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St Thomas Methodist Church, Exeter
May 2025
Weekly Worship Resources
04 May: A change of perspective
This is the well-known story of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, later known as the Apostle Paul. Saul is on his way to Damascus to persecute followers of Jesus. On the way, he is felled by a blinding light and Jesus asks why he is persecuting him. Meanwhile, God speaks to a faithful follower, Ananias, who, despite his misgivings, goes to Saul, greets him as a brother and lays hands upon him. Saul’s sight is restored and he is baptized.
This week we explore changes in perspective – whether we can change ours, whether we allow others to change and how God changes how we see things.
Lectionary Bible readings for RCL Easter 3 Year C: Acts 9.1-6; Psalm 30; Revelation 5.11-14; John 21.1-19
Acts 9:1-6 [NIV]
Saul’s Conversion
9 Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest 2 and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. 3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven
flashed around him. 4 He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. 6 “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”
Thought for the week
There is always a danger for an actor when they take on a central character in a TV show or film that becomes hugely popular that it will be hard for them to subsequently be known for playing other characters. Mention Daniel Radcliffe's name and you'll likely immediately think of his portrayal of Harry Potter, rather than some of the other notable stage roles for which he has won awards. Those of us who have been in the church a long time may have experienced occasions when people won't let us forget who we were or what we did when we were younger.
I wonder what Saul would have been thinking once he had been transformed by the encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus? He was notorious for hating the new Jesus followers.
People were scared of him; they ran from him fearing for their lives. But here he was totally transformed. His perspective on Jesus had done a 180-degree turn and now he wanted to be with the Jesus followers rather than to exterminate them. But how was he going to get other people's perspectives changed? Was that down to him or was it something only God could do?
Let’s think about people and situations that we may consider to be like Saul – ones we think will never change. These might include people such as addicts or those in prison. They might be people that we know personally, such as the manager at work who is always making your life difficult and taking the credit that should be yours or the person at school who has been bullying you for the last 6 months. Or it might be a situation that is causing fear, such as awaiting a medical diagnosis or potential redundancies at work. How might God be wanting to change our perspectives on these people or situations? Are we willing to let our perspectives be changed?
Saul's life was radically transformed, and people couldn't help but notice. Ananias had a vision from God that started him on the journey to a changed perspective of Saul, and then a personal encounter with him where he clearly saw the Holy Spirit at work in Saul’s life. How has encountering Jesus changed us and how we live? Can people see a difference in us? Are people changing their perspective on who Jesus is through their encounters with us, Jesus' followers? Like Ananias, we have a role to play in helping people encounter Jesus and making sense of those encounters. Who is God calling you to engage with to draw them closer to him?
A prayer of approach
Lord God, you met Saul on the way to Damascus, totally out of the blue! He had no thought of you in his head – but it was your time for him
– and things were never the same again! We pray that today it will be our time to meet with you, to experience your blinding light, to have our eyes opened to your glory. Please, Lord, meet us where we need to be met. Amen
11 May: Called to live
A disciple called Dorcas demonstrated her faith by caring for and befriending vulnerable widows in her city of Joppa. When she dies, Peter is sent for. Peter prays and calls for her to live and she is raised from the dead.
This week we explore how Jesus calls us to live, sharing eternal life and making a difference in the lives around us.
Lectionary Bible readings for RCL Easter 4 Year C: Acts 9.36-43; Psalm 23; Revelation 7.9-17; John 10.22-30
Acts 9:36-43 [NIV]
36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”
39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.
40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat
up. 41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord. 43 Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.
Thought for the week
I wonder if you’ve ever experienced what it feels like to be marginalised for something that is not your fault. To be considered an outsider, underappreciated, not included, all because of your age, the colour of your skin, your gender, where you live, how your brain is wired or the accident that left you paralysed, to name but a few. The women we meet in our passage today knew exactly how that felt. They were widows – they were vulnerable and, without a husband, they had no status or voice in their society. They faced a constant struggle to have enough to eat and drink, clean clothes and a place to live and to make sure they weren’t taken advantage of.
But these widows had got lucky. They lived in Joppa, the same town as Dorcas, a woman who put her faith into action and devoted her time to doing good works. Dorcas, a follower of Jesus, used what she had to provide for the widows in need. This wasn’t simply giving them the clothes she had finished with, or
the loaves of bread she didn’t need. She gave her time to come alongside the widows. She spent time sitting with them, making clothing with them, and no doubt sharing her faith and exploring their questions about Jesus. Through her simple actions she gave these widows worth – she was empowering them to help themselves. You could see Dorcas as leading a micro-enterprise for widows from her home.
No wonder then, that the widows were devastated when Dorcas got ill and died. Her life had such an impact on the widows that I suspect they were incredibly fearful of what would happen to them now. Without Dorcas would they again find themselves marginalised by society? Would the worth they had found be gone again? Were any of those stories Dorcas shared about Jesus giving life actually true? Here we have an interesting interplay between human life and eternal life. Dorcas had called the widows to experience human life again through being with them and giving them worth, yet she had also called them to eternal life through introducing them to Jesus.
Who do we know that is in need of help, that is in need of life (human and eternal)? How can we simply be with people as an act of giving life and worth to them? What sort of impact do we want our lives to have on others? Are we guilty of marginalising people, directly or indirectly? This is the start of Christian Aid week, and they are known for their slogan ‘we believe in life before death’. Telling people about Jesus and offering eternal life is incredibly important, but so too is enabling people to live a human life of worth. Where is real life yet to be found? How can we play a part in calling people to live?
A prayer of confession and assurance of forgiveness
Sometimes we think about life after death, forgetting life before death. For the times when we are content to live mindlessly: Lord, we ask your forgiveness.
For the times we think faith is only about words, not action, and we don’t use the talents you give us: Lord, we ask your forgiveness. For the times we take you for granted, too absorbed by our own concerns to care for those who need us: Lord, we ask your forgiveness.
Creator God, you give us fullness of life. You know all about us, you know every hair on our head. How can we not believe that you will forgive our sin. We are the sheep of your pasture. No one can snatch us from your loving arms. You freely forgive all who repent. You freely forgive even us. Amen
18 May: Making all things new
Peter recounts his vision and encounter with Cornelius to the Jewish Christians in Jerusalem, explaining that God is clearly working among the Gentiles, as evidenced by the work of the Holy Spirit.
God is making all things new, and like Peter we discover that the old boundaries of Jew and Gentile, separation based on culture, race, food or language, are now obsolete and barriers to the new thing God is doing.
Lectionary Bible readings for RCL Easter 5 Year C: Acts 11.1-18; Psalm 148; Revelation 21.1-6; John 13.31-35
Acts 11:1-18 [NIV]
Peter Explains His Actions
11 The apostles and the believers throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. 2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized
him 3 and said, “You went into the house of uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
4 Starting from the beginning, Peter told them the whole story: 5 “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. I saw something like a large sheet being let down from heaven by its four corners, and it came down to where I was. 6 I looked into it and saw four-footed animals of the earth, wild beasts, reptiles and birds. 7 Then I heard a voice telling me, ‘Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.’
8 “I replied, ‘Surely not, Lord! Nothing impure or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’
9 “The voice spoke from heaven a second time, ‘Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.’ 10 This happened three times, and then it was all pulled up to heaven again.
11 “Right then three men who had been sent to me from Caesarea stopped at the house where I was staying. 12 The Spirit told me to have no hesitation about going with them. These six brothers also went with me, and we entered the man’s house. 13 He told us how he had seen an angel appear in his house and say, ‘Send to Joppa for Simon who is called Peter. 14 He will bring you a message through which you and all your household will be saved.’
15 “As I began to speak, the Holy Spirit came on them as he had come on us at the beginning. 16 Then I remembered what the Lord had said: ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ 17 So if God gave them the same gift he gave us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I to think that I could stand in God’s way?”
18 When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
Thought for the week
Food is central to our lives – without it we would get very ill and die. What we eat is important too. Our doctors and dentists
wouldn’t be happy if we were eating sugary snacks all the time, and some of us have to avoid certain foods because of allergies and intolerances. The food we eat can also mark us out as being part of a particular culture or from a particular place. Just think of the age-old question about which order you put the jam and cream on your scone – if you are from Devon you’ll put the cream on first then the jam, but if you’re from Cornwall then you’ll do it the other way around. (If you’re from anywhere else you’re probably not that bothered!)
How we eat our food can also mark us out as being different – do we eat with knives, forks and spoons or use our hands or chopsticks? Do we sit down at a table, on the floor, or on a sofa in front of the TV? Do we eat on our own or with other people? Sometimes it can seem as if there are lots of unwritten rules as to how we eat. Getting them wrong can make us feel very uncomfortable, or perhaps mean we’re not invited back. Perhaps you remember the scene in the TV series Downton Abbey where the chauffeur is invited in to dine with the family but must be taught how to use the cutlery properly and it turns into a bit of a disaster.
In the Old Testament, many rules were given to the Israelites as to what they could and couldn’t eat and how they needed to prepare certain foods. Obeying these rules marked them out as God’s
chosen people and they were central to Jewish culture. It is likely that Jesus, as a Jew, would have abided by these rules with his disciples. Yet through Jesus’ death and resurrection we have been given a new identity. As with any identity, it takes time to work out what that means. The disciples and Early Church had to wrestle with how their identity as followers of Jesus interplayed with their Jewish heritage. Their God had not changed, yet they knew things were different and, as the Gentiles began to also become followers of Jesus, the Church had a cultural dilemma on its hands. Should all followers of Jesus follow Jewish laws and customs, and, if so, did that mean that Gentiles had to become Jewish in order to follow Jesus?
Through this passage, God takes Peter and the Early Church, step by step, through a process of making all things new. Through a vision, which Peter then explains to others, and the Holy Spirit falling upon some Gentiles, God reveals the way for the Church to be. Through Jesus, the old ways have been made new, and salvation is opened up freely to anyone who wants to receive. This was a total cultural change and so there would understandably be many opponents to the idea. Imagine what your reaction would be if everyone in the UK was told to stop using any form of cutlery and that from now on you were only able to eat food with your hands. You’d likely be outraged and have a multitude of questions. I imagine that there were many in the Early Church who felt the same about uncircumcised Gentiles becoming followers of Jesus and their eating of what was previously considered unclean food.
It is perhaps understandable then that God in his compassion and wisdom takes the Jewish Christians on this journey to the new, step by step. In Peter’s vision, he sees everything three times and the message was unmistakable. Then there were six witnesses to the Holy Spirit falling on the Gentiles. This was double the number of witnesses normally needed to verify
something as true. God was making all things new, liberating people from what were now unnecessary rules, and revealing more of who he is. How can we as a community distinguish between rules that have been put in place to protect us and rules that we need to be liberated from? What is God wanting to make new in our lives today?
A sending out prayer
Life-giving God, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, journey with us as we go about in our communities. As we look forward to the time when you will make all things new, enable us, by your Spirit, to bring your kingdom here on earth. Amen
25 May: Not all plain sailing
Paul has a vision of a man from Macedonia urging him to come over to help them. Paul and his companions set sail immediately, but, when they arrive in Philippi, instead of meeting a man, Paul encounters a God-fearing woman named Lydia.
Though we may have a sense of God’s will and direction, following that call is not always plain sailing. There is a need for trust in God’s provision and voice, particularly during turbulence, trusting that God has gone ahead of us and will guide us.
Lectionary Bible readings for RCL Easter 6 Year C
Acts 16.9-15; Psalm 67; Revelation 21.10,21.22-22.5; John 5.1-9
Acts 16:9-15 [NIV]
9 During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” 10 After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at
once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.
Lydia’s Conversion in Philippi
11 From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Samothrace, and the next day we went on to Neapolis. 12 From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.
13 On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there. 14 One of those listening was a woman from the city of Thyatira named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth. She was a worshiper of God. The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul’s message. 15 When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home. “If you consider me a believer in the Lord,” she said, “come and stay at my house.” And she persuaded us.
Thought for the week
What would we do if we were unexpectedly interrupted by God? If God met us in a dream and asked us to go somewhere, or to speak to someone, or to give someone something, would we do it? Would we trust in God’s voice and provision? Would we immediately stop what we were doing and do what God had asked? Would it make a difference if we knew the task wasn’t going to be easy, that it wasn’t all going to be plain sailing?
This is exactly what happens to Paul in our passage today. Paul was called by God through a vision to visit Macedonia. In the vision he saw a man pleading with him to come and help them. Paul’s immediate reaction was to trust God, to know that God was calling him to proclaim the good news to them, and therefore that he needed to follow the call. However, Paul would have known that the journey wouldn’t have been easy.
The Aegean Sea has really strong northerly winds making travel on the sea difficult. He would have needed to find some experienced and skilled sailors who knew about the winds and were willing to risk their boat and potentially lives, to make the journey. It would have taken Paul several days to get there and have been quite an effort. But that didn’t put Paul off. Perhaps he knew from experience that a life following Jesus was an adventure. It meant getting comfortable with the unexpected and being willing to go wherever and whenever God called.
Having reached Philippi, the leading city in the region of Macedonia, Paul spent several days there. Perhaps he was searching the city for the man he’d seen in his vision. On the Sabbath day, Paul went outside the city and down to the river, expecting to find a place of prayer. Instead, he finds a group of women led by Lydia, an unbaptized Gentile believer. As a dealer in purple cloth, she would have been wealthy and the head of her household – she was not attached to a man. As an empowered
woman she would have been very unusual, counter-cultural even. Here God opens her heart, in a reversal of Pharaoh’s story in Exodus where the Lord closed his heart.
This group of women, meeting outside the city to worship and explore faith together is not what Paul was expecting. Even though this was the early days of the Church, perhaps this group of women could be considered a fresh expression! For Paul it would have been a bit like Dorothy going on a journey along the yellow brick road to find the all-powerful wizard of Oz only to find what they had been searching for was something quite different. Not only that, but Paul went on the journey expecting to offer, but he ended up receiving. What expectations do we have of how God works that perhaps need changing? Are we holding on to wanting a life that is plain sailing, or are we willing to follow God through the unexpected and turbulent? Where is God calling you today? Will you follow?
Prayers of intercession
God of all life and all goodness, we entrust to you those places where all is not well – places where there is deep seated hatred and mistrust. We pray especially for areas where there is war and conflict.
Where all is not well, Lord Jesus, please bring hope and healing.
We pray for all those who are victimised for their ethnicity, religion, sexuality; for those imprisoned for speaking out and protesting against corruption. We pray for all who speak out for peace and justice: for all who work behind the scenes to bring reconciliation, stability and restraint.
Where all is not well, Lord Jesus, please bring hope and healing.
We pray for those places where lives are being lost to extreme temperatures, to floods and to drought. We pray for places where children are starving and we pray, too, for the hungry children of our own nation.
Where all is not well, Lord Jesus, please bring hope and healing.
We pray for all hospitals, workplaces, schools and homes; for those under huge pressures; who have no job security; who are bullied; who suffer behind closed doors.
Where all is not well, Lord Jesus, please bring hope and healing.
We pray for those in the news, whose lives are playing out before the eyes of the world; for journalists to be protected; for truth to be upheld; for integrity to be the mark of all in public office and positions of influence.
Where all is not well, Lord Jesus, please bring hope and healing.
And we pray for our church and the communities we serve; for one another; our families; our neighbours, our friends; all who today feel sad, frightened or alone.
Where all is not well, Lord Jesus, please bring hope and healing. Amen
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