abbotsford.org.uk

What if...

What if the year doesn't turn
and we are left in the tail end
of 2010?

We'd never have the grief that comes from letting go of things
but would be able to nurture them forever.
We'd enjoy the comfort that never comes to an end of listening again and again day after day
to those things so familiar to us.
We'd richly relive all the past as present
and never have the challenge of the future.

And we'd grow dull.
We'd never be able to strive
for things as yet beyond our reach.
We'd never find the value of things we'd have to leave in the past
or feel the energy of excitement of things yet to come.
We'd never grow tall with wisdom's experience
or learn how to move from what is to what could be.

May the year turn
for the sake of our humanity
and may the fresh day tomorrow
be grasped as the greatest gift
to human kind

Not just another new year
but the opening of the gateway towards the richness of life
in all its possibilities, fullness and worth

Why Not?

I wondered about putting together a top 10 things from this past year in tghe life of the congregation and blog. It's something that I might be able to adapt for the service on Sunday so it is useful beyond itself. But what top 10 things (read: events, activities, moments, images, memories, services, etc) could go into an Abbotsford top ten?

I would put in:

James the shepherd from the Nativity

Lanterns from the Light Festival

 

Any others...

Beginning

Have a bundle of cut up newspapers and a hairdryer. The speaker stands s little distance in front of the communion table with is covered in these words cut from the newspaper. Blow the words from the newspaper towards the reader as he or she comes to the line about the word being set free until the word takes on flesh, then create a beat by slapping hands on laps throughout the rest of the passage.

The beginning
well, just before the beginning
in the silence that was the universe
just at the beginning time
the universe discovered it wasn’t alone
or empty
it was just about to be filled
with a word
not just any word like ‘Hello’
or ‘hiyah’
but the word
breathed rather than spoken
a word that contained the stuff of live
waiting to be set free
and it filled the whole of space
all of it
right at the beginning

and from this word
all other words poured out
the poetry of being
the song of existence
the rhythm of life
each word filled with the heartbeat
that set all of life on its course

This breath
this word
was God’s own
God breathed
God inspired
God filled
God given to the world
and spread the recognition of life:
the light;
through the immensity of silence:
darkness,
and the darkness has not yet stopped it

So brimming over with the fullness of life was this word
that it took to itself flesh
a body filled with sacred breath
and lived among us
flesh and bone and God-inspired
but the world
did not know this word
or feel it’s rhythm beat inside
or recognise the life it gave

but yet it beats
and wave upon wave of life
still harmonises
with the pattern of the universe
from that beginning time
to the end time
a word-pattern
a life-beat
beat
beat
beat

Chocolate Teapots (January 2nd 2011)

John 1:1-18

"In the beginning was the Word..." Let's just say these words, pause, kneel, hold silence for a year or two and then bless each other within the mystery.

Optional: Speak words that shall be enfleshed: speak justice and live justly; speak peace and live in peace; speak forgiveness and live forgiving and being forgiven etc. Turn the word into flesh.

Another option is to go out seeking God enfleshed: the moments where flesh witnesses to heaven's truth of God among us.

Again a third option os to treat everyone as Christ among us: this child could be the Mesiah, this woman could be the Messiah, this father could be the Messiah.

However we read it, there is always something to do with it. Let's ever leave the word on the page.

 

Nice Wee Service

Just a quick blog to say that I thought today's wee service was great. Dinner Party style with lots of sweets being passed around all the time along with some chocolate covered brussel sprouts too but enough of that part.

Things I learned from todays service:

• Presbyterians will sit at the front (if tempted by sweeties)
• You can say more in half-an-hour than an hour
• Kindles make you feel like Jean Luc Picard from the USS Enterprise (make it so) especially when you use it for your notes instead of lots of sheets of  paper

Anything else anyone else learned?

 

Edge of your seat

This was meant to be the gathering words at the Watchnight service yesterday but I lots it minutes before the service began. I've still no idea where the first page of the liturgy went. I was making it up as you could tell. However Santa kindly donated a Kindle to me for Christmas. Now I can download the whole lot and never lose a single page. Of course I could lose the Kindle and there would be nothing...

When we wait in the night
in the hush that only stars can hold
as they bend towards the coming of the light;

when we wait in the night
labouring with anticipation
of what midnight shall bring;

when we wait in the night
listening to the cadence of minutes
beat in rhythm with the birth of hope;

may we hold our collective breaths
with the angelic host
as they clutch their restless alleluias,

for God is on the way:
the mother is labouring
the father pacing
the stable readying
the word is waiting
the light is sliding
and the promise is breaking through

When we wait in the longing for midnight
in expectation of Good News
may we choose to wait together

and find we have moved to the edge of our seats
for in such anticipation
it is the only place
for the Word to be born among us.

Watchnight

When the time was right
God spoke
And the light slipped through

When the time was right
God drew breath
And the word was delivered

When the time was right
God hesitated
As the son fell from heaven to earth

When the time was right
God cried
As the saviour was given to redeem the world

When the time was right
God knew
This was the moment of birth

And when there was no more time
God laboured...
All was bring fulfilled

Mucky Paws subscription here. Oh, and Dr Who is on at 6pm tomorrow BBC1.

Nativity Questions

Everyone has questions, especially about the Christmas story: how did that happen, what if Mary said no. Here are some questions, not always the ones we ask, but perhaps ought to ask, the comes from the readings we love in this season, that lead us into the truth of what is happening and waiting to happen on Christmas Eve.

One	The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.
Two	It’s not a question you often hear asked, But what is the sound of light?
Three	The yell of joy from a woman holding a plate of food for her hungry children The sound of a key unlocking prison cells The slow crack of ice melting after winter This is the sound of light
One	For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given
Two	It’s not a question you often hear asked, But what is the weight of God?
Three	A loaf of bread freshly baked and broken on the table A cross-bar of wood thick enough to carry a man The half dozen ounces of a baby newly born This are the weight of God
One	Lo the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.
Two	It’s not a question you often hear asked, But what does an angel look like?
Three	A shepherd brimming with excitement with a story to tell A father holding a new born in awe of the wonder Our enemies waiting for us to accept their help This is what an angel looks like
One	And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.
Two	It’s not a question you often hear asked, But how far is it to Bethlehem?
Three	A journey of a lifetime but takes only a second As close as your neighbour and as far as your enemy The distance between hope and expectation This is how far it is to Bethlehem
One	and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace
Two	It’s not a question you often hear asked, But what is God’s first name?
Three	The name of every person we oppress, divide or shun The name that holds your name within it The name that proclaims God with us, in us, around us, Emmanuel This is God’s first name
One	She brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.
Two	It’s not a question you often hear asked, But why was there no room at the inn?
Three	Because the world was too busy to notice Because we choose to build walls between communities and live in fear Because we do not have room to share what we have This is why there was no room at the inn
One	In such questions we find no answers Just the encouragement to live the story And let the promise be born in us

Seasonal images

Here's a few more images of solstice service and varioous other bits and pieces that have happened over the last weeks or so.

Solstice Service:

The Solstice Cake:

The Lanterns:

The Light Pool at the Light Festival:

Making the acrylic light wall:

Chocolate Teapots (Dec 24th & 25th 2010)

Isaiah 9:2-7

If the church was to be honest about the nativity stories, perhaps she would be able to say that they do not particularly matter; at least not the stable and innkeeper (still to find one in the gospels) and census and stars. It is something we hang on to because it's rich imagination moves us out of our reality for a while.

What matters more is the birth and coming back of the Light. Such an ancient dilema at this time of year, to call back the light, living on the edge and threat of darkness: just when it can get dark no longer the light breaks through.

The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. The reality of God (be that God born in a stable or in our souls) shifts the light into the empire of darkness and crushes it. The passing of the solstice takes with it the limiting of growth and in its wake frees the renewing of growth, harbouring and holding as much hope as there can be when something is so fresh and undiluted. A new world.

The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light. The reality of God (be that God found in a manger or in our spirits) moves us towards the growth of justice, peace, balance (those bedfellows of the light) because they seems possible now. The darkness of imprisonment, tyranny, fear can be rolled away becasue we believe in a truth: of life reborn and renewed and belief is powerful. It makes things happen.

These are basic truths that have shaped humanity from ancient time. Perhaps we play with them more as metaphor today than in the past but the reality is no less fragile as the hope of the sun returning and as life changing as believing what we can do when hope is born in us.

This, most surely, is incarnation.