annual conference, March 2006

Transcription

1 Call to worship Worship from SCM s annual conference, March 2006 Lord Jesus, our companion and guide, You show us the path of life. In your presence is fullness of joy. Take us by the hand and journey with us as we come to worship you. Take this moment, sign and space (John L Bell and Graham Maule) Adorations Living God, Beginning and end, Giver of food and drink, Clothing and warmth, Love and hope: Life in all its goodness Jesus, wisdom and word; Lover of outcasts, Friend of the poor; One of us yet one with God; Crucified and risen: Life in the midst of death Holy Spirit, storm and breath of love; Bridge-builder, eye-opener, Waker of the oppressed, Unseen and unexpected, Untameable energy of life Holy trinity, forever one, Whose nature is community; Source of all sharing, In whom we love, and meet, and know our neighbour: Life in all its fullness, making all things new: Jo Merrygold Brian Wren, Christian Aid Prayers (1990)

2 Confessions There will be a time of quiet. Please write a word or two onto pieces of tissue paper to make your confessions. During this time the following prayer will be read, as a focus. You asked for my hands That you might you might use them for your purpose I gave them for a moment then withdrew them for the work was hard. You asked for my mouth To speak out against injustice. I gave you a whisper that I might not be accused. You asked for my eyes To see the pain of poverty. I closed them for I did not want to see. You asked for my life That you might work through me. I gave a small part that I might not get too involved. Lord, forgive my calculated efforts to serve you, Only when it is convenient for me to do so, Only in places where it is safe to do so, And only with those who make it easy to do so. Lord, forgive me. Lord, you do forgive our faults and failings. There is no only, no limit, no restriction. As we rip up our confessions, may the broken pieces act as reminders of your forgiveness. In Jesus name we pray. Amen Adapted from Joe Seremane, South Africa, Lifelines (Christian Aid, 1987) Invite people to rip up their confessions if they haven t already done so and allow them to sit in silence to reflect on this. Mothering God, you gave me birth by Jean Janzen Readings Isaiah 55 Roman 6:3 11 A letter to Jesus: Dear Jesus, I have been meaning to write to you for some time about your attitude to blind people. When I was sighted myself, I did not notice anything particularly strange about blind people in the gospels. I suppose that I had the same attitudes towards blind people myself, and it was not until I became blind that I began to wonder...

3 I noticed that blindness is associated in the Gospel of John with darkness, unbelief and sin, and that sight and light are associated with truth and faith... I found it distressing to be associated in my blindness with unbelief and sin even symbolically, and then I realised that the only role of blind people in the gospels is to have their sight restored. You called working men and women to follow you, you invited children to your knee, and you spoke and mixed easily with women. But you did not call a blind person to be amongst your disciples. Where does that leave your blind disciples today? Should we expect and pray to receive our sight back? Is there something wrong with our faith? Furthermore, when I think of some of the things you said about blind people, I become still more puzzled. Why did you use the expression blind as a term of abuse? When you were telling off the educated religious leaders of your own day, you called them blind fools and blind guides. Why could you not have said that they were stupid fools, and ignorant guides? The very fact that the symbol of blindness was used to stand for stupidity and ignorance shows us what the attitude of your society of your time was towards blind people. You seem to have shared in this attitude. Well, maybe it was Matthew who put the words into your mouth, but I am not sure how much of a difference that really makes. The words are still part of the picture of you... But now, Jesus, I want to tell you this as well. When I was thinking about all this, and deciding to write to you, I noticed a place in the story of your suffering and death which I had never really noticed before. It is when the servants of the high priest blindfolded you. They spat upon you and hit you with reeds and sticks and teased you by saying, Prophesy! Who was it that hit you? I wonder whether in those few minutes you entered in a new way into the experience of blindness. Of course, being blindfolded is not the same as being blind, but it is a start. Now you experienced for yourself the confusing noise, the many voices, the insensitivity of a sighted world teasing you for your blindness. You gave sight to others but now you have become blind yourself. In those last hours of your life, when the sun was blotted out and darkness covered the land, I wonder if you thought that perhaps you had gone blind. Was that why you cried out asking whether God had forsaken you? The God whom you had known all your life was a sighted person's God, a God of light, and now you were in the darkness. When I began to write this letter to you, my Lord, I wrote in a puzzled frame of mind. When I got more deeply into it, I became indignant and even angry. But when I consider you as blindfolded and hanging in the darkness, my anger disappears. Now I realise that you are not only a sighted saviour of the sighted people; you are also a blinded saviour for blind people. You indeed took my weaknesses and carried my infirmities, not by healing blind people (which would be merely to remove infirmities from others) but by taking my condition upon yourself you not only died for me but you became blind for me.

4 And now I feel closer to you. I feel that you are no longer the sighted Lord judging me but my blind Lord, my brother. I have come to understand that you are Lord of both the blind and the sighted. You mediate between blind and sighted people. You hold both sight and sightlessness together in a single life of service. Yours, John Response By John Hull, taken from Fleshing Out Faith (SCM, 2000) Invite people to meditate on the readings while journeying through a finger labyrinth:

5 Thanksgiving and intercessions Will you come and follow me by John L Bell and Graham Maule Prayer In Jesus, you came in the body: Flesh of our flesh, bone of our bone, One with us in searing pain and delirious laughter. We thank you that you did not remain an idea, even a belief, But walked, wept and washed feet among us. By your love, change our ideas, especially our beliefs, Into living signs of your work and will. Your Kingdom come. In Jesus, you touched the scabby and suffering, Listened to the ignored, Gave the depressed something to hope for. You bandaged the broken with love And you healed them. We believe that your power to heal is still present, So on your help we call. We remember those whose minds are menaced by thoughts which worry or wound them. We remember those whose hearts are broken because love has gone, Or because the light they lived by has turned to darkness. We remember those whose feet walk in circles, Stopping only when they are tired, Resting only to walk in circles again. We remember those whose flesh and hone or mind and spirit Are filled with pain. We remember those who feel discarded or disposable. O Christ, put your hands where our prayers beckon. Your kingdom come. In Jesus your body was broken, By the cowardly and the powerful. The judgement hall of Pilate Knew your silence as surely as your critics knew your voice. In words and silence, Take on the powerful of the world today: Those whose word sentences some to cruelty or unmerited redundancy; those whose word transfers wealth or weapons for the sake of profit or prejudice; Those whose silence condones the injustice they have the power to change.

6 O Saviour of the poor, liberate your people. Your kingdom come. By the authority of the scriptures, We learn that we are the body of Christ Yes, even we who worship in different ways, Even we whose understanding of you is so changeable Even we who in our low moments, make an idol of our insignificance. We are your body, we are told. Then, Lord, Make us like you, That our souls may be the stained glass Through which your light and purpose Bring beauty and meaning into the world. Your Kingdom come. Your kingdom come, In joy and generosity, In the small and the large, The ordinary and the special, And to you be the glory, Now and always, Amen Sharing Provide glue and pieces of black card. Wee Worship Book, WGRG Focus on the ideas from the intercessions. Think about the weekend and the things you ve learned or explored. Think about the readings and all that we ve done in the service. Using the pieces of paper you ripped up earlier, make a stained glass windows which will remind you of these ideas. Affirmation of faith We want to celebrate life! We cry out against all that kills life: Hunger, poverty, unemployment, sickness, Repression, individualism, injustice. We want to announce fullness of life: Work, education, health, housing, bread for all. We want communion, A world renewed; We hope against hope. With the Lord of history, We want to make all things new. USPG (Young people in Brazil)

7 Lord s Prayer Offering Commissioning We cannot own the sunlight sky by Ruth Duck Reading Voice 1: I have come that they may have life in all its fullness. Voice 2: Life something we all have in common. Voice 3: I have come that they may have life in all its fullness. Voice 4: Life something we can all have in its fullness Voice 5: I have come that they may have life in all its fullness. Voice 6: Life something to be shared. Voice 7: I have come that they might have life in all its fullness Voice 8: Life to live life in all its fullness life. Dismissal You shall go out with joy by Stuart Dauermann Blessing Go in peace to love and serve the Lord In the name of Christ, Amen Jo Merrygold