Christmas 1 - After Christmas - what next?

Luke 2 vv. 41-end

We are now in Year C for our Sunday readings so our weekly readings will come from the Gospel of Luke. However, the majority of the Christmas story is recorded in Luke anyway, with only three events recorded in Matthew. Neither Mark nor John record any of these events.

Every year, Jesus was taken with his family from Nazareth to Jerusalem for the Passover. Today's story tells of the occasion when he was 12. After travelling homewards for a day, his parents realised he was not with the party so went back to look for him. They found him in the Temple in deep discussion with the teachers there.

We discussed a number of points raised by the story. Jesus was very knowledgeable, presumably because he had been well prepared for his Bar-Mitzvah. He clearly knew by this age that he was God's Son and that he had an important role to play. His mother, too, became more aware of this role and would remember this occasion. It was noted that the Bible does not record any other events in his life until he starts his ministry aged about 30 years. Apparently, a Rabbi would normally not start teaching until about that age.

How about us?

Sometimes, we lose Jesus from our lives. If this, happens, we must retrace our steps until we find him and he becomes central again. Maybe, we too need to be in our Father's house.

Advent 4 - God's Promises Through Mary

Mary - what a Woman! At TFG this week, we flagged up her courage, obedience, and commitment to God. We explored the example she gives us through the faith in which she lived out her life, the unconditional love she displayed and the hope that she brings us. We looked at what it must have meant to have been the mother of Our Lord and reflected for a while upon its cost to her, even to watching her Son being executed, reminding ourselves that the Cross’s shadow is in the Christmas story.

We kicked around the fact that Mary’s Magnificat, is a moral, social and economic song of revolution; she speaks of scattering the proud (death of pride), casting down the mighty (exalting the humble) and filling the hungry (as Christians, we dare not have too much while others have too little.

We ended our interactive talk by knowing that Christianity starts a revolution in each of us, and we in turn must begin a revolution in the world. God promised that He would give us a Saviour – one that would save the world from itself. But he also meant that we would play our part in making his promises good.

Our songs reflected all these themes; Come on and Celebrate, Born in the night, Servant King, Tell out my soul and finished with Joy to the World (the Lord is near!).

May the peace of the Christ Child fill all your hearts, homes and lives this Christmas time and throughout the coming year.

Every blessing,

Deacon Olivia.

Further reading: Wm. Barclay – Luke and “All Saints to Candlemas”

Advent 3 - John the Baptist

Luke 3 vv. 7-18

John the Baptist

In this passage and in previous verses, we read how John the Baptist was preaching to the Jews about the need for repentance and receiving forgiveness for the sins of the past. He was offering them Baptism with water to cleanse them. However, this was only in order to prepare them for the coming of Jesus who would baptise them with the Holy Spirit. They must not rely on being ancestors of Abraham as that, in itself, did not put them in a right relationship with God. John encouraged them to share food and clothing and to see that they were fair in their dealing with other people. He mentions the tax collectors who were known to collect more than was actually due in order to increase their own income.

Jesus would baptise with the Holy Spirit. In the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit came to certain people, at certain times, for certain tasks, whereas in the New Testament, He is available to all, including us.

So what about us?

We need to be prepared for Jesus' Second Coming, which could be at any time. While we are waiting, we can be sharing the Good News about Jesus with all those we meet day by day. Jesus often used to go aside for periods of quiet. Maybe we, too, need to make some quiet space in our busy lives. That may mean a fresh start. In Paul's letter to the Ephesians, whom he had visited previously, he encourages them and therefore us, too, to go on being filled with the Spirit.

Any comments?

Peter Ewen

Advent 2 - The Jesse Tree

The Jesse Tree (here’s one I did earlier) comprised two bare pronged branches painted a bright green (by yours truly), pushed into a tree stump - and what a great morning we had! We greatly enjoyed another fun-packed All Age Praise at Time for God exploring God’s promises; some from the Old Testament and some in the New (just a few – we only had an hour!). We looked at several readings in the Old and New Testaments; we explored the meaning and the provenance of the Jesse Tree, from Isaiah 11 “There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit”.

After that we scampered through bible passages about Creation, Noah, David, Mary and Jesus being the Word and Light of the World. We considered God’s promises, hope, gifts and providence, and thought about our response through obedience, living truly joyful lives and being the presence of Christ in our broken and divided world.

In the meantime, the children prepared and decorated ornaments to hang on the Jesse Tree showing the various facets of all we had been talking about. We sang a mixture of songs to suit both young and not-so-young which covered all the themes contained in the service; Who put the colours in the rainbow?, the Arky, Arky song, Lord’s my Shepherd (modern version), Tell out my soul, Light of the world, and concluded with Colours of Day. Pauline’s prayer time with the children was spent praising God through dance and pretending to be musical statues, in addition to waving the tree decorations and bright yellow balloons saying “Jesus is the Light of the World”.

Phew! Actually, it was wonderful to explore Christian themes in the context of a vastly different style of Christmas Tree, which is now in St. Peter’s Church, by the Tower arch, should you want to visit and have a look.

It might even end up in my sitting room over the Christmas period!

My prayer is, that you all find true joy and the peace of the Christ child in your hearts and homes this Christmas.

Every blessing, Deacon Olivia.

There is more about the Jesse Tree at:
http://maggidawn.com/jesse-tree/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tree_of_Jesse
http://www.crivoice.org/jesse.html

November 29th Advent and the Second Coming

Luke 21 vv. 25-36

Are We Ready?

This morning, we thought about the need to keep a smoke alarm checked and ready for action. Our reading thinks ahead to the second coming of Jesus which is certain to happen but at an unknown (and therefore, unexpected) time. It speaks of cosmic upheaval before His return but, although a great deal is happening at the moment, we should not try to predict when He might come.
We need to remember that God's time is not our time. For him, past present and future are all the same. Nevertheless, there is this certainty and we need to be ready. In the period of waiting, we have the opportunity to live out our lives in the way Jesus taught and also to pass on the Good News to as many people as we can.
We remember that Jesus told his disciples, and so us also, to go out and preach the Gospel to all the nations. In one of the other Gospels, Jesus tells the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Those who were ready were able to celebrate with the bridegroom; those who were not missed out. So, ARE WE READY? If not, we shall miss out too.

Any comments?

Peter Ewen

November 22 - Christ the King

Christ the King! - but how does this relate to our lives today? We considered today's reading, shown above in probably the earliest representation of the scene, from a fifth century mosaic in Ravenna, Italy. What sort of king does Christ appear to be, captive and on trial for his life? Pontius Pilate seems a much more kinglike figure seated on throne representing h the power of the Roman Empire. But is Jesus much more in control of the situation? Pilate is washing his hands unable to accept responsibility, Jesus is choosing to die.

'My kingdom is not of this world...' so what sort of kingdom is it? We thought of mustard seed, yeast and a pearl, all descriptions of the kingdom of God in Jesus' teaching. They suggest the kingdom happens in small, hidden ways but making a big difference to our lives and also is precious.


Savita is an Indian rubbish collector supported by one of the small projects St Peter's Caring and Sharing group helps. She now employs other women too – an example of the Kingdom at work? Especially as Jesus always identified himself with the poor and marginalised and was crucified outside the city walls, where rubbish was thrown.

We were reminded that Jesus' love can and should transform our lives and those around us. As we often pray Thy Kingdom come and as we prepare to celebrate the birth of the newborn King, so we are challenged to follow better Jesus our king.

Judith Platt

November 15 - The Good Samaritan

Today at TFG we welcomed Christian Voices who through drama helped us to explore the parable of the Good Samaritan and posed to us the question "What would you do ?"

By conicidence this weekend also marks the launch of the Charter for Compassion, remidning us that The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves.

For further details go to: http://charterforcompassion.org/

And, by the way, what would you do ?

Peace & Remembrance

David Knight led our thoughts this Remembrance Sunday. After reminding us of some of the horrifying statistics of war dead, he read poems by Wilfred Owen and Rudyard Kipling, and then opened up the question of whether war is indeed inevitable or necessary.

We are called to be peacemakers. To that end, some of us believe that sometimes war is the only way to prevent the spread of evil, whilst others believe that nonviolent resistance is both morally preferable and even sometimes more effective.

What do you think ?

October 18 - One World Week

The whole creation cries to us penetratingly, with a great cry, about the existence and the beauty and the love of God. The music roars it into our ears and the landscape calls it into our eyes… In all of nature we find God’s initials and all of God’s creatures are God’s love letters to us.

Ernesto Cardenal

Servants with Creation

⁴¹When the ten heard this, they began to be angry with James and John. ⁴²So Jesus called them and said to them, “You know that among the Gentiles those whom they recognize as their rulers lord it over them, and their great ones are tyrants over them. ⁴³But it is not so among you; but whoever wishes to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wishes to be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve ...

Mark 10

What does it mean to be in relationship with the earth ? How do we see the natural world around us and how do we treat it through our various everyday actions and decisions ?

If we follow Jesus' teaching here our relationship to the planet (just like our relationships with one another) is not about domination but mutual service. As a world we seek to serve one another and God. This means a recognition that we are part of creation, and not something apart or aloof from it.

So what might it mean for us to take Jesus' words here seriously in our relationship with the earth ?

The discussion started this morning but continues here ...

Peter

More details on the Copenhagen Summit can be found here.

More details on One World Week can be found here.

Sunday September 13 - Who do you say that I am ?

Mark 8: 27 - 38
The Christ We Share

This morning we viewed, discussed and reflected on a series of 32 images of Christ from around the world, all reminding us that Christ is visualised and experienced in many different forms by different people in different times and places.

You might wish to continue your reflections on the different images here. Which did you like and why ? Were there any you didn't like ? What would / does your image of Christ look like ?



Thank you to those who brought in the image / object which helps you to respond to the question "Who do you say that I am ?"



A number of people commented on the image below that it was difficult to tell which one was Jesus - a reminder perhaps that we are each called to be "Christ" to one another ...

16 AUGUST 2009 - Hannah, Mary and Prayer

We’re half-way through our season of All Age Praise and Worship at Time for God, during which we looked at Gifts, Good News and all manner of things. We had some quirky songs to begin – Have you heard the Raindrops? (this chorus goes nicely to the Rupert the Bear song), followed by Christ’s Love is the Best Love (Fred Flinstone). Great Fun!

We looked at Hannah’s yearning for a child in 1 Samuel 1, whereupon the children made presents out of Play Doh and decided to whom they would give them in the hall (Well they had to give them away there and then since Play Doh doesn’t travel well on a warm day!), which was followed by a rendition of “I am a new Creation” and read Mary’s song of praise from Luke 1. We looked at both Readings and considered different sorts of prayer; Praise, Sorry and Thanks – making sure that “Asking” was the last and smallest. The need to put God first and what we can do for others was considered, and lastly, we placed post-it prayer notes on to our prayer wall, while the children finished their gifts and gave them away. Our “Sorry” prayers were based around “Three F’s” of sin; fear, fantasy and failure; The fear of believing we are nothing; building fantasy pictures of ourselves; which can ultimately lead to the failure of putting God first and worshipping ourselves instead. Hmmm!

Finally we sang Mary’s song “Tell out my soul” and finished up with “He’s got the whole wide world”. The adults took part in the Play Doh creations – since they were longing to “have a go” and an imaginative time was had by all. So with Valerie at the piano and my faithful band of stewards on hand, the whole morning went with a swing.

And so to next week … Just watch this space!

Deacon Olivia

August Holidays

Owing to the Summer holidays, the TFG blog may not be updated regularly until September. However, feel free to conmment on any of the existing posts or indeed anything else that you would like to. Normal service will resume next month ...

ALL AGE PRAISE 26 JULY 2009

“IS IT FAIR – LET’S SHARE!”

We’re into the season of fun and games with All Age Praise every week until September! So what did we do? Well of course we looked at Jesus’ feeding of the 5000 and enjoyed a variety of songs; My God is so BIG; Make me a channel of your peace; Be bold, be strong; Father I place into your hands; and Colours of Day. We looked at Exodus 22 and talked about not ill-treating a stranger. During “Is it Fair” the children set up a Teddy Bears’ picnic and shared biscuits (pink for Emily’s sake!) equally. In “Let’s Share” following the “5000” reading (John 6), we drew up Menus with unusual components from around the world whilst the more sedentary among us wrote the prayers. We looked at sharing the world’s resources and were thankful for all that we have – since we realised that we have so much compared with much of the rest of the world. So we all considered how we might “do our bit” and ask for a fresh in-filling of God’s Spirit to enable us to do it.

After all Jesus said “As you did it for one of … these, you did it for me”. (Matt.25)

A lot of thought provoking took place – I hope your thoughts are moved too.

Peace and Joy!
Deacon Olivia

Sunday 12th July Mark 6:14-29

The beheading of John the Baptist

There are many different aspects to this story and each one will speak to a
different group of people. Maybe, it is the way Herod was interested in what
John was preaching even though he was being criticized. Maybe it is the fact
that Herodias got her way by using her daughter. We commented in TFG that we all have our own agendas so God will speak to us each in a different way.
I was struck while thinking about how we apply the story to our own lives. We can see from the story that John the Baptist was not afraid to speak out. We are sometimes slow to speak out about the wrongs in our world. He was
pointing the way to Jesus who must also be our Saviour and Lord. He was
higlighting the need for repentance. We too must put aside all the wrongs of
our past and make a fresh start with Jesus. Also, at the end he was killed
and we too must be prepared for persecution and maybe even death for what we believe.

Let us know you views and how God has spoken to you through this story.

Peter Ewen

Sunday July 5 - Appearances are Misleading

In our All Age Praise on 5 July we looked at: “Appearances are misleading – Judging!”

We had great fun with a brief passage from 1 Samuel, and why Eliab was rejected. For this section, the very young children each chose a cuddly toy of their choice and then said why they liked it. So we learned that it wasn’t necessarily the most beautiful or smart that was selected, but for many reasons.

We then listened to Jesus’ words “Don’t judge others, so that God will not judge you” from Matthew 5.

Following this the older ones explored optical illusions, how they appeared from different angles and the visual deceptions they produced; how mind and sight put things in place that aren’t there and add effects to alter perception. This, as I told, the adults is what happens when we try to judge people; we don’t know why they are how they are, we can never walk in their shoes, so we can’t form an objective opinion. We have to leave that to God. No-one is good enough to judge others. Only the faultless has a right to look for faults in others; and that one is, and can only ever be, our Lord Jesus.

So we came to the conclusion that Appearances are misleading – in judging others we’ll come unstuck. We must learn to think the best of all people and can only hope they’ll do the same for us. We had various songs such as Give me oil in my lamp, Whether you’re one and When I needed a neighbour and enjoyed some children’s interactive prayers by Pauline. It all worked really well.

We left with green and yellow paper heart-shaped promises to re-commit ourselves to God and to each other, but not before we had enjoyed a lovely piece of Hazel’s birthday cake!

Peace and Joy!

Deacon Olivia