“Therefore, let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”
(1 Corinthians 5:8)
For the Old Testament people of God, the most important festival day was that of the Passover. On that day, they remembered how God had rescued them from being slaves to the oppressive Egyptians and led them out of Egypt on a journey to a new life as his people. This involved sacrificing a Passover lamb, whose blood was used to protect them from the angel of death in the final plague sent on the Egyptians. So, each year, they sacrificed a lamb to remember the events, but they also ate unleavened bread. This recalled the rushed departure from Egypt when there was no time to use yeast to make the bread rise. So, yeast was banned during the annual celebrations. To use it was to fail to effectively rejoice in God’s great rescue.
In 1 Corinthians 5, Paul plays around with these facts to make a different point. For Christians, Jesus is the ultimate Passover lamb. His sacrifice rescues us from the oppression of sin and death. How then do we ‘celebrate it’? By throwing out the figurative leavened bread of ‘malice’ and ‘wickedness’ and replacing it with the metaphorical unleavened bread of ‘sincerity’ and ‘truth’.
If we believe we have been rescued by Jesus’s death and resurrection, then Paul says our lives will be changed, there will be a fundamental transformation to our approach to life. As Christians we are called to live good and honest lives, not to win a kind of righteous victory for ourselves, but because of the victory God has already won for us in Jesus.
Such a transformation has implications not just for us as individuals, but also for the church community. How do we encourage one another in such transformed behaviour? What do we do if a member acts in a particularly wicked way? Those are the questions Paul addresses in the rest of chapter 5.
Paul Worledge
Coming Sunday’s Service – 11am
This week is a normal service with prayers, songs of praise, children’s groups and Bible teaching for adults. The theme is church discipline, looking at 1 Corinthians 5.
St. Luke’s Website
- What’s On – a page which lets you know what is happening this week and gives information about upcoming events.
- Notices – You can read the latest notices on this page.
- Sermons – Read a transcript of a recent sermon or watch the YouTube version recorded at St. Luke’s. You can also listen to the sermon through the podcast website castbox.
Weekly Calendar
Sunday 29th (Note the clocks go back at 2am on this day!)
Family Service (St. Luke’s Church), Reading: 1 Corinthians 5:1-13,
11:00am-12:00pm
Monday 30th
Daily Prayer (St. Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Funeral of Flo Baldock (St. Luke’s Church) – 11:00am-12:00noon
PCC Meeting (St Luke’s Hall) – 7:30-9:30pm
Tuesday 31st
Daily Prayer (St. George’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Christ Church Toddlers @ St Luke’s (St. Luke’s Church Hall) – 9:30-11:30am
Light Party (St Luke’s Church) – 4:30-6:30pm
Wednesday 1st November
Study Group (Langdale Avenue) – 10-12 noon
Depression & Anxiety Self-Help Group (Perry Room) – 6:00-7:30pm
Study Group (South Eastern Road) – 7:30-9:30pm
Thursday 2nd
Daily Prayer (St. Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Cafe4All (St. Luke’s Church), Coffee and Chat for all – 10:00-11:30am.
Time4All (St. Luke’s Church) – 11:30-15:00.
Friday 3rd
Gather, Women’s Drop-In (St. Luke’s Church) – 12:30-2:30pm
Creative Group Singing Practice (St Luke’s Church) – 4:30-6:00pm
Saturday 4th
Churches Together Prayer Breakfast (St. Laurence Hall) – 9:00-10:00am
Sunday 5th
Family Service (St. Luke’s Church), Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:1-8,
11:00am-12:00pm
Flo Baldock’s Funeral – This Monday
All that knew Flo Baldock are welcome to attend her funeral at St. Luke’s at 11:00am this Monday 30th October. There will be a wake in the church hall afterwards.
Light Party – St. Luke’s Church, Tuesday, 4:30-6:30pm
A great alternative to Halloween, for all ages. Food, fun and treats (no tricks). Fancy dress, please (but not scary). Children must be with an adult at the party. Please sign up on the sheet at the back of church, if you would like to come and on the separate sheet, if you can offer to bring some food to share on the night.
Quiz Night in support of ACTS (Active Christianity in Thanet Schools)
This is a fundraising event at St. Philip’s Church, Saturday 4th November, 6:30pm for 7:30pm start. Bring your own food and snacks (wine and beer allowed). Come as a table of 8 or make a table on the night. Tickets £5 donation to ACTS. Book via email: acts.schoolswork@gmail.com. Payment on booking by BACS to ACTS or at the door.
There is also a new ACTS Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61552254513333
Church Finances
This Sunday there will be letters in church for all those who attend St. Luke’s and have agreed to receive a letter about our church finances. Please take the one addressed to you. If there is not one addressed to you, but you would like to read about and consider giving regularly to St. Luke’s, then please take one of the unaddressed letters.
Samaritan’s Purse – Saturday 4th November, 10:30-12pm
Please join us for the annual coffee morning in support of Samaritan’s Purse Christmas shoebox appeal at St. Luke’s Church Hall. Enjoy tea and cake and catch up with friends. If you would like to make up a shoebox with gifts suitable for a child, you can bring it along on the day or collect a box on the day to fill at home.
Thanet Light Orchestra Concert
Sunday 19th November, 3pm in St. Luke’s Church. Tickets £5 in advance. £10 on the door. Music from Rossini, Bethhoven, Strauss and more. All proceeds in support of St. Luke’s. If you can help serve refreshments on the day, please see Fiona.
The Latest from Dick and Caroline Seed
Our last two training sessions for 2023 take place in Uganda over the next two weeks.
30th October to 3 November- Teaching and Learning Phase 3 for Uganda Christian University and its affiliates. We will be meeting in Jinga.
6th November to 10th November – Generosity Project writers’ workshop for the church training materials. 6 writers from East and West Africa will start the process of writing 12 workbooks for training clergy to teach generosity as an answer to the prosperity gospel in their churches. We will be at Uganda Christian University, Mukono.
Please pray for safe travels for all of us, for health and strength, and most of all, for transformational learning and inspired writing!
And please join us in giving thanks that the Generosity Project book proposal has been accepted by the publisher (Langham). We are now working with the contributors to prepare the final manuscript for submission next year. Here is the title: God’s Abundance and Generosity: African Perspectives on Wealth and Prosperity.
Links to Share:
How should Israel respond to Hamas?
Dynamics of shame, dis-honour and vengeance swirl around the decision makers in the Israel-Hamas war. Steven Firmin explores how redemptive justice could restore a relationship of peace. Read more…
Agnostic Professor Becomes a Christian
Journalist and professor Molly Worthen talks to Belle and Justin about what led her to embrace faith after researching the good, the bad and the ugly of Christian history. Watch video… or listen to the podcast
Finally, let’s make sure we live the new transformed lives God has called us to.
Yours in Christ
Paul Worledge
(Vicar, St. Luke’s Ramsgate)
St. Luke's Church Ramsgate 