Jesus said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
(Mark 2:27-28)
The idea of Sabbath – resting from work one day a week – is deeply rooted in the Torah, the foundational texts of the Old Testament. It is there at Creation, where we are told: ‘Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creation that he had done.’ (Genesis 2:3).
God rested on the seventh day, but the Creation account also tells us that humans are made in God’s image (Genesis 1:27). If God stops working for one day in seven, and we are in his image, then the implication is that we are made to do the same. This reasoning is made explicit in the Ten Commandments, where the fourth commandment makes it clear that everyone in Israelite society is to rest from work on the Sabbath (Exodus 20:8-11).
But Sabbath is not just rooted in the Torah’s understanding of creation, but also in its account of liberation. The Israelites received the commandments soon after God had rescued them from slavery. In Egypt they had been forced to work under oppressive conditions to satisfy the needs of Pharaoh. Now, liberated from the king of Egypt, they had a new king, God. Rather than enforcing hard labour, he insisted on the limitation of work and the enforcement of rest. Which king would you rather have?
God commanded the Sabbath for our good. As Jesus says, “The Sabbath was made for man.” Yes, Jesus also challenged the legalism that had been built up from human tradition around what could or could not be done on the Sabbath, because those Sabbath regulations had become a kind of slave master themselves. Yet he still saw the Sabbath as good for us.
Do we make sure we get the weekly day off work that God commands for our good? Or do we allow work to enslave us?
Paul Worledge
This Week’s Sunday Service – 11am
What is the Sabbath for? (Mark 2:23-3:6)
Join us at St. Luke’s for a normal service with groups for children, hymns and songs of praise, prayer and Bible teaching. This week we begin a series looking afresh at Jesus through Mark’s gospel.
Churches Together in Ramsgate Prayer Breakfast
Do come along and join with other churches in Ramsgate for the Prayer Breakfast at St. Mark’s tomorrow (Saturday 1st June) from 9am.
Intercession (leading prayers in church) Training Workshop
Thanet Deanery Intercessions Workshop at St Peter in Thanet Church, CT10 2TR Tuesday 2nd July from 7.30pm-9.30pm or Wednesday 3rd July from 11am-1pm. Join us for a chance to get together and discuss leading intercession in your church. This workshop is suitable for anyone who is currently leading or would like to lead intercessions in their church setting. To confirm a place please contact Rev Matt Hodder via revmatt@stpeterinthanet.org.uk
Depression and Anxiety Self-Help Group
The group meets from 6-7.30pm on Wed 5 June for the third session in our course How to overcome depression one step at a time. All welcome. The theme for this session is Learning your patterns of behaviour. We meet in the Perry Room in the church hall at St Luke’s (just follow the signs). For more details contact David (07881 582800 or davidw.hawthorn1@sky.com) or Pauline (p.emptage@sky.com).
Thank You
A big Thank You to the Social Events Team and others who made last Sunday such a special occasion. Fiona and I are very grateful for all the efforts made and the very kind, unexpected and unnecessary gift of just over £300. It was a lovely afternoon, and we really enjoyed the day. Thanks for everyone’s support.
Gift Day Update
We are really grateful for people’s generosity in donating to our appeal to buy two new noticeboards for St. Luke’s. So far £1973 has been donated. In addition to this we can claim £353 in Gift Aid. We will donate 10% of the total to CPAS, which leaves us with £2,093 for the signs. This is just above the target we were aiming for. Thank you to everyone who has donated!
Volunteers
We rely heavily on a large team of volunteers in all kinds of areas to ensure the smooth running of our Sunday Service. We are particularly looking to recruit a few more volunteers to help run our Audio-visual and livestreaming equipment during the service and to welcome people to the service. If you think you could help in either of these areas on a rota basis and with a little training then please speak to James Patterson.
Welcoming the new curate
Beth our new curate, husband Tom and son Toby are moving to Ramsgate in the middle of June. It would be good to provide some kind of welcome package for when they move in. If you would like to volunteer to co-ordinate this or to help in some way, please let Paul know this week.
Parenting for Teens Course – Last Chance to respond
BRF are running an online Parenting Teens Course on Tuesday evenings from 4/6/24 – 9/7/24 | 20:00 – 21:00. This summer, we are running our brand new Parenting Teens course for church groups of parents and carers of tweens and teens. The sessions are suitable for all Christian parents of tweens/teens who long for them to meet and know God. You will have your own breakout room as a church (or multiple breakout rooms if you need) so that parents and carers can get to know each other better. We need to book as a church or churches but will need to have enough participants to make it worthwhile. Please let Paul know this week if you would like to attend this course.
ACTS (Active Christianity in Thanet Schools)
Check out the latest newsletter.
Thanet Christians’ Prayer Diary
Download this new prayer diary.
Links to Share:
All Welcome!
Christine Winmill of Count Everyone In! writes about how we can better welcome adults with learning disabilities. Full of practical tips. Read more… (5 min. read)
Russell Brand, politics and Christianity
In this video, Glen Scrivener takes a look at and reflects on a recent Tik Tok video made by Russell Brand about his first communion. There is a lot to reflect on in this, although the introduction and conclusion consider the intersection between politics and Christianity. Well worth a watch. Watch video (30 mins).
Finally, let’s keep Sunday special, resist overwork and rest in God.
Yours in Christ
Paul Worledge
(Vicar, St. Luke’s Ramsgate)
Weekly Calendar
Sunday 2nd June
Creative Group Singing Practice (St Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:30am
Family Service (St. Luke’s Church), Mark 2:23-3:6, 11:00am-12:00pm
Monday 3rd
Prayer Meeting (St. Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
PCC Meeting (St Luke’s Hall, Perry Room) – 7:30-9:30pm
Tuesday 4th
Prayer Meeting (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 5th
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 6th
Prayer Meeting (St. Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Cafe4All (St. Luke’s Church), Coffee and Chat for all – 10:00-11:30am.
Friday 7th
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
Saturday 8th
Prayer Meeting (St. George’s Church) – 9:30-10:00am
Sunday 9th
Creative Group Singing Practice (St Luke’s Church) – 9:30-10:30am
Family Service (St. Luke’s Church), Mark 3:20-35, 11:00am-12:00pm
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.
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.
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.
St. Luke's Church Ramsgate 