Eternal Echoes

We have been made worthy.........

 I have been mulling over this post all morning, partly because there is too much to write, and partly because I do not even have the words to begin...

This is not an exegesis, rather it is my devotional response to this mornings New Testament reading from Revelation 5.

Revelation 5 offers us a vision of the lamb, who alone is worthy to open the scroll, but first the writer offers us a glimpse of his own heart.  Caught up in a vision of heaven he hears the angels calling for one who is worthy to open the scroll and none is found, not in heaven, nor in the entire created universe. His response challenges me to my core;

"I wept and wept because no-one was found who was worthy to open the scroll or look inside." (vs.4)

The writer knew that he was not worthy, and knew that if none was found that the scroll would never give up its secrets, and so he wept. He wept for his own inadequacies and for the salvation of the world. This was not self pity or sorrow. it came from somewhere much deeper than that, and it continued to flow as an intercession of tears until he was called to look up and to see the Lamb of God approaching. The Lamb had been slain, and yet he was standing, and this was no meek Lamb, the symbolism of Revelation shows him as one who has been perfected in strength ( seven horns), and whose spirit has been sent to all and for all ( seven eyes).

I am not attempting to unravel the mystery of the symbolic and apocalyptic language of Revelation, but I am struck here by the picture of the Lamb- Jesus who gave all has been raised in power, and it is to this Jesus that we look for strength. Not that this Jesus is different from the Jesus of the Gospels, he still calls us to follow, his teaching is the same teaching, and his challenges are the same challenges...

..but too often I think we leave Jesus at the cross, too often we bemoan our inadequacies, and we forget that not only does he call us to follow but he also promises to equip us for the task.

Throughout the gospels we hear Jesus telling the disciples over and over again of the type of death he will die, we read of the struggle they had to come to terms with what they were hearing, of their denial of it, and of Jesus further insistence that this must happen. The disciples are still confused as Jesus explains what will happen:

"¹⁵ If you love me, you will obey what I command.

    ¹⁶And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counsellor to be with you for ever—

    ¹⁷ the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you.

    ¹⁸ I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.

    ¹⁹ Before long, the world will not see me any more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live.

    ²⁰On that day you will realise that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you." (John 14)

 

Like those first disciples I think that we are often confused, and we feel inadequate, even orphaned. BUT he has not left us, he has overcome death, and he will equip us by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can continue to follow and so that we can continue to share the wonder, the mystery and the astonishing truth that God loved the world so much that he came amongst us and gave himself for us....

He was slain, but he has overcome, and as the heavenly hosts burst forth in a song of praise they remind us that we have been put right with God to step into his calling for us:

‘You are worthy to take the scroll
   and to open its seals,
for you were slaughtered and by your blood you ransomed for God
   saints from every tribe and language and people and nation;
¹⁰you have made them to be a kingdom and priests serving our God,
   and they will reign on earth.’

We have been made worthy! In and through him we have and will overcome all that stands against us; this is not pie in the sky visionary stuff. This is God reminding us that he is for us and not against us, that he considered and considers us worthy of his attention and his love, and of the sacrifice he paid for us in Christ!

I need to be continually reminded of this as I work out my salvation and walk with others as the work out their salvation. God is for us, and he has overcome sin and death, and because he has overcome sin and death we will overcome sin and death...

As I read and pondered the Scripture this morning my first response was to sing a hymn of praise, and to allow myself to be caught up again in the wonder and the mystery of the truth that the Creator of heaven and earth loves us so deeply.

 

 

 

It is not all about Youth Work! It is not all about Church!

I have just returned from a church weekend away with a lot of stuff to ponder.Much of it has to do with the way and the reason we talk about mission within the church. I was asked if could name one thing I did as a Lay Worker that had a truly significant impact upon one of the Chapels I worked with...

The answer didn't take long to come up with, but it certainly surprised the folk who asked the question. The answer was that I closed something. The something that I closed was an after school club... "Are you crazy?" I hear you asking. "Have you lost the plot? Surely we need to encourage young folk...?"

My response is simple; yes we do need to encourage younger folk, but if the effort of doing so is wearing us out so much and depleting our creativity in the process then it is time to stop.

In this particular case two of the Chapel members were working alongside us to keep the Club running, ( others gave up as soon as a Lay Worker came on the scene for we all know that Lay Workers have miraculous Church building powers). The problem was that the Sunday morning Congregation were not willing at that time to embrace a new way of being and critisised any attempt to adapt to accommodate the children and their families.

So in consultation with the Church Council we closed the Club. It was the best decision we made! Freed from running a club that drained them the two Chapel members were soon energised and able to use their creativity again. A book club was started, and the members found other ways of reaching their community that were much more suited to their gifts and talents. Social activities were arranged and friendship groups began to spring up. Soon there were new members at the Chapel, and although they weren't young families they lowered the age profile by about 10 years!

So why am I writing this post; the reason is simple. If you read any Christian magazine or newspaper you will find dozens of adverts for Youth Workers, or Youth and Family Workers, but very few creatively thought out Lay Work positions.

Don't get me wrong, I am not saying that Youth Work is unimportant, I am simply saying that it does not and must not stop there. We must open our eyes to see that when we talk about the missing generations that we mean EVERY generation, and significant numbers of people under the age of 65....not just folk under 30!

I believe that it is these missing folk who should be our focus when we talk about mission, too often we still see them as pew fodder and the answer to our problems, rather than recognising them as people whom God loves so much that he became human. We forget that he wove his story so intimately through our own human story in order that we could know of his deep deep love for us. We forget that we are loved, and so we forget to love others.

The Church is not a club, it is the living breathing body of Christ on earth, and he wants us to open our eyes upon the communities that surround us with fresh vision, they are full of people who need to be touched by the gospel message, and dare I say, that does not necessarily involve speaking it or preaching it to/ at them!

I wonder if the best description of the Church today is that we are a community of exiles, and I wonder if somehow that exile has been self imposed. Maybe it is time to listen to the prophets afresh:

"⁴ This is what the LORD Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon: ⁵ "Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. ⁶ Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. ⁷ Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the LORD for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper." (Jeremiah 29)

 

In search of a new way of being...

As I write this I am aware that this conversation is a long way in the past for some, it is certainly one I have had before, but again and again, and in more and more places we must start asking ourselves questions about our traditions and practices. We must dare to consider being different, or as a member of one of the other Chapels I have charge for commented this weekend, "we will die!"

This morning I headed off to one of our smaller Chapels to lead a Communion Service, when I arrived we chatted informally for a while, this small congregation likes to gather in good time and the members relish the chance to catch up with one another. We then moved into the more formal part of worship, and these folk who had all been sitting together drifted to their (usual) separate pews.

Surprisingly and not un-welcomed this morning one of the members responded to questions I posed through the sermon, this in itself was an adventure because the person who had been assigned to read the gospel read Luke 6: 6-19 instead of Mark 13: 1-8. Knowing the embarrassment it would cause I simply shifted my sermon ( and it was quite a shift), making a note to double check that the Steward has heard me correctly next time I call! Sometimes though I think that the Holy Spirit goes ahead of us to help us to find a new way forward and this was one of those days...

When it came to celebrating the communion we struggled with the constraints of the space, this was not the first time I had presided there, but I am pondering the awkwardness of the table which is no more than a shelf tucked under the pulpit, and the small platform hemmed in tightly by the communion rails which make movement difficult.

At the end of the service once again the congregation gathered together, a couple of us sitting on the floor, and others sitting on the front pews to talk through the Scriptures and their response to the sermon. I am left wondering if in such small gatherings whether a new way of being and worshiping needs to take shape...

How might it have been if we met over coffee, and pondered the Scriptures together? There would still be room for prayer and worship, it would simply be less formal. With only 10 people would it have been so terrible to form a circle and to share the Communion as if it were truly the family meal we believe it to be?

I am not calling for irreverence, but for relevance,  todays pace of life means that Sunday mornings are often the only time these folk can meet together, and the chance to be together and to encourage one another can be done much better through dialogue than through a hymn prayer sandwich.

I am also not calling for an end to all formal worship, maybe just a shake up in the variety of what we do together, a monthly or fortnightly cafe style service??? We have a lot to talk about it seems. Dare we take the risk?

Alive again… ( a weekend of sound)

 

…waves,

crashing on

the night darkened shore,

rendered visible

by moonlight,

deep calling

to deep,

these black,

and thundering

mysteries,

demand an awe filled

silence…

 

and then the music,

lifting my soul

drawing me beyond

my earthly limitations,

as voice

and string

in melody and counterpoint

demanded an awe filled

silence

(not applause)…

 

…and I am alive again

 

 

Late Night by Pete Collom

 

 

With thanks to the sea shore at Scarborough, and to the Sterndale Singers and Baroque Ensemble (my daughter played with them this evening).

Unlikely partners....

Tim and I went for a walk this afternoon to Fairburn Ings; a local RSPB Reserve. It consists of groups of lakes and wetland habitats, and runs alongside the River Calder. Not only does Fairburn Ings sit in the shadow of Ferrybridge Power Station, but it is situated on the site of an old mining complex that included a coal tip. The RSPB say:

"We are working with our partners to manage the restored coal tip. Measures include mowing and grazing the dry grassland to help breeding skylarks, grey partridges and lapwings; improving the shingle around lagoons for breeding little ringed plovers, ringed plovers and lapwings; and enhancing the farmland areas for passerines such as tree sparrows and corn buntings. 

We are also improving water control, introducing fencing, conducting patrols, and monitoring plants and invertebrates."

Ferrybridge Power Station and it's sister stations at Drax and Eggborough dominate the skyline as I travel around our Circuit, they provide employment in an uncertain age for hundreds of people, and that is good news for an area hard hit by the recession and suffering from high unemployment figures. All three burn Bio-mass  in an effort to reduce the carbon emissions produced by coal burning, but all three power stations still  serve as reminder of our reliance upon fossil fuels for electricity. That all three are involved in schemes to help the environment is to their credit... we live in a world of juxtapositions and contrasts. It would be easy to critisise the industry without thinking, it is more challenging to work alongside it in an effort to find a sustainable way forward whilst acknowledging that we currently live with a less than desirable situation.

Fairburn Ings stands out as a symbol of hope, trees and grasses now colonise the coal tip, and the lakes and wetlands cover the scared face of the mined land forming a rich habitat for bird and marine life. At the RSPB Centre groups of adults and children come to hear about wildlife and conservation and regular activities and opportunities for learning are planned.

I am struck by the potentially unlikely partnership here, and wonder what this has to say to us as a church; it seems to me that some of the most successful Fresh Expressions initiatives spring from unlikely partnerships, that creativity flourishes when we dare to step beyond our comfort zones, and that transformation becomes possible where we had thought that all was lost.

I am currently thinking and praying about creating a garden area on a piece of unsused land, I would like to involve the teenagers who hang around in that area drinking and smoking. It is certainly an unlikely partnership, and at the moment the task of convincing either of the groups who would be involved seems impossible and risky. It will certainly be messy, and won't be without problems, grace will be called for, but I wonder if together, by grace, and through prayer if we might just be able to create something beautiful....

Fairburn Ings is beautiful, and through its trees even the view of the towers was Ferrybridge were softened in the evening light.

 

We did see this Kingfisher today, there is a special viewpoint at the reserve where you can watch for Kingfishers, a testament to the work of an unlikely partenrship!
  

 

Responses and responsibilities in an uncertain age….( pondering the lectionary Mark 12: 38-44)

Was it right that she,

compelled to give, gave

ALL (in copper coins)

and slipped away,

while those less generous with

their wealth

were lauded and applauded

as they

poured gold

into the

treasury vaults?

 

Did they even see her?

 

Could she have been his mother, or his,

those rich ones,

who using a loop hole in the law

ignored their parents need

to gain greater acclaim

at the temple gates…?

 

 

This Sunday's Gospel reading is again a familiar story, we see Jesus watching the folk approaching the treasury collecting boxes and making their offerings. Amongst the ostentatious showy giving of the rich whose gold takes time to flow into the treasury he draws our attention to the widow, who in obedience to God has come with what at first sight seems to be a meagre offering…, and yet it is not meagre, for it is all that she has.

 

Jesus has already criticised the rich, the Scribes and Pharisees for the way that they exploit the law to deny their parents any support, giving instead to the temple. The question is raised, is she doubly a victim, first of neglect, and then of oppressive teaching that makes such sacrificial demands of her?

 

Giving all that she has, she places herself into the hands of God, is Jesus in effect daring us to dare to be generous, the rich, the Scribes and the Pharisees could have offered her aid, without reducing their giving to the temple treasury.

 

In the light of the climate change agenda, of war in Afghanistan and so many other places in the world how does this kind of generosity challenge the rich western nations?

 

In the light of the ongoing "credit crunch" how does this challenge us as we head towards the gluttony and orgy consumerism that so often accompanies Christmas?

 

How can we be like the poor widow, and how should we treat the poor amongst us?

 

The trouble is, I think that we know the answers; they quite simply make us uncomfortable! Will we choose to have ears to hear what the Spirit is saying?

 

Remembrance and prayer…

We come to remember,

our minds

filled with

images

fresh from our TV screens,

of young men, and women,

fallen in battle

just yesterday…

.

We come to remember,

how could we forget

for amongst their number

we count friends,

brothers, sisters,

fathers, even children,

and mothers,

gone from us

in this life.

.

We come to remember

those who fell many years ago,

whose pictures adorn

our family albums,

and whose faces are familiar,

and yet unknown.

.

We come, some of us,

because sixty year old scars

aren't easily healed

by time,

and sixty year old losses

are still

keenly felt

today.

.

We come

because poppy strewn fields

bear witness

to unspeakable horrors

that we must never forget.

.

We come, not

because we love war, but

because our desire is for peace,

and we recognise

that peace often

comes at great cost.

.

Can war be just?

Can evil be overcome

by evil?

Does goodness sometimes

come in a strange

disguise?

.

We struggle for answers

so..

 

We come to remember,

not to glory.

We come to pray,

to reflect,

and to seek

fresh hope…

We hope that

one day

wars will end,

and love will triumph,

and we give thanks

that because of you

our hope

is not vain…

.

 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

(Revelation 21: 1-4)

 

Sing….

You have left

this place of tears,

where even the brightest

of moments

pale in

comparison

to eternities light…

.

We say you are gone,

but we are separated

only by a transient

threshold that

beckons us

each in turn,

 to pass through

heavens gate.

.

You are not

gone,

but rather

you have joined

heavens choir,

whose music

soothes our hearts

and enlivens our minds…

(just as yours always did)

.

So sing,

sing with

exuberant joy,

and we will dance

to the memory

of you,

until

our

time

has come…

 

This image is from Christine's invitation to poetry, where she asks us to reflect on the "communion of saints"

I want to dedicate this poem to my friend Neil who died recently, and will be sorely missed.

On my knees, in search of a new way...

Following on from my post yesterday, I am rather uncomfortable with the Sunday emphasis, and the thought that church is only church whilst it sings hymns and says set prayers.Now I know that 95% of the congregation don't live this scenario, but still the Sunday focus is almost overwhelming. Don't get me wrong, I am pleased that we are making use of the projection system, and that we are using more modern worship material, and that we are serving coffee after every service. BUT that is not church...

I find it strange that folk serve the community in so many ways, and if they were asked would probably express in words that the service they give is as a direct result of their faith, but sadly, and all too often they allow Sunday worship to overshadow what they have offered. What happens during the week is seen as relatively unimportant.

I want to turn that upside down, I want Sunday to be a celebration of all that it means to be God's people 24/7, certainly that is what is reflected through many of our prayers and hymns, but we can't connect to that celebration...

Not only that I want us to either re-discover the meaning that lies behind our traditions and practices, or to ditch them and to dare to discover new more contemporary practices. This means that things might get a bit messy, but that is OK.

Does this mean that God will no longer be the focus of our worship; BY NO MEANS; I hope that it will mean that God is more fully the focus of our worship as we celebrate his incarnation in and through our lives, whether that is when we are doing some shopping for a neighbour, helping with a hospital transport scheme, working in an office or on a factory assembly line ( the list of course is endless)...

To be free to worship God and to be his called out people means to be free to BE his people 24/7. To do this I suspect that we all need to break free from some of our inhibiting thinking. As I was driving down the M62 on my way home from a local preachers meeting yesterday The Killers song "Human" came on the radio, those few minutes of driving in the dark became holy moments of worship. I really like the song anyway so being on my own I turned up the volume and sang along...

As I drove and sang something happened in me, its story triggered of some thoughts... Inspired by Hunter. S. Thompson'sstatement that America was raising a generation of dancers ( people who live in a constrained and choreographed way), the song asks questions about who we are...

The message of the gospel is a message of freedom in Christ, but too often even those who believe it live trammeled lives, we are victims of our culture, and of our won desires on the one hand, and prisoners to expectations and traditions of the church on the other. We find ourselves caught between dancing to either one tune or the other, unable to hear anything but snatches of the deeper music that catch us unawares at times of unusual receptiveness.

Calvin Miller describes the music in his poem The Singer:

"Only the stars and mountains knew it,

but they were old,

and man was new, and chained to

simple

useless rhymes...

thus he could not understand the majesty

that settled down

upon him."

 

As a church we must not be content to make minor changes to our Sunday morning worship, we must re-discover who we are by rediscovering the one who has called us...  this re-discovery will go on on a daily basis for we will never grasp the wonder and the glory and the wildness of God, but we must dare to try to allow ourselves to do so by releasing the image that we have trapped within our narrowness. Dave Perry captures the essence of that in this post, and with one of his many thought provoking images:

 .............................................

Dave says:

"What a delusion this is. Who is keeping whom safe and secure? It is we who are imprisoned, not Christ. We deny ourselves freedom and life in its fullness. We keep ourselves and our fears locked up; we sentence ourselves to confined lives. We look out at Christ from behind bars of our own making."

We need to tear down the bars, open our ears to the song, and to embrace fully our call to be with him, and then go where he sends us...

It isn't easy, it won't be comfortable, and to quote the killers there is for me at least only one way forward... "I am on my knees looking for the answer!" 

If church was like this.......

I am mulling over a statement that was made to me several times yesterday, first at the Baptism Service in the morning, and then again at a World Church Service in the evening. That statement was simply this; "if church was always like this I'd come more often..."

So what was different?

Well, first and probably the most noticeable thing is that we have installed a projection system and a good quality screen, and we are using it. The words for the whole service including the hymns are projected onto the screen, mostly using some excellent resources from The Family Friendly Churches Trust. Along with this we had for the morning service put together a visual meditation to be accompanied by music, because these things take time to do Tim put this together while I worked on the rest of the service. People spoke of being very moved by it.

Secondly I think that I am fairly relaxed, to me worship is a natural and not a formal thing ( although there is a place for formality it should still be natural... I hope that makes sense). During the service children were allowed to move around and play with toys. We have made a note to loose some of the noisier toys and to replace them with quieter ones!!!

Thirdly we used a mix of extempore and liturgical styles, with a number of folk taking part. The hymns were also a mix of old and new, but none of this is particularly ground breaking, and I would like to become more adventurous, with a monthly cafe service and other more creative ideas...

Likewise in the evening, we used the screen and the worship was a mixture, we also heard testimonies from two folk who are involved in mission projects in Africa. Here the prayer was interactive and I invited folk to move about, to engage with pictures and new articles spread around the room, there was also a chance to write a prayer and stick it onto a map...

The comment from one man; "I'm glad I came, I thought it would be much more formal, but I enjoyed this..."

BUT it was not different. I want to say to folk that church IS LIKE THIS... so come, you'd be more than welcome.... and yes we DO serve coffee in mugs with biscuits every week!

The front of the Church at Sherburn, we are going to remove the communion rails when they are not in use!