Being a do-gooder

Acts 4:5-12  - Peter and John are accused for doing good - healing - yet challenging power - in the place of Peter’s denial  the name of Jesus is proclaimed. 

by what right is good done?   - Who decided who does good? what is good? who is healed? who is not healed? - who is helped who is not helped? 

Decisions are made everyday for instance in health care - treatment, drugs etc. or social care - who is deserving - do we feed failed asylum seekers - or deport all who commit a crime? 

Be accused of being a do-gooder - it is the way we live out our faith and when we do good by those who much of society would cast aside then we are subverting those in power and releasing the power of God’s reign.

1 john - “let us not love in word or speech but in deed and in truth”

"The word, here, includes the notion of boldness, standing upon one's own feet, speaking freely and openly (literal etymology: saying anything, parrhesia). Love does not generate a subservience of dependent grovellers, but a group of people free and able to be themselves ... We get what we need when we engage in the life of God and are doing God's commandments. It is a way of affirming the sufficiency of God and God's love. http://wwwstaff.murdoch.edu.au/~loader/BEpEaster4.htm

Ephesians 2:10 "For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."

- witnessing to the good news of Jesus Christ - do-gooders as a reflection of God’s love, as a witness to God’s love, as a response to God’s love

Do not be afraid to be a do-gooder

Do not be afraid to let it be known that your good deeds are done in the name of Jesus Christ - who brings salvation. 

Introit (Choir & Congregation) Jesus Remember Me

Sunday Mark 11:1-11

Hymn 209 Ride on Ride on in majesty

Monday Mark 11:12-39

Hymn Inspired by love and anger

Tuesday Mark 11:27; Mark 12:28-34

Choir For God so loved the world

We each have five lolly sticks - write your name on one of them - you have named someone loved by God - now write on the other side and on the other sticks the names of people who are not with us this morning - tell those around you whose name you are writing and ensure that different names are included - add those who are close to you and you want to remember in prayer - each person named is a loved child of God.

Pray for all named and unnamed.

Wednesday Mark 14:1-11

Poem “For the day of Burial” from The Road to the Garden -

Hymn 207 My song is love unknown 

- verse 4 ladies, v5 men, v6 unaccompanied

Thursday Mark 14:12-26

Communion

Mark 14: 32-51

Choir Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Friday Mark 15:21-41

Hymn 217 When I survey the wondrous cross

Bound together - our sticks have been bound together to create a field of crosses - for we are bound to one another and to Jesus who died to restore each of us to God. Come later and see who you are bound to, pray for them, be aware of our reliance upon one another and that each person named and those who remain unnamed is a loved child of God.

Hymn 522 From heaven you came

Outroit Jesus Remember Me

Short notes for a short to the point sermon as we wanted time at the Ecumenical Church Council to review our mission. But a story about Andrew seemed like a good start for a church named for him ....