abbotsford.org.uk

Beyond Sermonizing

Don't worry, I haven't given up on the sermon... yet. That will be just a matter of time. However there are certain passages which are hardly worth preaching about because they are so well ingrained in people that is doesn't much matter what you say, it's part of people's DNA can you can't change how they read it without surgery.

Psalm 23 is one such passage, but what others do you have that just need to be read for the whole thing to cocoon you, or send you, and you get into that place where it's everything you know, believe, aspire to that you are hearing when the passage is read? More than just the words, but everything you are familiar with and trust.

Ecclesiastes 3: a time to be born and a time to die...?
Beatitudes: Blessed are the poor in heart...?

What passages do this to you? (It would help with he sermon I'm writing...)

Reduce your carbon footprint! Hop!

Time we put together the Westminster Confession of Ecology. This could end up being a serious try at offering folk a series of steps to reduce our footprints and allow us to buy more affordable shoes.

1. I'm not going to buy any new clothes for the rest of the year (I've more than I need already and could probably last a lifetime with the things I've got)

2. I'm going to eat more vegetarian food and at least 4-5 times a week (there's a fabulous recipe for mushrooms stuffed with ricotta and pesto. Just fabulous. Not that you could live on that 7 days a week but there are tonnes of good ones)

3. I'm definitely going to walk more and use public trasport more and when I do drive I'll do it a lot more gently. (I tried it out today and managed to get 10 more miles to the gallon than normal everyday driving)

So that's my Holy Trinity at the moment. Anyone wish to add to the principles of the eco-denomination subordinate standard?

Chocolate Teapots (May 3rd 2009)

Psalm 23 or John 10:11-18

If I was ever to write a line of poetry I would have loved it to be: surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever. Fabulous.

I don't need a shepherd all in white and whose hands never look as if they've seen a lamb let along touched it. I don't need a shepherd whos robes are so gleaming they look as if they are radioactive. I don't need a shepherd all humble and stuff like that. I need a shepherd who can wink at you and knows and doesn't make a fuss. Lets model church on that kind of shepherd.

Monday Confession

We were being assessed for our second eco-congregation award. It went well.

Last night some of us were at Holy City and at the Climate Change workshop. It didn't go well!

It didn't go well inasmuch that by the end of it we were stressed and depressed by what we still need to do to move on our carbon footprint. I won't go into all the statistics at the moment but will later in the week. This is Carbon Footprint Week on the blog and to start us off, go to the Act On CO2 calculator to work out you household or individual tonnage of Carbon. Then if you'd like to admit it, you can post here what yours is. I'll tell you mine soon.

The workshops was lead by a friend of mine who is working for the Scottish government towards Copenhagen. This climate summit is massively important because we are at the end of the 11th hour in order to stop climate change making a real difference to the planet within the next 50-100 years, or we are already too late and what we must work on now is trying to limit the 'damage'.

This discussion is going to be a good one during the week and I know there are lots of interested parties who would like to take part. But first, let's do a bit of confession and admit to our carbon footprint. And as you do that, the government and scientists etc around the world agree that each our our footprints need to between 1 and 1.5 tonnes a year. Go see how yours compares.

Taster

A call to worship for tomorrow

Come and be my witnesses
use water
use bread
use wine

Come and be my witnesses
use grace
use forgiveness
use renewal

Come and be my witnesses
use words
if necessary

Come and be my witnesses
use trust
use wonder
use questions

Come and be my witnesses
walk
journey
explore

Too Late Now

Meant to blog about this earlier but the big eco-coffee morning is tomorrow. Prevent climate change with a cup of tea. Easy. 10-noon with the biggest selection of fairly traded, eco-friendly baking on the planet.

Invocation

Spirit…
energy of the dance…
promise in the water…
rush in the wind…
rhythm in the word…
poetry of the faith…
silence in the horror…
patience in the waiting…
question in the wonder…
curve on the horizon…
brightness in the sun…
speed in the light…
life in the resurrection…
Come Spirit…
be it all…
and bring us into renewal once more…

Earth Day

Today is Earth Day. I didn't realise till this morning. Wondered if we could do a couple of things today and the rest of the week:

1. Any thoughts, added to Christines yesterday which I've pasted below.

2. Any poetry, quotes, one liners about creation, sustainability, balance and justice.

3. Photos that speak to you. If you email them to me I'll post them here in an album.

4. Anything else.

Let's have our own impromptu, inspired, pro-active Earth Day.

Christine's comments (slightly edited to stand on it's own rather than a response to a comment).

Stopping climate change is now impossible. But we can perhaps mitigate it e.g. keep average temperature changes to perhaps only 2 degrees centigrade.

But I strongly disagree with [the idea of the] poor old earth being in for a hard time. The Earth has been around 4.5 billion years, seen radical changes in atmospheric composition (going from no oxygen at all to the current 20% or so) and survived cataclysmic events such as the asteriod impact that created the moon.

Even if we think about an ecosystem rather than a geological body, good old Gaia can look after herself. Life is pretty resilient. Even if were to change the climate sufficiently to wipe out habitats and cause mass extinctions on a global scale, some other species would adapt and prosper.

Let's be absolutely clear here: the Earth is not in danger, the planet does not need to be 'saved' (however popular such phrases are in the Media). We (mankind) are the ones in danger. Our entire evolution and, especially, the development of our civilisation, has occurred during a fairlty stable period in Earth's climate (notwithstanding the odd ice age here and there!).

What we really have to be concerned about it is how well we can adapt to the changing situation e.g. How large a human population will be sustainable in the future (estimates suggest it could be less than half of those currently alive)? And what style and quality of life will they have?

All the small things

It really ought to be compulsory viewing in the church. Oh how we fit our caricatures!

If you haven't seen All the small things, then buy catch-up TV just for this. It would be worth it at twice the price. Of course iPlayer could help too. All the episodes so far are there.

Chocolate Teapots (April 26th 2009)

Luke 24:36b-48

Now that Easter is over, what do we talk about? Well, we talk about Easter! And so we retell the early stories again and again becasue there are precious few of them, stories that have grown in the telling. We get very busy attempting to persaude folk of resurrection but seeing these texts as proof-texts of resurrection is perhaps not what they are about, but rather the next chapter in the continually unfolding story of faith.

In the stories Jesus sits with the disciples and unpacks the scriptures. It says that in the text. But Jesus was never a proof-texter, offering verses that give undeniable proof of some fact or event but opens up the "pattern of scripture" where the whole unfolding story of God is told. It's about posibility, about affirmation, about grace, about future and about now. In my mind that is what the whole gospel is about, not bundles of evidence that such and such happened. Resurrection faith and resurrection stories are about offering a kingdom-way of seeing the world where you can't just get rid of what you don't like, but that life is tenacious and justice is stronger than evil, and love can conquer all.

Resurrection faith is a way of engaging with people that offers the possibility of new chances and a belief in transformation, in knowing what shapes us and what we can let shape who we are yet to be.

These stories we are given this season, of sightings and wonderings of Jesus open up life and let the light in where it didn't stretch before. This is Easter and let's do it all again this Sunday, and the next. Perhaps the more we talk about it, the better the chance we'll trust it's truth and let it change not just ourselves and how we engage with the world, but the world itself. That seems the most persausive evidence of resurrection there is. Happy Easter.