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Mucky Paws

Mucky Paws has just been emailed for this past month (April). You can download it here if you wish. If you subscribe to it but haven't received it then please email [email protected]. I've had a blip in the address book and lost about a third of people's emails. I've restored most of them I think from a backup file but there are some that are still missing so just email me and I'll add you again and send of April's edition.

If you have never subscribed but would like the monthly copy of Mucky Paws: a selection of liturgical bits and pieces from this blog and others not published here written for Abbotsford church in Clydebank, then just email me.

Alive Within

The cross always poses a question within a faith that says love is forever and that good is stronger than evil. These are four stories of people of whom Jesus asked questions and perhaps within the questioning the people discovered Jesus was alive. A cross is set up in the worship space that is made up of four parts and each person removes a piece after each story.

We met him on the way to Emmaus,
and he asked us what had happened.
We were silenced by the audacity!
How could he not know.
But it was a question not about events,
he was questioning what it had done to us,
and we did not disappoint.
Over the three miles of our journey
we talked,
one story leading to another,
and he listened,
until we sat at the table
in the inn of Emmaus,
and he asked his second question:
‘Shall I ask a blessing as we break bread?’
and as his words began
he began to fade
and as bread crumbled
and light exploded
shards of gold and silver broke free
and when all that was left was a few crumbs on the table
we knew
we knew
he had not died
Jesus was alive in us

He asked me three times,
three times, if I loved him.
We thought we saw him on the beach,
days after he had come back among us,
and we jumped from the boat
in which we were fishing,
and into the water,
and across the beach
to where he was preparing the fire to cook the fish,
and he faced me,
me, who had denied him three times,
and asked,
three times,
equalling each denial:
‘Do you love me?’
and we knew,
we knew,
Jesus was alive in us.

He asked me to believe
and I could
now that I knew
knew he was not a rumour of life
but was among us and between us
in that upper room
He asked me to believe
me who was more comfortable in my unbelief
He asked me to believe
to trust what I longed for
and I knew
knew
Jesus was alive in me

He asked them:
‘Who is without sin?’
and he asked me:
‘Is there no one left to accuse you?’
and in these questions
he set me free,
forever.
I knew I was no longer bound to the whim and will of others.
I was bound to God.
And even after those last days,
and the Friday of crucifixion,
and the rumours of him alive again,
I knew I was still free,
and I knew,
if I was still free,
then Jesus was alive in me

 

Beginning Thought

A call towards worship

O that we had the faith of Thomas
to doubt
to question what too many take for granted

O that we had the faith of Thomas
that could be crushed and broken
and be reborn again
that learns to trust once more
now that everything had changed
for the world has shifted
and in some unique and mysterious way
Jesus is alive
in us
through us
between us
among us
for us
with us

O that we had the faith of Thomas
to have our eyes wide opened
and our vision set on fire again

Dare we?

Come let us worship
Jesus, risen in us

Faith/Doubt

Not different sides but the same side of the coin. I wonder what the opposite of certainty is and the opposite of doubt is? Any ideas?

Or what about answers: whats the opposite of that?

Or understanding, or knowing, or faith or belief?

I feel a contemporary thingie coming on but I am interested in what people imagine the opposite of any of these might be. I'm sure there is a plethora of answers. Just as well there is a plethora of space on the blog. Please do suggest some opposites here. You'll probably have different ones from the ones suggested. Great. Go ahead and do some coin sinning and see whats on opposite sides.

And how exactly does this help the faith...? I'll let you know what there are a few suggestions!!

Chocolate Teapots (1st May 2011)

John 20:19-31

Where does Jesus ask Thomas to put his fingers?

In his wound.

This is belief.

As followers of Jesus, we aren't asked to believe in the sense of holding a particular opinion about something. We are asked to believe in the sense of trust. This is a glowing example of that: Put your finger in the wound then you'll discover Jesus is real. Believe and trust go together.

As followers of Jesus, we are asked to put our fingers in the wounds of the world and trust what we are doing. This is belief. It becomes a 'doing' word. Not a term about holding a particular doctrine but about touching the wounds and finding Jesus. Resurrection doesn't need to be about a physically resuscitated body. Resurrection is being aware that in the wounds of the world Jesus is still alive in the same way he was alive to those who were wounded pre-resurrection: in the substantive change called  justice that seeks to heal those wounds, in the substantive change called peace that comes living the dream of renewal etc.

Touch the wounds, and believe, not that Jesus parallels what we have in our creeds, but that in these broken places, all Jesus was, Jesus still is: the hopes, the renewal, the longing, the substantive change called God's Realm.

 

Normal service resumes

Apologies that there seems to have been a wee blip in the ability for people to comment on the blog (why would we want that anyway being good Presbyterians. What's written is written!). For some unknown reason comment-ability had been removed (it wisnae me, promise) but has been restored (just like the gardener to the garden). Our own Easter parable right here on the Blog. Welcome back.

We believe

A sort of all-age statement where chidlren are given two wee stones to scrape against each other to make a rolling stone noise (obviously!). With the long stanza a different voice reads each line, otherwise the leader starts off each stanza and everyone reads the bold print.

We believe
When the stone rolls (roll stones together)
life is set free
love is reborn
and alleluias dance

We believe
when the stone rolls (roll stones together)
the Word speaks again
creation sighs once more
and the land breathes deeply

We believe
when the stone rolls (roll stones together)
love conquers all
grace wins through
and peace can be held in both hands

We believe
when the stone rolls (roll stones together)
there ought to be balloons sent up in church
pulpits decorated with alleluias
handprints painted all over bibles
dancing allowed in the aisles
noisy children disrupting quiet adults
parties instead of worship
clapping after hymns
and easter eggs after everything

We believe
when the stone rolls (roll stones together)
the spirit of Jesus is alive
life is returned
and death is confined to the past

When the stone rolls
We believe

through

there is a hole now in faith
and the colour seeps from the image
even the sky slides towards monochrome
bird song moves from stereo to tin
and eventually fades altogether

the colour is silent
the sound abandoned

and over this empty background
one word is enough
to fill those thousand years
with piercing clarity
lama sabachthani

and empties the memory
of what greying colour there still is
now
when all light is gone
and the darkness is complete
not even shape is left
just a hole

through

this is faith
enough

Jesus is gone

Jesus has been here
and gone
the echo of betrayal
still lingers
the darkness seems
a little darker here

there is a gap in the darkness
where the son of light once prayed
a crease in the air
like a warped lens
through which we can see
what fear has done
and ghosts of the past
have come to shape our present

the kiss has been given
and still the ripples distort the scene
where the son of humanity has been betrayed

this may be the first
but it is not the last

the path is now certain
the powers that be have chosen their way
chosen how to complete this story
and Jesus has been stolen from us

yet my friends
with all that you can believe
conspire with the light
torn from us now
yet crumpled somewhere
ready to rise again
conspire to believe
that this turning of events
is not the way love intends to leave things

Go now
into the night
in the echo of a kiss
and believe
in a God
who will not end things here

Lead on

Turn now, O Jesus
towards the cross

Turn now
and take on the darkness
Show now
the way of justice
Be now
the one who faces betrayal
Share now
the anguish of the night
Find now
the way through to heaven

Jesus we are here with you
our meal complete
our longing fierce
our anxiety high

Lead on
Good friend
Lead on