23/3/25
Your weekly update from the Benwell & Scotswood Team.
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Dates for your Diary
29 March
Centenary of Montagu Pit Disaster Commemoration at St Margaret's
30 March
11am - Mothering Sunday Team Service at St John's
Services this week
Sunday
9.30am - St John's Holy Communion
9.45am - St Margaret's Holy Communion
11am - Hub service (Parish Eucharist) at Ven Bede
Tuesday
4.30pm - Farsi Bible Study at St James
Thursday
10.30 am - Holy Communion at Ven Bede
News
Exploring Faith this Sunday
A group to explore, ask questions, and learn about the Christian faith.
Beginning Sunday 9th March
Continues every Sunday throughout Lent
1pm at Venerable Bede, NE4 8AP
Lunch included (free: donations welcome)
Who is it for?
Exploring faith is a non-pressurised group for anyone who is simply curious, anyone who wants to refresh their faith, and anyone who might want to take the next step of baptism or confirmation (and those who are just unsure!).
All ages, abilities, and backgrounds are welcome.
What will happen?
Depending on who would like to come, we may split into smaller groups for young people and speakers of other languages.
Our clergy and other lay leaders will guide us through different resources and bible passages, and discuss together what they might mean.
Contact & RSVP
You’re welcome to just turn up on the day. But to help us prepare, let us know if you want to come and any dietary requirements or if we can make any adaptations to help you join in the discussion.
If you have any other questions feel free to get in contact:
Lent Bible study
Kathy, our reader, is hosting a bible study at 7.30pm on Wednesday evenings during Lent.
You are very welcome to join the group.
For details please contact Kathy on 07946285529
Centenary of the Montagu Pit Disaster
On Saturday 29th March there will be a drop-in event at St Margaret’s Church in Scotswood starting at 10.30am, followed by a service of commemoration at 2pm.
2025 marks the hundredth anniversary of the Montagu Pit Disaster in Scotswood when the pit flooded on 30th March killing 38 men and boys. This was the worst mining disaster in the Great Northern Coalfield between the wars, and is still remembered locally today.
There will be a number of events and activities taking place around that date to commemorate the disaster.
Mothering Sunday
Mothering Sunday will be on 30th March and this year we will be celebrating with a team service at St John's at 11am.
On that Sunday join us at: St John's Benwell Village
Ferguson Lane
NE15 6NW
Embrace - Gaza appeal
Conflict across the Middle East is unfolding with relentless intensity, devastating the lives of millions. Even as they live through these dark times, Embrace’s partners in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon are working tirelessly to bring the light of Christ amidst the suffering.
You can click below to donate online. If you would rather donate by phone, please call 01494 897950.
Sunday Worship
Purple or Lent array
Intercessions
Prayers for others:
Sonja and Stan
John Nicholson
Malcolm Smith
John Peterson
Maria Hawthorn
Herbert Agbeko
Pauline Nelson
Michelle & Peter Wilson
Alan & Maureen Taylor
Irene Foskett
Pat Law
Moe and Mary
Christina Wilson
Diane Humphrey
Pavel
Rest in peace:
Murray Haig
If you would like to add someone to the prayer list please email church@benwellscotswood.com
The name will stay on the list for 1 month unless requested to be long-term.
Isaiah 55.1–9
55Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;and you that have no money, come, buy and eat!Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.2 Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labour for that which does not satisfy?Listen carefully to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.3 Incline your ear, and come to me; listen, so that you may live.I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David.4 See, I made him a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander for the peoples.5 See, you shall call nations that you do not know, and nations that do not know you shall run to you,because of the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you.
6 Seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he is near;7 let the wicked forsake their way, and the unrighteous their thoughts;let them return to the Lord, that he may have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.8 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways, says the Lord.9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.
Luke 13.1–9
13Rhere were some present who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2He asked them, ‘Do you think that because these Galileans suffered in this way they were worse sinners than all other Galileans? 3No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish as they did. 4Or those eighteen who were killed when the tower of Siloam fell on them—do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem? 5No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all perish just as they did.’
6 Then he told this parable: ‘A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and found none. 7So he said to the gardener, “See here! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree, and still I find none. Cut it down! Why should it be wasting the soil?” 8He replied, “Sir, let it alone for one more year, until I dig round it and put manure on it. 9If it bears fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.” ’
Sermon
Revd Chris
Why do bad things happen to good people?
Word reaches Jesus that Pilate (the governor of Judea who will later sentence Jesus to death) has made a religious sacrifice and, as a part of that sacrifice, he has slaughtered a gathering of Galilean Jews and placed their remains on the sacrificial pyre.
Recently, a Tower in Siloam, just outside of Jerusalem, has also collapsed, crushing and killing eighteen people.
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Two tragedies, one a direct act of evil, the other a less direct and (maybe) unpredictable accident. We don’t know much else about these events and those who died, the stories have otherwise been lost to time, like many many others throughout history.
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Jesus asks about the victims “do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others living in Jerusalem?” By which he means: did they deserve this? Was this punishment or some sort of ‘Karma’?
Jesus himself is voicing what is the greatest challenge there is to religion and our faith in God: why does God let suffering happen?
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Jesus answers his own question ‘No’. These people were not worse sinners than anyone else. They did not deserve such tragedy anymore than you do.
It seems the response to such tragedy is not to place ourselves on a scale of deserving to undeserving, from best to worst, from good to bad, naughty to nice.
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We all try to explain away why bad things happen. We try to absolve ourselves of responsibility. We try to pin blame or escape blame. But Jesus flips it around, the question becomes not whether the victims deserved to suffer, but what makes you think you deserve goodness and to escape suffering? Do you think you have more of a right to safety and riches than anyone else does? It may not be your fault that others suffer, but it’s not your virtue that protects you from suffering either.
*
Jesus tells them a parable of a fig tree: a man has planted it and a gardener is tending to it, the man gets angry that it does not bear any fruit for 3 years – he thinks it should be cut down. The gardener asks for another chance, if he tends to it, gives it manure as fertiliser, and waits another year, and if it still doesn’t bear fruit, then he can cut it down. We do not find out the fate of the tree.
*
When Jesus tells parables, we can make quick assumptions about the meaning – the man must represent God, the fig tree is us, the gardener may be Jesus. But it isn’t actually so obvious. Jesus doesn’t give us parables to explain things simply, but to disrupt our ideas with stories that make us think. We could place ourselves as any character in the story – the man, the gardener, the tree, the soil, the manure.
*
I think the challenge of this parable is not to threaten us – “be better or God will come and cut you down”. The purpose, I believe, is to tell us God sees that things are not as they should be in the world, it’s obvious, but God wants to do something about it and wants to know what we will do about it too.
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At the moment the tree is taking more from the soil than it is offering back in fruit. For this tree to bear fruit there needs to be some hard work from the gardener. But there is a chance, and maybe just maybe, with this act of mercy and with some care, the tree will start to offer to the world more than it takes. We may not know the fate of the fig tree, but we are left with hope that flourishing is possible.
For us, hard work is needed for the world to change, we should all be wondering whether we are taking more from the world than we offer back to it. We must think about why we have more when others have less. We all have collective responsibility. It is not good enough to sit there passively, not hurting anyone but not helping anyone either.
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I have no good answer to why there is suffering in this world. But I believe we should respond by asking what are we going to do about it?
Maybe none of us deserve suffering, maybe all of us do, and maybe none of us deserve help, but we can all offer it. Justice in this world is not just about finding who to blame. It is about all of us realising we have a responsibility to one another and to God to bring an end to suffering. It means no longer allowing for an environment where suffering can grow, no longer standing by, no longer taking for granted the comforts we have, and no longer assuming that we can bear no fruit.
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When it comes to justice and mercy, we are forgiven not because we deserve it, but because, I believe, God wants to transform the suffering of the world, wants us to flourish and bear fruit. Do you deserve forgiveness? No. Do you have it? Yes. All of us are sinners, and all of us have potential to be saints.
Tend to your tree in your garden, offer hope of new life and flourishing, it is possible. Even if you think all you can offer is manure, then offer that and let God use it to make things grow.
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Amen.