How do you describe the indescribable, that is what I was trying to do with the poem above, trying to capture of something of the amazing experience of standing in a circle of those who know something of the heights and deths of what grace is.
We gathered together this evening as one, the folk who come to the Comfort Zone for food and friendship, and those of us who cherish the honour of being called friends. The Comfort Zone met as usual to provide food and clothes to those in need, and as usual we who give receive more than we give, but when we gather at the table all differentiations are gone, we are one in Christ and the singing and prayers revealed that powerfully.
As we shared the bread and wine the desire to serve one another broke through any so called order and with the wine and bread blessed and the appropriate prayers said the sharing began. Once again we sand Amazing grace, our chains were gone, our hearts set free as heaven touched earth afresh, we left one another with hugs and prayer and and assurance that God truly is with us.
I have just posted some photos to Facebook, they are photos of our preparations for this evening when we meet together at North Shore Methodist Church in Blackpool. We will be celebrating Pentecost. We will meet to eat, share stories, talk, pray and worship together. Here are those pictures:
We love symbols, candles, water and oil will all be present this evening. The Icon and the rosaries are also important to us, to add to these we have prayer blankets and paper and pens will also be available for those wishing to write prayers or blessings and leave them in the basket. Interestingly we write more prayers for others and blessings are often prayed for friends and family. I say interestingly because when we meet as a community tonight I will be reminded once again how amazingly priviledged I am, many who I will meet with are struggling to make ends meet, many have been victims of government sanctions, some are desperate, and some are homeless. I will hear stories of the 20p Hilton ( read public toilets) and from a couple who are living in a tent, packing it up every morning and walking the streets of Blackpool with it until the pitch it again in the evening. Everything they own is contained in a suitcase.
This evening we will celebrate with cake, we will share bread and wine and prayers will be said, we know God's presence with us, last week we were overwhelmed by the love and power of God at work among us. We were made aware of a love that knows no barriers of gender, race or status, we are all loved, all valued, all important.
How can it be then that these are a good idea?
How can it be possible that a community might value others so little that they treat the other as vermin, a mere nuiscance to be disuaded from shelter?
How can it be possible in the 21st Century in a so called civilised country for us to have a definite "under-class", a forgotten, hidden ( we wish), marginalised group of people? How can this be? It makes me angry, and week by week as I meet with my friends I am driven to my knees in weeping for the plight of so many, and there are many, and for many it is a small thing that has pushed them over the edge into spiralling poverty.
You can find the story behind the studs here, please read it and let it challenge you, the question it brings to us, "who is my neighbour?" is one that we sorely need to hear, and not I suspect only in this context. Yesterday at Church we welcomed a lovely family and their friends, a father and son were baptised, after the baptism and during a hymn I offered a blessing for any that might choose to receive on, we ran out of hymn as the queue of people coming forward grew, not just the baptism family but the regular congregation too, some of whom will gather with us this evening, all of whom were responding to the love of God.
There are times when I wonder how on earth I became caught up in the wonder of all that God is doing among us at North Shore, people are hungry for God, there are some who have church backgrounds and those who don't, people who have been hurt, confused and even ignored by church and some for whom it is all a new adventure. It is not helpful to categorise folk because " it risks turning people into ecclesiastical 'widgets' or commodities. Categorising or defining people in a way that allows them to be quantified is helpful for particular pieces of analysis but risks depersonalising human beings made in the image of God. It also feels very institutional"1 , and this move of God is not about the institution, not about the survival or otherwise of a particular church in a particular setting but about how people are being wooed by a God who loves them, in this we are simply his co-workers or channels, and I often find that my task is to stand around looking amazed and wonder what on earth will hapen next.
God is with us, this I do know, and as we gather to tell his story, the wonder of creation, incarnation , and spirit power become real in us, as we take and break bread we are nourished by him, as we pour and drink wine we are cleansed, as we bless one another with symbol of water and oil we are healed, and as we light candles our prayers ascend to heaven. We find ourselves enveloped by grace, none is excluded, no humanbeing made in the image of God should be marginalised, there is Good News for the poor, sight for the blind, healing and hope for the outcast, and freedom for the prisoners.
As I baptised baby Oscar and his Dad yesterday I used the wonderful words "All this for you", Jesus shows us clearly with outstretched bleeding hands "all this for all"
1. http://www.freshexpressions.org.uk/views/unchurched : Andrew Roberts
My dear children, let’s not just talk about love; let’s practice real love. This is the only way we’ll know we’re living truly, living in God’s reality. It’s also the way to shut down debilitating self-criticism, even when there is something to it. For God is greater than our worried hearts and knows more about us than we do ourselves.
(1 John 3)
This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed his life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
(1 John 4)
Image; Bread by Koder
sometimes our greatest concerns should preach to us, when we fuss over bread baskets in the vestry maybe we should hear Jesus whisper "feed my sheep".... ( just reflecting on some of the conversations I have had today)
I find myself surrounded by hunger, and surrounded by food, my hall at hone is often stocked with cans of beans, meat pies, Pot Noodles, ginger biscuits and packs of tea, hardly a day passes when I am not given something for the Comfort Zone, and I am grateful. Lynn our Chaplain brings more food, she is given more food than I am, we are always being given food, we are always sharing food, we are reminded again and again how we are all in need of basic provision, and how this basic need joins us to one another.
The Comfort Zone is a drop in for vulnerable, needy and homeless people in Blackpool, we open on a Monday night for a hot meal, and on Wednesday morning for breakfast and sandwiches. At both sessions we distribute food bags...
People are hungry, hungry for food, hungry for companionship and hungry for God...
Not a week goes by without a request for communion/ The Eucharist/Mass, I am asked for all of these because we draw folk from a variety of backgrounds, and all are served equally, we have an open table, and we meet God together, for he is in the midst of us.
There are times when we draw together in peace and calm, and times when we need God to break into our turmoil and angst and so we come to the table, we come in need, we come in desire, and we come because we are hungry. We are hungry for bread and wine that feeds our souls with the remembrance that God IS with us, here in the midst of us knowing our hurts and pains, knowing our vulnerability and frailty, God IS with us, here to draw us, here to feed us.
We gather in our need, members of a community, volunteers, staff, and "clients" ( we need a better word), and around the table we are one, there are no barriers or boundaries here for Jesus himself is our host. He is with us as we approach his table, with us in and through his story, tangibly present as we become aware of the move of the Spirit, and then wonderfully, miraculously, mysteriously we feed on him. Together we become what we eat, and God is in our hands and in our mouths feeding our souls, we cannot leave unmoved or unchanged. If we do I suspect we leave unfed, we will be hungry...
I find that my own hunger for God has been awoken in this community, here I am able to be vulnerable for vulnerability is all around me, that does not mean that I spill my soul but that I own it, I own my light and my darkness, I own my joys and my sorrows, and I own my hunger for more and more of God. I need this bread and this wine, I need the prayers of invocation and consecration and I am finding myself changed for I am meeting God not only in the mystery but in the very bread that I break and the very wine that I offer. I can no longer dispose of the elements without thought I must consume them. There was a time when my pragmatic thinking ( very Methodist) would have allowed me to simply dispose of the elements without thinking, but that is no longer true, food is important, a gift, and this food has become sacred, holy, a touching place and must be treated as such, I am hungry for God, so I cannot throw God away, I must partake of him in the fullest way that I can... there can be no crumbs at this table, not baskets left over, yet he always offers more...
I finish with a poem and a couple of links, the poem I have shared before:
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