St Jude's Mapperley Archive Blog

I found this Christmas hymn in an old hymnbook; I can't find a tune that is even vaguely singable for it, but the words are gorgeous and well worth praying through this Christmastime! Come and stand amazed, you people, See how God is reconciled! See his plans of love accomplished, See his gift, this newborn child. See the Mighty, weak and tender, See the Word who now is mute. See the Sovereign without splendour, See the Fullness destitute, The Beloved, whom we covet, In a state of low repute. See how humankind received him; See him wrapped in swaddling bands, Who as Lord of all creation Rules the wind by his commands. See him lying in a manger Without sign of reasoning; Word of God to flesh surrendered, He is wisdom's crown, our King. See how tender our Defender At whose birth the angels sing. O Lord Jesus, God incarnate, Who assumed this humble form, Counsel me and let my wishes To your perfect will conform. Light of life, dispel

Hi all, Yesterday morning, Philip led us helpfully through thinking about John the Baptist in John 1. I'm not going to repeat what he said, though it's well worth a listen... Instead I'd like to pick up on one thing that jumped out of the passage for me that I thought was interesting. In John 1:19-23, the Jewish leaders send people to ask who John claims to be. They try to fit him into various boxes – Messiah, Elijah, Prophet, and John denies all of them. The odd thing is that Jesus in Matthew 17:10-13 tells the disciples that John was Elijah. The disciples asked him, 'Why then do the teachers of the law say that Elijah must come first?' Jesus replied, 'To be sure, Elijah comes and will restore all things. But I tell you, Elijah has already come, and they did not recognise him, but have done to him everything they wished. In the same way the Son of Man is going to suffer at their hands.' Then the disciples understood that he

Good Morning! Yesterday, we finished our mini-series in Matthew 25 by looking at the famous (and controversial) section often entitled The Sheep and the Goats . (You can find it here for easy reference) . One way of looking at it is that the passage works on at least three levels. The first level is as a general encouragement / warning to help those who need it. The writer to the Hebrews says that in welcoming strangers, some people have entertained angels unaware. The second level is by noticing that the specific people Jesus talks about the importance of welcoming are "these brothers and sisters of mine, even the least of them". The only people in Matthew who Jesus ever calls his brothers and sisters are those who follow him (Matt 12:47-50 is a good example). Ditto with those Jesus calls "little" or "least" - it's always those who follow him. Jesus is talking specifically here about the importance of helping