“And now these three remain, faith, hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.”

(1 Corinthians 13:13)

Love is an overused word in our society. We use it to describe things we particularly like: “I love your new jumper!” or activities we enjoy: “I love cycling to Deal and back.” It is a word used to describe our emotional connection with romantic partners in countless pop songs: “Can’t help falling in love.”, but also describes the care and kindness so often shown by mothers to their children.

Love can mean a variety of things, yet there is a common thread. In all these examples it expresses that we put a value on something or someone outside of ourselves (a jumper, cycling, a romantic partner or our children) in such a way that we want to commit ourselves to that thing or person, even if there is cost involved.

The Bible talks a lot about love. In the New Testament, the focus is mainly on God’s love for us and the commands to love God and others: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son…”, “Love the Lord your God…”, “Love your neighbour as yourself.”

God’s love for us was so great, he valued us so much, that he paid the cost of His Son’s sacrificial death on the cross. We are in turn called to value our relationship with God, even when it costs us to do so, but also to see others as equally as valuable and deserving as ourselves.

Love is not always easy, because it is costly. Those we are called to love are not always loveable. Yet, this kind of love that God shows us is the most ultimate of all attitudes. It is love that remains eternally.

A couple of questions from this week’s groups:

• How do we continue to serve with love when provoked?
• What stops us from showing love to everyone regardless?

Paul Worledge

This Week’s Sunday Service – 11am

Mothers and Love (1 Corinthians 13)

This Sunday is Mothering Sunday. There will be an All-Age service, which will include a craft activity for children and flowers will be distributed for mothers and women generally during the service. We will also be reflecting on 1 Corinthians 13.

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 10^th March

Family Service (St. Luke’s Church), Reading: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13,

11:00am-12:00pm

Monday 11^th     

Daily Prayer (St. Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am

Study Group (South Eastern Road) – 7:15-9:30pm

Tuesday 12^th        

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

Study Group (Lyndhurst Road) – 2:30-4:00pm

Wednesday 13^th   

Study Group (Langdale Avenue) – 10-12 noon

Study Group (South Eastern Road) – 7:30-9:30pm

Thursday 14^th           

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 15^th            

Play and Praise (St. Luke’s Church Hall) – 10:00-11:30am

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 16^th           

Daily Prayer (St. George’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am

Sunday 17^th     

Family Service (St. Luke’s Church), Reading: 1 Corinthians 12:1-14, 11:00am-12:00pm 

Easter Cracked – Tuesday 19^th March

We are welcoming Year 6 pupils from three local schools to St. Luke’s for a 90-minute interactive session to explore the Easter story on Tuesday 19^th March. If you can help with children making chocolate Easter nests or in other practical ways on the day, then please let Paul know asap. We need people in the morning from about 9:30am until just after 12:00pm and in the afternoon from 1:00-3:00pm.

‘A rough Guide to LLF’

On Monday 11th March there is the Canterbury Diocesan Evangelical Network event called ‘A rough Guide to LLF’ happening at St. Mary Bredin in Canterbury at 7:30pm. LLF is the church of England process to look at the area of sexuality and the theology of marriage and sex. The speaker at the event is Rev Andrew Goddard who of anyone probably has the best overview of all that has happened in the process having been involved centrally with it as well as being a key commentator on it. Please let Paul know if you are interested in going.

Prayer for the Nations

7:30-9:00pm, Friday 15^th March, 45 Northdown Road, Cliftonville, Margate, CT9 2RN (ring the bell at the bookshop door). In March they will be praying for the Persecuted Church.

Easter Services

This year’s Easter Services include:

Maundy Thursday – 28^th March  

Holy Communion (St. Luke’s 12noon or St. George’s 6:30pm)

Good Friday – 29^th March

The Easter Story (St. Luke’s, 10:30am) – an interactive telling of the events of Easter for families and small children. This year includes augmented reality!

Churches Together Service (Hardres Street, 10:30am)

Churches Together – Good Friday witness (Town Centre, 12 noon)

Prayer Stations (St. George’s, 12:45-1:30pm)

Good Friday Meditation (St. George’s, 1:30-3:00pm, 15 min. slots)

Easter Sunday – 31^st March

                All Age Holy Communion and Celebration (St. Luke’s, 11am)

 

Safeguarding Training

If you volunteer in anyway at church the national authorities are strongly encouraging you to take at least the Basic Module in safeguarding training once every three years.

If you have not completed the training in the last three years, then the module can be completed online and takes about ninety minutes. You can access the training by following this link. You will need to first register, to access the training. Once the training is completed, you will be sent a certificate. Please forward that certificate to James (office@stlukesramsgate.org), so that we can keep records of who has done the training.

Links to Share:

Idols or Idiots?

One of the questions in last week’s sermon was: “What idolatry do we need to flee from today?” One answer is idolising celebrtities or sports heroes. In this article, Graham Tomlin explores the problems with this particular form of idolatry. Read more…

Evangelism and Church

In this 15 minute video, Glen Scrivener critiques a US evangelistic advertisement campaign. He argues that their focus on the humanity of Jesus and their avoidance of promoting church is ultimately unhelpful. These are useful issues to think through as we consider how best to reach the people around us with Jesus. Watch the Video

Finally, let’s learn to love as God loved us.

Yours in Christ

Paul Worledge

(Vicar, St. Luke’s Ramsgate)

Online Forms

Under the ‘Contact’ tab on the website, there are now three forms that you can use to help us in managing the church:

• Events Application Form. Use this if you are organising a church event that needs a church room booked, advertising or ticketing.
• Submit a Notice. Use this if you want to ask us to include a prayer request or other notice in the church notice sheet or email.
• Maintenance Reporting Form.Use this to report any non-urgent issues with our buildings or grounds.