, Raymond & Anastasia Winter, Sara Williams, Kathy & Geoff Webb, Sally Hensey, Susan Clark, Cheryl Hunter, Julie, Lauren Evans, David & Val Arnold, Karen Tween, Stephanie Hammond, Heather, Ricky Parratt

**RIP** Les Penney, Jim Simpson

**In Memoriam ** David Dacey, Florence Le-Man, Roley Marriott, Alex Buchan. ... See MoreSee Less

***Psalm 130 – a Reflection by Sally Clifton for the 5th Sunday of Lent 29.03.20***

*Refrain: I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him;*
i*n his word is my hope.*

1 Out of the depths have I cried to you, O Lord;
Lord, hear my voice; **
* let your ears consider well the voice of my supplication.*

*2 If you, Lord, were to mark what is done amiss, **
* O Lord, who could stand?*

*3 But there is forgiveness with you, **
* so that you shall be feared.

4 *I wait for the Lord; my soul waits for him; ***
in his word is my hope.*

5 My soul waits for the Lord,
more than the night watch for the morning, **
* more than the night watch for the morning.*

*6 O Israel, wait for the Lord, **
* for with the Lord there is mercy;*

*7 With him is plenteous redemption **
* and he shall redeem Israel from all their sins. *R*

*Lord of mercy and redemption,
rescue us, we pray, from the depths of sin and death;
forgive us what we do wrong,
and give us grace to stand in your presence,
to serve you in Jesus Christ our Lord.*

In the early months of 1940, Great Britain was in the depths of despair, our armies were trapped in Dunkirk and as a nation we were very close to defeat. King George VI called the people together to participate in a ‘National Day of Prayer’. On the 25thMay 1940, churches filled, and queues of people waited outside Westminster Abbey and other major cathedrals as the nation prayed together, prayers of penitence to, and pleas for help from God. This moment in time proved to be a turning point in the second world war.

Psalm 130 reminds us that throughout history the human race has endured times of great troubles, when we have felt ourselves to be overwhelmed. Apart from the natural disasters that have affected God’s beautiful creation, we have to accept that many of our troubles are as a result of human activity. The psalmist knows this and asks God for his forgiveness.

We can have confidence that God hears our prayers and answers them even if we don’t always understand the response or why it takes so long. Hence the urging to wait for the Lord.

But this does not mean that we sit about and do nothing because God will put it right if we wait long enough. What our loving Father wants to see from us is not a passive hopelessness but instead a hopeful realisation that we can bring about change for the better. God works alongside us blessing our efforts.

Psalm 130 is a prayerful psalm and prayer is all about sharing our concerns with God. This week, as we pray for each other and for this world, ask for His help and inspiration to do the things that will lead to an improvement in our situation. You may find yourself doing things that you never thought possible and in so doing, you will become more the person God designed you to be and He will bless all that you do. ... See MoreSee Less