Hazelwell Weekly Contact July 2nd 2023
29 Jun 2023 • Weekly Notices
Hazelwell Weekly Contact July 2nd 2023
(Trinity 4 ) 10.00am
Hazelwell Morning Worship (There will be no church parade this week)
Led by Rev.Rob Morris
| Please pray for |
Please also remember in your prayers, David, Joan, Michael, and Bartley.
Parish Update
- Many thanks to all who supported our summer fair last Saturday. It was a lovely morning though attendance was lower than usual. The total raised currently stands at £848.- this figure is expected to rise with the proceeds from books to be sold on-line
- Following his recent appointment to a position at Lozell-Newtown Benefice Eliakim ‘s final service with us at Hazelwell will be on August 8th. We hope to mark the occasion appropriately.
Food Bank
The demand for help from foodbanks continues to rise and will be even higher with the onset of Summer Holidays. We continue to collect food for The Spearhead Trust. Please consider bringing donations with you on Sunday and leave on the table at the back of church.
Alternatively, consider donating to a local foodbank in the course of your
weekly shop via local supermarket collection.
Matthew 10:40-42 NIV
“Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me, and anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever welcomes a righteous person as a righteous person will receive a righteous person’s reward. And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”
Ferdinand Funk
At times hospitality is very much like the true story of a woman who had invited some people to dinner. At the table, she turned to her six-year-old daughter and said, "Would you like to say the blessing?" "I wouldn't know what to say," the little girl replied. "Just say what you hear Mommy say," the mother said. The little girl bowed her head and said, "Dear Lord, why on earth did I invite all these people to dinner?"
However you may feel about opening your heart and your home to strangers and guests, I believe that hospitality lies at the heart of Christian Discipleship. By receiving others into our own homes we receive them as we would receive Christ himself. In giving ourselves to those who come into our lives we share Christ himself – the one who has sent us – with them.
The verses above come at the end of Jesus' missionary discourse to his disciples (10:5-42). Up to this point, Jesus has been talking about what the disciples should do and the difficulties that they will face - what others will do to them because of their witness for Christ. Jesus teaches them about hospitality in the context of discipleship.
These verses speak about Hospitality as receiving and welcoming the stranger. In today's gospel text, Jesus reminds us of a very profound privilege, and, along with that, a tremendous responsibility. He tells us that we represent and symbolize him before others. He tells us that the reverse is also true: namely, that others represent and symbolize him before us. Jesus assures us that he himself is present in our lives when we welcome others into our midst. He is also present when others do the same for us.
Jesus is present each and every day in the hospitality that we offer others and others offer us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said it very well in his book, The Cost of Discipleship: "The bearers of Jesus' word receive a final word of promise for their work. They are now Christ's fellow workers and will be like him in all things. Thus they are to meet those to whom they are sent as if they were Christ himself. When they are welcomed into a house,
Question : Are we equally hospitable to visitors to our church?