"Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Matthew 5:3

Last week we celebrated the great news of the resurrection of Christ on Easter Sunday. As we hear the grim daily news of the number of deaths from the Coronavirus, we are all reminded of our own mortality. Yet, the resurrection gives us a living hope, so we no longer fear death in the same way.

In so doing our life now is changed. Rather than invest in what is impermanent we now want to set our hearts God's eternal kingdom and to invest in our relationship with our heavenly Father.

That has all kinds of implications. This week, in our sermons we return to Jesus's Sermon on the Mount, which teaches us how to flourish in this life as we learn to relate to God as Father and set our hearts on the Kingdom of Heaven.

This Sunday's Opener: It was fantastic to have so many people join in with the opener to our online service this week. It would be great to do that again this week.

As we are going back to the Sermon on the Mount, this week, I suggest that our opener features the 9 Beattitudes. If you want to take part, please email me before tomorrow lunchtime. I'll send you one of the Beattitudes by email. Then all you need to do is video yourself or yourselves reading the short sentence (out loud!) and send it to me by email, wetransfer.com or Whatsapp (07769 871520). Whether you've done it before or want to give it a go again everyone is welcome. I would love to have at least nine people, but I can include more!

Last Sunday: If you missed Easter Sunday's talk, A Living Hope (Matthew 28:1-10), then you can  listen or watch here .

One of our Growth Teams has continued meeting up, without any of the group leaving their homes! They have been using Zoom to hold their meetings.

I would like to see if we can expand this in two ways.

Firstly, for those who are unsure about the Christian faith and have questions to ask or want to be clearer about the basics of their faith I want to offer the possibility of an online Christianity Explored course. This will involve using Zoom for some simple discussions as a small group on Mark's gospel, watching a Christianity Explored video online before finally having another discussion with the same group on Zoom about what the talk says. You can learn more about the course here: Christianity Explored. If you think this might be for you then please let me know by replying to this email by Monday evening.

Secondly, it would be good if we could set up one or two more Growth Teams meeting on Zoom. This will be for those who have been part of a small Bible study group before, even if they have not been in one recently. Rather than Growth Team sheets, we will use some Bible study notes on Proverbs, which are written by LICC the organisation who published the Fruitfulness on the Frontline course, which we did in Growth Teams last year. You can red about the course here: Proverbs: Wisdom for the Whole of Life. If you are interested in joining one of these groups, then please let me know by replying to this email by Monday evening.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Be assured I will do my best to check that people are happy for the requests to be shared before including them.

•  For Joy Smithers. Give thanks that her health is improving. Pray for her as she settles into the care home in Folkestone.
  
•  For Gordon Warren. They have decided it is not possible for Gordon to have any Chemo at present and it is unclear how serious the cancer is. So please pray for peace and that the cancer is very slow growing.
  
•  Please pray for Peter and Nicky Shakeshaft's friend, Geoff Humphrys. Although, there have been small signs of improvement he is still critical.
  
•  For Boris Johnson and his continuing recovery and for wisdom for all in government as they make big decisions and seek to ensure the provision of PPE and testing equipment for those in the NHS and care homes.
  
•  For all NHS staff, paramedics and care home workers. For safety, resilience and strength as they are called on to work harder in these emotionally draining circumstances.
  
• For those whose businesses and jobs have been adversely effected by the present crisis.
  
• For those parents and carers looking after children at home during these restrictive times and especially as 'term' starts again this week.
  

A prayer for the Second Sunday of Easter

Risen Christ,

for whom no door is locked, no entrance barred:

open the doors of our hearts,

that we may seek the good of others

and walk the joyful road of sacrifice and peace,

to the praise of God the Father.

Amen

Post-Service Zoom Meeting. Following the success of last week's post-service Zoom meeting we will have another go this week. Please join us if you can! Use the link below to join us at 11:30am-12:00noon on Sunday:

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 541 875 3952   Password: Luke

Donations. We are grateful that many people give regularly to St. Luke's using standing orders, which helps to sustain our finances a lot when we cannot meet regularly. However, the church finances are being adversely affected by the lack of donations collected on Sundays. Even without the Coronavirus we still need around £17,000 in additional giving this year to meet our running costs and up to another £20,000 to help us replace our heating system to ensure the church can be used next winter. If you would like to make an online donation, then you can do so on our website and include Gift Aid if that is relevant. Donate here.

Thank you to those who have already used this to make donations in the last few weeks.

Do you have questions about the Christian faith or want to know better how to answer other people's questions? Then check out this free e-book available from the Christianity Explored website:

See you online this Sunday!

Yours in Christ,

Paul.