Taize for TFG

As we move towards the season of Lent this morning’s service took the form of a meditative reflection and prayer in the Taizé style.

At the beginning we pondered the origins of Taizé in 1940 and that it was there for German, Jew and political refugees. Brother Roger, the founder of the community understood the plight of these people and from this sprang the community whose trademark is one of love and reconciliation between Christians and man and fellow man. Jesus prays in St John’s Gospel  ‘ I ask that they may all be one. As you Father are in me and I am in you may they also be in us. (John 17; 20, 21).

In many ways there are no real winners in war; the innocent suffer. Brother Roger fostered a spirit of compassion – as he said – when compassion is lost, everything is lost.

We need to think about change, how we follow Christ’s way, and today’s gospel reading, tells of transfiguration, and the Corinthians reading talks of light shining out of darkness.

As the chant says ‘In our darkness there is no darkness with you O Lord, the deepest night is clear as the day’ We, made in the image of God, should reflect God’s light (glory) in the world in which we live, living out ways of love, compassion and reconciliation as exemplified by Brother Roger. 

Rev Frances

For more information on Taize go to http://www.taize.fr/en

12th February 2012 In the beginning

Today's reading came from John's Gospel (Chapter 1 verses 1-14).
We recalled how the Good News about Jesus and His death and resurrection was passed on orally for about 20 years before the first writings that we can find in the Bible.  These writings were the letters that Paul wrote to the various churches and people he had visited in his travels.  It was not until about AD70 that the first Gospel was written (that of Mark) and the Gospel of John was written even later.
John's purpose in writing was to show WHY Jesus came as well as what He said and did.

From the passage we noticed:
v. 1  "In the beginning..."   (same words as the start of Genesis)
v. 2  With God    (Jesus was there before the creation)
v. 3  No pre-existing stuff  (creation of everything out of nothing)
v. 4  the LIFE was the LIGHT of men  (Jesus is the Light of the world)
v. 5  The light shines in the darkness  (He came into a dark and sinful world)
v. 6-9  Preparation in Israel – John the Baptist
       (John called people to say sorry for the wrongs of the past and be baptised ready
           for the coming of Jesus)
v. 10  the world did not know him  (the Jews did not recognise that He  was the Messiah
              they had been waiting for)
v. 11  His own did not accept him   (the Jewish people did not accept Him)
v. 12  but to all who received him, he gave power to become the children of God
             (but those who accept Him are able to live as God wants us to live)
v. 14  and we have seen his glory
             (various occasions are recorded in the Bible when the glory of Jesus was shown
              - His baptism by John the Baptist being one of those, read about it in John Chapter 1;
                  also the transfiguration which is recorded in Luke Chapter 9)

We emphasised the value of daily reading of the Bible and suggested reading the Gospel of John a little a day over the next month.  Copies were available.

8th January 2012 The Baptism of Jesus

Today's story about John baptising Jesus can be found in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1 verses 4-11.
 Jesus has been growing up and learning about God.  Now he has three years of work to do.

The River Jordan runs from the Sea of Galilee southwards to the Dead Sea.  This event took place at the southern end of this stretch of river.  John the Baptist had been telling people to repent of their sins and be baptised in order to be forgiven. It was near to Jerusalem and people were coming from all around.  Jesus came there from the area of Galilee where Nazareth was situated.

In the story, there are many links with the old testament:
(1) The River Jordan was crossed by the Israelites as they entered the land God had promised them, see Joshua chapter 3
(2) John was wearing camel's hair and a leather belt.
         This was what made Elijah recognisable,  see 2 Kings chapter 1
(3) John was eating locusts and wild honey.
         These were declared clean by God, see Leviticus chapter 11
(4) At the Baptism, the Holy Spirit came down like a dove.
         Noah sent out the dove to tell whether the waters had gone down, see Genesis chapter 8
(5) Jesus is described by God as His Beloved.
         Just like Abraham and his son Isaac, see Genesis chapter 22
(6) God said he was "well pleased" with Jesus.
         Isaiah prophesied using this phrase in Isaiah chapter 42

So what about us.  As we start this new year of 2012, God may have things He wants us to do.  We must say sorry for all that has gone wrong in the past; accept his forgiveness and make that fresh start, listening for God's leading as to what we should be doing.  John is pointing us to Jesus and we have the Holy Spirit, who will guide and help us.

18th December Advent 4 The Angel tells Mary

We started by reminding ourselves of the various events through the Christmas story and which Gospel had recorded them.

We noticed that most of the story is recorded in the Gospel of Luke, a little in the Gospel of Matthew and none in either of the Gospels of Mark or John.
Today's story was that of the Angel Gabriel coming to visit Mary and telling her that she was going to have a baby and that she should call him Jesus (which means Saviour).
We thought that Mary would have been frightened because of her young age and because she was bethrothed to be married to Joseph.  The Angel told her that she was highly favoured by God. This role she was to have would be very important. We realised that this event, though impossible in human terms, was very possible for God.
Although she did not really understand all that was being asked of her, she agreed without hesitation.  Are we as obedient as that when God asks us to do something?

Advent 2 - The People Who Walked in Darkness Have Seen a Great Light

The Book of Isaiah is often referred to as the "fifth gospel" because of the many passages which many Christians see as representing Jesus Christ many centuries before his birth.   Today's service offered a collection of readings from Isaiah appropriate for Advent and helping to prepare us to celebrate the birth of Jesus.   You can look again at the readings here:

Isaiah 6: 1 - 8

Isaiah 43: 1 - 3a

Isaiah 11: 1 - 4a

Isaiah 9: 2 - 7

Our thanks to Eleanor for devising and leading the service; also to those who played, read, danced, sang and acted in order to bring Advent alive for us all.

Peter

Advent 1 - A Jesse Tree

It was our All Age Praise service today and so we built a Jesse Tree. I can hear you ask – “So what’s a Jesse Tree?”

It comes from Isaiah 11 “A shoot will come forth from the stump of Jesse and a branch out of his roots”. The Tree connects the Advent season with the love and faithfulness of God throughout 4000 years of history and of course it leads us to Jesus, the Messiah.

A full Jesse Tree depicts a different for each day of Advent, but we only chose 6 of them, given that we only had one service and we made it from tree branches painted green, to show the new life that Jesus brings. We dressed it with our own Christmas decorations telling of various times in History. So we had scenes from the Creation story (a globe and a whale) Noah and the flood (Ark and Rainbow), King David (a Crown and star) Mary (the Holy Family, Mary and lilies) and finally we thought about the coming of Jesus, being the Light of the World so we had cut-outs of a Sun, a Star and Candle-light.

While the children were busy beavering away, the adults discussed each of the readings in turn, and the whole service was broken up by some very lively songs and other more thoughtful ones. So we enjoyed ‘Colours of Day’ and the Arky Arky song; Mary’s song of Praise ‘Tell out my Soul’ was followed by the newest version of ‘The Lord’s my Shepherd, we then sang ‘Light of the World’ and closed with ‘Shine Jesus Shine’ – of course!

Thank you to all who worked so hard to make it happen. We had a great time and learned an enormous amount; the Tree now sits in the Church so why not go and have a look?

HAPPY ADVENT!                                                     

Deacon Olivia

Advent Sunday - Cloth for the Cradle

 

 Cloth for the Cradle at TFG

The Iona Community's poem to accompany the service can be heard here.

 

Waiting is something that comes hard to us in today’s society. We are all so accustomed to the ‘instant fix’. Credit cards are the answer to our want /need it today philosophy, where those of a previous generation were accustomed to saving for something until they actually had the cash to purchase the item. Indeed some time ago the slogan for a major bank’s credit card was it ‘takes the waiting out of wanting’, and, on a much larger scale we have the cause of a lot of today’s financial problems.

Which brings us to to-day, the day when the Church celebrates a new year, and starts the run up to Christmas, yes the Church’s waiting time, and like saving cash to prepare to buy something, the Church too is preparing. Preparing to celebrate that great mystery of the incarnation.

Commercially, the shops have been preparing since the summer holidays, forcing us to look actually towards Christmas and almost a pre emptive celebration of the actual feast. However if we look forward too much to the feast, we miss the joy of the present; we are constantly set on something in the future which should indeed be wonderful, but ignore the joys of the present. Let us enjoy the present and the preparation so that we may rightly celebrate Christmas when it comes. Good, careful, preparation for things makes them so much more appreciated.

The season of Advent is a double preparation, a preparation for the birth of the messiah and a preparation for the second coming. This morning though we thought more about how we prepare to welcome Jesus, thinking not just about Christmas, but how we prepare to welcome Jesus into our lives. As our hands prepared the cloth on the crib, we asked for our hearts to be made ready to love and welcome the Christ child into our lives. We prayed that He be born again, not in a manger but in us.

In the words of the hymn writer Emily Elliott ‘O come to my heart Lord Jesus there is room in my heart for thee’.

Frances