tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91063216506256191772024-03-20T04:54:35.658-07:00Trees of LifeHodge Hill Church community's journey of deepening our discipleship together, co-created by people from across our communityRevd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.comBlogger31125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-29139415388055397302021-01-31T06:11:00.085-08:002022-08-23T10:04:54.778-07:00Week 30: Jesus - Calling<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrTjY2ZxsKTblU4O9ccJeS5QzAuC4rQkiZzKJjceubjtNmvxRfKGgNUrV2N4uhY0OPzhQA-D7Kv576l5w0p3sGaBD_1h1982rip_ELoqZ9YYB24_loSsD5B7NvjBalSM7Puxg81N09OLWWbOVjt2bNLunKOlUJOiaxpyawNA5uzLi5yeKM59N7-cM/s730/baptism%20ally%20b.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="730" data-original-width="537" height="569" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqrTjY2ZxsKTblU4O9ccJeS5QzAuC4rQkiZzKJjceubjtNmvxRfKGgNUrV2N4uhY0OPzhQA-D7Kv576l5w0p3sGaBD_1h1982rip_ELoqZ9YYB24_loSsD5B7NvjBalSM7Puxg81N09OLWWbOVjt2bNLunKOlUJOiaxpyawNA5uzLi5yeKM59N7-cM/w417-h569/baptism%20ally%20b.jpg" width="417" /></a></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i style="text-align: left;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">Baptism of Jesus</span></i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px; text-align: left;">, by Ally Barrett</span></span></h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strike style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="330" data-original-width="589" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiys1GPdUMn-jRd5iBXEovd7VdMI42otT7fR5lUTfoGS8Z0qRf0nf5SNo3ITxhA3D-bmSpQDQpKS82CggddMRmTEMJNJuUXJvhmpcNwBwH4z72UfIkpxWtzB0aDYkwiEdEQIC2tC-8qzPhHv4hZJkAUzi_Um9_kyGl-q46lk_mZIvff4yq3lpAEjHVy/w571-h318/Baptism%20Zelenka.png" width="571" /></strike><h4><span style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><i style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; text-align: left;">Baptism of Jesus, </i><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">b</span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-align: left;">y Dave Zelenka</span></span></h4><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbMLCoJPagGzIN0TPtKFN8GAxebQuEpHL-dAvEeQibLwadyjpn0dO0QcKAfHPfGACbnIcKN_PbJB1qfeBlA_tm2xbO1u1k5vDYuK0dna5ZyQZk8GSR_RDNr_IxJXqVP9kPsULTvrtuPmkj6uvT6PY4WV8Vv-xN6lQGm-uacMzXPrLlnmVf_1f8KmE/s601/Baptism%20liberator.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: start;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbMLCoJPagGzIN0TPtKFN8GAxebQuEpHL-dAvEeQibLwadyjpn0dO0QcKAfHPfGACbnIcKN_PbJB1qfeBlA_tm2xbO1u1k5vDYuK0dna5ZyQZk8GSR_RDNr_IxJXqVP9kPsULTvrtuPmkj6uvT6PY4WV8Vv-xN6lQGm-uacMzXPrLlnmVf_1f8KmE/s601/Baptism%20liberator.jpg" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="317" data-original-width="601" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSbMLCoJPagGzIN0TPtKFN8GAxebQuEpHL-dAvEeQibLwadyjpn0dO0QcKAfHPfGACbnIcKN_PbJB1qfeBlA_tm2xbO1u1k5vDYuK0dna5ZyQZk8GSR_RDNr_IxJXqVP9kPsULTvrtuPmkj6uvT6PY4WV8Vv-xN6lQGm-uacMzXPrLlnmVf_1f8KmE/w527-h278/Baptism%20liberator.jpg" width="527" /></a><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><strike style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></strike></div></div><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 13.333333015441895px;"><h4 style="text-align: right;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> </span><span class="text" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">Jesus the Liberator</span></i></span><span class="text" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;"> (source unknown)</span></span></h4><div><span class="text" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;"><br /></span></span></div></span><h4><div style="text-align: left;"><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Mark 1: 1-28</span></span></span></h2><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="chapternum"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">1 </span></span><span class="text"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.<br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>2 </sup></span><span class="text">As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text">“See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,</span> <br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">who will prepare your way;<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>3 </sup>the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">‘Prepare the way of the Lord,<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">make his paths straight,’”<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">who will prepare your way;<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>3 </sup>the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">‘Prepare the way of the Lord,<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">make his paths straight,’”<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><a name="_Hlk61870399"><span class="text"><sup>4 </sup></span></a><span class="text">John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. <sup>5 </sup>And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. <sup>6 </sup>Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. <sup>7 </sup>He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. <sup>8 </sup>I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>9 </sup></span><span class="text">In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. <sup>10 </sup>And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. <sup>11 </sup>And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>12 </sup></span><span class="text">And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. <sup>13 </sup>He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>14 </sup></span><span class="text">Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, <sup>15 </sup>and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>16 </sup></span><span class="text">As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea—for they were fishermen. <sup>17 </sup>And Jesus said to them, “Follow me and I will make you fish for people.” <sup>18 </sup>And immediately they left their nets and followed him. <sup>19 </sup>As he went a little farther, he saw James son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets. <sup>20 </sup>Immediately he called them; and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>21 </sup></span><span class="text">They went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught. <sup>22 </sup>They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. <sup>23 </sup>Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, <sup>24 </sup>and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” <sup>25 </sup>But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” <sup>26 </sup>And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. <sup>27 </sup>They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” <sup>28 </sup>At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text">* * *</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><br /></span></span><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Luke 4:16-22</span></span></span></h2><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">16 </span></sup></span><span class="text"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">When he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, <sup>17 </sup>and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:<br /></span></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>18 </sup></span><span class="text">“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">because he has anointed me<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-2-breaks"> </span><span class="text">to bring good news to the poor.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text">He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and recovery of sight to the blind,<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="indent-2-breaks"> </span><span class="text">to let the oppressed go free,<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>19 </sup>to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><sup>20 </sup></span><span class="text">And he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. <sup>21 </sup>Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” <sup>22 </sup>All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They said, “Is not this Joseph’s son?” […] </span><sup>24 </sup>And he said, “Truly I tell you, no prophet is accepted in the prophet’s hometown. […] <span class="text"><sup>28 </sup>When they heard this, all in the synagogue were filled with rage. <sup>29 </sup>They got up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town was built, so that they might hurl him off the cliff. <sup>30 </sup>But he passed through the midst of them and went on his way.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><span class="text"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdC57YdVposJdxttQ7xzHbKwthtOic733fTQ5Bym-sstXp7_bYsp5dkBdOgPygNQh2j7GQTmNEE4nTtuj0pwsZEVpEu-R8q8jDQAC8wZdnT8tjTDiaUZLz0JfXxX-Dud7ngbHHdH7qxuzVOkuj7QEQgc3s9vHsEEsvTTWPkH6SrAImb6z90dOLf7W/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqdC57YdVposJdxttQ7xzHbKwthtOic733fTQ5Bym-sstXp7_bYsp5dkBdOgPygNQh2j7GQTmNEE4nTtuj0pwsZEVpEu-R8q8jDQAC8wZdnT8tjTDiaUZLz0JfXxX-Dud7ngbHHdH7qxuzVOkuj7QEQgc3s9vHsEEsvTTWPkH6SrAImb6z90dOLf7W/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">If you take your daily exercise beside water this week, look out for alder trees. They are quite easy to recognise, even in winter: although the branches are bare of leaves, they carry many small, dark cones – the old female catkins releasing their tiny seeds.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Each tree species has its unique role to play – maybe we can think of this as its ‘calling’. Long before scientific explanations, humans have valued different trees both for their living qualities and for the properties of their wood when harvested.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Alder (<i>Alnus glutinosa</i>) loves water. Its natural habitat is the moist ground near rivers, ponds and lakes, where its roots help to prevent soil erosion. Alders grow as part of a natural process of succession, in which wetlands and marshes gradually become wet boggy woodland (alder carr), an important but transient habitat type. They are particularly good at fixing nitrogen in the soil, due to a symbiotic relationship with a friendly bacterium called <i>Frankia alni</i> hosted in the alder’s root system. These stabilising and fertilising qualities make alder an excellent pioneer, transforming the terrain and preparing the way for other tree species like oak to which it eventually gives way - rather like an arboreal John the Baptist!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Alder wood (though soft and porous) was known to harden, not rot, when soaked in water: our Neolithic ancestors used it to create a wooden walkway in the Somerset levels; working people made hard-wearing clogs from alder; and the city of Venice was built on alder pile foundations.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPTkYOYxsqKGUh6A7j6YmyIjkMyeaUmr18bhYn7F3gnbizSMh1Aba6adwxCVQ8AlZix1t-H7ETt73L6AB6qsaRwMUzb4CdKywpx1k82rOTfVQygKxz-evsVc007oJlXshawJ_P7h0Ix6fMcXRf72Tz9kpvNoe53q591295x_b3zG1DnghFAdgEIX3/s134/spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfPTkYOYxsqKGUh6A7j6YmyIjkMyeaUmr18bhYn7F3gnbizSMh1Aba6adwxCVQ8AlZix1t-H7ETt73L6AB6qsaRwMUzb4CdKywpx1k82rOTfVQygKxz-evsVc007oJlXshawJ_P7h0Ix6fMcXRf72Tz9kpvNoe53q591295x_b3zG1DnghFAdgEIX3/s1600/spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Over the past few weeks we have explored a little of the early life of Jesus (as told in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels), but today we’re exploring another ‘beginning’: the beginning of Jesus’ adult ministry. This is where Mark’s gospel starts. Mark plunges straight in at the deep end, as they say. He’s not interested in Jesus’ birth or childhood. His is a gospel of <i>action</i>: he focuses on what the adult Jesus <i>does</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">‘The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.’ In a sentence, Mark announces the essence of his gospel: Jesus is the <i>Christ</i> (the Greek word for ‘Messiah’, the ‘anointed one’ – the one that the people of Israel have been waiting for, longing for, over many centuries); and Jesus is the <i>Son of God</i>. This second title isn’t ‘news’ for us who are Christians in the 21<sup>st</sup> Century – but let’s just take a moment to acknowledge its significance for Mark’s first readers. In the Roman Empire in the times of Jesus and the first Christians, there was only one ‘Son of God’, and that was <i>Caesar</i>, the Roman Emperor. And in that Empire the word ‘gospel’ (the Greek word is ‘evangelion’) referred to the proclamation that Caesar reigned over the known world. So, in just a few words, Mark is telling us that his ‘gospel’ is both the fulfilment of Jewish hopes (the ‘Christ’, the ‘Messiah’ has arrived), and a radical, politically subversive message (Jesus, not Caesar, is truly ‘the Son of God’). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">This week’s section of Luke’s gospel is another way of announcing the ‘agenda’ for Jesus’ adult life and ministry. Jesus is in the synagogue in his home town, Nazareth, and is given a reading from the prophet Isaiah. The words would have been familiar to his hearers: one of the many promises, in the prophets, of the coming Messiah, and what God has sent that ‘anointed one’ to do, and to proclaim: good news for the poor, release for the captives, sight for the blind, freedom for the oppressed, and ‘the year of the Lord’s favour’ – the ‘Jubilee’ year when slaves were freed, debts were cancelled, the dispersed peoples came home, and the land itself was given a chance to breathe and rest (see Leviticus 25:8-13). The ‘news’ in Luke’s story is what Jesus says after he finishes reading from Isaiah: ‘today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing’. In other words: ‘the anointed one is <i>me</i>, the year of Jubilee has <i>arrived’</i>. Again, the agenda itself is radical, political, ecological – and Jesus’ announcement that this agenda is present, in the here and now, requires his hearers to sit up and pay attention, and to work out how they are going to respond.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Mark and Luke emphasise different aspects of Jesus’ agenda, his calling, but they have much in common. In the remainder of the first chapter of Mark’s fast-paced gospel, Mark <i>shows </i>us what he has <i>told </i>us. In Jesus’ baptism, we see the Spirit descending on him (‘anointing’ him, we might say), and we hear the voice of God affirming that he is indeed ‘my Son, the Beloved’. And after his time of testing in the wilderness, Jesus comes to Capernaum (where Mark locates Jesus’ home town), and we see the first hints of the challenges Jesus will present to the ‘powers that be’: he teaches ‘with authority’ (unlike the scribes, we’re told), and with that same ‘authority’ he casts out demons (the spiritual ‘powers’ of Jesus’ world), liberating those whom those demons had been possessing and oppressing.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Our focus so far has been on <i>Jesus’</i> agenda, on <i>Jesus’</i> calling. But both Mark’s and Luke’s texts also shine a spotlight on how the people around Jesus respond to him. In both passages we see people ‘amazed’ at the ‘authority’ with which he speaks and acts. But in Luke, that amazement is mixed with a puzzlement that quickly turns to anger: Jesus’ Nazareth neighbours think they know who he is (‘is not this Joseph’s son?’), and they think they know how the world works, and how God works – and what they’re seeing and hearing doesn’t make sense, in their existing worldview, so they resist it, reject it, and ultimately attempt to get rid of it. We’ll see plenty more of this kind of resistance and violence in response to Jesus, as the gospels unfold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The alternative, again Mark presents in just a few words. When Jesus comes to Galilee ‘proclaiming the good news of God’, Mark tells us, he says this: <span class="text">“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.” He calls his hearers to <i>see</i> signs of ‘the kingdom of God’ (‘the time’, ‘the year of the Lord’s favour’, God’s Jubilee) in what is happening around them, to <i>put their trust </i>in the ‘good news’ (that <i>Jesus</i>, and not the Roman Emperor, is truly the ‘Son of God’), and to <i>repent</i> – to begin the journey of exiting from the control of ‘the powers that be’, and beginning to live the life of God’s kingdom. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">With Simon and Andrew, the Galilean fishermen, all of this comes down to two words: ‘follow me’. They are Jesus’ first <i>disciples</i> (literally ‘followers’, ‘students’) in Mark’s gospel – and their response (‘immediately’ leaving their livelihood behind and following Jesus, becoming members of his new household, family or community) is the beginning (only the very beginning!) of the journey that we call ‘discipleship’.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggb7XJqi5Uy-0FWbOU9AZHJzwri_7Sc6WzMHuk3ehllVkfI8_xAMbE53a3O3EuhKKjgPc-Bu56l7Qg1vBY6_SpUXieGx-sUMFM2qnVJxKBbT-IfgL2WP7qgpsL23_yaU20tHXu_TLVurL7oZID0IPpSDJRCeliFsC4U1zMxvL-sGNSC2u2Mo2RDRsX/s134/spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggb7XJqi5Uy-0FWbOU9AZHJzwri_7Sc6WzMHuk3ehllVkfI8_xAMbE53a3O3EuhKKjgPc-Bu56l7Qg1vBY6_SpUXieGx-sUMFM2qnVJxKBbT-IfgL2WP7qgpsL23_yaU20tHXu_TLVurL7oZID0IPpSDJRCeliFsC4U1zMxvL-sGNSC2u2Mo2RDRsX/s1600/spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Gloria Smith)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Over the past few weeks we have heard about the events of the early life of Jesus but now the emphasis is upon when he first begins his ministry. In today’s readings in the first chapter of Mark there is a lot of content to reflect upon. It begins with the baptism of Jesus and Mark is saying that the one who is going to save people is also going to be baptised before his work begins. It is interesting to wonder why Jesus needs to be baptised as he is the incarnate son of god, so why does he need to be baptised? Scholars believe it is to acknowledge the Jewish prophecy of someone coming before the Messiah to prepare the way and that is John the Baptist. It is also thought to place Jesus alongside those who were going to be baptised in his name later on. It is the perfect opportunity for God to make it clear who Jesus is. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Jesus is then cast out into the desert to be tempted just like us and he comes back after wrestling with the devil, strengthened in his resolve to do God’s work. When John is arrested Jesus then carries on John’s work and in doing so meets some of those going to be his disciples and invites them to join him. They immediately drop everything to follow Jesus, responding to God’s call. He must have been a remarkable charismatic man to have such an impact upon people on the first meeting. The disciples must have recognised something about the man Jesus, maybe they dimly recognised his divinity which then took some time before they were able to understand and accept fully who he was.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Mark then recounts the visit to the temple when Jesus drives out the demons from the young man who identifies who he is. By the end of the reading we are left in no doubt who Jesus is and what he is going to do. It is interesting that for the next nine chapters Mark tries to obscure that fact, but right at the beginning of his ministry Mark is quite clear. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">This is further reinforced in Luke’s gospel when Jesus reads from the Torah and reveals who he is and what he is going to do, almost creating a manifesto, only with Jesus he does exactly what he says he will do and bring about. He uses the prophecy from Isaiah, giving weight to his claims, by saying:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">‘The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me…..</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">’<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">In that moment Jesus shares his calling with those in the synagogue but he is rejected by those living in Nazareth, because they cannot get past the fact he is the son of Joseph, the carpenter. It’s the first real sign that everything is not going to go smoothly in Jesus’ ministry; almost a sign of things to come. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Being called by God can come in many forms. Many people think it is primarily about being called to ordination or something similar within the church but the definition is more expansive than that. The dictionary defines it saying a calling is:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">‘a strong inner impulse toward a particular course of action especially when accompanied by conviction of divine influence.’<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">It does say there is a divine influence as in a feeling that someone is being called by God but it’s not to a specific role, more to an action that can be secular as well as in the religious field.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Many of you know that I was a teacher for many years and I became a teacher because I felt a call from God to do something different with my life than being a metallurgist. The response to that call may be instant like with the disciples, but equally valid is a constant nagging feeling that you are meant to be doing something different; that your life is not fully complete. Then something may happen or somebody may make a casual comment and it becomes more certain and worth exploring in reality, rather than just in your head. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I wonder if any of you have felt just like this?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #202124; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">If you are sat listening or reading this, thinking ‘that is me’ at the moment, reflect upon how you are feeling and then in your own time find out more about what you feel God is calling you to. Pray and talk to somebody and see how it feels verbalising your thoughts and feelings.</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhBmgug8UypMpPPp1cvitPsoaLnufHIXcXqkydbPqWluakIbr74yAm3w-fiXzaBirRaMRmWb_s5WF1J2ikFQSr4c0fae9fWh13oTAN3i4mnxtm_jY6cHCbYRDEfKInM-0ELbyV31m8m3Qd993DRxqoSlxHizegzyovjbaK2R59Q9tminnICczPREg/s134/spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHhBmgug8UypMpPPp1cvitPsoaLnufHIXcXqkydbPqWluakIbr74yAm3w-fiXzaBirRaMRmWb_s5WF1J2ikFQSr4c0fae9fWh13oTAN3i4mnxtm_jY6cHCbYRDEfKInM-0ELbyV31m8m3Qd993DRxqoSlxHizegzyovjbaK2R59Q9tminnICczPREg/s1600/spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Mike Lynch)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Tom Wright’s commentary on the gospel of Mark opens with these words; You are sound asleep and dreaming, when suddenly the door bursts open and a bright light shines full in you face. A voice breaking in on your dream world shouts, “Wake up! Get up! You’ll be late!” and without more ado, the speaker splashes your face with cold water to make the point. Time to stop dreaming and face the most important day of your life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">That is what the opening of Marks gospel is like. It is a great way to start because what Mark is telling us is that’s what John the Baptist was like to the Jewish people of his day. His ministry burst in upon a surprised Jewish world. Many had been looking for a sign from God, but they hadn’t expected it to look like this. Many had wanted a Messiah to lead them against the Romans, but they weren’t anticipating a prophet telling them to repent. John was a voice, shouting across their dreams of longing for freedom. They had been told again and again the story of freedom but had no idea what freedom would look like. Each year at Passover they recited the story of the Exodus from Egypt, John was calling them, in the here and now to come through the water and be free. He was calling upon them to leave behind ‘Egypt’ – the world of sin in which they were living, the world of rebelling against the living God. They were looking in the wrong direction. It was time to repent to turn around and go the right way. It was time to stop dreaming and wake up to God’s reality.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> One of the promises that Israel had held onto for centuries was that the Exodus story would happen again, God would set his people free once and for all and that would be the time when he would come to live personally with his people. This time it would be different God’s Spirit would live with people in people, becoming the air that they breathe, the fire in their hearts. John is announcing that this is now going to come true. But were they ready for it? Mark is trying to get us to sense the shock of the new thing God was doing. It raises the question for us too: where are we asleep today, in our churches, our communities, our personal lives? What might it take to wake us up?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The crowds flocked to John to repent and to be baptised, but John constantly pointed away from himself to the one who is stronger who was coming after him one who would baptise not with water but with the Holy Spirit. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Mark identifies Jesus as this long - awaited Messiah. Jesus is baptized by John in the river Jordan and at that very moment as Jesus surfaces from the waters heaven is opened and the Spirit comes down like a dove upon him and there came a voice out of the heavens, a voice for the ears of Jesus alone saying “You are my beloved Son; I am well pleased with you. Jesus is the long-awaited Emanuel, God with us, God living among us not just for the Jews but for all of humanity. So, these words spoken by God to Jesus at his baptism, become words that relate to us. When the living God looks at us, at every baptized and believing Christian, he says to us what he said to Jesus on that day. God sees us, not as we are in ourselves, but as we are in Jesus Christ. It sometimes seems impossible, especially to people who have never had this kind of support from their earthly parents, but it is true: God looks at us and says, ‘You are my dear, dear child; I’m delighted with you.’ Try reading that sentence slowly, with your own name at the start, and reflect quietly on God saying that to you, -both at your baptism and every day since.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Mark’s fast-moving account moves quickly to the start of Jesus’s ministry announcing the good news about God and saying, “The times that was appointed has come; and the Kingdom of God is here. Repent and believe the good news.” But what about the good news? There is a difference between the good news Jesus preached and the good news about Jesus. We think of Jesus as crucified and risen Savior when we hear “gospel” When Jesus began preaching that was all in the future. His good news was that God was breaking into human life and beginning the Kingdom. Life would never be the same again. What are signs that God may be breaking into our world?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">One of Jesus’ early public acts was to call disciples. Mark describes this as a totally spontaneous act. He mentions no prior contact between Jesus and these fishermen. One minute they were mending their nets, trying to make a living, the next minute Jesus was calling them away from all they had ever known – turning their backs on the world. Are we skeptical about calls, would we in that situation be asking of Jesus, whom do you represent? Can we see some identification? Can you come back later? let me think on it a while. It is interesting how Jesus did call his disciples, he did not say to them, I have a theological system I would like you to investigate; I have certain theories I would like you to think over; I have an ethical system I would like to discuss with you. He simply said, “Follow me!” (or “come and see”). Do not worry about all the theological nuances follow me. The disciples did just that going against their cultural heritage, their economic self-interest, even their common sense. But this call to discipleship is for all of us not just these fishermen, all of God’s people are called to follow Jesus and to live out his life in the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">How might you have responded to a total stranger calling you to repent or to follow? <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">What are the challenges in following Jesus today?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Will you be fearless in following wherever he may lead?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"></span></u></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><u><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM3nSsE_e3glF86qcthcg1WQeo3P5wCPUc0iz0j_g1YjElEs2IQurIEgMrp__Sxm2I3jOnR498zoAmZV7AJgVrbGfdWGL4T_FyEibJlz-TjC6O1GlaobjUuzViiVN5J-D2tDFMhnN843VXc1hVhZzlb4sT3r0cktWGdYFta0FuhN0BGoFgFFTKl2ZN/s134/spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM3nSsE_e3glF86qcthcg1WQeo3P5wCPUc0iz0j_g1YjElEs2IQurIEgMrp__Sxm2I3jOnR498zoAmZV7AJgVrbGfdWGL4T_FyEibJlz-TjC6O1GlaobjUuzViiVN5J-D2tDFMhnN843VXc1hVhZzlb4sT3r0cktWGdYFta0FuhN0BGoFgFFTKl2ZN/s1600/spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></u></i></b></div><b><i><u><br />Reflection</u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> <i>(Tim Evans</i></span><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Calling: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">One of those terms in our Christian lives that I’m not sure we always understand or we think is for ‘special’ people called to ‘ministry.’ I’m always a bit suspicious if I hear someone say that God has called them in a really clear and unmistakable way although I don't discount that may be true for some. If it’s something you're passionate about, good at, is part of who you are, enables you to be and do something positive in the world, relates to how you understand God I’m not sure you need a hotline to heaven to confirm it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">When the early disciples, that unlikely group of people, were called to be followers of Jesus then that’s the marker for all of us. We are all called to be priests and followers of the Way even if like the first disciples we don’t really understand what we are getting into. The 'secular' and 'spiritual' divide doesn't make sense either because it's less about what we do such as work for Christian organisations or be a leader in the church and more about the kind of people that we are wherever we are. If our calling is to live and be followers of the Way in God's world then all of our contexts; family, neighbourhood, church, school, work, parenting, friendships, how we spend our money and our time, who we hang out with, are where we live out what we are all called to be; people of </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; color: #202124; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; padding: 0cm;">love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faith-fulness, gentleness, and self-control. People who love justice and walk humbly with God. People who spot signs of the kingdom of God and help others to see that within and around them. </span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">My own story was that really soon after having an encounter with God at University that changed my life, I encountered young people who didn’t have the same life chances as me when I started volunteering on local estates doing youth work. I met young people who didn't think their lives could amount to much or have much to contribute to the world. But I did meet people, not all of whom would name themselves as Christian, who wanted these young people to know that they were special and valuable and that given support, opportunities, the chance to believe in themselves, could do all kinds of good things in the world. I saw some of these young people's lives transformed. No one had talked to me about this idea of calling nor did I understand any kind of theology, but I instinctively knew that the cause of social justice and investing in the lives of those that felt pushed to the margins was part of what this God stuff was all about. 30 years later and it's still what drives me because I am still convinced it's a part of what this God stuff is all about. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">It's why I love the gospel writer recounting Jesus unrolling the scroll of Isaiah at the start of his public ministry. He starts with a call to liberation and justice, having resisted the temptations in the desert of power, performance and status, seen as normative in the Empire of Rome and previously Babylonia. Just as I started my own life as a Jesus follower reorienting my life to being instinctively drawn to justice and liberation without having the language and biblical knowledge to articulate it. It's really true of our current context - what are we not seeing, where are we feeling bound up, where have we seen oppression at work because Jesus comes to proclaim Jubilee in him and his Way - the chance to reorientate ourselves where things have got out of kilter, to see injustice where maybe before we had been oblivious, to reconnect ourselves to God and being disciples of Jesus. When we look at the world I long for jubilee, a resetting and reorienting of how we live life together, including with the natural world, on the one planet we have been given. That my friends is not a calling given to a special few, it is given to all us as disciples, as the priesthood of all believers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit_SM3_WVjJmcQSEQxqpyhVzescmq9Oozpaju39D5LZp8BDDu9sfOFxPTAJPeDMj62HNPtfVS24TKPik0abojKiTTZ7FPUxQ1yfgx9k1RZ2AqVTlIWKIqb8-VpYwKfEepi_-7gVzV8PBdmRuHI1PB7Eoll_AwuUn3b6HjXmEELY7jHVmsboHMKtAXZ/s134/spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEit_SM3_WVjJmcQSEQxqpyhVzescmq9Oozpaju39D5LZp8BDDu9sfOFxPTAJPeDMj62HNPtfVS24TKPik0abojKiTTZ7FPUxQ1yfgx9k1RZ2AqVTlIWKIqb8-VpYwKfEepi_-7gVzV8PBdmRuHI1PB7Eoll_AwuUn3b6HjXmEELY7jHVmsboHMKtAXZ/s1600/spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Julia Bingham)</i><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I wasn’t sure I was being called at the time. I felt I was motivated by my need for financial security but then a few things happened in a short space of time which now make me wonder.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I realised my part-time job would always be part time and then, when I was no longer in receipt of benefits, what would I do? Shortly afterwards, I enrolled on a 3D course, towards the end I felt a growing need to give back ‘something’ but didn’t know what. I had some thoughts around spiritual healing, but went on to do some homeless outreach work which felt more like the kind of thing I was after.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">At some point my dental hygienist Carolyn suggested Occupational Therapy. That meant university and leaving my job which felt quite scary. Also I like to know what’s expected of me and I need boundaries to feel secure so really Nursing or Physiotherapy ‘should’ have suited me better than Occupational Therapy which can feel a bit ‘Jack of all trades’. Anyway, I took my leap of faith.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The journey through university wasn’t always straightforward but the hurdles were jumped (or, more often, walked around) and I got there in the end. The real challenges began after I qualified; I had no idea what I wanted to do – apart from something in mental health. I tried a few different jobs but the fit was never quite right. About 4 years after qualifying I began working in older adult mental health, specialising in cognitive impairment such as is experienced by people with dementia.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">It was the right move for me but it’s not been plain sailing. Along the way there’s been disillusionment, frustration, gut wrenching sadness, and utter confusion about what exactly I’m supposed to be doing! Some days I genuinely wonder why they pay me to do this because I have no clue where I’m going, the need for my support is as clear as mud and I just can’t find my way, so I sit and listen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">After two years I feel like I’ve found my calling. It’s the stories and relationships I love; hearing how Betty makes apple pie and custard and listening to her plans for how we can spend the weekend together at her house. Betty’s Mom will cook me a meat dinner, Bet will do the pudding and I can sleep in the back room on their settee. Jeff talks about playing base guitar in the pubs around Digbeth, he tells me about getting barred, he doesn’t know why ‘honestly’ but there’s a chuckle and a wink that tells a different story. It’s the look on the faces and the laughter as people reconnect with what is important to them. It’s such a privilege to be invited into another person’s world and bear witness to the joy of what is meaningful and purposeful to them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Has God rewarded my leap of faith by urging me towards something so beautiful? Still not entirely sure, but then I’m not entirely sure I got here <b><i>all</i> </b>by myself either…<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p><b style="font-family: inherit;"><i><u><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVmVGlQrG1f_ilcNq_1ZT5f9txSYstDcfkSvBXFhaL5L2LlzKr31yDes3VlvhUYnmKxEPpoJ-MLSnd41YktjYyg4UQA99bFH6_KePwh46gibuTEYCSTApelPfYI_xibIcm5VFDBGwFH48OmCW55U4NudoDGxaq2klIq0jqqv24yxW5daSdTsGQcrpA/s134/spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVmVGlQrG1f_ilcNq_1ZT5f9txSYstDcfkSvBXFhaL5L2LlzKr31yDes3VlvhUYnmKxEPpoJ-MLSnd41YktjYyg4UQA99bFH6_KePwh46gibuTEYCSTApelPfYI_xibIcm5VFDBGwFH48OmCW55U4NudoDGxaq2klIq0jqqv24yxW5daSdTsGQcrpA/s1600/spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div></u></i></b><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As I read / listened to <i>the readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what am I discovering <i>about</i> <b>Jesus</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">how might these (noticings, wonderings, realisations & discoveries) change the way I live out my <b>faith</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">is <span style="color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b> change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-family: inherit; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQ-a3SoyHkJMS_0BajjrXO35u6P4yZWA8i5J7UlFr4yNpcScJ_bUvS_cpg1JyejcesFGG-YRua4bWIvIfsFGkBdiq5Z5rOPqhHIUwUdbEOejyZZw7rzDjhcBb42aAPaII-S8YtCpboWurkQzGm7PiZV0Qv1KHxqVHkZ43-ENuKvFLVAgQ1F6Bbeer/s134/spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYQ-a3SoyHkJMS_0BajjrXO35u6P4yZWA8i5J7UlFr4yNpcScJ_bUvS_cpg1JyejcesFGG-YRua4bWIvIfsFGkBdiq5Z5rOPqhHIUwUdbEOejyZZw7rzDjhcBb42aAPaII-S8YtCpboWurkQzGm7PiZV0Qv1KHxqVHkZ43-ENuKvFLVAgQ1F6Bbeer/s1600/spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Poems / prayers for this week<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">The mud of human evil<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">is very deep,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">it stinks forcefully,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">it is full of dangerous gases,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">and there was Jesus,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">in front of John,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">asking to be allowed<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">to bend down in that mud.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">And John,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">no wonder,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">hesitated.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">But he, Jesus,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">he went down,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">and when he came up,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">the mud still streaming...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">HEAVEN OPENED,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">and a voice was heard...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">and a new Spirit<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">a new life<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">and a new heart<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">were announced,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">glory, glory, alleluia.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">He was bathed... in light...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">drowned... in God’s voice...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">full... of spirit;<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">but what about the mud,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">was he going to forget it?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">... No<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">because once he got the spirit,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">that Spirit drove him...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">to do his work<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">in this world,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">to struggle with evil<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: 72pt;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">in us, ...<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">in this world,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 72pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 17.633333206176758px;">in order to overcome it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-top: 12pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">(Joseph Donders, in <i>Imaging the Word </i>vol. 3)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The following blessing (by Jan Richardson in ‘Circle of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons’) we have used before: at the beginning of Lent last year, and in Week 8 of Trees of Life when we explored the story of Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness. As we approach another Lent – now knowing a little more about the wilderness experience ourselves – perhaps we can hear echoes of Ishmael’s cries and Hagar’s prayers, with Jesus, and with us.<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">If you would enter <br />into the wilderness, <br />do not begin <br />without a blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Do not leave <br />without hearing <br />who you are: <br />Beloved, <br />named by the One <br />who has travelled this path <br />before you.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Do not go <br />without letting it echo <br />in your ears,<br />and if you find <br />it is hard to let it into your heart,<br />do not despair. <br />That is what <br />this journey is for.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I cannot promise <br />this blessing will free you<br />from danger, <br />from fear, <br />from hunger <br />or thirst,<br />from the scorching <br />of sun <br />or the fall <br />of the night.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">But I can tell you <br />that on this path <br />there will be help.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I can tell you <br />that on this way <br />there will be rest.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">I can tell you <br />that you will know <br />the strange graces<br />that come to our aid <br />only on a road <br />such as this,<br />that fly to meet us <br />bearing comfort <br />and strength,<br />that come alongside us <br />for no other cause<br />than to lean themselves <br />toward our ear<br />and with their <br />curious insistence <br />whisper our name:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Beloved. <br /></span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Beloved. <br /></span></i><i style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Beloved.</span></i></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: left;"><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Activities / conversation-starters <br />with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Today we are thinking about Jesus’ baptism in the River Jordan. Find some water – a puddle, a bowl, a river, a bath… - and immerse some part of yourself in it (your hand, your feet… or even your whole self). I wonder what it feels like? I wonder what you notice about the water? I wonder what it means to be baptised?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Jesus calls his disciples to follow him, and they immediately change their way of life. I wonder what Jesus might be calling you to change in your life? Is there anything – a habit, a way or thinking, speaking or doing – that you need to leave behind?<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Jesus heals lots of people. I wonder who you know who needs healing – healing from illness or injury, or help with something difficult in their life? Draw a picture of them. As you draw, imagine showing your picture to God, and hold the person before God in prayer. <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="font-family: inherit; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]-->Jesus talks about being filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. There are other places in the bible where we hear about the Holy Spirit being like the wind. I wonder what you can think of that uses the power of the wind? Can you make something that relies on wind power? Here is an example of how to make a simple windmill: <a href="https://www.auntannie.com/FridayFun/Pinwheel/">https://www.auntannie.com/FridayFun/Pinwheel/</a> <o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span></p></div></span></div></h4><span style="font-family: inherit; font-weight: normal;"><sup><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="text"><br /></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span face="-webkit-standard" style="font-size: medium;"></span></p></sup></span>Genny Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110481787319074494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-3138957074233285302021-01-24T10:34:00.067-08:002022-08-19T10:54:41.549-07:00Week 29: Jesus - Family<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFDiQM98XwdH0yGo1TuVtJUz3vWL7mPWNLUayPDQ5hAm8vuhC4MpyhlcGVVHyQUsxPBA3eY7-BTIJHH1VayfoYXX2_R1udveH92vkpzjZDOfyzSU6N3Ai31jyOymiIfyys7iDReDYHTDRWGBjJLvkk8yvHwH4stFqA89wuwNe4lQul1hgmJ0bayiB/s336/Jesus%20in%20temple.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="336" data-original-width="336" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbFDiQM98XwdH0yGo1TuVtJUz3vWL7mPWNLUayPDQ5hAm8vuhC4MpyhlcGVVHyQUsxPBA3eY7-BTIJHH1VayfoYXX2_R1udveH92vkpzjZDOfyzSU6N3Ai31jyOymiIfyys7iDReDYHTDRWGBjJLvkk8yvHwH4stFqA89wuwNe4lQul1hgmJ0bayiB/s320/Jesus%20in%20temple.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Boy Jesus in the Temple, by He Qi</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizStp0DSoQ1M3btTBH195_fvWUQfsZkco41BLc6OFDgmoxQZqPULJdsmGyfj4vBN4ODDJF5g0dz3JhrdlF8TNz3bFgAdU4Ix-cEBgVC0ja96k9cHA4o8GUgeZ2d_86l0t8FApGoY_x56L8CZ60xxMEOzfWcGxaBVL_NhYXHO4zBo-djTQLnQmoy6L0/s718/God's%20dream.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="416" data-original-width="718" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizStp0DSoQ1M3btTBH195_fvWUQfsZkco41BLc6OFDgmoxQZqPULJdsmGyfj4vBN4ODDJF5g0dz3JhrdlF8TNz3bFgAdU4Ix-cEBgVC0ja96k9cHA4o8GUgeZ2d_86l0t8FApGoY_x56L8CZ60xxMEOzfWcGxaBVL_NhYXHO4zBo-djTQLnQmoy6L0/w490-h283/God's%20dream.jpg" width="490" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">from 'God's Dream' by Desmond Tutu</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div></div><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Luke 2:41-52<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-size: medium; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">41 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. <b><sup>42 </sup></b>And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. <b><sup>43 </sup></b>When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. <b><sup>44 </sup></b>Assuming that he was in the group of travellers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. <b><sup>45 </sup></b>When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. <b><sup>46 </sup></b>After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. <b><sup>47 </sup></b>And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. <b><sup>48 </sup></b>When his parents saw him they were astonished; and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Look, your father and I have been searching for you in great anxiety.” <b><sup>49 </sup></b>He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” <b><sup>50 </sup></b>But they did not understand what he said to them. <b><sup>51 </sup></b>Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them. His mother treasured all these things in her heart.</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-size: medium; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">52 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years, and in divine and human favour.</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-size: medium; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Matthew 12:46-50<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">46 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">While he was still speaking to the crowds, his mother and his brothers were standing outside, wanting to speak to him. <b><sup>47 </sup></b>Someone told him, “Look, your mother and your brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.” <b><sup>48 </sup></b>But to the one who had told him this, Jesus replied, “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?” <b><sup>49 </sup></b>And pointing to his disciples, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers! <b><sup>50 </sup></b>For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.”</span></span><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Tree families are just as complicated as human ones – maybe even more so. Each tree is grouped with similar plant species into a genus, and these are grouped into related families, and classified into larger related groups within the plant kingdom. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Some plant families have only trees in them: the Plane family contains 8 species of plane tree and no other plants. More often there is great diversity: small herbaceous plants, shrubs and large trees together in a mixture that can seem surprising. Did you know that flowering quinces, pyracanthas, blackberries, blackthorn, hawthorn, rowan, and most fruit trees (including apple, pear, plum and cherry) are all in the Rose family? Or that lilac and privet are in the OIive family?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">There is, however, ongoing dispute about plant relationships. Originally, similarities of appearance were the main clue to family groupings (eg the typical ‘showy’ flowers/blossom of Rose family members) – but resemblances are sometimes purely superficial and misleading. Over time, as fuller study is made of plant structure, cell function and genetics, the family trees of plants are redrawn and argued over, and (confusingly) names are sometimes changed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">But identifying and naming family groups and relationships is of course a human activity; indeed, the very idea of a unique species is a human construct imposing clear-cut boundaries on fluid, hybridising, gradually-evolving nature. Trees don’t care about any of this. Perhaps the only family they are aware of are those very local, neighbouring brothers and sisters whose roots connect with theirs to share resources.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Sally Nash)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">This week our theme is family. That is a word which evokes a wide variety of responses. For some of us it is a word we say with joy and perhaps pride as we consider our own families. For others of us it is a word that can be challenging or difficult as we think of some of the dysfunctions of our family. Over the many years I have been involved in pastoral ministry I have rarely met someone who does not have some baggage they bring from their family of origin or the family they are now part of that they would benefit from processing and praying through. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">We are looking at two stories this week both of which can be tricky to understand from our current cultural context. The first is in Luke 2 and is the only story we find in the Bible of the life of Jesus between the birth narratives and the start of his public ministry so it is clearly an important one. The story happens in the context of the family travelling to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover, remembering how Moses led the Israelites out of slavery in Egypt that we read about in Exodus. At 12 years of age, Jesus would be at the end of his childhood, at 13 he would have been regarded as an adult and expected to fulfil the duties of an adult in Judaism. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">In Luke 2, Mary and Joseph eventually realise that they do not know where Jesus is. Some of us are old enough to remember being able to disappear in the morning and reappear in time for dinner, going off to the park or on our bikes in a way that doesn’t seem to happen today. Our parents may have had no idea where we were but that never extended to three days! It gives an interesting insight into how family and community were seen, a much greater sense of mutual responsibility for one another and initially Mary and Joseph would not have been concerned about not knowing where Jesus was. They would have trusted family or friends to care for him.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">However, Jesus was demonstrating his commitment to his heavenly Father and was sitting among the teachers amazing them with his wisdom. The passage goes on to explain how Mary talked to him and did not fully understand what it was Jesus was saying to her but pondered the words in her heart. The chapter finishes by telling us that Jesus continued to grow up, finding favour with humanity and God. This is the last mention we have of Joseph and it is speculated that he may have not lived long after this event. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">If we look at the encounter between Jesus and his parents, we see a role reversal or a disruption – when challenged by Mary, Jesus tells them what he thought they should know – the expectations on him are different perhaps from other children and he has a heavenly father who has a different agenda. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The passage from Matthew helps us understand family in a more extensive and inclusive way. It can sound quite shocking to our ears in a culture which is often more focused on the nuclear family and decisions based on what is good for our small family rather a wider context of the family of God. Thus the passage in Matthew makes it clear that there are two types of family that Jesus is talking about. The family he grew up in but then also the family which is made up of those who do the will of God. Mary would be part of the family of Jesus using both of these ways of looking at family. We remember her response to the angel telling her she would give birth to Jesus (Luke 1.38 Let it be done to me according to your word). Some of us may be part of families where others follow Jesus too, however, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">some who choose to follow Jesus may be disowned by their family of origin who may not understand the choice. This makes it particularly important that there is a family that they are embraced by, the spiritual family Jesus talks about in this passage. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Some might argue that Jesus was being disrespectful talking like this but if we think of those who foster and adopt – all are treated equally as belonging to one family, he was extending the family, not diminishing one part of it. T</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">he good news for each one of us is that Jesus is the founder of a new family, a family of those who follow Jesus. And we are part of this family. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Lyn Lynch)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">I think one of the most positive things we have rediscovered during these long difficult months of living in the grip of a world pandemic known as COVID19 is our deep need to belong to a family.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Thinking of belonging to a family will bring so many different images to mind depending on our own experiences, but what is a family? The reference in the dictionary explains it as being members of a household, parents and children with others whether living together or not, as descendants of a common ancestor, house or lineage.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A few weeks ago through our Scriptures we heard about the ancestors and lineage of Jesus, but today Luke gives us a glimpse of ordinary family life, which we can relate to, when we find Mary and Joseph and the young Jesus visiting the Temple for the Passover.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Jesus was around twelve years old and in the Jewish tradition was considered as coming into manhood. He was expected to take upon himself all the obligations required by the law. The family were fulfilling an obligation expected of every Jew in all the world, to attend the Passover feast in the holy city of Jerusalem at least once in their lifetime.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">We can well imagine how the holy city and the Temple and all the learning and sacred ritual must have fascinated the young Jesus. I can still remember being taken to my first Christmas midnight mass, and as a young teenager I was fascinated by the music of the sung liturgy, the procession of candles and the waft of incense rising heavenwards, and wanting to know more about it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">So Jesus lingers behind when the family begin their journey home in the company of their friends from Galilee they travelled with. Perhaps this tells us a lot about the kind of world they lived in, where extended family and friends lived in close mutual trust, sharing in all the events of everyday life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">I grew up in the late 1940s and early 50s and life wasn’t always easy, but extended family and neighbours lived close by with their doors always open to one another. Living in close knit communities everyone supported each other when times got tough and celebrated good times, and were always ready to look after the young ones of the community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">So it might have been that Mary thought Jesus was with Joseph, as the women often began the journey home before the men folk because they might travel more slowly, and Joseph might have thought that Jesus was with his mother. It only dawned on them that he was missing when they met up to make camp in the evening. After searching for him among those who travelled with them and not finding him, they must have been distraught with worry. They began the journey back to Jerusalem to find him. They must have been so anxious, as every parent knows, when your beloved child is hurt or missing the feeling of guilt and deep distress is overwhelming. Returning to Jerusalem by themselves without the support of their travelling companions must have been difficult for them as the city was a potentially dangerous place, full of narrow alleys, crowds of people, soldiers and traders. Like any big city it was not a place any parent would leave their beloved child alone and unprotected. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The agony of Mary and Joseph must have been almost unbearable, yet when they find him, they find Jesus quite at home and calm as Mary pours out her relief that he is safe, saying “Your father and I have been looking for you.” Jesus simply answers his anxious mother almost asking why was she worrying. “Did you not know that I must be in my father’s house?” <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">See how very gently but clearly he seems to move the name ‘father’ from Joseph to God. This seems to be that special moment when the young Jesus understands who he is, and his special relationship with God, and he shares it with his parents. I wonder how much Mary and Joseph really understood of what Jesus was saying to them, especially as he returns home with them and continued to live as an obedient son, until it was time for him to begin what he had been born to do.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Mary pondered all these things in her heart, from carrying him safe in her womb, to cradling him in the warmth of her arms, and with Joseph she had protected him, tending many a grazed knee, and sharing the joys of his growing into manhood. She must also have pondered quietly on what the future held in store for her beloved child. Jesus brings us all in touch with the mother and fatherhood of God which stretches far beyond our own beloved families, beyond the families we are born into. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As we move to the reading from Matthew we find a telling little scene between Jesus and some of his family, and in Mark 3 there is a similar passage which seems to suggest that the family were a bit anxious about Jesus and the events that were unfolding day by day, and again they are searching for him. Jesus seems to regard their presence as a bit of an interruption, but he is not being negative towards his own family, but positive about the disciples gathered around him, listening to him and wanting to know more and be part of his mission.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Jesus is leading us to a wider vision of belonging to a family far beyond that which we are born into when he asks, “Who is my mother and who are my sisters and brothers?” Everyone who listens to Jesus are brought into the presence of God and into a new family of sisters and brothers, human and non-human, through Jesus in Gods Kin-dom. We all are descended from our creator God who gives life and breath to all beings, and Jesus is the founder of the family of all believers and urges us to share the joy of being part of the family that stretches around the world and beyond.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">During these difficult times when we have been unable to be together with our loved ones, I have walked through the local woodland day by day and connecting to the wonder of the changing seasons. As I walked alone I have met many lovely people walking their dogs. As the weeks have past, we have shared a smile which became a greeting, which has grown into the beginnings of a shared experience of life. As I remember each one among my evening prayers, Jesus has opened for me a wider fuller vision of new connections within the kin-dom of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">While our own beloved ones are our first experience of belonging to a family network that spans the generations, through Jesus we are members of a family of believers from around the world, and now I believe it includes those we meet everyday as we pass through this life. We all share the same God-given ancestry and all our beginnings and endings are held in the love of God, through Jesus Christ. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Allannah Brennan)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Sometimes I think the Bible readings are not good at telling us what people were feeling at particular times – we are often told the facts but we don’t get to know how people felt about something that happened. It’s possible that this is because they were written down many years after the event so perhaps feelings evaporate somewhat over time. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Today’s readings are about two family events - Mary and Joseph losing Jesus and Jesus seemingly dismissing the importance of Mary and his sisters. Mary does question Jesus about his behaviour when he is 12 but we do not get to know how she and her daughters felt if they heard what Jesus had said when he seemed to slight them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">In August last year, about a week before my grandson, Joe’s 12th birthday, I was at Castle Bromwich Hall Gardens with him, Luca and Frankie. We were doing a flower trail and suddenly I realised Joe was not with us. We were near to the entrance into another part of the garden so I just assumed he had gone through into there – when I went through I could see a large part of the garden but no Joe. Then I couldn’t remember how long it had been since I saw him and I asked the others, who said they didn’t know either. Despite knowing we were in a fairly save environment, that Joe is nearly 12, can swim well (there is water in the garden), goes to school on buses many miles from home, knows the gardens quite well and feeling pretty sure that if anyone had tried to run off with him, he would have resisted, shouted, kicked and screamed, nevertheless I felt panic rising. I opened my month and shouted JOE – and out he came from the maze. I was cross “why did you go off?” I demanded; “I was looking for the next clue,” said Joe. A few deep breaths later, a couple of muttered apologies – one from me for shouting – and our day continued pleasantly enough.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I have told this story because I bet many parents and grandparents and other adults looking after children, have temporarily misplaced a child for a few minutes or even a few seconds, and it is frightening. Imagine then for Mary and Joseph to have travelled on a whole day before they missed Jesus and then, of course, a whole day’s journey back to Jerusalem to look for him. I admired Mary’s restraint when she spoke to him. This event in the lives of Mary, Joseph and Jesus set them firmly in the sort of family life that we experience. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The second event when Jesus seems to disregard his family could possibly have been much more hurtful if it was meant as it is written by Matthew. Again a story from my own life – my parents joined a house church when I was 8 and my brother was 18. It was very strict which didn’t bother me much – in fact I discovered new cousins – but for my brother –phew it would have been a mega lifestyle change for him. He didn’t embrace the new church and frankly, I learnt later, my parents were advised to turn him off – I think my Dad particularly was given a hard time over it and my brother went to live with his girlfriend’s family. I learnt all this later, of course, but I believe it was bits of scripture like our second reading for today that had been used.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Around this time in Jesus’ life he too was having a difficult time with his own family and neighbours who couldn’t quite believe that their brother, their cousin, their friend, was being hailed by some as the Messiah.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">What I think both readings show us is Jesus’ humanity and that his life experiences as he grew up, were not unlike ours. I believe that Jesus is God in human form and that he willingly entered our world so he could experience what we experience.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Early on in my life at St Philip & St James Church, someone gave me a book – I hope I still have it – but I don’t need to look it up because I remember something profound that it taught me. It said that every dilemma experienced by humans was experienced by Jesus at some time in his life. So he was conceived illegitimately, was homeless at birth, he was a refugee fleeing into Egypt, he was betrayed by one of his closest friends and other friends ran away and denied knowing him when he was arrested, he was falsely accused and tortured and as an innocent man was executed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Many years ago I was part of a house group with Elaine Roff, Sybil Gilbert and some others and at one time I remember we discussed whether or not Jesus could have prevented himself dying on the cross. I wonder if Elaine and Sybil remember this – I think the discussion was about whether he chose to stay on the cross to die or could have come down if he wanted to. To be honest I can’t remember now what I did think then but subsequently I have come to believe that Jesus didn’t have the choice. For it to be any use to God to enter into human life it had to be a total commitment – he had to become fully human for his time as Jesus and being able to swap between man and God would have been a bit like being one of the superheroes we see on our screens. For God to fully understand what it means to be human he would fully have to understand what it means to be powerless and indeed that is demonstrated throughout Jesus’ life – his humble birth, rejection and cruel execution.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">But why did he do it? Why did God, creator of our natural world and us, want to put himself through all that Jesus experienced. I believe that he did it so he could fully understand and therefore, stand by people, in all of the difficulties that arise in human society. And God did it because he loves us – loves us all whoever we are and whatever we have done.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Joe Blackburn)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><br /><br />Our two readings today are from St Luke and St. Matthew which relate to family relationships and Jesus' relationship with his parents, these stories are very familiar to us all as we have read many times before. There is very little we know concerning the early life of Jesus, as a baby he would be growing, learning to walk and talk being guided by his parents Mary and Joseph, one thing we are told is that his early life began in exile due to the order of Herod to have all new baby boys under the age of two killed. This would be difficult for Mary and Joseph leaving their family and friends having to settle in Egypt without home or work, not a good start for them.<br /><br />After I was born due family problems my mother and father separated which meant that myself, sister and brother were placed in the Erdington Cottage Homes, which were a group of large houses that were used to help parents with difficulties, and as we three were the youngest of five we were the ones to go. I do not remember this because I wasonly six months old. These Homes no longer exist now children are placed in foster families.<br /><br />During our time there our father joined the Army and was posted to France and was still there when the war broke out, during this time many children were evacuated to keep them safe and my sister and brother were away from the home, they informed my mother that I was going to be evacuated but she refused to let me go, my only memory was climbing on a large box to get a hat and coat. This brought me to live a shared house in Mona Road Erdington. It was during this time that I was sent with older brother and sister to attend Sunday School at the Salvation Army just round the corner from where we lived. As I grew older and learned about Jesus through the Corps Cadets which was a Biblestudy class I attended and earned certificates from; I gave my life to the service of Jesus Christ. I joined in the with the band when they had open air meetings and took an active part in those meetings. I became a soldier.<br /><br />In St. Luke's Gospel we read about how Mary, Joseph with Jesus and family and friend would travel each year to Jerusalem to celebrate the Passover feast, and the feast had finished they departed for home after a day or two they notice that Jesus was not with them and so they returned to Jerusalem and found Jesus listening to the leader and asking questions, Mary asked why he stayed over and we know that Mary and Joseph were anxious and worried , his answer would seem to be out of order to his parents, but he was growing and as the gospel says he was 'growing in wisdom and knowledge', Jesus was learning who he was and what his purpose in life was to be. But he knew the time would be later, so he went home with his earthly parents<br /><br />This reminded me of when I was 4 years old. I attended the Church of England School in Erdington, (school age at that time was 5 years) but I was allowed to go because my mother was working and there was no one to look after me, but I came out of school earlier than my sister, who had the responsibility to look after me and bring me home safe. I would go off with a friend, and she would come looking for me and like Mary and Joseph she was very worried (the trouble was I was never at the same place twice).<br /><br />In Matthews Gospel we encounter another situation of Jesus and his Mother and Brothers, Jesus was teaching the crowd about the Kingdom and how they should respond to his teachings. In the crowd was a number of Pharisees who saw that what he was teaching was affecting their lives and would not accept what he was teaching and they had already decided they were against him.<br /><br />But it seems that his own family were too, I quote from Michael Green's commentary on Matthew "It is of the very painful things to note in the life of Jesus that members of his family seemed constantly to have misunderstand him, in John 7:5 His brothers did not believe in him, in Mark 3: 21 they thought he was mad. So when He was told that his Mother and Brothers were outside, he answered pointing to his disciples "these are my family".<br /><br />Being part of a Church is being part of the family of Christ, it means making a commitment in our service, sharing together to proclaim the kingdom of God. I know at this moment is very difficult for all of us because Covid19, we cannot meet together, and this makes us feel lonely, but we can still support each other by contacting each other, praying for each other and sharing our concerns, I live a fair distance from the Church and I find it difficult because I cannot meet with you all, but I do know that God is with me at all times and we will win through. Through all the changing things in life our Heavenly Father is with us. Amen.<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjP07OtmLOBuJPQVJbwDWzkUYkzkzeV6BNx9kEj286dtObQR00l01_C6r0XeOYRDk6I_9AZLbGueAZ5ztim6BCxUX_4DJ1HVvIBlKhMlncDGskmokLDzgaJYtXcf48EpdlS2fTdOIf4VcmmGKE2y5oyObf8zYCdkX8nVoi8CdTH9MvVAQDVfZiSI429/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As I read / listened to <i>the readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what am I discovering <i>about</i> <b>Jesus</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 3pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">how might these (noticings, wonderings, realisations & discoveries) change the way I live out my <b>faith</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">is <span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b> change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><b><i><u><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><div><b><i><u><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></u></i></b></div><br clear="all" style="break-before: page;" /></span></u></i></b><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A prayer for this week: ‘No one alone’</span></u></i></b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">, by Dana Cassell<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">(This prayer is from the USA, and from a time before COVID19 – but much of it is still very prayable for us, here, and now.)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">God, who exists three-in-one, with community built into your very existence, remind us that you created us to be together, in community, bound up in one another’s lives. Grant us the eyes to see the ones we have neglected, the pain we have not noticed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">God, who exists as community, <br />who calls us to welcome the stranger and befriend the broken, <br />hear our prayer <br />as we lift up those who find themselves alone.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">O God, we pray:<br />for the widowed friend, alone in a life built for two;<br />for the child without parents, <br /> reaching out for an embrace that won’t come;<br />for the single parent, desperate for another set of hands;<br />for the new immigrant, climbing steep learning cures;<br />for the recently diagnosed, reeling from the news;<br />for the brother in jail, cut off from friends, family and community;<br />for the sister who has lost her child, <br /> cradling her arms around empty space;<br />for the elderly neighbour, eating alone;<br />for the rejected, the isolated, the ones cast aside and forgotten.<br /><b>God, hear our prayer. No one alone.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">O God, we remember -<br />Your words at creation: ‘It is not good that humans should be alone.’<br />Your word in the law: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’<br />Your word from the prophets: <br /> ‘Religion … is this: to care for orphans and widows.’<br /><br /><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">We remember Jesus, who called his followers to feed the hungry, <br />give water to the thirsty, invite in the stranger, visit the imprisoned, care for the sick.<br />We remember Paul, who could barely speak of your people without naming them as a collective, a community, not one and the other but one another.<br />And your church, in the beginning, that held all things in common, adopted orphans, surrounded the widows, accompanied the dying, made room for the last, the least, the lost, the lonely.<br /><b>God, hear our prayer. No one alone.</b><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">O God, we pray, make us your church.<br />Make of us companions, accompanists, people who slow down and show up, friends who make space, scoot over on the pew, bring another chair to the table. Move in us, compelling us to sit with another at court dates and doctors’ appointments, to fill freezers with casseroles, to create carpools and supper clubs and babysitting co-ops, to teach English and job skills and emotional intelligence.<br /><b>God, hear our prayer.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">In your church, O God, no one is alone.<br /><b>No one is alone.<br /></b>Not widows, not orphans, not immigrants.<br />Not single people, not sick people, <br />not people who’ve been released from jail.<br /><b>No one is alone.<br /></b>Not strangers, not victims, not perpetrators.<br />Speak to us again, God of the Trinity, God of community.<br />Call us back to our senses, back to one another.<br /><b>God, hear our prayer. Amen.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">(from Britney Winn Lee, ed., <i>Rally: Communal Prayers for Lovers of Jesus and Justice</i>)<i><br clear="all" style="break-before: page;" /><o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Activities / conversation-starters <br />with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Think about who is in your family, and who is important in your life. Try drawing your family tree. Now try drawing a circle, with yourself in the middle and the names of people who are important to you, with the ones who are most important and closest to you nearest the centre. What do you notice about your family tree and your circle of support? How are they similar, and how are they different? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Jesus says that whoever does God’s will is his brother and sister. How do you feel about being a sister or brother of Jesus? What sort of relationship with Jesus do you have, or would you like to have? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">When Jesus goes to the temple as a child, he teaches the adults about God, as well as the adults teaching him. What do you wish you could teach adults? Are there things you wish adults would teach you? Make a list. You might like to tell an adult about some of the things on your list… <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px;"><o:p> </o:p></p><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify;"> </span> <br /><p></p>Genny Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110481787319074494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-41330449906676612302021-01-17T09:09:00.113-08:002022-08-19T09:56:41.993-07:00Week 28: Jesus - Journeys<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ_7LfrpeLjlhd69J_U2A7wTFXJFhNgaKub8IbB-LXo_Crnx7EeDvUCgU0wGHkn3c-lrjzpBG_Hs0XtsNcOmrV9QCVbckK5npsVJmOIXu-6NA8RuuPF3XUt1c7wSWiyPDK-NibCYVdWqseDt3n27gCckEzf2Sg29bJtusdbtsArjPWqDV-5X58Mxj1/s420/To%20Egypt.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="420" data-original-width="338" height="565" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ_7LfrpeLjlhd69J_U2A7wTFXJFhNgaKub8IbB-LXo_Crnx7EeDvUCgU0wGHkn3c-lrjzpBG_Hs0XtsNcOmrV9QCVbckK5npsVJmOIXu-6NA8RuuPF3XUt1c7wSWiyPDK-NibCYVdWqseDt3n27gCckEzf2Sg29bJtusdbtsArjPWqDV-5X58Mxj1/w456-h565/To%20Egypt.jpg" width="456" /></a></p><p style="text-align: center;">'Holy Family' by Kelly Latimore </p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"> </span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAZdqgLyZ_U9-3atcGkDgDWKSXq6QmC12tYkIUcqExTriutKNrdJN2reLzK-91_GC8UlWYYAWLMQfUHZl9EruZMCe8CE3ZqzEVzRMYgHdh3VlKTCl_VSF8SWjvRKQqSrvMOvG7e1NyldMbzw0wXZhKwru9udbCx2-MmIqA2YsW4V9AwGj6J55HZ83/s173/Presentation.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="173" data-original-width="173" height="337" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtAZdqgLyZ_U9-3atcGkDgDWKSXq6QmC12tYkIUcqExTriutKNrdJN2reLzK-91_GC8UlWYYAWLMQfUHZl9EruZMCe8CE3ZqzEVzRMYgHdh3VlKTCl_VSF8SWjvRKQqSrvMOvG7e1NyldMbzw0wXZhKwru9udbCx2-MmIqA2YsW4V9AwGj6J55HZ83/w337-h337/Presentation.jpg" width="337" /></a></p><div style="text-align: center;"> 'Presentation', by James Janknegt</div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Matthew 2:13-23<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">13 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Now after they had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you; for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” <b><sup>14 </sup></b>Then Joseph<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-23184h" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote h"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">h</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, <b><sup>15 </sup></b>and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, “Out of Egypt I have called my son.”</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">16 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">When Herod saw that he had been tricked by the wise men,<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-23186i" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote i"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">i</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> he was infuriated, and he sent and killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had learned from the wise men.<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-23186j" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote j"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">j</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> <b><sup>17 </sup></b>Then was fulfilled what had been spoken through the prophet Jeremiah:</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="line" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: start;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">18 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">“A voice was heard in Ramah,</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><br /><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">wailing and loud lamentation,</span><br /><span class="text">Rachel weeping for her children;</span><br /><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">she refused to be consoled, because they are no more.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">19 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, <b><sup>20 </sup></b>“Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.” <b><sup>21 </sup></b>Then Joseph<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-23191k" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote k"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">k</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. <b><sup>22 </sup></b>But when he heard that Archelaus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. <b><sup>23 </sup></b>There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken through the prophets might be fulfilled, “He will be called a Nazorean.”</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Luke 2:22-40<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">22 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">When the time came for their purification according to the law of Moses, they brought him up to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord <b><sup>23 </sup></b>(as it is written in the law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male shall be designated as holy to the Lord”), <b><sup>24 </sup></b>and they offered a sacrifice according to what is stated in the law of the Lord, “a pair of turtledoves or two young pigeons.”</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">25 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Now there was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon;<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-24991d" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote d"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">d</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> this man was righteous and devout, looking forward to the consolation of Israel, and the Holy Spirit rested on him. <b><sup>26 </sup></b>It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Messiah.<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-24992e" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote e"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">e</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> <b><sup>27 </sup></b>Guided by the Spirit, Simeon<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-24993f" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote f"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">f</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> came into the temple; and when the parents brought in the child Jesus, to do for him what was customary under the law, <b><sup>28 </sup></b>Simeon<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-24994g" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote g"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">g</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> took him in his arms and praised God, saying,</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="line" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: start;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">29 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">“Master, now you are dismissing your servant<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-24995h" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote h"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">h</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> in peace,</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><br /><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">according to your word;</span><br /><span class="text"><b><sup>30 </sup></b>for my eyes have seen your salvation,</span><br /><span class="text"><b><sup>31 </sup></b></span><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">which you have prepared in the presence of all peoples,</span><br /><span class="text"><b><sup>32 </sup></b>a light for revelation to the Gentiles</span><br /><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and for glory to your people Israel.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">33 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">And the child’s father and mother were amazed at what was being said about him. <b><sup>34 </sup></b>Then Simeon<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-25000i" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote i"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">i</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> blessed them and said to his mother Mary, “This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed <b><sup>35 </sup></b>so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed—and a sword will pierce your own soul too.”</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">36 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">There was also a prophet, Anna<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-25002j" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote j"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">j</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was of a great age, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, <b><sup>37 </sup></b>then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple but worshiped there with fasting and prayer night and day. <b><sup>38 </sup></b>At that moment she came, and began to praise God and to speak about the child<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=luke+2&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-25004k" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote k"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">k</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">39 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">When they had finished everything required by the law of the Lord, they returned to Galilee, to their own town of Nazareth. <b><sup>40 </sup></b>The child grew and became strong, filled with wisdom; and the favour of God was upon him.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4c7KjqTUiMTHftGkNxW-G1K4jqxv7QDK-FEa4sLubmfOK2FQCufVHd7harigdrNIPPlxOp5YpRTjQ0IT0rnvj6GZQpxLRAEJYR6x6sHdy2FCJ3ojcsf_DDF0MVD3LRXvR2vqumf4iW6I7uWEL4Y-aUyEuGGHfYCTsJCo0yB8bV-8uVLmrx7657eC/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiD4c7KjqTUiMTHftGkNxW-G1K4jqxv7QDK-FEa4sLubmfOK2FQCufVHd7harigdrNIPPlxOp5YpRTjQ0IT0rnvj6GZQpxLRAEJYR6x6sHdy2FCJ3ojcsf_DDF0MVD3LRXvR2vqumf4iW6I7uWEL4Y-aUyEuGGHfYCTsJCo0yB8bV-8uVLmrx7657eC/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: start;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Trees don’t travel. So Macbeth reassured himself, faced with the witches’ prophecy that he would never be defeated until Birnam Wood came to Dunsinane.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt 36pt; text-align: start;"><i><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">That will never be.</span></i><i><span lang="EN-US" style="color: #262626; font-family: "MS Gothic"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">
</span></i><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "MS Gothic"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Who can impress the forest, bid the tree</span></i><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "MS Gothic"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></i><i><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Unfix his earth-bound root? …</span></i><i><span style="color: #262626; font-family: "MS Gothic"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Macbeth’s confidence was misplaced: the wood did move, or at least appeared to, as Malcolm’s advancing army cut and carried boughs to camouflage themselves. Tolkien was dissatisfied with the ‘shabby’ way Shakespeare’s trees only <i>seemed</i> to move, and so created in <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> an army of living trees from Fangorn forest, who marched themselves to war against the environmentally destructive orcs.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Not only in stories and legends do forests travel. Individual trees are indeed rooted to one spot, but whole forests move – very, very slowly. Science writer Zach St George<a href="applewebdata://28B6A519-60D0-40DB-804E-8FD8DDB8AC2B#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">[1]</span></span></span></a> describes the way forests creep inch by inch, migrating just as birds or whales do, shuffling back and forth across continents over millennia. Not marching to war like the Forest of Fangorn, but gradually shifting to a more hospitable environment. A forest sends seeds just beyond its footprint in every direction, but the seeds that go to the north — assuming the north is the more hospitable direction — thrive a little more than the ones that fall to the south. Over time, this forest would march steadily northwards.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="color: #262626; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">‘The migration of a forest is communal, it's constant. It is accomplished over many generations ... ‘, St George explains. Unfortunately, it is too slow to keep up with the rapid pace of climate change today, and forests are increasingly at risk from drought and fire. Humans may need to step in to help tree species move to safer places.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"></span></p><div style="text-align: start;"><div id="ftn1"><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm;"><a href="applewebdata://28B6A519-60D0-40DB-804E-8FD8DDB8AC2B#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">[1]</span></span></span></a> In a<span style="color: #262626;"> new book, <i>The journeys of trees: A story about forests, people and the future</i> by Zach St. George (W W Norton & Co, 2020)</span><o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #262626;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; margin: 0cm;"><span style="color: #262626;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Ruth Harley)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Last week we were thinking about visitors, about those who travelled to see Jesus. This week it is Jesus himself – along with Mary and Joseph – who is on the move. Again, Matthew’s gospel and Luke’s gospel provide us with very different accounts of two very different journeys. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Matthew, as always, is keen to emphasise the resonances with the Hebrew Bible, and particularly the ways in which Jesus can be seen as a fulfilment of the words of the prophets, the promised Messiah. One of Matthew’s most frequent phrases is “this was to fulfil what had been spoken”, and in this passage that is all about place. How can it be that Jesus fulfils prophecies that say “Out of Egypt have I called my son” and also (as we heard last week) “You, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel”? It is only possible because of the journeys he makes. Throughout all of the gospel narratives, Jesus is itinerant – he moves around a lot – and in Matthew’s narrative that movement begins when he is still an infant. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">But this is not just any kind of journey. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are fleeing persecution and deadly violence at the hands of Herod. And so they become refugees – leaving everything and everyone they have known and travelling to a strange land. Like the vast majority of the world’s refugees today, they do not go far – just far enough to escape the danger and wait for it to be safe to return home. The gospel writer tells us almost nothing of the Holy Family’s time in Egypt: what welcomes or hostilities they encountered, how they lived, what sort of communities they found to be a part of. But perhaps we can use our imaginations, and our knowledge of the experience of refugees in other times and places, to fill in some of the gaps. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Luke tells of a very different journey: the journey of Mary and Joseph to the Temple to offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving for the safe arrival of their baby Jesus. Far from the fear surrounding the flight into Egypt, this is a journey of joy and celebration. And that joy is compounded when the prophets Simeon and Anna, after all their long years of waiting, recognise Jesus for who he is: the light of the world. But even here, among thanksgiving, blessing, and the fulfilment of promises, that joy is not uncomplicated. “And a sword shall pierce your own soul too,” Simeon tells Mary – words which she must surely have pondered alongside the joyful proclamations of the shepherds which we heard about last week, and which she had heard just 40 days earlier. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As so often, Luke’s gospel has an ‘upside down’ aspect to it – another hint at the fulfilment of the promises of Mary’s Magnificat, that the mighty will be brought down and the humble raised up. This time it comes in the form of Simeon’s prophecy that Jesus “is destined for the falling and rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed”. This promise of upheaval may seem a strange contrast with Simeon’s earlier and more famous - and rather more serene - words of light, peace and salvation. Here we see a meeting of journeys: Simeon’s life’s journey of faithful, patient waiting is drawing to a peaceful close; while Jesus’ journey of disruptive grace and radical, transformative love is just beginning. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The metaphor of life being a journey, or faith being a journey, is a common one. Even in these times when our physical travel is so limited, we may have a sense of being on some sort of a journey. At times our journey may feel hard or dangerous, or it may feel like we are making very little progress, while at other times it may be a journey on which the joys and blessings are more obvious. But, like Jesus’ many journeys throughout his life, it is rarely uncomplicated. Often we will have mixed emotions about our speed and direction of travel. In the journeys we read about in scripture, and in journeying through scripture together (even while we are physically apart), there is much that we – like Mary – may find to ponder, in relation to our own journeys. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Genny Tunbridge)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">“I would love to return to my country one day – when it is safe. Maybe I can find out then if my mother or brothers and sisters are still alive.” These words from one of our asylum-seeking guests at the Old Rectory came back to me vividly as I read Matthew’s account of the holy family’s flight into Egypt and eventual return to Israel. It’s not surprising that this is the least read part of all the nativity narratives – the mortal peril for Jesus, the bittersweet of his escape when so many children died in Herod’s massacre: these do not fit well with comfortable stories of joy and peace at Christmas.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">It would have been at least 40 miles from Bethlehem to Egypt, a difficult journey for a family with a young baby, on foot, in fear – and such perilous journeys are sadly still being repeated today. Overcrowded boats, airless containers, hopeless encampments, unscrupulous traffickers, so much danger and death risked along the way by those trying to escape from danger back home. These journeys often hit our headlines; we hear rather less about the reception refugees receive if they manage to reach our land. Matthew doesn’t tell us about how Joseph and Mary were treated in Egypt, but they were clearly able to stay – presumably no Home Office officials to question them: “I’m afraid dreams and angel warnings do not count as evidence of real risk of persecution. We need written proof. Where are your papers?”… <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The journey for asylum seekers to achieve official refugee status in this county is often just as tortuous as, and usually much longer than, their journey to reach what they hoped would be a safe place – and it often has dangers of its own too. The dangers they are fleeing are no less real than that faced by baby Jesus, but providing the required evidence is not easy, and good legal advice is rarely available; many claims fail on the first attempt. When this happens, rejected asylum seekers have their basic accommodation and minimal allowance withdrawn, and are left ‘without recourse to public funds’, not allowed to work or to claim housing or benefits, in the hope that they will just go away back home. Many end up ‘sofa surfing’, staying with friends or family until they have outstayed their welcome, or living on the streets with all the dangers that entails. Some find support through organisations like Hope, or BIRCH (Birmingham Community Hosting) through whom we have offered a temporary home at the Old Rectory to several young women. With the support of various refugee charities some are eventually able to find better legal representation and put together a fresh claim for asylum – but this can often take many months or often years. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The system seems designed to make their journey as difficult and stressful as possible: paperwork for fresh asylum claims had to be submitted in person in Liverpool, regardless of where in the country the claimant was living (and how little money or confidence they had to make such a journey) – though now, suddenly, because of the pandemic, it is possible to email the claim instead. And one of our former guests is due to attend an in-person appeal hearing at 10 am in London next week, despite the pandemic; while another is being kept on tenterhooks, bags packed and ready, not knowing whether or when they will be moved to new accommodation by Home Office contractors Serco without notice. Being granted refugee status is not the end of the journey – all the usual challenges of life, with added risk of experiencing prejudice and racism, are still to be faced. But for many the longed-for prospect of refugee status remains on the far horizon, never getting any nearer. Life for so many asylum seekers feels like being in limbo, living with constant uncertainty and anxiety, their past painful to remember, their future on hold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Jesus’ life was full of journeys. From the start of his public ministry in adulthood, he had no permanent home, but travelled around Galilee, and to and from Jerusalem, preaching, teaching, healing and gathering his band of followers as he went. He knew what it was like to be homeless (“Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” he says, in Luke’s gospel) though this itinerant life was his choice. But the journeys of his infancy were not his choice, nor even his parents’ choice – like so many others, Jesus experienced those difficult journeys made necessary by bureaucracy (travelling in Mary’s womb to Bethlehem for the family to be registered) and then by tyranny. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Jesus knew what it was to grow up in a refugee family. In Jesus’ incarnation, God not only took on human flesh, fully entered into vulnerable, bodily experience – but as one born into an ordinary family forced to become refugees, Jesus was not protected and privileged but shared the experience of risk, danger and uncertainty familiar to so many who are poor or dispossessed. From the beginning he was identified with outsiders, strangers, the displaced and unwanted. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">In the much easier (and happier) journey described by Luke, after the 40 days from Jesus’ birth prescribed by Jewish religious law the family travelled 5 or so miles from Bethlehem to present him at the temple in Jerusalem. There Simeon greeted the baby as ‘a light of revelation the Gentiles’ and also as one destined to cause upheaval (the rising and falling of many). Jesus lived up to this prophecy in his teaching and in his actions, shining a light that exposed injustices and tyrannies, revealing the exploitation of the poor by the powerful, challenging religious and political authorities – at the cost of his own life (a sword piercing Mary’s soul). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As followers of Jesus, perhaps we can see today’s asylum seekers and refugees, homeless, stateless or dispossessed people as Jesus’ brothers and sisters. Like him they shine a light which reveals much that is uncomfortable and unjust about our country and our world, when we listen to their stories. Like him, they invite us to reflect on our own life journeys, to give thanks for the blessings of security and home which we often take for granted, and to pray and work for more hospitable world. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">And for now, in these times when we all find ourselves displaced from our normal lives - our physical journeys limited, our holidays cancelled, our work transformed or suspended, our safety threatened by the virus, our minds and hearts circling exhaustingly through anxiety, fear, boredom, hope, depression, loneliness, claustrophobia, grief, anticipation – may we remember that Jesus is our brother too, and knows what we are going through. May his light warm our hearts in this uncertain time, and may he help us, together with all our brothers and sisters, neighbours and friends, see those glimpses of glory which help light our way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL5qvXA2f4UJ7V35uQbNeAUpz9PHlqKMGazymR2ZfbvuTQRf7Y5RTWILopNvkAxUAKW-RdwBVSb9qmgHBTdL8v__O90o_XrxgHt565aAK4MXTSvC8Cmz7V7UHA8pnWfhQPAnPpSDNrbd3xRssdjeUHYarBU0HLJ5xgXo7XTKhZozmzyGUjq_KubHh/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL5qvXA2f4UJ7V35uQbNeAUpz9PHlqKMGazymR2ZfbvuTQRf7Y5RTWILopNvkAxUAKW-RdwBVSb9qmgHBTdL8v__O90o_XrxgHt565aAK4MXTSvC8Cmz7V7UHA8pnWfhQPAnPpSDNrbd3xRssdjeUHYarBU0HLJ5xgXo7XTKhZozmzyGUjq_KubHh/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(David Walton)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Matthew’s Gospel brings our romanticised Christmas nativity scene to an end. In Bethlehem Mary and Joseph would have been getting on with day-to-day life, away from home, in makeshift accommodation, caring for their first born. Did the townsfolk see or know anything was extraordinary? True some shepherds had told an amazing story, but shepherds do, they have a reputation for being untrustworthy. This just confirmed it. But then some strange visitors from the East just turn up. They visit Mary and Joseph, and they disappear. Not long after that Mary and Joseph are gone too. Then tragedy. Herod’s soldiers come, seized, and kill all the boys aged two and under. Despotic rulers fear any challenge to their power, even a tiny baby and as blood is shed on the ground evil laughs and Herod thinks he is safe once more. But Mary, Joseph and Jesus are travelling again finding safety in a foreign land. Jesus’ voice in the future has not been silenced, nor his actions prevented. God is still working his purpose out. We want our romanticised Christ, perhaps we wanted it more than ever this year. With everything nice, family together, we do not expect tragedy or bad news, yet it happens as it happened at the first Christmas. Whether it is natural disaster, illness, accident, or despotic rulers exercising their power. Refugees will still be on journeys trying to find safety in a world of hate. Many hoping their status means their voices will be silenced, their existence ignored by most.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Luke’s gospel has none of this tragic story but gives us an insight into the faith and longing of two elderly people in the Temple. In various articles, reflecting on this passage, words are attributed to Pope Francis along the lines of the following:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">It is unpleasant to say it, but the elderly are put to one side because they are considered a nuisance…. (however), old people are those who tell us the history of things, who carry forward the faith and give it to us to inherit. A society that does not care for, and respect the elderly, does not have a future because it does not have memories. They are the treasure of our society.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Like Zechariah and Elizabeth, Simeon and Anna only make a fleeting entry into the Gospel narrative. However, in their briefest of cameos they teach us so much about expectant longing—humble, selfless, and heartfelt rejoicing—confident hope and trust. Like those navigating the long wait through Advent, standing as a metaphor for the wait through history for divine restorative justice, Simeon and Anna have patiently waited for a ‘sign’, a ‘message’, that they can pin their hopes on. Like the outcome of the light fluttering sensation of the baby inside Elizabeth’s first kick, Anna in that moment of illumination, knew God’s Spirit in her heart and was brought to praise the Lord.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Simeon and Anna brought a big expectation upon this infant. Yet, they were sure, very sure, he was the one! The Creator God had shown his hand of love. Of course, coming so early in the Gospel it goes without saying that this event in the life of Jesus is no end point; it is an embarkation point into the story developing further. For Simeon and Anna, there is recognition that their own stories might not have as long to go as the stories of those, like Jesus’ own parents, much younger in years, or indeed the stories of those yet unborn. But, for this faithful elderly pair it was almost enough that they had been privileged to have this briefest of glimpses into the divine promise. Could they now die happy? Is that part of faith and our relationship with God, that not only is ‘hope’ for the present moment, for us, but as much for those who come after us, part of God’s enduring love for all? Simeon and Anna are portrayed as ones who are ready to hand over the baton. In our churches up and down the land, and across the world, there are many like Simeon and Anna. This is not to say there is not still much to live for, and give, and indeed to desire, but in such people, there is an energy of expectation and longing for the world of the future and the generations younger than they are.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The year 2020, for many in this older generation, has been one of loss, challenge, loneliness, and fear. Covid-19 will have no doubt brought back memories of previous struggles endured, hardships they would never have thought would have to be experienced again. This year undoubtedly, too, will have sparked concern for younger loved ones making their way in the world, for society and the world in general. The faith of our senior generations is like that!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">What is our continuing response to the birth of Jesus, the coming of Good News? Advent has peaked and Christmas has been celebrated. We already moving on to the next thing, returning to live in the shadow of the concerns we have become accustomed to bearing in this last year? Or, is there something of the glow of the eternal promise of Christmas, that we will endeavour to keep stoked going forward as we work out how we can continue to live within the expectation, hope and reality and promise of Incarnate Love?</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: left;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL5qvXA2f4UJ7V35uQbNeAUpz9PHlqKMGazymR2ZfbvuTQRf7Y5RTWILopNvkAxUAKW-RdwBVSb9qmgHBTdL8v__O90o_XrxgHt565aAK4MXTSvC8Cmz7V7UHA8pnWfhQPAnPpSDNrbd3xRssdjeUHYarBU0HLJ5xgXo7XTKhZozmzyGUjq_KubHh/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL5qvXA2f4UJ7V35uQbNeAUpz9PHlqKMGazymR2ZfbvuTQRf7Y5RTWILopNvkAxUAKW-RdwBVSb9qmgHBTdL8v__O90o_XrxgHt565aAK4MXTSvC8Cmz7V7UHA8pnWfhQPAnPpSDNrbd3xRssdjeUHYarBU0HLJ5xgXo7XTKhZozmzyGUjq_KubHh/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: start;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection: ‘Journeys’</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Clare Forrester)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">I am writing this little story of me. I was born in Jamaica and at the age of 17 years I left my home to come to live in England. I did this because there was no work in Jamaica and I had two elder brothers who had migrated to England and they really liked it there. I had trained to be a seamstress but had always wanted to be a nurse but I wasn’t allowed to because my dad didn’t want that for me. I was so determined and fixed my mind on leaving so my dad gave me the money for the boat fare. It took two and a half weeks to get to England and although I travelled on my own I loved every minute of it. Some of you may know how I love my cruises so maybe that’s where I got my love of them from. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">When I arrived in England it was strange and I thought all the terraced houses were factories as in Jamaica we lived in beautiful bungalows with lots of land surrounding each one. It was different in Birmingham all the houses tightly packed together. My brothers were lucky enough to live in a three bedroom house and so I stayed with them. But I did miss the sunshine and the good weather. I met a lovely Irish lady who was a neighbour and was very good to me and made me feel welcome. I also met one of my brother’s friends and I got married to him quite soon after I arrived.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">I worked as a seamstress for a while until I had my children. My husband and I got divorced and as my children had grown up and had had made lives of their own I was invited by a friend to move to London. I jumped at the chance to be my own person again. Whilst there I got a job as an auxiliary nurse which led to me achieving my ambition to go through proper training and became a nurse in a hospital in London. I was a nurse for 24 years until I retired and loved it a lot. In the 1980s this gave me the opportunity to travel and I went to New York and then Miami to visit relatives. I also got to go on my first cruise to Egypt and I was bitten by the cruising life. I loved being on the ships and travelled all over the place, to the USA and South America. But my favourite place I love and enjoy most is sailing in the Caribbean, especially in the winter when it can be so cold in Birmingham. I hope you have enjoyed me telling you about my journeys.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">God bless us all, Clare<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As I read / listened to <i>the readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">what did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">what did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">what am I discovering about <b>Jesus</b>?<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">how might these (noticings, wonderings, realisations & discoveries) change the way I live out my <b>faith</b>?<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">is <span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b> change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL5qvXA2f4UJ7V35uQbNeAUpz9PHlqKMGazymR2ZfbvuTQRf7Y5RTWILopNvkAxUAKW-RdwBVSb9qmgHBTdL8v__O90o_XrxgHt565aAK4MXTSvC8Cmz7V7UHA8pnWfhQPAnPpSDNrbd3xRssdjeUHYarBU0HLJ5xgXo7XTKhZozmzyGUjq_KubHh/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL5qvXA2f4UJ7V35uQbNeAUpz9PHlqKMGazymR2ZfbvuTQRf7Y5RTWILopNvkAxUAKW-RdwBVSb9qmgHBTdL8v__O90o_XrxgHt565aAK4MXTSvC8Cmz7V7UHA8pnWfhQPAnPpSDNrbd3xRssdjeUHYarBU0HLJ5xgXo7XTKhZozmzyGUjq_KubHh/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><br /></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Poems / prayers for this week</span></u></i></b></h3><div><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></i></b></span></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The Holy Family at the Border</span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">, by Margaret Pritchard Houston</span></i></span></h4><div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They have walked all night</span></div><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">through the desert,</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">this couple: José y Maria</span></div></span></div><p><span style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and the baby.</span></div><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; padding: 0cm;">duermete mi niño</span></i></div></i><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">duermete por favor.</span></i></div></i><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Por favor.</span></i></div></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Their English isn’t great –</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">they’ve got a bit.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Yes sir. No sir. Thank you sir. They’ve got that down pat.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">For the guards with their sunglasses, sidearms,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">they know these abstract holy words: </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Asylum. Sanctuary.</span></i></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They have walked all night,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and for a few weeks before, they have been</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">on highways, and dirt roads with donkeys.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">They know about donkeys.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The baby reached for a velvet ear, babbling, eyes bright.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Once, a man let Maria ride it for a while, resting,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">the baby in her arms. </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">El burro</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;">, she whispered,</span></div></span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Jesús, mira. El burro.</span></i></div></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And behind them, there are other families</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">with boys in their arms.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And behind them the ravaging shadows of the soldiers</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">kicking down your door,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">churning with adrenaline and coke and permission:</span></div></span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">Herod’s orders.</span></i></div></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Herod, the master, the cancer, disaster and saviour,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">the last line of freedom against the rampaging Empire</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">knocking at your door, the saviour of Judea, the freedom, the leader,</span></div></span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">without me, you get Caesar.</span></i></div></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Herod, western suited, Cuban cigars,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">a sash of tribal fabric</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">to show he’s one of ours.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Maria holds the baby,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">her breast in his mouth,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">milk like manna in this desert</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">like water from the hard rock of her body,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">muscled and sunburned.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Her t-shirt hiked up.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The icons showing this moment, serene,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">this scene an enactment of a prophecy,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">an </span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">it-was-written</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> dream.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">But here</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">in the desert</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">with the soldiers at her heels,</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">she feels</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">they left the angels behind long ago.</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">And ahead</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">is a wall</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">barbed wire, the fire</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">of five hundred years of ships and guns and gold</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and here</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">at the border</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">the father raises his arms</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and begs help</span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">from the mirror-eyed men with weapons:</span></div></span><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">we have the child.</span></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></i></div></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">* * *</span></div></span><em><h4 style="text-align: left;"><em><b><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">From Home to Home</span></b></em><em><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; padding: 0cm;">, by Ilan Kelman</span></em></h4></em><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This poem of the motion</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Describes the ceaseless sea</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Aroused by the soft breeze</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Conversing with the shore.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This poem of the movement</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Drinks dust up from the trail</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Coerced by wild wind</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Mirages through the heat.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This poem of migration</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hides qualms about the choice</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">To leave and start anew</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For gain, for loss, for us.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This poem of escaping</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Farewells the chilling kiss</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">For love that’s cleaved by flight</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The eyes soon cease their gaze.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This poem of refugee</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Leaves everything behind.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Breaks bonds which made a life.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Starts raw from all that’s gone.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This poem entangling time</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The past that never will</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The future never was</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The present cannot be.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">These poems of the refuge</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Freeze fears of what might be</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Hold hopes for what could come</span></div></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Weeps pain and cries with joy.</span></div></span><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i> </i></div></i><i><div style="text-align: left;"><i>There are lots more poems and creative writing, written by refugees themselves, and those who have shared their lives with them, on the ‘refugee hosts’ website: </i><a href="https://refugeehosts.org/category/writing/">https://refugeehosts.org/category/writing/</a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></i><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">* * *</span></div></span><p></p></div><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Flight into Egyp</span>t: A benediction</span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">, by Kathy Galloway<o:p></o:p></span></i></h4><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Our brother Jesus,<br />you set our feet upon the way<br />and sometimes where you lead<br />we do not like or understand.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">bless us with courage where the way is fraught with dread.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">bless us with graceful meetings where the way is lonely.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">bless us with good companions <br />where the way demands a common path.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">bless us with night vision when we travel in the dark,<br />keen hearing where we have not sight.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">bless us with humour – <br />we cannot travel lightly weighed down by gravity.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">bless us with humility to learn from those around us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">bless us with decisiveness where we must move with speed.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">bless us with lazy moments, to stretch and rest and savour.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">bless us with love, given and received.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">And bless us with your presence, <br />even when we know it in your absence.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Lead us into exile<br />until we find that on the road<br />is where you are<br />and where you are is going home.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Bless us, lead us, love us<br />bring us home<br />bearing the gospel of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><b style="text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page;" /></span></i></b><span style="font-family: -webkit-standard; font-size: medium; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The Presentation, Russian icon</span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">, by Nicola Slee<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">‘And suddenly the Lord … will come to his Temple’ </span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">(Malachi 3:1)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Were you expecting fire?<br />Or a grand procession of soldiers<br />flattening the doors<br />as the King of glory enters?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Here is something more terrible,<br />more beautiful and terrible:<br />an infant clothed only in his nakedness,<br />the Word before all worlds mewling and babbling,<br />throwing up his mother’s milk.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">It is his very nakedness will clothe us,<br />his speechlessness will save us,<br />his innocence will wash all our mouths of their foulness<br />with his fuller’s soap,<br />his flesh, as an offering, will burn our own half-heartedness<br />and all our hearts will smart with the alkali of God.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL5qvXA2f4UJ7V35uQbNeAUpz9PHlqKMGazymR2ZfbvuTQRf7Y5RTWILopNvkAxUAKW-RdwBVSb9qmgHBTdL8v__O90o_XrxgHt565aAK4MXTSvC8Cmz7V7UHA8pnWfhQPAnPpSDNrbd3xRssdjeUHYarBU0HLJ5xgXo7XTKhZozmzyGUjq_KubHh/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPL5qvXA2f4UJ7V35uQbNeAUpz9PHlqKMGazymR2ZfbvuTQRf7Y5RTWILopNvkAxUAKW-RdwBVSb9qmgHBTdL8v__O90o_XrxgHt565aAK4MXTSvC8Cmz7V7UHA8pnWfhQPAnPpSDNrbd3xRssdjeUHYarBU0HLJ5xgXo7XTKhZozmzyGUjq_KubHh/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Activities / conversation-starters <br />with young (and not-so-young!) people</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><ul style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">In today’s Bible readings, Simeon and Anna had been waiting for a long time to see the promised Messiah. When they saw Jesus they immediately recognised him. I wonder what you feel like you are waiting for at the moment? How will you recognise when it is here? How does the waiting feel?<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Simeon and Anna praised God when they saw Jesus. I wonder how they felt when they saw him – amazed? excited? surprised? thankful? Think of a time when you have seen something or someone really special. How did you feel? Go outside if you can, either in the garden or for a walk, and look for something that makes you feel amazed, excited, surprised or thankful. Praise God for the good things you see. <o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">In our other Bible reading today, Mary, Joseph and Jesus become refugees, travelling to Egypt to escape from Herod. What do you know about refugees today? And how can you find out more? Pray for refugees – you can write or draw a prayer, say one out loud, or pray silently in your head.<o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">You can download, print and play a boardgame to learn more about refugees here: </span><a href="https://www.christianaid.org.uk/get-involved/schools/safe-place-ludo-game" style="color: #954f72; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">https://www.christianaid.org.uk/get-involved/schools/safe-place-ludo-game</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><o:p></o:p></span></li><li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">You can watch a reading of the short illustrated story ‘Refuge’ (about Mary, Joseph and Jesus’ journey to Egypt), on this YouTube link: </span><a href="https://youtu.be/2prB_fqwbnI" style="color: #954f72; text-decoration: underline;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">https://youtu.be/2prB_fqwbnI</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span></p></div></div></div></div><p></p></div>Genny Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110481787319074494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-19008669609342084142021-01-10T08:38:00.105-08:002022-08-01T09:07:48.014-07:00Week 27: Jesus - Visitors<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCwLMJOrIYqH2ubvoA57r3M5ceXlrwjVAkpntHV7pJ2LethUT8R0CWmD_stjGCHpQBiRfrPzi0DIghuKzkm_DI0gt8odK9IDyDl0qAOC8ZHk3n7CAusrvniRR07WCE0Swk_nVlxK7wdn7Y8gmS-bAIC-q0ttMy6YrY5K44ihWTwh1Zu1p68PoPPGKy/s1069/Visitors.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="461" data-original-width="1069" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCwLMJOrIYqH2ubvoA57r3M5ceXlrwjVAkpntHV7pJ2LethUT8R0CWmD_stjGCHpQBiRfrPzi0DIghuKzkm_DI0gt8odK9IDyDl0qAOC8ZHk3n7CAusrvniRR07WCE0Swk_nVlxK7wdn7Y8gmS-bAIC-q0ttMy6YrY5K44ihWTwh1Zu1p68PoPPGKy/w528-h228/Visitors.jpg" width="528" /></a><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">'Nativity', by Brian Kershisnik</div><p></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Matthew 2:1-12</span></b></h4><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><p class="chapter-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">2 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, magi from the East came to Jerusalem, <b><sup>2 </sup></b>asking, “Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage.” <b><sup>3 </sup></b>When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him; <b><sup>4 </sup></b>and calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born. <b><sup>5 </sup></b>They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea; for so it has been written by the prophet:</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="line" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm; text-align: start;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">6 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">‘And you, Bethlehem, in the land of Judah,</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">are by no means least among the rulers of Judah;</span><br /><span class="text">for from you shall come a ruler</span><br /><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">who is to shepherd my people Israel.’”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">7 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">Then Herod secretly called for the magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared. <b><sup>8 </sup></b>Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, “Go and search diligently for the child; and when you have found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.” <b><sup>9 </sup></b>When they had heard the king, they set out; and there, ahead of them, went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was. <b><sup>10 </sup></b>When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy. <b><sup>11 </sup></b>On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother; and they knelt down and paid him homage. Then, opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. <b><sup>12 </sup></b>And having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: start;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Luke 2:8-20<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">8 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch over their flock by night. <b><sup>9 </sup></b>Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. <b><sup>10 </sup></b>But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people: <b><sup>11 </sup></b>to you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, who is the Messiah, the Lord. <b><sup>12 </sup></b>This will be a sign for you: you will find a child wrapped in bands of cloth and lying in a manger.” <b><sup>13 </sup></b>And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="line" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: start;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">14 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">“Glory to God in the highest heaven,</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><br /><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and on earth peace among those whom he favours!”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">15 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;">When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go now to Bethlehem and see this thing that has taken place, which the Lord has made known to us.” <b><sup>16 </sup></b>So they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger. <b><sup>17 </sup></b>When they saw this, they made known what had been told them about this child; <b><sup>18 </sup></b>and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them. <b><sup>19 </sup></b>But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart. <b><sup>20 </sup></b>The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.</span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpn3wpsjq9OZqmnyt7cLxNF8pxy9RsWe_vrQIAYEN6qHdVEq4uYcvZRrkrb66mqakzNh30_wAxw7VKMDawMF4J0O1JFaDRi9pU9KmXqHgWwCejWxXT9pFOPsYfMkIFSM-6bBbCZuSwFhdgrUijjOgSKUOsEtKqArfv7TTNOEe31QHtlTv8XZiHto3/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRpn3wpsjq9OZqmnyt7cLxNF8pxy9RsWe_vrQIAYEN6qHdVEq4uYcvZRrkrb66mqakzNh30_wAxw7VKMDawMF4J0O1JFaDRi9pU9KmXqHgWwCejWxXT9pFOPsYfMkIFSM-6bBbCZuSwFhdgrUijjOgSKUOsEtKqArfv7TTNOEe31QHtlTv8XZiHto3/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><style class="WebKit-mso-list-quirks-style">
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</style><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom: ‘Tree visitors’</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Native trees are those which colonised the area of Britain after the last ice age, while the land was still connected to mainland Europe. Those which arrived (by deliberate or accidental human introduction) after the UK became separate from Europe - non-native trees – might be regarded as a kind of visitor. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Some tree visitors are exotic, not really designed for our climate and terrain, mostly only found in specialist arboreta or planted and carefully tended in gardens. Palm trees and eucalyptus, bamboo, magnolia or tulip tree… often flamboyant, striking, they remind us of distant lands and different cultures. But other visiting trees have made themselves very much at home, growing freely in the wild or commonly planted in our streets and parks, and seem to have been here always: chestnut and horse chestnut, sycamore, London plane, copper beech… Even apples, plums and pears started out as visitors, but the gifts they bring have been so very welcome, we have made sure they stayed!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Among environmentalists there is an ambivalence about the role of introduced, non-native trees. Sycamore, for example has been with us at least since the 15<sup>th</sup> century, possibly since Roman times. It has often been regarded as invasive and unhelpful, hosting relatively little insect life compared to some native species; yet its pollen, nectar and seeds are beneficial to bees, birds and mammals. And as our climate is changing too rapidly, in our streets more non-native trees are being planted as they are better adapted to thrive in increased temperatures.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Al Barrett)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">In this week after the feast of Epiphany, we’re thinking about the different kinds of visitors to the baby Jesus, as told in Matthew’s and Luke’s gospels. We’ve already (in the lead-up to Christmas) caught a glimpse of the differences of emphasis, and of content, in these two gospels’ accounts of Jesus’ birth, and how our familiar ‘nativity story’ is really a mish-mash of bits from those two different stories. Today, we see those differences laid out clearly.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Matthew’s gospel, characteristically, picks up references from the Hebrew bible (what we Christians often call the ‘Old Testament’) to point to Jesus as fulfilling what the prophets said. Matthew quotes the prophet Micah (‘and you, Bethlehem…’), but gives it a subtle twist: ‘<i>one of the little</i> clans of Judah’, says Micah (5:2) – ‘<i>by no means least </i>among the rulers of Judah’, says Matthew. And there’s more. Surely Matthew, as he writes his story here, has the words of the prophet Isaiah in mind:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">‘Nations shall come to your light,<br />and kings to the brightness of your dawn.<br />…the wealth of the nations shall come to you.<br />A multitude of camels shall cover you…<br />They shall bring gold and frankincense,<br />and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.’ (Isaiah 60:3, 5-6)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Matthew makes no mention of kings (his ‘magi’ are astrologers), or camels (but we can guess how they’ve crept into our nativity scenes!) – but we get the impression that the magi from the land of the rising sun are representing, for Matthew, ‘the nations’ of Isaiah’s prophecy, and he uses Isaiah’s ‘gold and frankincense’ to point to Jesus as the ‘light’, ‘the brightness of [the] dawn’. What Matthew also introduces, though, is the third gift of myrrh (used for the anointing of the dying and the dead), and the frightened King Herod – who, we will soon discover, turns out to be a genocidal tyrant – in stark contrast to Isaiah’s kings who ‘proclaim the praise of the Lord’.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Where Matthew’s God sends messages (to Joseph, to the magi) in dreams, Luke continues with angels – from Mary’s visit from Gabriel to, now, a multitude of them, appearing to the shepherds. For Luke’s angels, ‘Don’t be afraid’ is there consistent message: because Jesus is God’s ‘good news’ for all people. And the <i>all</i> is significant here. Matthew’s ‘all’ is about the nations of the world. Luke’s ‘all’ is concerned most with those Mary herself has sung of as the ‘lowly’ and the ‘hungry’. Luke’s Jesus, remember, is the bringer of God’s ‘upside-down kin-dom’, and after God’s beginning with the humble Mary of Nazareth, here God uses shepherds – marginal shift-workers, outside ‘polite society’ – to be witnesses, messengers (like the angels themselves): the bearers to Mary and Joseph of the angels’ message, and to be the voices of God’s glory and praise on their return journey.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Two different stories, then; two different kinds of visitor – giving us a glimpse into two different aspects of the truth of the gospels. In the arrival of Jesus, the mighty are humbled and disturbed (Matthew), and the humble are entrusted with the joy of the ‘good news’ (Luke). And in our inherited mish-mash of a nativity story, is there some truth too? Perhaps it is something like this:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">In a Mexican slum there is a destitute old woman who each year puts up an extensive nativity set. The Christ Child is in the centre, of course, and around him she places dozens and dozens of figures of people and animals. This is no matched set! None of the figurines match; and they are not in scale with each other, some only an inch high, some several feet tall. She just clutters the set with whatever figurines she can find. But there is a great truth hidden in this mish mash of nativity characters. Although the senora cannot read or write, she has the spiritual insight to see that Christ reconciles and brings together all the diverse people of the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt;"><b style="font-size: 11pt; text-align: start;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px; text-align: start;"> <i>(Ruth Harley)</i></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">It may seem strange to be thinking about the theme of ‘visitors’ at this time when our ability to visit or to receive visitors is very limited or non-existent. I know that is something many of us have been missing terribly, especially over the Christmas period.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">But cast your mind back for a moment to a pre-Covid world. I wonder, can you think of a time when you have visited somewhere new and found it – in some way – strange, different, unexpected, or even unsettling? Perhaps staying with someone whose household operates very differently to yours, or experiencing a different culture or language? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">My mum likes to tell the story of when she took me, aged 3, to visit her friends, and I encountered something I had not encountered before - a tablecloth! I apparently spent most of the meal trying to look underneath it, and for weeks afterwards I kept telling everyone we met “my Mummy has a friend with a tablecloth!” There is nothing inherently strange or surprising about tablecloths. If we had had a tablecloth at home, no doubt theirs would have seemed unremarkable, but because it was something new and different from my previous experience, I was fascinated by it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As adults, we tend to be better at hiding our astonishment when we encounter things which are quite ordinary to other people, but seem new and different to us. But we still feel it. I remember the first time I visited a Mosque, and also the first time I visited a Deaf Club when I was learning British Sign Language, as times when I have particularly noticed the strangeness to me as a visitor of an environment which is very ordinary to my host. I think perhaps that sense of strangeness is part of the essence of the experience of being a visitor, and our response to it may vary – from wariness, to curiosity, to excitement, to fear. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">In today’s readings, we have two very different accounts of visitors to the infant Jesus, and two quite different reactions to encountering something – or rather, someone – new and strange. Notice that both accounts start with fear. Herod, in Matthew’s gospel, “is frightened” when the magi tell him about the messiah for whom they are searching. The shepherds, in Luke’s gospel, “were terrified” by the sudden appearance of the angels. But what happens next is where these two stories of the nativity diverge significantly. The shepherds move beyond their fear - or perhaps they ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’, as the popular phrase has it - and they set out on a journey: a journey which will change them. By the time they are on the return journey from their visit to Jesus, they are no longer afraid, but “glorifying and praising God”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Not so Herod. While Luke depicts what we might see as a certain amount of character development for the shepherds, on a journey of transformation from fear to joy, Matthew draws a contrast between the fearfulness of Herod and the reaction of the magi to Jesus, who are “overwhelmed with joy”. This contrast only serves to underline the fear felt by Herod – fear which, we know and the readers of Matthew’s gospel are about to find out – would lead to genocidal action in the massacre of the innocents. There is no transformation here – at least not for Herod. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">What we have here are two very different reactions to encounter with the Other. Jesus is in many ways the ultimate ‘other’ – God made human, the strangeness of the Divine inhabiting the familiarity of our flesh. And encountering this Other, this messiah, requires a response. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The shepherds respond by allowing themselves to be transformed. They unhesitatingly decided to go to Bethlehem, to accept this invitation to become visitors of the divine, to become open to whatever strange or unexpected things this encounter may bring. And their openness, their receptivity to the stranger in their midst, enables them to be transformed, to leave that encounter changed, overflowing with praise and wonder.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Herod’s reaction to news of the messiah is neither open nor receptive. Rather, he is immediately defensive. Fear, secrecy and deception characterise his response in this passage, and will soon be followed by violence. It is a response emphasised by the contrast with the gift-giving, rejoicing magi. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">There are all sorts of factors underpinning these different reactions. The shepherds perhaps do not have much to lose, while Herod is clinging to the familiarity and security of his own power. The shepherds – most likely itinerant workers, used to being the outsider – are accustomed to seeing themselves as the visitors, the strangers, the guests, the ones who have to adapt themselves to ‘the way things are done round here’. Whereas Herod, with all his power and wealth, is more used to being the host, and doing things on his own terms. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">And what of us? How do we respond to the Other? How do we allow ourselves to be met and transformed by God, even in the strangeness of situations and encounters which we might approach with uncertainty or even fear? How do we learn to become the sort of visitors the shepherds are – open and receptive to meeting God in new and unexpected ways, in strange and unfamiliar people and places? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Perhaps it feels at the moment like there is quite enough strangeness going on without us seeking it out. These are strange times, for sure, and unsettling for many of us. But, paradoxically, these are also times which, for many of us are limiting our horizons. Not only are we not able to travel or to visit and encounter the Other in new places or contexts, we are also missing out on many of those day-to-day chance encounters and conversations which give us glimpses of the Divine in the face of neighbours and strangers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Perhaps this is a time when we need to be intentional about finding ways to visit the Divine in new and unexpected places. That might be in our conversations with others, in what we choose to read or watch or listen to, and hopefully in this new series of Trees of Life reflections too. Wherever and however we can, let us approach the new, the strange, the Other, the unknown with curiosity and openness, ready to be transformed, prepared to allow our fears to give way to joy and praise, receptive to encountering God in unfamiliar ways.</span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT22U_ZE5jvq6lJKujR98FyBM9Du_i8SdSWKI4GOEsyiW5hvP2oOPWMWkDcC6X_E-ZVNhCHO_b62jZoFh4ZtKMIRnX3Hpr_cf3yI8xduDLUuWTxA8Ix7UMRTJWMievhANYGQyDy_rufYgSgozo9x2C5q68mdBgKscdDSMRHvrCBS9e9_OdWTl82Feu/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT22U_ZE5jvq6lJKujR98FyBM9Du_i8SdSWKI4GOEsyiW5hvP2oOPWMWkDcC6X_E-ZVNhCHO_b62jZoFh4ZtKMIRnX3Hpr_cf3yI8xduDLUuWTxA8Ix7UMRTJWMievhANYGQyDy_rufYgSgozo9x2C5q68mdBgKscdDSMRHvrCBS9e9_OdWTl82Feu/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Gloria Smith)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">I remember when our daughter Emma was born and how many visitors came, both family and friends over the first few days and I was inundated with all kinds of gifts. She was the firstborn grandchild in both families and that made her special- to our family at least. If it had happened today during the pandemic we wouldn’t have been able to celebrate as much, visitors wouldn’t be allowed and any gifts would have come via Amazon or through the post. It would be far less celebratory. But then again this isn’t normal times is it?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">And it wasn’t really normal times in Palestine 2000 years ago. Palestine was occupied by the Romans and according to Luke, Joseph and Mary had to travel from Nazareth to Bethlehem to take part in a census. If that is the case Mary and Joseph wouldn’t have had many visitors as they obviously had no family or friends they could stay with in Bethlehem otherwise they wouldn’t have had to sleep in a stable. Yet they did have visitors, not family and friends as you might expect but according to Matthew a group of astrologers bearing gifts and according to Luke, some shepherds from the surrounding hills; a strange selection of visitors to see the Son of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">So how did they get to hear about the birth? The reading today from Matthew writes that the astrologers/wise men/Magi came from faraway countries. They spent their lives looking up at the stars and interpreting what they meant. They had seen a new star which they believed would lead them to the King of the Jews. They went to the king at the time Herod believing he would know where he would be. The chief priest told them about a Jewish prophecy that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. They went and found the stable and gave gives of Gold, Frankincense and Myrrh. That really is all the information we have in the bible about these travellers other than that they came from the east. The Church has attempted to fill in more detail about the wise men. It is assumed there were three of them as they each brought a gift and theologians/historians believe that they came from what is now Iran, Iraq and in the western church India, or in parts of the orthodox church, Ethiopia. The western church named them as Balthazar, Melchior and Gaspar although the orthodox church has different names for them. What are the most important things about them was that they were not thought to be Jewish, they were from different countries, had travelled hundreds if not a thousand mile following the star and had brought gifts; gold as a gift fit for a king, frankincense to identify the baby as being divine and more unusually myrrh as a prophecy for his death. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">So although the tradition is of them travelling together from one place, it is more likely they came from different places and probably worshipped different gods. Their perseverance is remarkable to travel so far and even if by camel would have taken 2 to 3months or more of travelling through inhospitable deserts with blazing temperatures with little water along the way. They must have thought this was a very special baby to give up so much time and effort just to see him. They <i>responded</i> with commitment, perseverance and belief. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The other visitors to see the baby Jesus did not have so far to travel. They were shepherds out in the hills nearby to Bethlehem. They were visited by angels who told them the good news and immediately the shepherds <i>responded</i> and went to visit this new born baby. Shepherds lived with their sheep and goats, sleeping out at night and they weren’t particularly welcomed in the villages and towns as they were thought to be dirty and smelly. They lived an almost nomadic existence as the pasture if it could be called that was sparse and the sheep would roam long distances to graze so they were constantly on the move. Also in Palestine 2000 years ago, there were wild animals that would prey upon the sheep and goats so the shepherds had to be brave, tough and willing to fight off the wolves and wild dogs in order to protect their livestock. So in essence they weren’t well educated members of the community who would be invited in for a meal, they were on the margins of society, necessary to provide meat for food and sacrifice, but not to be friends with. So for the shepherds to be given this message was amazing! But again they <i>responded</i> with commitment, and belief. This is what drove them to go and find the baby the angels had told them about.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">What a mish-mash of visitors to visit any newborn baby, let alone the Son of God! Certainly not what would be expected to visit the Messiah, the King of Israel- foreigners, outsiders and non-believers. Why were these people the ones chosen to follow a star and have angels appear to them? It is this upside-down kingdom again that is found in Luke’s gospel. The message about this new baby was not given to the respected religious leaders of the day but to unlikely ordinary people who weren’t necessarily religious, going about their everyday lives. But these people had two things in common a belief and a commitment to what they recognised as the truth – that this baby was indeed special and worth visiting, worth giving up their time and worth making an effort for, worth <i>responding</i> to.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Of course there were other visitors, although not named, there must have been the animals. The shepherds would never have left their most vulnerable and precious sheep, their lambs or kids to the mercy of the wolves. They would have brought them along. As the manger was in a stable I’m sure animals would have been there too. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">God chose the least likely of people to receive the message and I think that is what she does today. Don’t look for signs in church but out there, to the ones labelled as outsiders, to people who on the surface are as unlikely candidates for hearing and <i>responding</i> to God’s message as back then. That means we need to be on the lookout for those signs not within our church but out there in the community, amongst the mish-mash that is our world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">No dignitaries, no religious folk but foreigners, outsiders and the marginalised, alongside with creatures of God’s creation. From the rich to the poor, form Jew to gentile, from close by and far away, from human and non-human these were the unlikely ones who <i>responded</i> and visited God incarnate in the form of that small baby Jesus. For us that sends a clear message – that Jesus became incarnate for the whole world not for the chosen few, but for those on the edges, those who don’t fit in, the ordinary – but definitely for those who see the signs, hear the good news and <i>respond</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Images of Jesus: ‘The Good Shepherd’</span></u></i></b><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">(Beth Millman)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">When I first started thinking about writing a reflection on the image of Jesus as a good Shepherd it suddenly occurred to me that growing up in Birmingham I didn’t even know what the qualities of a shepherd were let alone a good shepherd. So I did some research:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">•<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A good Shepherd needs to not only know all about sheep but to know each one of their flock individually. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">•<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A good shepherd needs to be able to know what their sheep need to remain happy and healthy <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">•<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A good shepherd needs to be committed to looking after their sheep in all weathers. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">•<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A good shepherd needs to be aware of dangers to their flock and be willing to protect them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Sheep and Shepherds are mentioned a lot in the bible, not only as a description of real sheep and real shepherds, but also to describe God’s people and their leaders - however, it is only Jesus that describes himself as the ‘Good Shepherd’. I began thinking about how the above qualities can make someone good at looking after a flock of sheep, how they can be seen in Jesus and why he may have been seen and described as the Good Shepherd. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">In the passage from John 10, Jesus makes a comparison between himself as a ‘Good Shepherd’ and the ‘hired hand’. The hired hand is described as running away when danger aris<span style="font-family: arial;">es and a wolf attacks the flock. He ran away because he did not own the sheep nor did he care for the sheep. He was unwilling to sacrifice himself to protect the sheep and had other, more selfish reasons for playing the role of the shepherd. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Jesus then compares himself to the hired hand and says, “I am the good shepherd, I know my sheep and they know me”. Jesus is talking about how he knows ‘us’ as individuals and how our relationship with him is like a Shepherds with each of their sheep. He goes on to proclaim the sacrifice he will make for us, as well as his love making this sacrifice by saying “</span><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">I lay down my life for the sheep”. </span></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">There have been so many times over the last 12 months where I have felt lost and hopeless whilst navigating through the COVID 19 pandemic, much like a flock of sheep without a good shepherd. A lot of my normal coping mechanisms, like so many peoples, were taken away or changed causing life to feel harder and more of a struggle during some of the most challenging times I have ever experienced. However, knowing that Jesus knows and loves me, and letting him protect and guide me was incredibly helpful.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">So, when you find yourself in the darkest of places facing the hardest of challenges, things are much more bearable and hopeful with a good shepherd at your side.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><h1><a name="_Hlk43723710" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;"></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></h1><div><a name="_Hlk43723710" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></a></div></span><p></p><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As I read / listened to <i>the readings and reflections</i> for this week…</span></b><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -17.85pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; text-indent: -17.85pt;">what did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -17.85pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; text-indent: -17.85pt;">what did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -17.85pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; text-indent: -17.85pt;">what have they helped me <b>realise</b>?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -17.85pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; text-indent: -17.85pt;">what am I discovering <i>about</i> <b>Jesus</b>?</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -17.85pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; text-indent: -17.85pt;">how might these (noticings, wonderings, realisations & discoveries) change the way I live out my <b>faith</b>?</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 150%; text-indent: -17.85pt;">·<span style="font-size: 7pt; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; text-indent: -17.85pt;">is <span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b> change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 24px; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e;"><br /></span></span></span></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-left: 18pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: -webkit-standard; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGpwgAIXRfFygW7cwuxkxdk4KTMNOi-tRchMBEbsnKphKUO5DlzieDAztuvaWYp9KP8_wle55rEVb5Kiq5WEcU0v-4kacNPtRXxan2-awcrqIKm6okWgBLu5yMCHbXRj-SnRYaaKVXPyT6Y6iWagM2yintWJebvp6CsoVs1SP1Z0hVxF5_JUqBW_Z/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a><b style="font-size: 11pt; text-align: start;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span></u></i></b></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Poems / prayers for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">:<o:p></o:p></span></h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">We call them wise<br />and I had always thought of them that way<br />respecting the pilgrimage of anyone<br />who sees a star and follows it<br />to his discomforting -<br />being prepare to change.<br />And yet -<br />in following their star, the star<br />that was to lead them to<br />enlargement of the soul (their own) -<br />they blundered mightily, and set in train<br />the massacre of many innocents.<br />Naïve and foolish men they were, not wise,<br />to go and ask of Herod ‘Where’s<br />your rival, where<br />is he who might unseat you?’<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I wonder if, back<br />in their own countries,<br />for all that they themselves were born again,<br />they heard the voice of Rachel<br />weeping for her children<br />refusing to be comforted<br />because they were no more?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: start;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Kate Compston<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: left;"></p><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;">Shepherd of Israel</span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and Light of all Nations,</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">made known in the gifts</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">of those who call</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">to other names</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and walk on different ways:</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">may unjust powers</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and the hatred within us</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">b</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">e dismayed by your friendship</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and dethroned by your love;</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">through Jesus Christ,</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and dethroned by your love;</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">through Jesus Christ,</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and dethroned by your love;</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">through Jesus Christ,</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">the open arms of grace.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: 12pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Amen.</span></div></span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div></span><i style="font-family: arial; font-size: 11pt;"><div style="text-align: left;"><i style="font-size: 11pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Steven Shakespeare</span></i><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> </span></u></i></b></div></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; text-align: start;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></u></i></b><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">O God, the source of all insight,<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">whose coming was revealed</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> to the nations<br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">not among men of power <br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">but on a woman’s lap:<br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">give us grace to seek you<br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">where you may be found,<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">that the wisdom of the world</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">may be humbled<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">and discover your</span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> unexpected joy,<br /></span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;">through Jesus Christ, Amen.</span></span></p></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: left;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Janet Morley<o:p></o:p></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.693333625793457px; text-align: start;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Activities / conversation-starters </span></u></i></b><b style="font-size: 11pt;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">with young (and not-so-young!) people</span></u></i></b></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">In today’s readings, we hear about two very different groups of visitors to Jesus: the shepherds, and the magi. I wonder where you are in these stories… which group can you imagine yourself visiting Jesus with? And why?</span></li></ul><ul style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The magi bring gifts to Jesus. Each gift symbolises something important about who Jesus is. What do you think is important about who Jesus is? What gift would you bring to symbolise that? You might like to draw a picture. </span></li></ul><ul style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: left;" type="disc"><li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">After the shepherds have seen Jesus, the return “glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen”. Imagine being one of the shepherds at this point. What would you say (or maybe sing!) to praise God? You might like to write down or record your ideas, as a poem, a prayer, or a song. </span></li></ul><p></p><p></p></div>Genny Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110481787319074494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-80434007403396507232021-01-03T09:24:00.102-08:002022-07-29T10:17:01.868-07:00 Week 26: Jesus - Beginnings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS6M7TpC3fStbJFmXjXQB9NG1T9RQRT4U9irnj1u8dj6yh3DSszijNY2uaH-0RBvtroLCKUuPT0RENy1KRxTb5Xhj20XEswrpgNQEW5QOsYaQ78edIQZVsxXFjb08kPwjt5XikgN-JeDyNvvPpydFU49z_xN1HpCe9HIrKLWRv48sT_hQQROCs-M7L/s484/Jose%20y%20Maria.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="484" data-original-width="342" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhS6M7TpC3fStbJFmXjXQB9NG1T9RQRT4U9irnj1u8dj6yh3DSszijNY2uaH-0RBvtroLCKUuPT0RENy1KRxTb5Xhj20XEswrpgNQEW5QOsYaQ78edIQZVsxXFjb08kPwjt5XikgN-JeDyNvvPpydFU49z_xN1HpCe9HIrKLWRv48sT_hQQROCs-M7L/w452-h640/Jose%20y%20Maria.jpg" width="452" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpJP5jMmmvPd8WNyKdr-pToMI6JCe5mu5gRLztbPKZkEzdltMUwqO98CgSsDdCo_VTgyzuzV61yS9u1UOwikjQPGdLdvKzdt0I1i4dqYEzNGQG1_Bdn-8wxbARBafZBHMb_019XavDeC_XLhEIAGxbzNziArUGBwouaFmNqF2l-1lgScDENfOY1Ih8/s525/Sunshine%20Mother.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="525" height="385" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpJP5jMmmvPd8WNyKdr-pToMI6JCe5mu5gRLztbPKZkEzdltMUwqO98CgSsDdCo_VTgyzuzV61yS9u1UOwikjQPGdLdvKzdt0I1i4dqYEzNGQG1_Bdn-8wxbARBafZBHMb_019XavDeC_XLhEIAGxbzNziArUGBwouaFmNqF2l-1lgScDENfOY1Ih8/w385-h385/Sunshine%20Mother.jpg" width="385" /></a></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">‘José y Maria’</span></i><span class="text"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;"> <br /></span></b></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 10pt;">by Everett Patterson</span></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><div><i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">‘Sunshine Mother And Child’<br /></span></i><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 10pt;">by Shijun Munns</span></div><div><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div><div><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></div><div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Matthew 1:1-17</span></b></h3><div><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></b></div><p class="chapter-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">1 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">An account of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">2 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Abraham was the father of Isaac, and Isaac the father of Jacob, and Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, <b><sup>3 </sup></b>and Judah the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar, and Perez the father of Hezron, and Hezron the father of Aram, <b><sup>4 </sup></b>and Aram the father of Aminadab, and Aminadab the father of Nahshon, and Nahshon the father of Salmon, <b><sup>5 </sup></b>and Salmon the father of Boaz by Rahab, and Boaz the father of Obed by Ruth, and Obed the father of Jesse, <b><sup>6 </sup></b>and Jesse the father of King David.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">And David was the father of Solomon by the wife of Uriah, <b><sup>7 </sup></b>and Solomon the father of Rehoboam, and Rehoboam the father of Abijah, and Abijah the father of Asaph, <b><sup>8 </sup></b>and Asaph the father of Jehoshaphat, and Jehoshaphat the father of Joram, and Joram the father of Uzziah, <b><sup>9 </sup></b>and Uzziah the father of Jotham, and Jotham the father of Ahaz, and Ahaz the father of Hezekiah, <b><sup>10 </sup></b>and Hezekiah the father of Manasseh, and Manasseh the father of Amos, and Amos the father of Josiah, <b><sup>11 </sup></b>and Josiah the father of Jechoniah and his brothers, at the time of the deportation to Babylon.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">12 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">And after the deportation to Babylon: Jechoniah was the father of Salathiel, and Salathiel the father of Zerubbabel, <b><sup>13 </sup></b>and Zerubbabel the father of Abiud, and Abiud the father of Eliakim, and Eliakim the father of Azor, <b><sup>14 </sup></b>and Azor the father of Zadok, and Zadok the father of Achim, and Achim the father of Eliud, <b><sup>15 </sup></b>and Eliud the father of Eleazar, and Eleazar the father of Matthan, and Matthan the father of Jacob, <b><sup>16 </sup></b>and Jacob the father of Joseph the husband of Mary, of whom Jesus was born, who is called the Messiah.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">17 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David to the deportation to Babylon, fourteen generations; and from the deportation to Babylon to the Messiah, fourteen generations.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">John 1:1-18<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="chapter-1" style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">1 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>He was in the beginning with God. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being <b><sup>4 </sup></b>in him was life,<sup>[</sup></span></span><a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=JOhn+1&version=NRSV#fen-NRSV-26039a" style="color: #954f72;" title="See footnote a"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif" style="color: #517e90;">a</span></sup></a><span class="text"><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">]</span></sup></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"> and the life was the light of all people. <b><sup>5 </sup></b>The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">6 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. <b><sup>7 </sup></b>He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. <b><sup>8 </sup></b>He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. <b><sup>9 </sup></b>The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">10 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. <b><sup>11 </sup></b>He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. <b><sup>12 </sup></b>But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, <b><sup>13 </sup></b>who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.</span></span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">14 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth. <b><sup>15 </sup></b>(John testified to him and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’”) <b><sup>16 </sup></b>From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. <b><sup>17 </sup></b>The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. <b><sup>18 </sup></b>No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.</span></span></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></u></i></b></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></h3><div><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></i></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Over Christmas, when I mentioned I was interested in tree wisdom, a friend pointed me to an essay on trees by Hermann Hesse (German-born Swiss poet, novelist and Nobel Laureate, 1877–1962). She said it was “one of those bits of writing that can set your life off in a whole new direction”. The following paragraphs, at the heart of the short piece, speak to today’s theme of beginnings, ancestors and divine calling into being.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px; text-align: left;"><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">"Trees are sanctuaries. Whoever knows how to speak to them, whoever knows how to listen to them, can learn the truth. They do not preach learning and precepts, they preach, undeterred by particulars, the ancient law of life.</span></i></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A tree says: A kernel is hidden in me, a spark, a thought, I am life from eternal life. The attempt and the risk that the eternal mother took with me is unique, unique the form and veins of my skin, unique the smallest play of leaves in my branches and the smallest scar on my bark. I was made to form and reveal the eternal in my smallest special detail.</span></i></p></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A tree says: My strength is trust. I know nothing about my fathers, I know nothing about the thousand children that every year spring out of me. I live out the secret of my seed to the very end, and I care for nothing else. I trust that God is in me. I trust that my labour is holy. Out of this trust I live.” <a href="applewebdata://21593FB0-386B-4334-B3EA-35C5ADA3E411#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="color: #954f72;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">[1]</span></b></span></span></a></span></i></p></div></blockquote><div><div><br /></div><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsX6gOfMcy_4Iwx6bWFGg79BEu17oojCfhEXba8b9HeQZY3OjyYOfCW2HZOH4itTIChDQAZNBsDFGC2psVediPPjLvs5X7ur42N1lkX_hs7u25fzrhCZu5jbgpH4pqyTZm4vJtm13UXI5ScqDDd0T7f_ZIUGc3BBvuehq2ubOzAx4rdff18YPwe3LT/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsX6gOfMcy_4Iwx6bWFGg79BEu17oojCfhEXba8b9HeQZY3OjyYOfCW2HZOH4itTIChDQAZNBsDFGC2psVediPPjLvs5X7ur42N1lkX_hs7u25fzrhCZu5jbgpH4pqyTZm4vJtm13UXI5ScqDDd0T7f_ZIUGc3BBvuehq2ubOzAx4rdff18YPwe3LT/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><p></p><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">So we begin again! A new calendar year, remembering that just a year ago we couldn’t possibly have imagined what 2020 would bring. I’m guessing most of us are carrying a complex mix of emotions at the moment. There might be a little bit of tentative, cautious optimism, that 2021 can’t possibly be any worse than 2020, and might even, in some ways at least, be a bit better. In that caution, there might well also be some deep anxieties about the challenges that lie ahead – personal, local, national and global – many of which seem very present in the news headlines right now. And alongside both of these, for many of us there will still be a profound weariness and exhaustion from what the last year has brought, personal and collective grief and trauma that we’ve barely begun to deal with as yet.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">And in the midst of all of that, we’ve had to discover a very different way of ‘doing church’ – which has presented us all with challenges, but has also offered us plenty of unexpected gifts along the way.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">From July to December last year, we began a journey ‘together, apart’, that we’ve been calling ‘Trees of Life’. In the midst of COVID19, a time of crisis, profound change, and our physical separation from each other, we started by reflecting together on the ways in which we’ve, nevertheless, been <i>growing</i>: spiritually (our ‘roots’), communally (our shared ‘trunk’), missionally (our outward-reaching ‘branches’), evangelistically (the ‘leaves’ of story, hope and healing), and in the fruit of the Kingdom (‘seeking justice, loving with kindness, walking humbly with God’). And over the months that followed, we explored some of the stories and ‘Big Story’ of the Hebrew bible (what we often call ‘the Old Testament’), meeting the God who created our amazing, complex, interconnected world; who meets us where we are, and calls us to journey together; who grieves in our hiding and hypocrisy, disconnection and division, injustice and exploitation; who liberates us from slavery, makes her home with us in exile, and calls us back to himself in repentance and reconnection, justice and joy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">And all of that before the arrival of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">As we begin this new year, then, we begin a new chapter in the Story – but it is the same Story, continuing. The main reason some of us resist using the term ‘Old Testament’ is that with Jesus there is no <i>superseding</i>what went before, no abandoning of ‘the Story so far’ as now redundant. Yes, in Jesus God is doing a ‘new thing’ – but it is the same God who journeyed with Abraham and Sarah, Hagar and Ishmael, Moses and the prophets, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the exiles in Babylon. God’s <i>hesed</i> – faithful love – remains constant. God’s promise to Abraham – that through him all peoples would be blessed – still stands. The coming kingdom, where all creation lives in peace and harmony, and a little child leads the way, is a <i>Jewish</i>vision, a <i>Jewish</i> longing. And it is into that vision, that longing, that Jesus is born.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">The technical, theological word that is used for Jesus’ birth is ‘the <i>incarnation</i>’. It simply means ‘becoming flesh’. This week’s reading from John’s gospel tells us, in soaring, poetic language, that when God spoke the universe into being (it’s no coincidence that ‘in the beginning’ is how John begins his gospel, and how the book of Genesis began too), that speaking is literally ‘fleshed out’ in the particular human being called Jesus of Nazareth. The creative power of the cosmos (the Greek word for ‘universe’), entangled in the creation of all things, ‘became flesh and blood and moved into the neighbourhood’, as the <i>Message</i> version of John’s gospel puts it (John 1:14).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">But what <i>kind</i> of ‘flesh and blood’ human being is Jesus? That is what we’ll be exploring more deeply over the next few months – at least up until Pentecost, and probably well beyond! If Jesus is God’s creative speaking – God’s ‘Word’ – made flesh and blood, then as we encounter the human person Jesus, what are we discovering about <i>God</i>? If Jesus is, as Christians affirm, the flesh-and-blood embodiment of the Jewish hopes and longings for the coming kingdom, then what do we Christians do with that unavoidable ‘reality check’, as our Jewish siblings will insistently remind us, between the world as it is today and the new creation that God promises to bring into being?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">There’s much more to be said about all of this in the coming weeks. For today, let’s just attend to one or two little details. In Matthew’s ‘genealogy’ (the ‘family tree’) of Jesus, we can see plenty of names of ‘the great and the good’ of the Hebrew bible: Abraham, Jacob (Israel), Judah, David, Solomon and Hezekiah (the ‘good king’ we encountered briefly at the latter end of the book of Isaiah). But unusually for Matthew’s Jewish world, this genealogy also mentions four women – and Gentiles too. There is Tamar (a Canaanite, childless widow, who dresses as a prostitute as the only way to produce a son for her dead husband), Rahab (a Canaanite prostitute, who collaborates with the Israelite spies), Ruth (a Moabite, who sleeps with Boaz to secure a future for her mother-in-law Naomi and herself), and Bathsheba (who King David ‘took’, murdering her husband Uriah in the process). There is violence – patriarchal violence – in the stories of these women, and courageous survival and solidarity too. These are Jesus’ ancestors, crucial roots in his family tree – ‘unsung heroes’ from the edges of power, from the edges of the Story. These women, Matthew hints, make critical contributions to making him who he is to become.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 18.399999618530273px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">And yet, as we glimpsed already in our readings during Advent, a key part of the ‘new thing’ that is Jesus’ birth, is that while honouring the illustrious and courageous men and women of this genealogy, Matthew also makes it clear that it is <i>Mary</i>, and not Joseph, who is Jesus’ biological parent. Mary, another unknown outsider, with no ancestry worth shouting about. And Jesus, God’s-creative-speaking-made-flesh, born ‘not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God’ (John 1:13). What we’ve ended up calling the ‘virgin birth’, is much less about insisting that we must believe in a biological impossibility, and much more about the beginnings of a new kind of family, the ‘beloved community’ of those who are God’s children not biologically, but out of God’s overflowing love for her creation.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjY3nsDQcw9xk0sU4aWHNnplqgnw2njPYxPVfvpm7aEnjxzMBN69uJs1U8ZaVcBV9sWoAYYkp8Nxf3-7bIDiMyjBH2gcDZUaH_UPFiO1toNZZLnK2jLvD2LoTQm2hnji0UL0xlAMWTHnwMsez9Og45xoY5zACENtGBiYK_78YiREgbPnb9k-KLntmz/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjY3nsDQcw9xk0sU4aWHNnplqgnw2njPYxPVfvpm7aEnjxzMBN69uJs1U8ZaVcBV9sWoAYYkp8Nxf3-7bIDiMyjBH2gcDZUaH_UPFiO1toNZZLnK2jLvD2LoTQm2hnji0UL0xlAMWTHnwMsez9Og45xoY5zACENtGBiYK_78YiREgbPnb9k-KLntmz/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><h3><br /><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection: ‘In the beginning…’</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Sally Nash)<o:p></o:p></i></span></h3><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">What a contrast our two passages are! One a list of names, the other full of poetic concepts. But they are both about the beginning, they just conceive the beginning in different ways. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">If I am honest, I tend to skim read the passage from Matthew as a list of names doesn’t grab my attention – unless I am looking at the Spurs line up! But when I start to look at what commentators say about the passage, I see that I may have been missing some riches.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">In the beginning, God created the world in six days and on the seventh he rested. In the Bible seven is a significant number and in offering us three lots of fourteen generations – six lots of seven, those reading Matthew would realise that they were in the seventh generation, the seventh seven when the Messiah was coming, with the hope of a time of justice and peace. Thus, the genealogy would have evoked hope to those who heard it.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">At the beginning of a new year and a new phase of our studies together, let’s remember that the story of Jesus is shrouded in hope, a hope for us to hold on to.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The Greek Matthew uses at the beginning of his genealogy contains a form of the word genesis, echoes of the first book of the Bible and in essence, Matthew goes through the some of the key figures of the Hebrew Bible and helps us to begin the gospel with a grasp of what has gone before and a reminder that God has a purpose and a story and that this is the next chapter in it. The Messiah was going to come from the House of David, Matthew shows us how. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">We also have a few women in the list, largely women whose stories are challenging to read, whether outcasts like Ruth a Moabite, or a prostitute like Rahab or Tamar both the sister-in-law and mother of Perez, they are not the sort of role models that one might expect perhaps – until we get to Mary. And by mentioning Bathsheba Matthew brings back to our attention the indefensible act of King David in sending her husband Uriah to his death so he could have her. What is encouraging about this is that to play our part in the story of Jesus we don’t have to be perfect, we can come with our flaws, our imperfections, our difficult histories, and be part of the story of Jesus today. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">It is likely that Ruth, Rahab, Tamar and Bathsheba were gentiles so in the genealogy we begin to understand that the message of Jesus is for all nations and that all can play their part in the story. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">What the genealogy also communicates is that the Messiah isn’t going to be the warrior King type of person they were perhaps hoping for who might come in and kick out the Romans and restore Jerusalem, rebuild the Temple and rule! That challenges us to think about power, Jesus comes as a different sort of King, a baby! How precarious does that sound, even now let alone 2000 years ago without an NHS! That encourages me to look for God in unexpected places, see God through unexpected people, doing unexpected things. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">John 1 is my favourite passage from any of the gospels. There are two things I want to highlight from it, the first is that Jesus is the light of the world and the second that God in Jesus moved into the neighbourhood.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I sat alone in church last month signing the Christmas cards, I was so tempted to light the advent candles – I would only have lit three – it would have been much too naughty to light them all! Candles are so evocative, the light, often light in darkness, the flickering, the vulnerability, the memories perhaps of birthday cakes as a child. Candles can be a symbol of so many different things. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I read this about candles and it evokes some of the thoughts that swirl around my head when I read these very familiar verses:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Being light in the darkness is what candles symbolize. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">They are far more than seasonal decorations. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">They are candles of hope in the midst of despair <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Candles of peace in places of discord and violence <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Candles of joy where there is sadness <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Candles of courage to ease all fear <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Candles of love in the presence of hatred.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I then think about Jesus, the bringing of hope, peace, joy, courage and love. And remember that this passage says he moves into the neighbourhood. One of my friends, Debs, wrote this story based around this verse but bringing it up to date<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">As Stavros edged out of the Athenia storeroom, he jumped, and screeched considerably higher than a man of his stature might have been expected to, nearly smashing the stack of plates he was carrying.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">'Oh God! What are you doing here?'<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">'I moved into the neighbourhood Stavros, hadn't you heard?'<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Stavros had heard. 'Well yeah, the lunchtime crowd were all talking about you. But I didn't know what to think... and I definitely didn't expect to see you here...' God raised an eyebrow, 'Not that I'm not pleased - I really am.' Stavros blinked.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">'What's the story with all the plates?' God asked. 'Christmas dinner, innit?' Stavros replied, 'The foodbank are using here as the place to do Christmas dinner tomorrow, I'm getting out extra plates and all that. If you're staying, you can fold those napkins.' God reached over for a pile of holly-covered napkins and carefully started turning them into swans and lotuses.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Stavros watched, remembering a warm feeling from a long time ago. 'It's so good you're here. It'll make such a difference to people.' God laughed,<br />'Nope, I don't think so. You and the foodbank and a few others are already doing that...' <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Stavros smiled. 'Shall I get us some food? Lily made taramasolata this morning.' 'Mmmm. With pitta and olives?' 'There's leftover stuffed vine leaves too.' 'Lovely. Have they got enough food for tomorrow? I could always do the loaves and fishes thing.' Stavros looked up from counting cutlery, 'Nah, there's plenty of food, you take it easy.' 'Perfect.' Said God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">When I read John 1, I am reminded that Jesus moved into the neighbourhood but that he is no longer here but we are and like Stavros in Debs’ story, we are the ones who need to do the work of Jesus in our areas. We will learn over the coming months more about what those works are as we revisit the stories of Jesus and explore what they might mean for us today. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">But perhaps two thoughts to begin with from this passage:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">If we want to know what God is like then we look at Jesus – it may perhaps help us vanquish some of the negative ideas we carry with us about God the Father from our childhoods or other experiences.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">Jesus was full of grac</span><span style="font-family: inherit;">e, how much better m</span><span face="Calibri, sans-serif">ight the world be if we acted in a gracious way with </span><span style="font-family: arial;">each other.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Two very different beginnings, and as we think about the beginning of our journey with Jesus over these coming months let’s remember the hope, the promises, the light and the grace. I finish with a blessing that draws on the imagery from John 1.</span></span></p><h4 style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">A Blessing</span></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> (Dave Hopwood)<o:p></o:p></span></h4><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Lord, you have called us and brought light into our lives. And now you ask us to be your light in the continuing darkness. At times we may be like a small, fragile, flickering candle, at times a bright strong, beam of light… Help us this coming week to let your light shine through us in our words and our actions, in our attitudes and relationships. With our hands, our faces, our feet and our smiles. In the name of Jesus, Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR8OqoZVThYLphVU5nYkkY5BkVDd4xbH5OSL0fQaIbXwTqC21dB-95GPryoS6eHiqyBa2E45phhMhHpvx9pOu0lhuqhkSrLWIqp7vO7BRMNMScEnpqs7gDDSwLv8WjKbJrLwAtxAQy8C30KtDQWKKdU15LENLd4Vb7o8EQ75P66AxuBiwXHbB3h7oE/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgR8OqoZVThYLphVU5nYkkY5BkVDd4xbH5OSL0fQaIbXwTqC21dB-95GPryoS6eHiqyBa2E45phhMhHpvx9pOu0lhuqhkSrLWIqp7vO7BRMNMScEnpqs7gDDSwLv8WjKbJrLwAtxAQy8C30KtDQWKKdU15LENLd4Vb7o8EQ75P66AxuBiwXHbB3h7oE/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><br /><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection: ‘God becomes human’</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Paul Nash)</i><o:p></o:p></span></h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">God becomes human.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">What a crazy statement! This is what “The Word (Greek word <i>Logos</i>) becomes flesh” refers to, Jesus, the living Word from Heaven coming to Earth. When the Old Testament law did not seem to be the perfect needful connector between God and humanity, something more drastic, more sacrificial, was called for. God becoming flesh and blood. This is what we mean by, Word because flesh, the Incarnation, God becoming human. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Some of the redeeming features of Covid-19, are the lessons we would not have learnt so effectively without restrictions. The normative understanding of the Jesus becoming flesh, Incarnational, is that it is understand as a passive presence. The Incarnation that Jesus modelled was interventional. After the resent initial intervention of our Christmas celebration of being born, Jesus intervened in people’s lives; “come, go, come down”, healing and forgiving without asking, turning tables, willing to be crucified, resurrected, ascending. We do not have a passive saviour. God did not ask for our permission to become as our suffering flesh. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">This becoming flesh, incarnation, has become shorthand for how we primary serve others, being present with people. This is normally a challenge, but during Covid-19 restrictions, it has become even more of a challenge. The incarnation can inspire us to think differently about presence. Previous we have taken for granted that this is a physical behaviour. I shared the idea in our Sunday morning group of how can we do digital <i>hesed</i>, virtual loving kindness? How can we care by being virtual present, by not being physically present?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">God showing humanity love by becoming another form, is our inspiration that anything is possible. It has been a credit to our church that we have learnt to be safely present. We have learnt to be Christ like remotely, supportive at a physical distance. Caring by being emotionally present. We have learnt to be creative. I have been sending a daily joke via Instagram to someone who has a long-term illness. Door stopping people has become a positive virtue as long as we back off down the path! We have inverted the Good Samaritan, it is now kind, caring, sacrificial to walk by on the other side of the road, to stand at the end of the garden. But we are being present at a distance. The dropped offed packages, the virtual checking ins, the distanced outside gatherings. We have learnt to be virtual flesh to each other. Our prayers have always been mostly this way. Zoom counts when we add up to see if 2-3 are gathered, prayers are never on mute!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I had hoped we would not need them but we are having virtual hugs cards and glass stones made in the next week. Being spontaneously kind is almost always appreciated, even if the type of chocolate given is not their first choice. In these days, the incarnational gesture is always understood as positive sign of shared loved. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">God became flesh for our salvation. Perhaps the most Word becoming flesh that we can imitate is to be creatively and emotionally present with others. To safely intervene, because we perceive needs not being meet for holistic salvation of others.<o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTebidNiNu4uuvbon82iCxUwSIp9LPHwdMgjnhD60xDrrUuO_mkyKvgyByIVfz0htOPITXXriwLN84wgYvYAt8P7yjGTzfZAIFWvXrWpNPa0GfWtoZ8CPiOebRbbXT5g3I4P1zNUBwvpPHymLxHNobUm4JXULNbqfl2dm8PhqWeDXS8EGaBmOg9Z-/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuTebidNiNu4uuvbon82iCxUwSIp9LPHwdMgjnhD60xDrrUuO_mkyKvgyByIVfz0htOPITXXriwLN84wgYvYAt8P7yjGTzfZAIFWvXrWpNPa0GfWtoZ8CPiOebRbbXT5g3I4P1zNUBwvpPHymLxHNobUm4JXULNbqfl2dm8PhqWeDXS8EGaBmOg9Z-/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Reflection: ‘family tree’</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"> <i>(Christine Turner)</i><o:p></o:p></span></h3><div><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><i><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans"</span></i><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"> (John Lennon, 1940 – 1980)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">To say I'm glad to see the back of 2020 is a huge understatement. To be honest I'd been wishing last year away since my partner Gary was admitted to Heartlands Hospital in May and even more so when my beloved Uncle David passed away at his Blackpool flat in June then Gary was diagnosed with Small Cell Prostate Cancer in Mid-July with chemotherapy starting at the beginning of August until a fortnight before Christmas which made the rest of 2020 go that little bit quicker for me. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">December 31st is always a reflective day for me, thinking back on the year that's about to pass, the happy times, the sad times and also the new beginning of a brand new year and what lies ahead. Little did I think on January 1st 2020 that me and my loved ones would go through such heartbreak and sadness that we went through in 2020. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">The friendship of Hodge Hill Church and its members knows no bounds. I started to come to the Sunday Morning services in February 2020 when Al invited me to the Sunday Breakfast Service at Church. I quickly made friends. That first Sunday I chatted for the first time to Wendy Millman, it was like I'd known her years, Martin and myself bonded over our love for our beloved Aston Villa. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Coronavirus hit us in March and quickly Zoom calls came into our lives as well as worship packs etc. The only Zoom I knew before then were the ice-lollies. I love our Sunday coffee hours. Zoom also helped me gain level 2 qualifications in Customer Service, Equality and Diversity and also a level 2 qualification in understanding Mental Health qualification through online learning with a North-East based company called Release Potential. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">I'm very glad I live where I live as I know Gary and myself wouldn't have the level of love, support and help me from our community friends and Church friends and also Hodge Hill Church that we've had and continue to have. I wouldn't want to live anywhere else. Every single person who helped us, or enquired about us or gave love, support and advice are heroes. There's too many to name but thank you all and thank you Hodge Hill Church for your love and support during myself and Gary's darkest days in 2020. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">From Gary and myself may we wish you a Happy New Year and hope you all have better fortune in 2021. Here's to New Beginnings. </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfruwZoHs0nLapBEuTPB3oHk47tQ4GPvNSmWBYE0Pv05_p56Tpj11h0Jy6w1K3JUCVG5Nm7OPFO0hMa2IvtmERmsNvIvcfTa_1FpUicP830mWMQYAYip-_PyP7-UKrsrrot-dyRx8lJuiB5wveskZYAJ1FCCnwkuhLlcduLvBcMOOJEHPWW7zmmGkZ/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfruwZoHs0nLapBEuTPB3oHk47tQ4GPvNSmWBYE0Pv05_p56Tpj11h0Jy6w1K3JUCVG5Nm7OPFO0hMa2IvtmERmsNvIvcfTa_1FpUicP830mWMQYAYip-_PyP7-UKrsrrot-dyRx8lJuiB5wveskZYAJ1FCCnwkuhLlcduLvBcMOOJEHPWW7zmmGkZ/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></span></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></u></i></b></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Poe</span>m: ‘flesh of our flesh’</span></u></i></b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">, by Martin Wroe<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what colour are you God<br />what’s your body like<br />any disabilities, distinguishing characteristics<br />would we spot you in a crowd<br />would we stare at you for some deformity<br />how many senses have you got<br />five, six, eighteen, ninety four<br />and what’s your sense of touch like<br />is your handshake firm as a vice or slippery as an eel<br />what do you smell of<br />anything in particular ‑ the universe, for example<br />planets, oceans, space, skies<br />do you smell of petrol like everything else<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">we believe your Spirit is always willing<br />but is your flesh ever weak<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">and if the Word was made flesh<br />are you flesh of our flesh<br />bone of our bones<br />is that you there, meek and mild<br />all meanly wrapped in swaddling clothes<br />is that you Baby J, Word of the Father<br />now in flesh appearing<br />is that you screaming as you arrived<br />like the rest of us<br />screaming at the shock of the new<br />the shock of the cold and the old and the broken<br />is that you Baby J<br />slipping clumsily out from between a Virgin’s legs<br />covered in blood and gunge and straw<br />when moments before you had been covered in glory<br />is that you tied to the mother of God by a fleshy cord<br />sucking on a woman’s breast for your very life<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">what a come down<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">still at least you had an audience<br />cows was it, a goat or two<br />did they look on in awe and wonder<br />were the cattle lowing a bit<br />or were they a right nuisance<br />but little Lord Jesus no crying he makes<br />well, that’s not true is it<br />the thing about flesh is it makes you cry<br />for better or worse, you’ve got to cry<br />who is he in yonder stall<br />at whose feet the shepherd’s fall<br />did they fall? did they recognise you up close?<br />did they know that was you, God, in the flesh<br />or were they just intrigued by the heavenly host<br />and the funny star<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">and did the flesh inconvenience and annoy<br />and anger you like it does the<br />rest of us, your fleshy creatures<br />did your nose run green<br />your skin flake or bruise red<br />did you itch<br />your breath catch from asthma<br />in that smelly barn<br />your chest tighten in fear<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">and later on what did you do about your desires<br />you know, the fleshly ones<br />and, just out of interest, where on earth<br />did you go for your private movements<br />and are there miraculously fertile plants there today<br />trees with roots for miles and branches into the heavens<br />never barren, endlessly ripe...<br />or are those places where the divine squatted in squalor<br />feeling quite a lot lower than the angels<br />‑ wiping his bum with leaves ‑<br />are they like every other place,<br />where folks did their business<br />with no particular supernatural horticultural memento<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">and when you were tired, when it all was going wrong<br />when your friends misunderstood, lost interest, wandered off<br />did you think<br />what did I get into this body business for<br />swapping omnipresence for<br />being somewhere in particular<br />did you feel trapped in that body<br />or didn’t you know what it had been like<br />before you became body<br />when you were in‑carnate<br />could you know what it was like out‑carnate<br />flesh can’t be in more than one place at a time<br />flesh is limited<br />flesh is awkward<br />you must have wondered<br />at the restrictions of the corporeal<br />did you ever notice, could you tell the difference?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">and did the flesh also exhilarate you, excite you<br />did you run and laugh and kiss<br />did you sweat and wrestle and argue<br />and if you longed to be more...<br />were you grateful to have lived<br />on earth<br />a human<br />in flesh<br />to have become one of us<br />he was little, weak and helpless<br />tears and smiles like us he knew<br />and he feeleth for our sadness<br />and he shareth in our gladness<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">how’s the old body now<br />do you wear a halo<br />or a crown<br />is it of gold<br />or is it of thorns<br />are there marks on your palms<br />blood on the side of your shirt still?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">Jesus of the body, of the flesh, Jesus of the Spirit<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 16.866666793823242px; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 18.399999618530273px;">welcome to the body God<br />thank you for being it<br />putting flesh on the bones of our skeletal lives<br />fleshing out the way life might be lived<br />thank you Spirit of Jesus for becoming body among us<br />thank you that veiled in flesh the Godhead we see<br />flesh is all we have<br />but, now you know ‑ as well as any of us ‑<br />flesh is not all we are <o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4YOeflmPLQmZOWn8J_yGHm2AJYWOqaRm3xDUowxagBMrP2ybW_u7ypH5BEKws830RwKPbfp8Rb_gxrhD8mTUTZi7T_ZEdFNeUxE_cRQMdKGqRr_nnRRXQnTX931Tg3Gbr_LlI036twujrkSZHMSHVRBnj7bUEJOOLpjbVZMKhIs7rNDJ_SGSAcdr7/s134/Tree%20spacer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="134" data-original-width="134" height="134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4YOeflmPLQmZOWn8J_yGHm2AJYWOqaRm3xDUowxagBMrP2ybW_u7ypH5BEKws830RwKPbfp8Rb_gxrhD8mTUTZi7T_ZEdFNeUxE_cRQMdKGqRr_nnRRXQnTX931Tg3Gbr_LlI036twujrkSZHMSHVRBnj7bUEJOOLpjbVZMKhIs7rNDJ_SGSAcdr7/s1600/Tree%20spacer.jpg" width="134" /></a></div><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></u></i></b></h3><h3 style="text-align: left;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">A Creed</span></u></i></b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">, by Nathan Nettleton<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">We believe in God,<br />the creator and giver of life,<br />who brought all creation to birth,<br />who mothers us and fathers us,<br />protecting, nurturing,<br />and cherishing us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">We believe in Jesus Christ:<br />God born among us as a fragile baby,<br />embodying both love and the need for love,<br />and calling us to rest in God<br />as trustingly as a tiny child.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">We believe in the Holy Spirit,<br />breathed into us at our birth,<br />always drawing us on to be born again,<br />encouraging, exhorting, comforting,<br />nourishing our growth<br />and inspiring our living.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">We believe in the reconciliation<br />of the world to God, through Christ.<br />Hunted at birth<br />and humiliated at death,<br />Christ entered our fearful darkness<br />so that we might enter his glorious light<br />and share the life of his resurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">And we believe that each new child<br />is a glimpse of the face of God,<br />a sign of the life to come,<br />and a call to live in peace<br />and celebrate living together.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;">Glory to God in the highest,<br />and peace to God’s people on earth.<br />Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 17.1200008392334px;"></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">(with material from Kathy Galloway, ‘Midwife of our lives’, in <i>Pattern of our Days</i>)</span></p><hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" /><div id="ftn1"><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px; margin: 0cm 0cm 8pt;"><a href="applewebdata://21593FB0-386B-4334-B3EA-35C5ADA3E411#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="color: #954f72;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference" style="vertical-align: super;"><span style="font-size: 11pt; line-height: 15.693333625793457px;">[1]</span></span></span></a> <span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">The essay was published in a collection of fragments, </span><a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0374509751/braipick-20" style="color: #954f72;"><i><span color="windowtext" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px; text-decoration: none;">Wandering: Notes and Sketches</span></i></a><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;"> </span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">(</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;">1920). It can be read in full (it’s not long) at </span><span style="color: #954f72; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 14.266666412353516px;"><a href="https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/09/21/hermann-hesse-trees/" style="color: #954f72;">https://www.brainpickings.org/2012/09/21/hermann-hesse-trees/</a></span></p></div></div>Genny Thttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11110481787319074494noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-67195650206987614672020-12-23T09:14:00.001-08:002020-12-23T09:14:18.714-08:00Week 25: God's upside-down kingdom - coming in Jesus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZXFjk570NFKRWEsEryFXypOE9Wc6wvxjXcTzTMtABNBQ-ddzvZtMdL60xqgRWGiJmFGlmyBe3iAUiaYZ-ZbTnF1asDbg8a6MFXSqdV9BX82SUfs9iyAfQzRxD_Xuyxw593dqLAwGm5lK/s904/tree+of+life+%2528Rasman%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="904" data-original-width="898" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCZXFjk570NFKRWEsEryFXypOE9Wc6wvxjXcTzTMtABNBQ-ddzvZtMdL60xqgRWGiJmFGlmyBe3iAUiaYZ-ZbTnF1asDbg8a6MFXSqdV9BX82SUfs9iyAfQzRxD_Xuyxw593dqLAwGm5lK/w398-h400/tree+of+life+%2528Rasman%2529.jpg" width="398" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-no-proof: yes;">‘Tree of Life’</span></i><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-no-proof: yes;"> (2009), </span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Scott Rasman<br />
https://artaugratin.wordpress.com/2010/01/07/new-works-tree-of-life/<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ezekiel 17:22-24<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><sup><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">22-24 </span></sup></b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“‘<span class="small-caps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">God</span></span>, the
Master, says, I personally will take a shoot from the top of the towering
cedar, a cutting from the crown of the tree, and plant it on a high and towering
mountain, on the high mountain of Israel. It will grow, putting out branches
and fruit—a majestic cedar. Birds of every sort and kind will live under it.
They’ll build nests in the shade of its branches. All the trees of the field
will recognize that I, <span class="small-caps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">God</span></span>, made the great tree small and the small tree
great, made the green tree turn dry and the dry tree sprout green branches.
I, <span class="small-caps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">God</span></span>,
said it—and I did it.’”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Luke 1:39-55<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">39 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In those days Mary set out and went with haste to a Judean town in
the hill country, <b><sup>40 </sup></b>where she entered the house of
Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. <b><sup>41 </sup></b>When Elizabeth
heard Mary’s greeting, the child leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled
with the Holy Spirit <b><sup>42 </sup></b>and exclaimed with a loud
cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. <b><sup>43 </sup></b>And
why has this happened to me, that the mother of my Lord comes to me? <b><sup>44 </sup></b>For
as soon as I heard the sound of your greeting, the child in my womb leaped for
joy. <b><sup>45 </sup></b>And blessed is she who believed that there
would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her by the Lord.”</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">46 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And Mary said,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“My soul magnifies the Lord,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>47 </sup></b></span><span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour,</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>48 </sup></b>for he has looked with favour on the
lowliness of his servant.</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">Surely,
from now on all generations will call me blessed;</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>49 </sup></b>for the Mighty One has done great
things for me,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
holy is his name.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>50 </sup></b>His mercy is for those who fear him</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">from
generation to generation.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>51 </sup></b>He has shown strength with his arm;</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">he
has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>52 </sup></b>He has brought down the powerful
from their thrones,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
lifted up the lowly;</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>53 </sup></b>he has filled the hungry with good
things,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
sent the rich away empty.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>54 </sup></b>He has helped his servant Israel,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">in
remembrance of his mercy,</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>55 </sup></b>according to the promise he made to
our ancestors,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">to
Abraham and to his descendants forever.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom: ‘Deck the Halls’</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the Christmas story,
trees don't appear - unless shepherds sheltered beneath windswept trees on the
hillside, or the manger-crib was made from rough logs, eyed critically by
Joseph the carpenter. Yet for most of us today (Christians as much as anyone else)
it's hard to imagine Christmas celebrations without a tree. What do they mean
for us? For some it's about memories and family traditions - decorations
brought out every year, some gifts, some hand-made reminders of children now
grown up; or the expedition to select and bring home the tree. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The tradition goes back a
long way. Fir trees with baubles are a relatively modern import (brought from
Germany 200 years ago), but for many centuries before that in Britain and
Northern Europe evergreen branches, particularly holly, were brought indoors to
decorate for the midwinter festivities ('Deck the halls…') and great Yule logs
(real ones, not chocolate-covered cakes!) were burned in fireplaces throughout
the 12 days of Christmas. Evergreen leaves, and the light and warmth of burning
wood, were both valued symbols in pre-Christian times representing the life and
light of the sun, beginning to conquer the darkness after the winter solstice
was past. When the early church adopted the winter festival to celebrate the
birth of Jesus, these symbols of winter comfort and joy took on added layers of
meaning as reminders of God's evergreen love and the light of Christ come into
the world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The holly
bears a prickle<br />
As sharp as any thorn;<br />
And Mary bore sweet Jesus Christ<br />
On Christmas Day in the morn.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2025%20(20-12-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><sup><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></sup></b><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Real Christmas trees have
a lower carbon footprint than artificial trees, particularly if locally sourced
and responsibly disposed of. The National Trust #TreesUp campaign is inviting
anyone to share photos of their decorated tree (or houseplant) and make a
donation towards planting new trees: </span><a href="https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/trees-up"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/features/trees-up</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘The unchristmas tree’</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, by Rosie Miles & Nicola Slee<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The unchristmas tree has no lights<br />
except what filters through its spaces<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">no tinsel<br />
except its own astringent needles<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">no star<br />
except those caught in its branches<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">no presents<br />
except the gifting of itself<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The unchristmas tree costs nothing at
all<br />
except the grace to notice where it grows</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction
to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’ve almost got there! Three weeks of Advent down, and
Christmas is in sight. We’re also on Week 25 of our ‘Trees of Life’ journey of
exploring and deepening, together, our Christian discipleship – the words we’ve
used to describe the many different ways in which each of us, individually and
collectively, tries to respond faithfully to God’s call to ‘seek justice, love
with kindness, and walk humbly with our God’ (Micah 6:8). We’ve reached a
natural stopping point – which is also an exciting new beginning!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Without regularly gathering all together, it’s been almost
impossible to know what impact these reflections – written and spoken – over
the last 9 months, have had on each and every one of you reading them and
listening to them. I’ve had some feedback along the way, which has been really
encouraging – but much of what we’ve shared has been a leap of faith, trusting
that it will turn out to be helpful, in all kinds of ways that are hard to even
imagine, let alone predict!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the new year (starting on 3<sup>rd</sup> January), we’ll
take up the journey once again, taking the time between Christmas and Pentecost
(in late May) to walk with Jesus from his birth in Bethlehem, to his death in
Jerusalem – and beyond death, on the freshly-trodden paths of resurrection
life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But for now, we’re on the cusp of that birth. Advent, the
time of waiting and watching, is nearly over. The one we have been longing for,
hoping for, is nearly with us, again and anew. The kingdom that, as the poet
R.S. Thomas puts it, has for so long seemed ‘a long way off’, is within
touching, breathing distance – and with it, perhaps, the possibility that our
other deep hopes and longings might also find their fulfilment, even if not
now, then in a time that is bearable – in God’s good time, we might say.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We have heard a lot, in the last few weeks, about both
judgment and hope: both the cutting down of the ‘high and lofty’, and the
raising up of tender, new, green shoots – even from tree stumps that seem dead
and beyond hope. Today, those visions come within a hair’s breadth of becoming
reality. For the prophet Ezekiel, the little cutting becomes a majestic tree,
full of life – what begins as God’s promise (‘I personally will…’) turns into a
done deal (‘I, God, said it – and I did it.’). And likewise, for the
spirit-filled, prophetic Mary, what the prophets of her ancestors so often framed
as a future coming, she (like her foremother Hannah many years before) announces
as a present reality: ‘<i>He has</i> brought down the powerful from their
thrones, and lifted up the lowly; <i>he has</i> filled the hungry with good
things, and sent the rich away empty’). The world <i>has</i> been turned
upside-down. The kin-dom of God <i>has</i> arrived.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As the poet Jan Richardson puts it: <i>‘Mary knows that some
things are so outrageous that sometimes we have to talk about them as if they
have already happened in order to believe they could ever come about. And so if
we believe that God has brought justice to the world, we live that justice, and
we share in making the world more just. If we believe that God has brought healing
to the world, we live that healing, and we share in making the world more
whole.’<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And how does Mary know? She knows because she has come to
visit her cousin Elizabeth, and even as she calls her greeting, the child in
Elizabeth’s womb has leaped for joy. She knows because the same Spirit that
surrounded and brooded over her, has filled Elizabeth too: cousin greets
cousin, prophet encounters prophet, unborn child recognises unborn child. The
Holy Spirit, the breath of life, the wind of creation, the ‘Go-Between God’,
stirs within fleshy bodies, between blessed and beloved servants of God, and
for a moment, at least, the kin-dom of God has taken flesh, and joy abounds!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jan Richardson again: <i>‘Hope starts small, even as a seed
in the womb, but it feeds on outrageous possibilities. It beckons us to step
out with the belief that the action we take will not only bear fruit but that
in taking it, we have already made a difference in the world. God invites us,
like Mary, to open to God’s radical leading, to step out with sometimes
inexplicable faith, trusting that we will find sustenance.’</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As we approach this Christmas – feeling separations sharply,
longing for a ‘more’ that is, for the moment at least, out of reach – may we
feel the wind’s breath on our cheeks, know the Spirit’s connecting power
bridging our distances from each other, feel Mary and Elizabeth’s joy bubble up
from deep within us, and find ourselves, if only for fleeting Moments, walking
‘haphazard by starlight’ (to use U.A. Fanthorpe’s breathtaking phrase) into the
kin-dom of heaven.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Gloria Smith)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In school, one of the skills
small children are asked to do is to put a story into the correct sequence. It
demonstrates understanding of the story but also an ability to remember in the
correct order. If I asked you to put the Nativity story in order, I wonder what
you would say? I think generally there is a recognised order to the story and
it starts with today’s reading from Luke. But I wonder if you realise this is
an amalgam of two versions, one from Matthew’s gospel and the other from
Luke’s. I would suggest that for today’s theme of ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">God’s upside kingdom-coming in Jesus’ </i>the differences in the two
versions is really significant, not only for then but also for us today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Matthew’s account begins
with the genealogy of Jesus, identifying that it can be traced back through the
prophets and kings to Abraham demonstrating not only his Jewish lineage, but
also his connection to royalty and power. We have to remember scholars believe
Matthew was written from a Jewish perspective as that gave authenticity for the
claim Jesus was the Messiah promised in the Hebrew Scriptures. This is then
followed by a visitation of an angel to Joseph, the birth of Jesus and then a
visit by the Wise Men who visited them not in a stable but in a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">house</i>. The Wise Men gave gifts fit for a
king and Mary and Joseph escaped to Egypt after Herod threatened to kill Jesus
as he saw him as a threat to his kingdom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Luke’s version has a
different feel to it. It is almost all in an upside-down world. After the angel
visits Zechariah, father of John the Baptist, the angel visits Mary in
Nazareth. A small inconsequential village ‘up north’ you might say, of no
significance to anyone other than those who live there. Gabriel tells her she
will be having a baby and how special he will be. In those Jewish times the importance
of women was generally in providing children, not receiving such a message from
God. Only when Mary has agreed does the angel visit Joseph. Another upside-down
moment. The angel gets Mary’s agreement <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before</i>
he visits Joseph, suggesting very much Mary is a willing participant. The story
then moves to a visit by Mary to her cousin Elizabeth who is also having a
baby, John the Baptist. This results in a long conversation between the two
women where Elizabeth recognises Mary as the mother of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘my Lord’.</i> Mary responds with the Magnificat, stating what God is
intending to do. Another upside-down moment, as it involves a long conversation
between the two women about worldly matters, but we will return to the
Magnificat later. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When Jesus is born, it is
(in Luke’s version) in a stable as we traditionally know – but this is the Son
of God! This continues this upside-down account and is more so when Luke writes
about a visit from shepherds. A choir of angels appeared to the shepherds in
the field and they were told to go and visit the new baby, the Messiah. In
those days, shepherds were loners spending much of their time in the open
spaces with their sheep and were not particularly welcomed by village people.
But, interestingly again a message from God, not to the rich and powerful but
to the marginalised. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All of this narrative
begs the question: <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Why did God use an
ordinary<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>young girl from a nondescript
northern village in Galilee to give birth to the Son of God, when he could have
been born of a wealthy rich Jerusalem family and had a much easier and safer
start to his life?</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I think the answer lies
in the Magnificat that you heard today. Mary talks of God bestowing upon her
this great honour because she is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘lowly’</i>.
According to the feminist theologian Jane H. Schaberg it is <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘a personal, social, moral and economic
document’. </i>It begins by vindicating Mary by honouring her as she says <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘all</i> <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">generations
shall call me blessed’</i>. Mary then goes on to say that God <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘scatters the proud’</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘brings the powerful down from their
thrones’</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘lifts up the lowly’</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘fills the hungry with good things’</i>
and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘sends the rich away empty’.</i>
Radical, subversive ideas. It is precisely because of whom she is that God
chooses her. Not a rich daughter of a powerful politician or religious leader
but a young girl from an inconsequential place betrothed to a carpenter. Out of
the mouth of Mary came this earth-shattering statement about God’s mission in
our world. These words that she speaks are huge upside down, world order
changing words that signify the reason why Jesus came in human form. To be
alongside not the rich and the powerful but the poor, the marginalised and the
oppressed. Karen O’Donnell, another feminist theologian, says the Magnificat is
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘a radical declaration of the mode of
God’s interaction with the world, in which God is on the side of the poor and
oppressed.’ </i>She goes on to say that every time it is said at Evening Prayer
it is reminding us of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘God’s intention to
disrupt the established order’.</i> In effect it declares right at the
beginning of Luke’s gospel what God intentions are in sending Jesus into the
world. And I would say if we only had Luke’s version of the birth of Jesus,
where all the players are poor and where the message of God to the world is
given through this young girl it would become really obvious about God’s
purpose and longing for our world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Reading the Hebrew bible
from Ezekiel, this message is re confirmed:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘I bring low the high tree, I make
high the low tree,<br />
I dry up the green tree and make the dry tree flourish.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The metaphor is really
clear. Commentators write of a message of hope when a new king comes, the
messiah, and a new kingdom will begin, and that kingdom will raise up the lowly
and bring down the mighty. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So if it is true that God wants to disrupt the world order
then does that mean as followers of Jesus that is what we should help to bring
about?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I think it does. Mary
speaks to us today as much as she spoke to Elizabeth back then. We have to hear
the message anew. As I was brought up Anglo- catholic I used to know this off
by heart but it is really important that we listen to what Mary is saying. Not
just listen and say the words, but to take them into our hearts and help to
bring about their reality. We need to become God’s agents in the world to
challenge, to disrupt and to turn this world upside down with messages of God’s
desire – to re-create an upside-down kingdom that was always her intention.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Ruth Harley)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Some years ago, I was at an event where, as an
ice-breaker, we were asked to tell each other what our favourite passage from
the Bible was, and why. I wonder what your answer would be to that question? My
answer was – and is – the passage which is part of today’s gospel reading: the
Magnificat, the song of Mary. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">For me, this is, one of those pieces of scripture
which has made its way deep into my bones. It has somehow become part of me,
and it has shaped who I am and who I am becoming in all sorts of ways. It has
done that partly through repetition. I have said or sung or heard it almost
every day for most of my adult life as part of the liturgy of Evening Prayer. I
first got into that habit when I was a student at Oxford. In my college chapel,
Choral Evensong was a daily occurrence, and the words of the Magnificat, in the
older translation of the Book of Common Prayer, would rise toward the vaulted
stone ceiling: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in
God my saviour…” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It was, perhaps, an ironic setting in which to
fall in love with the Magnificat: an Oxbridge college, the very epitome of
entrenched privilege. For 500 years, that chapel has rung with the
revolutionary words of Mary: “he hath put down the mighty from their seat, and
hath exalted the humble and meek. He hath filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich he hath sent empty away”. And yet, in that place as in so many
places, the privilege of the rich and the mighty has always been obvious. For
hundreds of years, the students who have sat in that chapel and heard that
song, day after day, have been predominantly white, predominantly wealthy and,
until very recently, all male, and have been schooled to perpetuate an
inheritance of privilege, the extent of which most of us can barely begin to
get our heads around. And yet, daily, that education is punctuated by Mary’s
vision of a very different, God-shaped world. It’s a strange contrast. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">At the other end of the sociological spectrum,
the Magnificat is much loved by activists, especially those of a more catholic
persuasion, myself among them. It is read by many who strive for a more just
world as a mandate for action, a manifesto for what that world could look like:
the powerful brought down, and the lowly lifted up; the poor fed, and the rich
sent away hungry. That sounds like good news for people living in poverty, good
news for people who feel powerless, forgotten or excluded. And it is, as the
Good News, the Gospel, always should be. It is easy to see how the Magnificat
has become the touchstone of liberation theology, which declares God’s
preferential option for the poor: that God is on the side of those who are
oppressed and excluded, in solidarity with all who seek justice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But notice something about the text. Notice the
tense of the verbs: “the mighty one <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has
done</i> great things”, “he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has brought
down</i> the powerful”, “he <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has filled </i>the
hungry”. Past tense. God <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">has done</i> it.
And yet… and yet we have only to look around us, or turn on the news, to see
that the powerful remain powerful, and the hungry – too often, despite the best
efforts of many – remain hungry. So what are we to make of that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And notice something else about the verbs in this
passage – notice who is doing them: God. God is the one who lifts up the lowly
and brings down the powerful. God is the one who overturns systems of privilege
and brings justice. The Magnificat is not, primarily, a manifesto for human
action. So where does that leave us? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">To say that God has done these things is not, of
course, to deny the persistent reality of injustice in the world. The kin-dom
of God is an eternal reality, already established, but not yet full realised.
It is that now-and-not-yet which is the essence of this Advent season. We catch
glimpses now of what has always been and will always be. And we are called to
find ways to expand and magnify and – most importantly – share those glimpses
of the kin-dom in ways which make them real and tangible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">To say that the verbs in the Magnificat belong to
God is not to say that we should be passive, any more than Mary is passive, in
response to what God has done and is doing. We are invited to participate in
the life and work of God’s kin-dom. We, like Mary, are invited to say ‘yes’ to
whatever part God is calling us to play. But the work is not ours to begin or
ours to complete. Certainly it is not ours to control. We are not called to
build the kin-dom. God has already created it. We are called to receive it, and
to reveal it, which is precisely what Mary does in the Magnificat. And in
receiving and revealing the kin-dom of justice which God has already
established we, like Mary, praise and glorify God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The Magnificat is more than a manifesto for
justice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is a statement of who God is. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">God is the one who disrupts privilege and
overturns injustice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">God is the one who is on the side of people who
find themselves on the underside of the unjust systems in which we are all
caught up. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">God is the one who has already – in Jesus, whose
coming and coming again we now await with eager longing – overcome all the
powers of death and destruction which now distort our troubled world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">God is the one who, by the life of the Holy
Spirit in us, invites us to participate in a different way of living, to live
in ways which reveal the kin-dom of God among us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit
hath rejoiced in God my saviour.” <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Rejoice in
knowing that God has been, and is, and will be establishing a realm of perfect
justice throughout the whole creation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Rejoice in
knowing that God is tearing down every form of privilege and division and
oppression which separates neighbour from neighbour. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Rejoice in
knowing that we are invited to participate in that work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Rejoice in
knowing that even in the bastions of power and privilege a different song is
already, even now, being sung.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever
shall be, world without end. Amen.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There is something here about time. The kin-dom
of God, which Mary is describing in the Magnificat, is an eternal reality. But
it is one which is not yet fully realised. We catch glimpses now of what has
always been and will always be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_Hlk43723710"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-indent: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Poems / prayers for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘The Kingdom’</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, by R.S. Thomas<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s a long way off but inside it <br />
There are quite different things going on: <br />
Festivals at which the poor man <br />
Is king and the consumptive is <br />
Healed; mirrors in which the blind look <br />
At themselves and love looks at them <br />
Back; and industry is for mending <br />
The bent bones and the minds fractured <br />
By life. It’s a long way off, but to get <br />
There takes no time and admission <br />
Is free, if you purge yourself <br />
Of desire, and present yourself with <br />
Your need only and the simple offering <br />
Of your faith, green as a leaf.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘BC:AD’</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, by U.A. Fanthorpe<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="responsivewebparagraph-sc-1isfdlb-0" style="background: white; line-height: 19.5pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This was the moment when Before<br />
Turned into After, and the future’s<br />
Uninvented timekeepers presented arms.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="responsivewebparagraph-sc-1isfdlb-0" style="background: white; line-height: 19.5pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This was the moment when nothing<br />
Happened. Only dull peace<br />
Sprawled boringly over the earth.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="responsivewebparagraph-sc-1isfdlb-0" style="background: white; line-height: 19.5pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This was the moment when even energetic Romans<br />
Could find nothing better to do<br />
Than counting heads in remote provinces.<br />
And this was the moment</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="responsivewebparagraph-sc-1isfdlb-0" style="background: white; line-height: 19.5pt; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When a few farm workers and three<br />
Members of an obscure Persian sect<br />
Walked haphazard by starlight straight<br />
Into the kingdom of heaven.</span></i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘For Joy’</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, by Jan Richardson<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">You can prepare,<br />
but still<br />
it will come to you<br />
by surprise,<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">crossing through your doorway,<br />
calling your name in greeting,<br />
turning like a child<br />
who quickens suddenly<br />
within you.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It will astonish you<br />
how wide your heart<br />
will open<br />
in welcome<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">for the joy<br />
that finds you<br />
so ready<br />
and still so<br />
unprepared.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2025%20(20-12-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"> Strangely the carol The Holly and the Ivy mentions
the blossom, berry, thorn and bark of the tree, but not the green leaves! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-77924623084266748222020-12-23T09:11:00.009-08:002020-12-23T09:11:45.462-08:00Week 24: 'Return to the Lord': repentance, praise and the coming Saviour<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BdchOw0pvIw0DghKYQO6t21CbYOhh9Hn4bEa6NwvRpmbrnGxxjCOBxQYdmWP7HF9KrRxsxbMHe2qkZ1BSwlV3l9p1Xd0T0M1OTHxQ4fnPg3PLiUEiZWmH4L9MDjb2P_s2JKNhDqTyhEy/s827/cathedral+of+trees+%2528Jess+Foster%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="827" data-original-width="827" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3BdchOw0pvIw0DghKYQO6t21CbYOhh9Hn4bEa6NwvRpmbrnGxxjCOBxQYdmWP7HF9KrRxsxbMHe2qkZ1BSwlV3l9p1Xd0T0M1OTHxQ4fnPg3PLiUEiZWmH4L9MDjb2P_s2JKNhDqTyhEy/w400-h400/cathedral+of+trees+%2528Jess+Foster%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-no-proof: yes;">(‘Cathedral of
Trees’, Photo: Jessica Foster)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Isaiah
55:6-13<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">6 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Seek
the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> while he may be
found,<br />
call upon him while he is near;<br />
<b><sup>7 </sup></b>let the wicked forsake their way,<br />
and the unrighteous their thoughts;<br />
let them return to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,
that he may have mercy on them,<br />
and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.<br />
<b><sup>8 </sup></b>For my thoughts are not your thoughts,<br />
nor are your ways my ways, says the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>.<br />
<b><sup>9 </sup></b>For as the heavens are higher than the earth,<br />
so are my ways higher than your ways<br />
and my thoughts than your thoughts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">10 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">For
as the rain and the snow come down from heaven,<br />
and do not return there until they have watered the
earth,<br />
making it bring forth and sprout,<br />
giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater,<br />
<b><sup>11 </sup></b>so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth;<br />
it shall not return to me empty,<br />
but it shall accomplish that which I purpose,<br />
and succeed in the thing for which I sent it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">12 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">For
you shall go out in joy,<br />
and be led back in peace;<br />
the mountains and the hills before you<br />
shall burst into song,<br />
and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.<br />
<b><sup>13 </sup></b>Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress;<br />
instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle;<br />
and it shall be to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> for
a memorial,<br />
for an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">* * *<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; tab-stops: 102.75pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Matthew 1:18-25<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">18 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now the birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way.
When his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, but before they lived
together, she was found to be with child from the Holy Spirit. <b><sup>19 </sup></b>Her
husband Joseph, being a righteous man and unwilling to expose her to public
disgrace, planned to dismiss her quietly. <b><sup>20 </sup></b>But
just when he had resolved to do this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a
dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your
wife, for the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. <b><sup>21 </sup></b>She
will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people
from their sins.” <b><sup>22 </sup></b>All this took place to fulfill
what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">23 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Look,
the virgin shall conceive and bear a son,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
they shall name him Emmanuel,”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="first-line-none" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">which means, “God is with us.” <b><sup>24 </sup></b>When
Joseph awoke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him; he took
her as his wife, <b><sup>25 </sup></b>but had no marital relations
with her until she had borne a son; and he named him Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Oak, the
Waiting Tree<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Trees are as different from each other as people are; each
species has its own personality. This poem, ‘Oak’<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2024%20(13-12-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
mentions the defining characteristic of ten trees – but is mainly concerned
with the long-lived, sturdy Oak. The ‘waiting tree’ has seen much, and will see
much more; deep rooted in the past, but seeing the new sunrise and still
sprouting green leaves – the Oak reminds me a bit of faithful Joseph.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 7.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; tab-stops: 14.2pt; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">O</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ut on the hill, old Oak still stands:<br />
stag-headed, fire-struck, bare-crowned,<br />
stubbornly holding its ground.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 42.55pt; tab-stops: 14.2pt; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><a name="_Hlk58266135"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Poplar is the whispering
tree,<br />
Rowan is the sheltering tree, <br />
Willow is the weeping tree – <br />
and Oak is the waiting tree.<o:p></o:p></span></i></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 42.55pt; tab-stops: 14.2pt; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk58266135;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Three hundred
years to grow,<br />
three hundred more to thrive,<br />
three hundred years to die – <br />
nine hundred years alive.</span></i></span><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ncient Oak hears with ancient ears,<br />
sees with ancient eyes; the snow<br />
of another winter, the glow of a<br />
new sunrise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 42.55pt; tab-stops: 14.2pt; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Birch is the watching tree,<br />
Cherry is the giving tree, <br />
Ash is the burning tree – <br />
and Oak is the waiting tree.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 42.55pt; tab-stops: 14.2pt; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Three hundred years to grow,<br />
three hundred more to thrive,<br />
three hundred years to die – <br />
nine hundred years alive.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 1.0cm; tab-stops: 14.2pt; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">K</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">not shows through silver grain,<br />
silver grain through bark;<br />
but each fresh spring brings<br />
oak-green leaves again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 42.55pt; tab-stops: 14.2pt; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 42.55pt; tab-stops: 14.2pt; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Holly is the witching tree,<br />
Beech is the writing tree, <br />
Elder is the quickening tree – <br />
and Oak is the waiting tree.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 42.55pt; tab-stops: 14.2pt; text-indent: -1.0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Three hundred years to grow,<br />
three hundred more to thrive,<br />
three hundred years to die – <br />
nine hundred years alive.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction
to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As we continue our journey through Advent, again we hear
echoes of themes we’ve encountered in these last few weeks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Repeated several times in the words from the prophet Isaiah
(from towards the end of that prophetic book, probably written some time later
than earlier sections of Isaiah) we hear the word ‘return’. We’ve heard much
from Isaiah over the last few weeks – words of promise and hope to the Jewish
people in exile in Babylon, longing to return home. But here, ‘return’ is less
a promise, and more an invitation, or a command, or a beckoning. Here, it is
less the people waiting for God to bring them home, and more God who is waiting
for the people to come back. This is about <i>repentance</i> – that ‘turning
around’, of our lives and our ‘direction of travel’; leaving behind the ways
that are deadly, and turning back to the God who is the only source of life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But in that returning, as we’ve heard over the last couple of
weeks, it’s not just human beings and our relationships with each other that
find healing and restoration – it’s also the flourishing of the whole of
creation. The mountains, hills and trees burst into song and clap their hands,
in praise of their creator. This is a home-coming that is, ultimately, about
the whole of the created world coming to be ‘at home’, together, with God. What
a radically earthed, ecological image of ‘praise’ that’s so far from the individualistic,
‘me singing to Jesus’ activity that often goes under that label.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s in this dual context, then – the people of Israel
returning to God, and the flourishing of all creation – that Matthew tells the
story of the birth of Jesus. Jesus, ‘Yeshua’, whose name means ‘The Lord is
Salvation’. The root meanings of the word are to do with <i>rescue</i>.
Remember the history of the people of Israel, of being enslaved, being invaded,
being captive in exile. But the word also has resonances that suggest ‘being
brought into a wide, open space’: a space to breathe, to flourish, to praise.
This is what God is bringing, with Jesus, Matthew tells us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But underneath all this talk of return and repentance,
salvation and praise, is a fundamental truth about God, that isn’t named
explicitly in either of this week’s readings, but can be seen and heard between
the lines. And that truth is <i>love</i>. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">God longs for us to return to her, because she loves us,
desires us, aches for us. God longs for us – and all creation – to sing out in
praise not because God is a narcissist that needs our worship to make him feel
good about himself, but because that ‘bursting into song’ is about our
flourishing, our coming to fullness of life, together – and that is what God
longs for us, and delights in. ‘Emmanuel’ – the other name for Jesus given here
in Matthew’s story – means ‘God is with us’. God longs to be <i>with</i> us,
and for us to be with God – that could sum up the whole ‘big story’ of the
bible.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There is another glimpse of love in this week’s readings. In
Joseph, the humble descendant of the famous king David, we see an obedience
that comes out of love: out of love for God, Joseph does what God’s messenger
has told him to do. And everything he does (and doesn’t do), seems to come out of
a deep love for Mary too. If Jesus is ‘love made flesh’, then that love is a
unique mix of God’s, and Mary’s, and Joseph’s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Genny Tunbridge)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who would have thought that there
were so many trees in the Bible! When we chose the theme ‘Trees of Life’ for
our discipleship journey, there were some immediately obvious places in the
Bible where trees are important (the Garden of Eden, Revelation, the shoot from
Jesse’s stump), and we knew there were more – but week by week I am surprised
to see just how much there is in our readings about plants and trees, even in
texts I thought I knew well.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Looking at
scripture with new eyes (eyes that are alert to spot trees) brings use new
insights and deeper understanding. Perhaps this is one way that we are seeking
to do what Isaiah urges us, <i>returning</i> to the Lord as we return to
scripture afresh and see new things.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After all, this is what happens when
we return – we see things differently. A ‘there-and-back-again’ walk is just as
interesting and rewarding as a circular one, since things look very different
when seen from the opposite direction, and the new perspective gives us a
fuller understanding and appreciation of what lies in our path.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For Joseph, it was a dream that made
him change direction, turn around from the path he had chosen and go back.
Instead of quietly setting aside Mary and their engagement, he was now resolved
to embrace Mary and the mysterious child. The angel’s message opened his eyes,
so that instead of seeing the pregnant Mary as a disgrace to be rejected, he
was able to see God’s love at work in her and in their lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For me, it was a virus that made me
change direction and return – not the current virus, but a nasty flu 11 years
ago which has had long-lasting consequences. My body slowed right down,
requiring a change of pace and a change of direction. Having to give up full
time work and find a new way of life led to me returning to Birmingham (where
I’d enjoyed my training, years before). It’s also led, in the gentler pace of
life which I’ve had to embrace, to me returning to old loves which had been
squeezed more and more out of my life due to pressure of work and losing myself
under the burden of heavy responsibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Cooking and baking, art and craft and making all kinds of things,
sharing life with friends in community, spending time out walking and getting
close to trees – all of these were things which I’d increasingly lost sight of
in my old life. But in these past six years, thanks to my change of direction,
I have rediscovered the joy and fulfilment they bring me, and – despite the
frustrations of limited energy – I am feeling restored to nearer my true self. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And much more than that: on this
return journey I’m not only re-claiming old loves but discovering new things
about how they connect with each other, and how they connect me with other
people, and how much all of this matters to God. I like Isaiah’s image of God’s
relationship with us being like rain and snow sent to water the earth,
eventually bringing forth life-giving crops. God showers gifts and interests,
loves and abilities in each of us, seeds them deep within us. They may take
time to emerge: we ourselves, or the conditions in which we live, may suppress
and squash them. But if allowed and encouraged to flourish, they will
‘accomplish God’s purpose’ and grow thirty or a hundred-fold, overflowing to
share joyfully with our human and non-human neighbours. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Is this kind of ‘returning’ really
what our Isaiah passage means?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The
prophet is talking about repentance, and uses strong language to describe those
who are not on the right path, calling the ‘wicked’ to ‘forsake their way’, and
the unrighteous their thoughts. Was Joseph ‘wicked’ when he was minded to
divorce Mary? Matthew describes him as ‘a righteous man’; he was following
God’s law as best he understood it and believed he was doing the right thing –
but God sent an angel to show him he was nevertheless on the wrong path and
needed to change. Was I unrighteous when I was working too hard and had no time
for friends or trees? I believed I was serving God faithfully and doing what
God required of me, but I still managed to get onto a path that was taking me
(I now see) away from a flourishing life and further from rather than closer to
God. In words from a song I love called ‘Crossroads’ by Don McLean: ‘They walk
one road to set them free/And find they’ve gone the wrong direction’. From the
example of Joseph, and from my own experience, I am reminded being
well-intentioned and seeking to live a godly life are no guarantees of being on
the right path. Repentance, and the invitation to return to God, is not just
for the deliberately wicked but for all of us – and it is an invitation that is
renewed again and again, as we all, all too easily, will continue to take wrong
turnings believing them to be right. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I find this understanding helpful
when thinking about some of the ways we are learning that we need to change our
thinking and our actions in our world today. The challenging, moving
reflections during our Black History Month opened the eyes of many of the white
members of our church (including mine) more fully to the reality of racism and
to see that well-intentioned ‘colour-blindness’ was part of the problem and
needs to change. And the way most of us have lived in relationship to the
natural world for years, though it has not been deliberately destructive, has
been thoughtlessly unaware and unsustainable and needs to change. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Turning, returning, we are learning
to look at each other – and at trees, and soil and birds and rivers – with new
perspective, with a fuller understanding, something closer to God’s perspective
– with love. God is always calling us home when we get lost, and waiting (like
the father for the prodigal son) to feast with us joyfully when we stumblingly
return.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Ros Sheppard)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One thing is certain is that this year,
Christmas 2020 is going to be different! The effects of COVID-19 have affected
all of us. Life has changed fundamentally at a deep level and there is a sense
that will things never be the same again…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The theme for this week is ‘Return to the Lord’.
Return means to go back to somewhere. It implies we are not in the place we
should be and that we should return to that place just as we return home after
a holiday, or an evening out. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But what if that place is somehow different, <i>the
<b>same but different?</b> </i>We all long to return to ‘normality’, whatever
that means, but we know things will not be the same again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We have lost loved ones, jobs have been lost, relationships
have changed and been damaged, in some cases irretrievably so. Communities have
changed, shops have closed in the main streets. Schools have worked under
tremendous pressure. Hospitals have become stressful and difficult places.
Nurses and Doctors have given their all. The list goes on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The place we return to will be different in
some way, but we do not know <b><i>how it will be different</i></b><i>.<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Some questions for reflection:<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36.0pt;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">1</span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Is there anything you would like to
return to that no longer exists? A place, a relationship, a job, a way of life.
<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">How
does it make you feel? <br />
How might you cope with it in your daily life? <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify; text-indent: -36.0pt;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">2<span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span></span></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What do you long to see as we return to
something of how our lives were before COVID-19? <b><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What do you look forward to? What do you think
might be difficult and what strategies might you have to cope with that?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 12.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Consider these words of Isaiah:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Seek the Lord while he may be
found; call on him while he is near. Let them turn to the Lord,
and he will have mercy on them, and to our God, for he will freely
pardon.” (</span></i><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Isaiah 55:6,7b)</span></i><i><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Think of ways of using them in your personal
meditation and prayer time as you reflect on what shape your individual return
might take. Maybe read the words slowly, pause, and read them again, gently
seeking God and being aware of any particular words or phrases that may stand
out for you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The gospel reading Matthew 1:18-25, reminds us
once again of the events of the birth of Jesus, that God came to be with us and
to share in our humanity. The story is familiar to us. God at work through two
very young people, betrothed to one another but not yet married, with an
unexpected pregnancy. Mary is obedient to Gods prompting and full of joy,<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2024%20(13-12-20).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
and Joseph displays much kindness, compassion, and fairness towards Mary (Mat.
1:19). Joseph took Mary as his wife but had no marital relations with her until
she had given birth to Jesus (Mat. 1:24-25).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This reading reveals to us two key identities
and descriptions of Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The first one is that he is given <b><i>the
name Jesus as he will save people from their sins </i></b>(Mat. 1:21).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">These are not just our own personal sins and
wrongdoing that we may feel we commit but they are also the sins and wrongdoing
of others, both of individuals and of policies and structures created by the
government and those in power. The line in the Lord’s prayer, “forgive us our
sins as we forgive those who sin against us”, reminds us that we have sinned,
but we have also been sinned against. The sinning against may be stronger and
more real for some of us at this time.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">A 3<sup>rd</sup> question for reflection:</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">What sins
and injustices do we feel have been committed against us and against our
community and neighbourhood during this time of COVID-19? How do we feel about
this? How might we deal with our feelings?</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Secondly, Jesus will be called<b><i> Emmanuel,
which means God with us </i></b>(Mat. 1:23)<b><i>.</i></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One of the central struggles and difficulties
for many of us, during this time of lockdown has been that of loneliness and
isolation. For many weeks, meeting friends, families, work colleagues in ‘real
life’, has not been possible, and there has been a great deprivation and denial
of human contact, something which is essential for us to grow and flourish as
human beings. It has been a real struggle.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Emmanuel – God with us, assures and affirms us
that God is with us. We may not feel it, believe it, or even want God to be
with us at times. But if we profess faith in God and belief in Jesus through the
gospels then as we follow and journey in faith, this is simply a fact and is
the truth. God wants and longs to be with us, it is his purpose, his destiny,
his deepest desire, and we need to hear that very deeply. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As we seek of ways of returning to something
of what our life was like before COVID-19, and as we come to terms with the
injustices of how this has been handled, let us know absolutely, profoundly and
completely that God - Emmanuel, is with us in all this and will never let us
down.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">O come, Thou Day-Spring, come and
cheer<br />
Our spirits by Thine advent here<br />
Disperse the gloomy clouds of night<br />
And death's dark shadows put to flight.<br />
Rejoice! Rejoice! Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Gill Burrill)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When I was around 15 years of age, I was
invited by a school friend to go to a church youth group at a Gospel Hall in
Greenford Middlesex. I really enjoyed it and went most Saturday evenings. At
the end of the evening there was usually an epilogue, where one of the leaders
would talk about Jesus and we were invited to give our lives to Him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On Bonfire night in 1970, as I sat around the
bonfire listening to the testimonies of other young people, I felt God calling
me to repent of my sins, to believe in Jesus and to ask for the gift of salvation.
I was baptised with full emersion in May 1971.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I went on to have an active Christian life,
involved in outreach and teaching in Sunday School.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I continued to worship at the Gospel Hall
until I was 21, when due to my elder sister’s marriage break down and
subsequent nervous breakdown, I moved to Tamworth to support her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Even though I still had a faith, I stopped
attending church and it wasn’t until I was married and had my two children that
I started to think about returning to church as something was telling me that I
should introduce Jesus to them.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Initially we attended the URC and then Hodge
Hill Gospel Hall and then finally to PJ where we have worshipped for the past
27 years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One of the things I have struggled with in my
Christian Life is the act of repentance. I thought that to repent was not only
to be sorry but <b>not</b> to commit that same sin again. I have to confess
that amongst other things, I am very quick tempered at times. I say “sorry” to
God, but then more often than not I lose my temper again and then I feel so
guilty. I asked myself “If I keep making the same mistakes over and over again
would I have that salvation that I asked for as a young girl?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">During this pandemic like many of us, I have
had more time to pray and study the bible and my thoughts have kept coming back
to this same question. The bible warns us that we shouldn’t keep sinning so
should we have to repent over and over again?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I believe that God has spoken to me through
his word. We are not perfect and will go astray but when we get to the point
where we are truly sorry and we admit that we have no option but to cast our
cares upon him, He is waiting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jesus taught us to pray to Abba Father. The
word children use to address their dad. A child’s relationship with their
father is full of closeness love and trust.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">God has erased that insecurity from my mind. I
don’t need to worry. I became His child at that moment of repentance on that
Bonfire night many years ago. God has hold of me and will never let me ago.<a name="_Hlk43723710"><o:p></o:p></a></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
prayer for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:<br />
</span><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">“Prayer of the Farm Worker’s Struggle” (César Chávez)</span><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Show me the suffering of
the most miserable;<br />
So I will know my people’s plight.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Free me to pray for
others;<br />
For you are present in every person.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Help me take
responsibility for my own life;<br />
So that I can be free at last.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Grant me courage to
serve others;<br />
For in service there is true life.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Give me honesty and patience;<br />
So that I can work with other workers.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Bring forth song and
celebration;<br />
So that the Spirit will be alive among us.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let the Spirit flourish
and grow;<br />
So that we will never tire of the struggle.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let us remember those
who have died for justice;<br />
For they have given us life.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Help us love even those
who hate us;<br />
So we can change the world.<br />
Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2024%20(13-12-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
from the lovely illustrated book <i>The Lost Spells</i> by Robert Macfarlane
and Jackie Morris, published this year.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2024%20(13-12-20).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Luke 1:46</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"> “My soul magnifies the lord, and my
spirit rejoices in God my Saviour”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-27252886957170792072020-12-23T09:09:00.005-08:002020-12-23T09:09:43.031-08:00Week 23: The coming Messiah and the kingdom of peace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI723G2R8vsFC6f-IaspoI1p84ECaaU08HFCjFbAvsa3dynWsAWap_LUNPDt7JOFBS04TVG2SZOaouB4Mq-LFCR-3su-lke3tHTWzab5BwavQNzc-aaVlVx1FM5n-JDZO6YrH0MObHsqZG/s640/shoot+from+stump.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgI723G2R8vsFC6f-IaspoI1p84ECaaU08HFCjFbAvsa3dynWsAWap_LUNPDt7JOFBS04TVG2SZOaouB4Mq-LFCR-3su-lke3tHTWzab5BwavQNzc-aaVlVx1FM5n-JDZO6YrH0MObHsqZG/w400-h225/shoot+from+stump.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Isaiah 11:1-9<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">11 </span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">A
shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and a branch shall grow out of his roots.<br />
<b><sup>2 </sup></b>The spirit of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> shall
rest on him,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">the spirit of wisdom and understanding,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">the spirit of counsel and might,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>.<br />
<b><sup>3 </sup></b>His delight shall be in the fear of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">He shall not judge by what his eyes see,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">or decide by what his ears hear;<br />
<b><sup>4 </sup></b>but with righteousness he shall judge the poor,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;<br />
he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the
wicked.<br />
<b><sup>5 </sup></b>Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and faithfulness the belt around his loins.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">6 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">The
wolf shall live with the lamb,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">the leopard shall lie down with the kid,<br />
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and a little child shall lead them.<br />
<b><sup>7 </sup></b>The cow and the bear shall graze,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">their young shall lie down together;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.<br />
<b><sup>8 </sup></b>The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and the weaned child shall put its hand on the
adder’s den.<br />
<b><sup>9 </sup></b>They will not hurt or destroy<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">on all my holy mountain;<br />
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span><br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">as the waters cover the sea.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">10 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On that day the root of Jesse shall stand as a signal to the peoples;
the nations shall inquire of him, and his dwelling shall be glorious.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">11 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On that day the Lord will extend his hand yet a second time to
recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from
Pathros, from Ethiopia, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the
coastlands of the sea.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">12 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He will raise a signal for the nations,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
will assemble the outcasts of Israel,</span><br />
<span class="text">and gather the dispersed of Judah</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">from
the four corners of the earth.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">*
* *<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span></b></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Luke 1:26-38<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">26 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the sixth
month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called
Nazareth, <b><sup>27 </sup></b>to a virgin engaged to a man whose
name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. <b><sup>28 </sup></b>And
he came to her and said, “Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.” <b><sup>29 </sup></b>But
she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this
might be. <b><sup>30 </sup></b>The angel said to her, “Do not be
afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. <b><sup>31 </sup></b>And
now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him
Jesus. <b><sup>32 </sup></b>He will be great, and will be called the
Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his
ancestor David. <b><sup>33 </sup></b>He will reign over the house of
Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” <b><sup>34 </sup></b>Mary
said to the angel, “How can this be, since I am a virgin?” <b><sup>35 </sup></b>The
angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the
Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be
holy; he will be called Son of God. <b><sup>36 </sup></b>And now,
your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son; and this is
the sixth month for her who was said to be barren. <b><sup>37 </sup></b>For
nothing will be impossible with God.” <b><sup>38 </sup></b>Then Mary
said, “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your
word.” Then the angel departed from her.</span></span><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Isaiah’s image of the shoot coming
from the stump of Jesse contains both death and birth, stark ending and new
beginning: the fallen might of the old tree cut down with sharp blows, and the
determined growth of the small new shoot made possible because the old wood has
gone. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Similar contrasts appear in Rowan
Williams’ poem, ‘Advent Calendar’, which evokes a winter landscape in images
that speak of violence and death (‘flayed’ trees, earth ‘choking’ in a shroud,
the sun masked by the dark like pennies placed over the eyes of a corpse) but
also of beauty and startling birth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-indent: 36.0pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Advent Calendar</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, by Rowan Williams<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He will come like last leaf's fall.<br />
One night when the November wind<br />
has flayed the trees to the bone, and earth<br />
wakes choking on the mould,<br />
the soft shroud's folding.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He will come like frost.<br />
One morning when the shrinking earth<br />
opens on mist, to find itself<br />
arrested in the net<br />
of alien, sword-set beauty.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He will come like dark.<br />
One evening when the bursting red<br />
December sun draws up the sheet<br />
and penny-masks its eye to yield<br />
the star-snowed fields of sky.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">He will come, will come,<br />
will come like crying in the night,<br />
like blood, like breaking,<br />
as the earth writhes to toss him free.<br />
He will come like child.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2023%20(6-12-20).docx#_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="">[1]</a></span></b></span></span></span></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"></span></span></span></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></i></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction
to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This week’s reading from Isaiah is a familiar Advent text –
words many of us will have heard read in church many times over the years. They
are, clearly, words of hope and promise: a description of the coming kingdom of
peace, a transformed creation where all relationships of hostility and threat –
among non-human creatures and among humankind – have been turned into
relationships of peace and harmony. No violence, control and domination; the
small and once ‘vulnerable’ are free to play alongside those who were once
‘predators’. The long-standing enmities that, in this ‘Big Story’, can be
traced right back to the story of the garden of Eden in Genesis 3, are here
made a thing of the past. This vision is, as Hebrew Bible scholar Walter
Brueggemann puts it, of an ‘impossible possibility’ – ‘what the world has long
since declared to be impossible’, is promised here as the future of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And this new creation, this kingdom of peace, the passage
suggests, will come with the arrival of a <i>person</i>: a person who will
‘judge’ and ‘decide’ and bring justice for ‘the poor’ and ‘the meek of the
earth’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As Christians, we can’t help instantly jumping to Jesus. We
trace his lineage (as the gospel-writer Luke does), back to King David, and to
David’s father Jesse, and we identify Jesus as the ‘shoot’ that comes from ‘the
stump of Jesse’; it is Jesus on whom ‘the spirit of the Lord’ shall rest. And
these are, of course, the ‘dots’ that the gospel-writers join together, as they
paint the picture of Jesus as the long-awaited king, the anointed one (which is
what ‘messiah’ and ‘Christ’ both mean).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But, as we’ve been learning over these last few months, we
need to allow the Hebrew Scriptures to speak on their own terms too. Isaiah is
speaking to the Jewish exiles in Babylon – and, in fact, to Jews living in
exile in a whole lot of other countries (as we find listed in verse 11) –
promising the home-coming, the gathering of the scattered people, that they
have been longing for. Then and there, amid the Jewish diaspora of the 6<sup>th</sup>
century BC, they long for God to give them a new king – a king who will gather
them together and rule with justice, not with the ‘iniquitous decrees’ and
‘oppressive statutes’ of previous rulers (remember, from Isaiah chapter 10 last
week?). The line of kings that had followed in the wake of the great King David
(himself not always a model of goodness) had failed their people – in the eyes
of the prophet and, by extension, God. That ‘great tree’ God has ‘hacked down
with an axe’, ‘the lofty brought low’ (Isaiah 10:33-34). But now, out of that
hacked down stump, the possibility of a new green shoot is promised.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We can’t read the hope of Isaiah 11 without the judgment of
Isaiah 10. The ‘gathering together’, the ‘kingdom of peace’, that we glimpse in
this chapter can only happen in the context of a ‘putting right’, a ‘judging’
with ‘righteousness’, that ‘brings low’ the ‘lofty’ trees not just of the big,
powerful empires that surround Israel, but also Israel’s own rulers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Later on in Isaiah, we will hear of a good king (Hezekiah),
whose reign is nevertheless fleeting. We will also hear the language of the
coming king used, not for any human king, but for God – YHWH – himself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And then, some six centuries later, Luke will tell of an
angelic message to a young girl, telling her that the child she will carry in
her womb will be given ‘the throne of his ancestor David’, will ‘reign over the
house of Jacob [Israel] forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end’.
Interestingly, it is <i>Joseph</i>, not Mary, who we’re told is ‘of the house
of David’ (i.e. one of David’s descendants). And we’re also told, very
explicitly, that Jesus is not Joseph’s biological son. If this child is indeed
the promised ‘shoot … from the stump of Jesse’, then God is planting afresh.
And ‘how [will] this be?’, asks Mary. Echoing Isaiah (and also the beginnings
of creation in Genesis 1, when the spirit of the Lord ‘broods’ or ‘hovers’ over
the waters of chaos), it will be ‘the spirit of the Lord’ that will rest on
her, we’re told – before it rests on her son.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Allannah Brennan)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So, what do the two readings we have heard
today from Isaiah and Luke have in common? Well I wouldn’t expect them to
happen – I wouldn’t expect those animals to be comfortable together and I
wouldn’t expect a girl of about 13 to be given the responsibility of delivering
the salvation of humankind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What does it
teach about God – well with God anything is possible and we shouldn’t be
surprised when amazing and unexpected events take place.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Growing up in a house church as I did, Mary
didn’t figure greatly in my young life as Bible passages about both Christmas
and Easter never featured in our services – sadly I don’t know why and there
are few people now that I can ask. But I knew about Mary, the Mother of Jesus,
of course, from school where we faithfully did the Nativity every year. And for
lots of people today, those much-loved nativity plays featuring ourselves, our
children and our grandchildren are as far as it goes – a very sanitised version
of life 2000 years ago.<span style="color: black;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Theologians
and historians say that Mary was a peasant girl about 13 -15 years old at the
time of the annunciation that we heard about in the Gospel reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So she was just a child and it made me think
of some of the young people who left their homelands to go to Syria to be with
ISIS in the last few years and are now wanting to return home. I am not
agreeing with their actions but I notice some of them were about Mary’s age.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">My first real encounter with Mary was at Walsingham –
I have been there three times, once on an overnight visit and twice for stays
of 4 days. On my first two visits I was surprised that Mary was such a huge
part of their set up and worship feeling then it was just like being in a Roman
Catholic church – perhaps being a bit dismissive in my thinking of her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I joined in with the third visit, but this
time I experienced something of a conversion and I came to value Mary
greatly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just as well as my
grandchildren are being brought up as Roman Catholics and Mary is very much
part of their lives at school and church.</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mary
was in lots of danger. Firstly, pregnant outside of marriage could have led to
her being stoned.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are horrified today
when we hear about women in some middle eastern countries being punished for
adultery – for Mary there was the very real threat that she could have been
stoned to death if Joseph had reported her to the authorities or just made a
fuss about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thank God for
Joseph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I sometimes wonder if that was
the reason for Mary going off to see Elizabeth during her pregnancy leaving
home before her condition was noticeable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I wondered would we entrust the Saviour of the world to a woman who
might be executed?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Secondly
apart from the stoning, Mary stood a 1 in 4 chance of dying in childbirth 2000
years ago and infant mortality was also very high in the first few months of
life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Giving birth and being born in an
animal shed, far from home and family to attend to them, would have made the
risk even greater for them both – just think of all the e-coli germs that must
have been about. I once told the Nativity story to the Cubs and they got very
excited when I mentioned all the poo that must have been around in that animal
shelter.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would we entrust the saviour of
the world to that situation?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Having chosen such a
potential non-starter for this job, God through the angel, gives Mary the
choice to go through with it or not. And she says “Yes” she says “Here am I,
the servant of the Lord. Let it be with me according to your word.”– we don’t
know whether she considered all of the problems that might arise for her personally
– perhaps this was a plus for choosing a young person who might not have
thought so deeply about the implications at the outset as someone older -<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mary trusted God and was prepared to do what
he was asking of her and asking only practical questions not doubting
questions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What seems sensible or
foolish in our eyes is not always right or wrong in God’s way of doing
things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Isaiah reading we heard
about the peaceful kingdom – and all our knowledge and experience screams, that
can’t happen but then would we have believed in Mary being chosen if it was
just left to our knowledge and experience? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">By choosing Mary to be
Jesus’ Mother, against all the odds, God is showing us that there are other
ways of doing things – situations that look foolish to our eyes, God can use
and work through bringing salvation to people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You know that phrase that crops up now and then and often in works
training sessions – it’s called “thinking outside of the box”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well with God there are no boxes – what God
can do is not constrained by our limited human perceptions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Mary played a unique
role in the mystery of salvation whereby God humbled himself to be born as the
baby of a peasant teenager in order to reconcile the world to himself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We can only stand in awe of this woman who
was faithful to God's call to such an improbable role in redemption.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is often mystery
with God - when he calls us to do something, often we can see only part of what
is required – Mary could not have known what would be the outcome of the life
of her son, Jesus – but she didn’t need to know.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What she had learnt in her short life and did
know, was that she could trust God and she did.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And we can trust him too saying “Here am I, the servant of the Lord.” </span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Lyn Lynch)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I love the season of Advent, with all its appropriate
readings giving us time to look back at the story of God’s people and to
reflect on the roots of our faith. As we live in the present, we also see the
budding of God’s kingdom, and at the same time we look forward to the
blossoming of a new age full of hope.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today we hear words from one of the greatest of prophets, who
proclaimed the coming of Jesus into our world to establish a new realm. Isaiah
sees changing times and has visions of two realms, of earth and heaven, of the
present and the future. Isaiah seems to be speaking from a personal connection
with God, and the experience of seeing God and receiving forgiveness seems to
sustain him throughout his life. He really needs such assurance because God sends
him to plead with his people, a nation struggling to survive. They needed
encouragement and a message of hope. Isaiah gives them just that: his vision of
a new shoot emerging from their roots, to bring into being a new kingdom, was
hope indeed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Living in exile, the people of Israel became acutely aware of
their need for good honest leadership, for true peace, justice and integrity,
just as we do today. Isaiah gives us a connection with them and their yearning
for justice. We can sense their longing as they look forward to God fulfilling
the promise of the Messiah. Isaiah also shares the brightest of visions of a
new God-centred earth, with the whole of creation brought back into balance and
harmony in an age of holy restoration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We can begin to see our own bright visions, that from the
deepest oceans, to the wells that spring up from the earth; from the great
mountain ranges to the deepest valleys and the driest deserts; from the largest
of animals to the smallest insects; from the oldest, most beautiful of trees to
the delicate saplings of new growth; from the most powerful to the very
vulnerable; from the mighty to the most lowly and from the known and the
unknown among us, all are known, loved and held together in the hand of God our
creator.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Justin Welby said, “It is as if God is re-stitching all the
wounds of our divisions.” In God’s re-stitching we are given hope, and today we
live in expectation that a little child will bring in a new age, and lead us in
the ways of true peace and harmony.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But how can this be? The same question the young Mary asked
the angel when she was told she had been chosen to carry a holy child.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So we move from Isaiah’s visions on to real life events seen
through Luke’s gospel. Through the faith of a young woman, we see the birth of
a new beginning. In saying yes to God, Mary made it possible for God to come
among us as one of us, and a little child shall lead us. God chooses the young
Mary, an ordinary girl from a back of beyond little town known as Nazareth. In
John’s gospel we find Nathaniel saying, “From Nazareth? Can anything good from
that place?” But God did bring something extraordinary out of the ordinary, and
Mary was in the centre of it all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I am always amazed when I think of this young woman and her
response when she is told by the angel that she has been chosen to carry a
child of the Holy Spirit. She listens, and just asks, “How can this be?” There
were no ifs or buts, and no excuses, she just asks, “How are you going to do
it?” Unlike the rest of us who, if we are honest, would be coming up with all
sorts of reasons not to say yes. We seem to think it is easier for God to work
miracles in other people than in ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But Mary seems to grasp that the greatness of God will be
enough to transform her ordinary life into an extraordinary experience. She is
the first of us to hear the good news of the gospel, and her response is
simple: “Be it done to me according to your word.” Being the mother of Jesus,
she is also his first disciple, and she teaches us that we don’t have to
understand everything before trusting God enough to say yes! Being chosen and
highly favoured of God, Mary still had to hear and accept the word of God
throughout her life. She knew the deep joy of new birth and the delight of
holding her beloved child in her arms. She knew the great sorrow that pierced
her heart at the cross, and she saw the dawn of the resurrection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We can learn so much from Mary as we follow Jesus in our own
times. When she didn’t always understand, she remained faithful and pondered
everything in her heart. I think this seems to be a simple definition of
prayer. There is so much we don’t understand, but we must remain faithful and
trusting even in these strange times we live in today. Pondering the mysteries
of God with Jesus may lead us to say our own yes to God, opening a new door to
a renewed faith deeply rooted in the word of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So let us this Advent live in the expectation of growing the
Kingdom of God in our own time, and look beyond to see the Kingdom in full bloom.
Let us join Mary in saying, “Here I am, the Lord’s servant, let it be as you
have said.” Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (Wendy Millman)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When I first looked at the readings for this
week, I had no idea what to write about. The readings are both such well known,
iconic readings and I didn't feel knowledgeable enough to comment on them. I
spoke to Gloria about it as I was in a bit of a panic, but she told me not to
worry as I was perfectly capable of doing it. She said I would know what to
write and the ideas would come. Of course she was right!!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I want to talk about Angels, not the image we
have in our heads of a heavenly being with wings, a long robe and maybe a halo.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I kept thinking of Mary and how that visit
from the angel Gabriel had such an effect on her life. I think we all try and
imagine how we would feel in that situation and hope we would be as trusting
and as obedient as she was.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So the Angels I have been thinking about are
those who I believe to be an agent or messenger of God represented in human
form. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When I heard the news that Olive had died, I
really felt like she was one of those angels. I know she had an effect on my
life and probably a lot of others. Olive made me realise that you don't have to
do big things to have a positive effect on others. Olive gave the best hugs and
a hug or a smile from Olive could change your day. I would be happy to have
that as my legacy. Olive was an Angel to me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So, thinking back I can think of other Angels
who have touched my life and showed me that the Kingdom of God is here with us
now. If you think back you can probably remember times when you have felt the
touch of an Angel. Maybe somebody just sat and listened to you when you really
needed to talk. Not everybody in our lives have this gift, there are times when
you just need someone to listen, not interrupt or try to tell you what to do
just listen. When you really need this God will send one of his Angels. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Maybe there has been a time when you have been
unsure what to do about a certain situation in your life. You might have prayed
and then a friend offers advice that could have only come from above. Sometimes
I find the answer in the words of a worship song or poem, obviously written by
one of Gods Angels.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes we need a lift
somewhere or a loan or a gift of something. Remember that person who was happy
to help, here we meet another of God’s Angels. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I think what i am trying to say is that we all
have a part to play in Gods Kingdom. We see others who excel in all manner of
things. There are people in power and in the media who appear to influence
people's lives. But we can influence people's lives with God's help.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are just as important and never forget
that. The hug or the smile that you offer, the time you give or the prayer you
say are important and significant in people's lives. So, let's continue to
create Gods Kingdom here on earth by being his voice, his ears, his hands and
his feet. We can be angels to those around us and effect their lives in a
positive way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">: Elizabeth’s Blessing, by Jan
Richardson<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On the day<br />
when you have agreed<br />
to what you could never<br />
have imagined,<br />
let this blessing<br />
first lay its hands<br />
upon your belly,<br />
your brow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Let this blessing draw you<br />
into the litany<br />
of your breathing in,<br />
your breathing out – <br />
the ceremony of<br />
the beating of<br />
your heart<br />
as it spends itself<br />
in gathering<br />
and release.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Look
at each thing<br />
you have drawn into<br />
the circle of your life:<br />
fashioned of<br />
glass and stone,<br />
paper and clay;<br />
how each object<br />
remains unchanged<br />
but for how<br />
it now inhabits this world<br />
where you have<br />
spoken <i>yes</i>,<br />
have offered the word<br />
you will never now<br />
unsay.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; text-align: right;"> </span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(from Jan Richardson, <i>Circle of Grace: A Book of
Blessings for the Seasons</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<b><i><u><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span></u></i></b>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2023%20(6-12-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Published in the collection <i>After Silent Centuries</i>, Rowan Williams
(Oxford, 1994).<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-38022925735950400962020-12-23T09:05:00.009-08:002020-12-23T09:05:45.693-08:00Week 22: God's judgment against injustice - coming in Jesus<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzjQh_xAGtfSLKp5rLghMW1F8IhjPINU8WG26Fh_wBgcpCbBzwyCTJIhfbXD0yZKICGJGqq9aoluUUJzqDh99fSXUF-WM6qg0CZv6GEM3YGshWsGrgMue4HszZjPsKYPVXV7PBz3jPJ12/s732/axe+and+tree.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="732" height="394" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGzjQh_xAGtfSLKp5rLghMW1F8IhjPINU8WG26Fh_wBgcpCbBzwyCTJIhfbXD0yZKICGJGqq9aoluUUJzqDh99fSXUF-WM6qg0CZv6GEM3YGshWsGrgMue4HszZjPsKYPVXV7PBz3jPJ12/w400-h394/axe+and+tree.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Isaiah 10:1-4, 18-19,
33-34<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">10 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ah,
you who make iniquitous decrees,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">who
write oppressive statutes,</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>2 </sup></b>to turn aside the needy from justice</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
to rob the poor of my people of their right,</span><br />
<span class="text">that widows may be your spoil,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
that you may make the orphans your prey!</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>3 </sup></b>What will you do on the day of
punishment,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">in
the calamity that will come from far away?</span><br />
<span class="text">To whom will you flee for help,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
where will you leave your wealth,</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>4 </sup></b>so as not to crouch among the
prisoners</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">or
fall among the slain?</span><br />
<span class="text">For all this his anger has not turned away;</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">his
hand is stretched out still.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">18 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The glory of his forest and his fruitful land</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">the </span><span class="small-caps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"> will destroy, both soul and body,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
it will be as when an invalid wastes away.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>19 </sup></b>The remnant of the trees of his
forest will be so few</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">that
a child can write them down.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">33 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Look, the Sovereign, the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> of
hosts,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">will
lop the boughs with terrifying power;</span><br />
<span class="text">the tallest trees will be cut down,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
the lofty will be brought low.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>34 </sup></b>He will hack down the thickets of
the forest with an axe,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
Lebanon with its majestic trees will fall.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: center;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">*
* *<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Matthew 3:1-12<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="chapter-1" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In those days John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness of
Judea, proclaiming, <b><sup>2 </sup></b>“Repent, for the kingdom of
heaven has come near.” <b><sup>3 </sup></b>This is the one of whom
the prophet Isaiah spoke when he said,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“The
voice of one crying out in the wilderness:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">‘Prepare the way of the Lord,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">make
his paths straight.’”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="first-line-none" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">4 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now John wore clothing of camel’s hair with a leather belt around
his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. <b><sup>5 </sup></b>Then
the people of Jerusalem and all Judea were going out to him, and all the region
along the Jordan, <b><sup>6 </sup></b>and they were baptized by him
in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">7 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But when he saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism,
he said to them, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to
come? <b><sup>8 </sup></b>Bear fruit worthy of repentance. <b><sup>9 </sup></b>Do
not presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our ancestor’; for I tell
you, God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham. <b><sup>10 </sup></b>Even
now the axe is lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that does
not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">11 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“I baptize you with water for repentance, but one who is more
powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to carry his sandals. He
will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. <b><sup>12 </sup></b>His
winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and will
gather his wheat into the granary; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable
fire.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">Wielding an axe
to chop down a tree feels like a very destructive act – the more so as we
increasingly wake up to the value of trees. We grieve at news of ancient trees
being felled in the path of HS2, and are sickened by the wholesale bulldozing
of rainforest to make way for plantations of oil palms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i>I am a world, cutter, I am a maker of life - <o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i>… But my world takes years to grow and seconds to crash<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2022%20(29-11-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">But not all axe
work is destructive.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wherever tree
growth is managed, in woodland, parks or streets, different kinds of pruning or
felling are required to maintain the environment in a beneficial way for all.
The canopies of mature woodland trees block the sunlight, preventing most
things from growing beneath. By careful felling of some, space is created for
light to penetrate to the ground, different species can flourish and younger
saplings can start to grow tall to replace the felled trees.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;">Many tree
species put out new shoots from their stump if cut down. Traditional woodland
management utilized this, with a regular rotation of cutting back called
coppicing. Species like hazel and ash were frequently coppiced: after a few
years of growth the young shoots were harvested for firewood, charcoal or
making things, and the cycle would begin again. Pollarding was a similar
process, carried out higher up the tree instead of ground level. These
processes are sustainable, and keep the tree young: a regularly coppiced tree
will never die of old age.<o:p></o:p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction
to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’ve entered Advent – the beginning of a new year in the
Christian calendar. Who would have imagined, a year ago, that come Advent
Sunday 2020 we would have spent eight-and-a-half months keeping physical
distance from each other, resisting the longing to gather together, staying at
home where possible, wearing masks to meet with others, and grieving – locally
and globally – many lives lost to a global pandemic?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Advent, more than any other season in the Christian year, is
the time of <i>hope</i>. Hope is not the same as cheerfulness, or optimism.
It’s less of a feeling, and more of a choice; less like the air we breathe and
more like a thread that we hold onto, sometimes for dear life. It’s not
coincidental that, in the northern hemisphere of the world, Advent comes at the
time when the nights are longest. Hope is, as the writer Barbara Brown Taylor
puts it, ‘learning to walk in the dark’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So we’re shifting from the ‘Kingdom season’, but only subtly.
Our focus is now less explicitly on remembering, looking <i>back</i>, and more
about looking <i>forward</i>, but there are at least two aspects of continuity
across these seasons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The first is that we’re still rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures
of exile. We’re still with the Jewish people in Babylon, caught in that tension
between seeking <i>shalom</i> (wellbeing, peace, justice) where we are, and
longing to ‘come home’ to the city whose very name is peace (the ‘-salem’ of
Jerusalem is another way of saying <i>shalom</i>). Walter Brueggemann, an
eminent scholar of the Hebrew Bible, describes the Hebrew prophets as embodying
a three-fold prophetic task:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">REALITY
– telling difficult truths, in the midst of a nation caught up in the ideology
of chosenness (‘we’re special’)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">GRIEF
– giving voice to lament, in the face of a community in denial about its
failures<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">HOPE
– offering words of hope, to a people who are falling into despair<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Perhaps you can recognise some of these brief descriptions,
as saying something truthful not just about the Jewish exiles in Babylon, but
also about the world, and the society, we live in today? And perhaps, then, we
can also hear in the words of both Isaiah and John the Baptist, <i>both </i>a
necessary judgment <i>and</i> the vital lifeline of hope. In the coming weeks
we will hear the promise of ‘the lowly lifted up’, but here, at the beginning
of Advent, we hear of the ‘lofty being brought low’: words of judgment –
Brueggemann’s ‘reality’ – against those ‘who make iniquitous decrees, who write
oppressive statutes’, those who ‘turn aside the needy from justice’ and ‘rob
the poor … of their rights’. This is what we call ‘speaking truth to power’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The second aspect of continuity as we enter into Advent is
that we’re still looking for signs of God’s Kingdom – signs of its coming among
us, glimpsed in the ‘now’, but also ‘not yet’ here in all its fullness. But as
we enter these four weeks of preparation for the joy of Christmas, an extra
dimension of this looking, this watching and waiting, begins to move
centre-stage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For the last few months – for most of our ‘Trees of Life’
journey so far – he has not been our central focus. We have, as much as
possible, been trying to read the Hebrew scriptures on their own terms, joining
with the Jewish exiles in their longings for <i>shalom</i> and for home. And we
must remember, that for our Jewish siblings that home-coming happened long
before Jesus was born: the exiles returned to Jerusalem, the city was restored,
the Temple was rebuilt. But for those of us who are Christians, we read those
ancient prophetic texts with a ‘yes, and…’ – they found their fulfilment for
the returning exiles, and yet they also find their fulfilment in Jesus of
Nazareth, who we Christians name as the Messiah, the Christ, God’s anointed
one. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Advent is about watching and waiting for <i>his</i> coming
among us, too – preparing once again to celebrate the birth of ‘the Word made
flesh’. And yet even with the coming of Jesus, there is yet more fulfilment to
long for. In Jesus is ‘the fullness of God’, but God’s Kingdom is still to come
in all its fullness, to ‘fill all things’, ‘as the waters cover the sea’. We
wait and watch, not just as we rehearse again the events of the first
Christmas, but in need of the reality, the grief, and the hope for the world
made new. And so for now, this Advent, we are still learning to see in the
dark, to walk in the dark, to give ourselves to the future (as author Rebecca
Solnit puts it) that is coming to birth in the dark womb of our world:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Hope is not a lottery ticket you can sit on the sofa and clutch,
feeling lucky. It is an axe you break down doors with in an emergency. Hope
should shove you out the door, because it will take everything you have to
steer the future away from endless war, from the annihilation of the earth's
treasures and the grinding down of the poor and marginal... To hope is to give
yourself to the future - and that commitment to the future is what makes the
present inhabitable.”</span></i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
(Rebecca Solnit, <i>Hope in the dark</i>)</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Tim Evans)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">I remember sitting in a church one Sunday, curious about what the
preacher was going to say. I confess that I am not always sitting so eagerly
awaiting the sermon slot but this week the gospel reading centred around one of
the judgment texts that the gospel writers report Jesus saying. You might think
it morbid for that to be an area of interest, but as I had been on a real
journey of thinking, reading and reflecting on what I made of the whole idea of
judgement and punishment and what that says about the character of God, I was genuinely
interested to see what someone else made of it. To my astonishment and I
confess annoyance they just ignored the text and talked about something else
instead. But on reflection I realised that in my Christian experience people
tended to either talk too much about it and sometimes it seemed even with
relish and to promote a fear based faith, or not want to talk about it at all,
and so I didn't blame someone for not wanting to talk about a subject, that I
suspect instinctively jarred with their experience of a loving, compassionate,
inclusive and forgiving God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">I want to acknowledge that many will have experiences of oppression and
injustice that I have not experienced. I am mindful of how liberation
theologians ask us to listen to the theological voices from those who find
themselves on the margins, indeed our texts are written as good news from the
perspective of those who experienced structural oppression whether from
religious authorities or the Roman state, and not such good news for those of us
who collude or perpetuate the demeaning of our fellow human and non-human
neighbours. The cry for someone to get their 'just desserts' for wrongs they
have committed against us, is in many ways a natural human reaction. We have
justice systems to dispense what we see as justice in our imperfect human
condition partly to make a judgement of how the punishment should fit the crime
but there are many cultural and structural understandings around the world of
what justice means and the goal of passing judgement. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">My own journey is one that in my early Christian life understood the
meaning of God's judgement as needing to satisfy His need for justice - we had
all wronged God and deserved to be punished unless we trusted that God had
punished his only Son in our place. Someone had to get their 'just desserts.'
Over time this idea of an angry God needing to be placated as somehow being
just stopped making sense to me. Timothy Gorringe in his book 'God's Just
Vengeance' describes how this model of understanding the death of Jesus, how
punishment and justice went together, shaped criminal justice systems through a
retributive model including capital punishment, in particular in the United
States. I grew to think that Gorringe was right, that if we understood the death
of Jesus by religious and political authorities as an interrupter to the myth
of redemptive violence, our need (as René Girard says) to seek justice by
scapegoating others in a vain attempt to bring peace, but instead the life,
death and resurrection of Jesus as being about bringing reconciliation,
relationships restored in a new community, then that changed how I understood
the character and mission of God, what justice meant and the role that
judgement plays. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">So in this time of Advent, is it possible to think of judgement in the
context of a time in the Christian calendar that is supposed to be about
us preparing to receive hope, love and Good News into the world and into our
lives? John the Baptist seemed to think that the coming of Jesus heralded a new
order of things and he urged repentance in preparation whilst baptising those
who were prepared to embrace it, whilst Mary’s Magnificat that says the mighty
will be brought down from their thrones and exalts the humble is not far
away. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">I find these intertwined understandings helpful, and which find
resonances in our passages from both Isaiah and Matthew:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Judgement
as <i>vindication</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Here we find through judgement of oppressors the vindication of God for
those who cry out against unjust structures and those who suffer for
righteousness <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Judgement
as <i>role reversal</i><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Here we find judgement that reverses the social order that puts the
powerful, connected, violent, rich at the top of the social strata, instead
calls them to collective repentance. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><b><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Judgement
as <i>reconciliation</i> <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Judgement that sees justice as relational and therefore prioritises
restorative justice restoring right relationships including the lion and lamb
lying down together, swords beaten into ploughshares because there is no more
war etc. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">I find it helpful to place these understandings in the context of the
overall mission of God which is the renewal of all things. The Hebrew word for
judgment and justice is <i>mishpat</i> which means 'putting things right.'
Judgement is good news because it provides part of the hinge from the world
that is with all of its injustice, oppression, violence, into the world as it
should be. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Howard Zehr speaks of the dangers of us understanding judgement and
justice in taking the larger social, economic and political dimensions and
treating them as individual wrongs, something our wider individualised culture,
justice system and western theology encourages. He takes up the theology of
shalom to challenge a therapeutic (individualised) understanding of restorative
justice and moves it to a community understanding. For him it is where it is
communities that experience shalom - peace and wholeness, who are able to
extend forgiveness and inclusion albeit with the caveat that for some a process
of being outcast is required for the safety and shalom of the community and
even punishment may be required for the purpose of understanding the harm
caused, taking responsibility and making restitution. Then reconciliation and
inclusion are possible. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Finally, I want to turn to passages in our readings that use images of
horticulture or fire. Judgement not as retributive punishment from an angry,
punitive God, but a process of pruning or in other places in the Bible images
of refining as you would do to a tree to enable it to be fruitful or molten
metal to remove impurities. We cannot escape the painful process that this can
be, and it is challenging to think about being open to God, personally,
culturally and structurally in this way that addresses all that is ‘non-shalom’
– non-just, non-harmonious, non-peaceful, not whole, by seeking to prune or
refine that which stifles the growth of the Kingdom of God in us and in our
world. But, as both Isaiah and Revelation promise, the other side of that
eternal process is a renewed creation where the old order of things has
passed away. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Jeannie Lynch)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It seems strange to
think that we are in Advent already!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Quite a lot of friends, family and work friends have already put their
Christmas trees up and most of the other decorations too!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Christmas shopping has begun in earnest at
the start of October, and Amazon has been kept very busy as we are in another
lockdown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It does not feel like it is
the season of Advent yet despite the Christmas ads on the telly, stir up Sunday
last weekend, and twinkly lights in some people’s front room windows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe because of all the restrictions in
place, the rise of the virus, that people have turned to Christmas early to
brighten their days. Christmas is a time of hope, of belonging, a time of being
together, a time of light in our dark and dreary world. Advent is all these
things and hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Hope that it will soon
be ok, soon the dark days will start to brighten, hope that love will still be
there to balance out our despair.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Advent is also a time
when we are looking for the signs of Gods kingdom in our world.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This year has been so full of many signs,
stand here, keep two metres apart, wear a mask, please queue in this line to go
in and this line to go out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Unexpectedly, we have
not had all our usual signposts in our lives this year. Many of us have not had
many meals out, birthday get togethers, holidays, trips out, visits to the
seaside, friends round for meals, cinemas, theatre and concerts, church
services, fundraisers and parties and most of all, just being with our loved
ones. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">While these things
help sign post our lives and lead us through the year, it is the people who
matter most to us that being separated from, that hurt the most.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Those of us who have endured a time of
shielding or isolation, will have felt this most keenly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We have had small window of time in the
summer when we could meet up, but this seems now to have been a summer dream
that has vanished.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Again, we find that we
are now as a country preparing to come out of lockdown, and we as look,
hopefully, towards Christmas as a time to spend with our families and loved
ones, it will be our presence not our presents that will matter the most. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">John the Baptist said,
‘Prepare the way of the Lord.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
means that every effort we take to make a positive impact on those around us,
seeking justice, creating peace, we are causing the will of God to be realized,
right now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>John called the crowds to
prepare the way of the Lord- Jesus was not going to do all the work himself.
What we can do to prepare, as we enter into Advent, is to watch, pray, listen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As we prepare for the
(possible) end of lockdown, and the coming of the Christ Child, may we prepare
to do it differently.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To be able to
focus on what is most important, and to take and be the presence of God with us
wherever we go.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_Hlk43723710"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the readings
and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">: </span><i><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Advent Credo</span></i><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">, by
Revd Professor Allan Boesak</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">It is
not true</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> that creation and the human family
are doomed to destruction and loss.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">This
is true:</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> <i>For God so loved the world that
He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish
but have everlasting life.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">It is
not true</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> that we must accept inhumanity and
discrimination, hunger and poverty, death and destruction.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">This
is true:</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> <i>I have come that they may have
life, and that abundantly.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">It is
not true</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> that violence and hatred should have
the last word, and that war and destruction rule forever.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">This
is true:</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> <i>Unto us a child is born, unto us
a Son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, his name shall
be called wonderful counsellor, mighty God, the Everlasting, the Prince of
peace.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">It is
not true</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> that we are simply victims of the
powers of evil who seek to rule the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">This
is true:</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> <i>To me is given authority in
heaven and on earth, and lo I am with you, even until the end of the world.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">It is
not true</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> that we have to wait for those who
are specially gifted, who are the prophets of the Church before we can be
peacemakers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">This
is true:</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> <i>I will pour out my spirit on all
flesh and your sons and daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see
visions and your old men shall have dreams.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">It is
not true</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> that our hopes for liberation of
humankind, of justice, of human dignity of peace are not meant for this earth
and for this history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;"><b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">This
is true:</span></b><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> <i>The hour comes, and it is now,
that the true worshipers shall worship God in spirit and in truth.</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">So
let us enter Advent in hope, even hope against hope. Let us see visions of love
and peace and justice. Let us affirm with humility, with joy, with faith, with
courage: Jesus Christ—the life of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 7.5pt; text-align: right;"><span style="color: #111111; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">[From <i>Walking
on Thorns</i>, by Allan Boesak, Eerdmans, 2004]</span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2022%20(29-11-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
From the poem Heartwood, in <i>Lost Spells</i> by Robert Macfarlane and Jackie
Morris (Penguin, 2020).<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-15943462008279796882020-11-19T09:16:00.004-08:002020-11-19T09:16:50.834-08:00Week 21: A way in the wilderness: coming home?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOvi150ZdKK6hR9tTTY7Btjr7SthAdCgk_herKLRZcFAoS0Cn5DmS9nHkUeNcP1dYu_Sflypd4AXqm5orK7WbVP4NbfvLjsKZf9Yt07KBa5Nt5-8wFWKXE5Mn8iPXZAtacCCGIAgEESub4/s1065/crocuses+in+desert.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="533" data-original-width="1065" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOvi150ZdKK6hR9tTTY7Btjr7SthAdCgk_herKLRZcFAoS0Cn5DmS9nHkUeNcP1dYu_Sflypd4AXqm5orK7WbVP4NbfvLjsKZf9Yt07KBa5Nt5-8wFWKXE5Mn8iPXZAtacCCGIAgEESub4/w400-h200/crocuses+in+desert.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Isaiah 35:1-10<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">35 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">the
desert shall rejoice and blossom;</span><br />
<span class="text">like the crocus <b><sup>2 </sup></b>it shall blossom
abundantly,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
rejoice with joy and singing.</span><br />
<span class="text">The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">the
majesty of Carmel and Sharon.</span><br />
<span class="text">They shall see the glory of the </span><span class="small-caps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text">,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">the
majesty of our God.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Strengthen
the weak hands,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
make firm the feeble knees.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>4 </sup></b>Say to those who are of a fearful
heart,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">“Be
strong, do not fear!</span><br />
<span class="text">Here is your God.</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">He
will come with vengeance,</span><br />
<span class="text">with terrible recompense.</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">He
will come and save you.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">5 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then
the eyes of the blind shall be opened,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
the ears of the deaf unstopped;</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>6 </sup></b>then the lame shall leap like a deer,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
the tongue of the speechless sing for joy.</span><br />
<span class="text">For waters shall break forth in the wilderness,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
streams in the desert;</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>7 </sup></b>the burning sand shall become a pool,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
the thirsty ground springs of water;</span><br />
<span class="text">the haunt of jackals shall become a swamp,</span> <br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">the
grass shall become reeds and rushes.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">8 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A highway shall be there,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
it shall be called the Holy Way;</span><br />
<span class="text">the unclean shall not travel on it,</span> <br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">but
it shall be for God’s people;</span> <br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">no
traveller, not even fools, shall go astray.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>9 </sup></b>No lion shall be there,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">nor
shall any ravenous beast come up on it;</span><br />
<span class="text">they shall not be found there,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">but
the redeemed shall walk there.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>10 </sup></b>And the ransomed of the </span><span class="small-caps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"> shall return,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
come to Zion with singing;</span><br />
<span class="text">everlasting joy shall be upon their heads;</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">they
shall obtain joy and gladness,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
sorrow and sighing shall flee away.</span></span></p><p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“When we plant trees, we plant the seeds of peace and hope”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wangari Maathai (1940-2011) was born in Kenya, and after
periods abroad studying biology, returned there in 1969. She noticed on her
return that the environment had changed for the worse, and learned from women
in rural areas that their streams were drying up, their food supply was less
secure, and they had to walk further and further to get firewood for fuel and
fencing. Wangari recognised that this was due to deforestation. In 1977 she
began encouraging women to group together to grow seedlings and plant trees:
this would help to bind the soil, store rainwater and provide food and
firewood, and the women received a small payment for their work.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From these small beginnings grew the Green Belt Movement,
which spread from Kenya to other African countries, working at grassroots level
to plant - so far - over 52 million trees. Maathai saw early what many are only
just beginning to grasp: how issues of environmental conservation could not be
separated from those of human rights. Her holistic vision shaped a movement
where tree planting contributed not only ecological sustainability but to
democracy, women’s rights and international solidarity. Drawing inspiration
both from her Kikuyu culture and her Catholic upbringing (including reading the
prophets) she remained steadfast in the face of opposition, despite at times
being beaten and imprisoned as she battled powerful economic forces and
tyrannical rulers. Her vision and work were recognised when she received the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2004.<span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2021%20(22-11-20).docx#_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title="">[1]</a></span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2021%20(22-11-20).docx#_ftn1" title=""><!--[endif]--></a></span></span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"></span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’re now in the last of four weeks of this ‘Kingdom season’,
where we’ve been both remembering backwards but also ‘remembering forwards’,
excavating God’s past promises to her people (in the words of the Hebrew
prophets) as promises with meaning for <i>our</i> future too.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Last week, with Jeremiah and the Jewish exiles in Babylon, we
were caught in the dilemma of exile: do they sit tight waiting to go back home
to Jerusalem, or do they make their home in Babylon and put down their roots
there, however temporarily? God’s message, through Jeremiah, was that the
people should do the latter: they should ‘seek the welfare [<i>shalom</i>] of
the city’ where they found themselves, with the promise that they would find
their own <i>shalom </i>(peace, justice, wellbeing) in that place.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This week, the focus shifts to the home-coming of God’s
people, liberated by God from exile: ‘the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
and come to Zion [Jerusalem] with singing’. The promise is one of ‘everlasting
joy … and gladness’, of ‘sorrow and sighing … flee[ing] away’. This is indeed a
home-coming to be looked forward to, longed for.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But there is more. Through Jeremiah, God doesn’t just promise
his people that <i>home</i>, when they get there, will be the place of joy and
life. The <i>journey home</i> will be joyful too. There will be a ‘holy
highway’ for that journey, through what had previously been arid, dangerous
desert. The ‘joy and singing’ will not just be from the human travellers on the
road home, but from the non-human life (crocuses, streams, reeds and rushes)
that will spring up all around them as they walk.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And where is God in it all? Is God waiting patiently, back
home, ready to throw her arms around the necks of her long lost children?
Maybe. But God is also on the road with them, journeying home with them,
listening to them telling again their stories of exile, and nodding along:
‘yes, I was with you there too’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Sally Nash)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘The ache for home lives in all of
us, the safe place where we can go<br />
as we are and not be questioned.’</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> – Maya Angelou<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our reading today was written to people in
exile, they were not at home but these ten verses give them a hope of a joy
filled homecoming.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you have any joy
filled homecoming memories?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps as a
child, or your first home of your own, or returning to the place you grew
up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even at my age I still talk about
going home when I go back to Reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>How the people of Israel must have longed for, ached for a home that was
safe, accepting and where they could again feel that they belonged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Brené Brown has written a book called <i>Braving
the Wilderness</i>.<i> </i>In it she talks about true belonging.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She writes:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">‘True belonging is the spiritual
practice of believing in and belonging to yourself so deeply that you can share
your most authentic self with the world and find sacredness in both being a
part of something and standing alone in the wilderness.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>True belonging doesn’t require you to change
who you are, it requires you to be who you are.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our reading from Isaiah talks about us
returning home together, rejoicing, hopeful.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>In some ways it is an apt metaphor for the time we are in now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We look to the day when we can return to
worshipping together, fully able to rejoice and engage with each other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we need to be mindful too of the journey
we have been on in this period of exile through lockdown.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am mindful as I write of the significant
learning that we have been engaging with over Black History Month and lament
that some of our brothers and sisters have not always experienced that sense of
true belonging in the body of Christ and I hope that as we grow and learn,
repent and renew that each of them feel more able to be who they are, not
feeling that they need to adapt or change to belong.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope that they feel at home, and that they
can come as they are, that we all can come as we are.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are many of us who perhaps find it hard
to be authentically us at times because we are not sure what reception that
will get.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The healing that comes in the
middle of today’s passage is much needed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">More generally, this passage, as the
commentators say, is a message of strength and courage to those who may be
fearful in heart (v4).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is likely to
be most of us at some time over different issues.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is very human to fear but we have a God
who encourages us to fear not (v4) and sometimes we need to dwell in the
message of God and see the end game, see how it is all going to turn out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>One commentator suggested that the phrase
fearful heart is better translated from the Hebrew as ‘ones whose hearts are
racing’ which is a very embodied image and is the reality for all of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My heart was racing when I heard that a
vaccine may be coming soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>My heart
races when I am going to see someone precious again…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We live through this pandemic in our bodies,
our reactions may be fight or flight or freeze. We may have experienced the
virus, mildly or have long COVID.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our
bodies are always impacted by what is happening around us. But the passage
talks about our hears racing in hope…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="pcallout" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Digging
again into the commentaries I am encouraged to find that the word vengeance
which is a word I struggle with can be understood as Hendrik Peels argues, as
closer to restorative justice, inherent in the Hebrew word <i>nagam</i> is the
idea of retribution from a legitimate authority that brings liberation to the
oppressed, freedom from need and restoration of justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That is an encouraging opening to this
passage for people in exile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus “Say
to the people, God is here. Restorative justice is on its way. Hope now in
God's dealing. Expect God's response”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="pcallout" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Beautiful
images from nature abound in this passage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some will remember that last year we grew crocuses in church and many of
us will see them in gardens, early signs that spring is coming, bright colour
on often grey days.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The image of God
turning a wilderness or desert into a garden is a beautiful one and certainly
one of the biggest blessings of lockdown for us is our garden becoming a lovely
place to look at and sit out in rather than the well overgrown wilderness it
was.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That was a story of despair to hope
just as our passage today is. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="font8" style="background: #FCFCFC; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If
you look at the whole passage you will see that it starts and ends with
creation and God is in the middle with humanity – thus creation, humanity, God,
humanity, creation. God saves God’s people, and the saving involves
transformation of society, it isn’t a focus on individual transformation
alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="font8" style="background: #FCFCFC; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As
we journey together, let’s try to recall some of the stories of hope we have
heard about recently. Let’s continue to thank God for the good things we are
hearing about and experiencing and walk together, even though we are physically
apart, as we look to a joy filled homecoming one day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (David Walton)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Isaiah gives us a vision of
transformation in a journey from captivity to freedom on a joyous journey home
where even the desert is transformed as flowers appear like new life springing
from the ground, in celebration, in hope as God works his purpose out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some 20 years ago as part of a summer
school in the Holy Land we spent a day in the Negev desert. We started our
exodus experience at 4 am, arriving at the starting point for our trek just as
the sun was braking over the horizon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We
needed to walk before the heat of the day became too much.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The desert seemed dead, lacking life, a harsh
in hospitable place.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet when we looked
closely, we found life all around us, giving a sense of hope on our
journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet we walked in near silence,
talking quietly if at all. Then arrival at an oasis, and the sudden
transformation of the landscape, the lush green leaves of plants and trees,
beautiful flowers, pools of water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tired
and worn out we were suddenly filled with joy, renewed energy, and the urge to
rejoice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were all talking, chatting,
laughing, some singing. A joyous transformation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In 1964 the sociologist Ruth Glass
coined the term ‘gentrification’ to describe the rapid changes in urban areas
where working-class residents became displaced by the growing numbers of
middle-class who transformed what had been run down areas into highly desirable
residential areas. In the process, Glass notes, “the whole social character of
the district is changed.” It is most documented in urban settings, but the
influx of wealthy middleclass retirees to some rural communities has completely
transformed those communities in similar fashion. There is a positive to this
transformation in the increase in financial capital within those areas, but
there is also a negative in terms of decreased social capital that is difficult
to regain. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While not wanting to labour the mixed
illustration of gentrification, nonetheless there are times when an area is so
ravaged that nothing, but a complete transformation will bring benefit back to
the wider community. Such is the case with the High Line in Manhattan’s West
Side—a piece of elevated rail track that was earmarked for demolition but that
was saved by local residents who have transformed the mile long track to create
a life-enhancing park space within the city. In essence, the doxology from
Isaiah is also a celebration of transformation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">These verses celebrate and witness to
a God who can transform even the most desperate situations in which people know
abandonment, threat, and fearfulness. Much of the preceding chapters in the
Isaiah collection are taken up with accounting for the predicament Israel found
herself in. Here, with a nod back to 29:17-18 we find the affirmation that God
can bring restoration. From the worst situations, God can bring nurture, new
life, fresh vision, and hope. Even the life-threatening wilderness will become
a place where blossoms abound. These verses, and particular 5-7, do not just
talk about the promise of new life and new starts, however, they speak in terms
of restored completeness: this is a hymn to wholeness. And, as such, this is
wonderful, good `news for the broken and the hurt. It is, thus, no wonder that
the gospel writers saw allusions to the incarnation of Good News whom they
wrote about in this and other passages from the prophetic writing. Humanity
will find its completeness and wholeness only through the glorious presence and
action of God. Verse 8-10 describe a pathway of holiness, a righteous road
(those purity laws were never far away), perhaps even a ‘high line’, and we
might ponder what it means for us in 2020 to stand on this path during pandemic
and looking forward to the preparation time of Advent. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is much in this time of
pandemic that leaves us fearful, feeling lost and abandoned in the barren
wilderness, particularly those who have become isolated from family and friends
or any kind of social interaction. But for too many being fearful, feeling lost
and abandoned has been the way of life long before we heard of Covid-19.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As we travel in hot dry desert times of life
can we also ponder areas of our lives are in need transformation and wholeness?
In our communities, where do we see glimmers of new life and restoration, and
where should our efforts as followers on the pathway of holiness be expended to
bring wholeness? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What can we do, alongside creation’s
witness as described in Isaiah, to witness to the glory of God?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is much that the church and
others are doing in this community to bring transformation, not by
gentrification and displacement, but by community building and supporting one
another, and beginning to see life in the desert, an oasis of joy, a high line
of transformation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In all this, we
journey on, a growing crowd learning afresh that God can bring nurture, new
life, fresh vision, and hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He can do
all this, because he journeys with us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_Hlk43723710"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;"><br /></span></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘With joy you shall you draw waters
out of the wells of salvation’ <br />
(Isaiah 12:3)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;">And then all that has divided us will
merge<br />
And then compassion will be wedded to power<br />
<span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "inherit",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; padding: 0cm;">And then softness will come to a world that is
harsh and unkind<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "inherit",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; padding: 0cm;">And then both men and women will be
gentle<br />
And then both women and men will be strong<br />
And then no person will be subject to another's will</span><span style="font-family: "inherit",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; padding: 0cm;">And then all will be rich and free and varied<br />
And then the greed of some will give way to the needs of many</span><span style="font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; padding: 0cm;">And then all will share equally in the Earth's
abundance</span><span style="font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; padding: 0cm;">And then all will care for the sick and the weak
and the old</span><span style="font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; padding: 0cm;">And then all will nourish the young<br />
And then all will cherish life's creatures</span><span style="font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; padding: 0cm;">And then everywhere will be called Eden once again</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; font-family: "inherit",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Judy Chicago, 1979<b><u><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</u></b></span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></i></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today’s
reading talks about flowers blossoming in the wilderness. At this time of
year, the landscape can seem to be looking a bit bleak, as plants die back
for the winter. But there are still signs of life to be found! Go for a
walk or into your garden (or if you can’t go out, look out of a window).
What signs of life and hope can you find? Pause and thank God for them. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
today’s reading we hear about God making a straight path in the desert.
Make your own path out of footprints, either drawing round your feet on
paper, or outdoors with chalk on a path or pavement. As you draw, think
about your journey through life. Have there been times when you have
wondered where God was? Have there been times when you have been
particularly aware of God’s presence with you? <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
our reading today we hear about lots of things being changed and
transformed. What is something you think needs to change? Draw the
situation as it is now on one side of a piece of paper. Then turn over and
draw the situation as it should be on the other side. As you draw, ask God
to transform that situation. You might also want to ask God to show you
any ways that you could be involved in changing things.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2021%20(22-11-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> You
can read more about Wangari Maathai, including some of her speeches and
lectures, on the Green Belt Movement website <a href="http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/">http://www.greenbeltmovement.org/</a>
; or listen to an interview with her on this podcast: <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/wangari-maathai-marching-with-trees/">https://onbeing.org/programs/wangari-maathai-marching-with-trees/</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-15417658481151484832020-11-15T06:21:00.005-08:002020-11-15T06:21:39.256-08:00Week 20: Making our home in exile<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSgtSjY41_O20VtUk5xvM-RpFm7qT4hh2UjRHNlgU965QPPiNjUvNFnr_XD5XRyl_DoSt5ztC0ShdL0q1-0qyvcmK3oYDUuzUXpxe5pD0fBJpAUW6UIBnnXLA1BIWSSVQaczNYqpyE_y-w/s474/growing+food.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="316" data-original-width="474" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSgtSjY41_O20VtUk5xvM-RpFm7qT4hh2UjRHNlgU965QPPiNjUvNFnr_XD5XRyl_DoSt5ztC0ShdL0q1-0qyvcmK3oYDUuzUXpxe5pD0fBJpAUW6UIBnnXLA1BIWSSVQaczNYqpyE_y-w/w400-h266/growing+food.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jeremiah 29:1-14<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">29 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These are the words of
the letter that the prophet Jeremiah sent from Jerusalem to the remaining
elders among the exiles, and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people,
whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>This
was after King Jeconiah, and the queen mother, the court officials, the leaders
of Judah and Jerusalem, the artisans, and the smiths had departed from
Jerusalem. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>The letter was sent by the hand of
Elasah son of Shaphan and Gemariah son of Hilkiah, whom King Zedekiah of Judah
sent to Babylon to King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. It said: <b><sup>4 </sup></b>Thus
says the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> of
hosts, the God of Israel, to all the exiles whom I have sent into exile from
Jerusalem to Babylon: <b><sup>5 </sup></b>Build houses and live in
them; plant gardens and eat what they produce. <b><sup>6 </sup></b>Take
wives and have sons and daughters; take wives for your sons, and give your
daughters in marriage, that they may bear sons and daughters; multiply there,
and do not decrease. <b><sup>7 </sup></b>But seek the welfare [<i>shalom</i>]<i>
</i>of the city where I have sent you into exile, and pray to the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> on its behalf, for in its welfare [<i>shalom</i>]<i> </i>you
will find your welfare [<i>shalom</i>]. <b><sup>8 </sup></b>For thus
says the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> of
hosts, the God of Israel: Do not let the prophets and the diviners who are
among you deceive you, and do not listen to the dreams that they dream, <b><sup>9 </sup></b>for
it is a lie that they are prophesying to you in my name; I did not send them,
says the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">10 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For thus says the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">: Only when Babylon’s seventy years are completed will I visit
you, and I will fulfill to you my promise and bring you back to this
place. <b><sup>11 </sup></b>For surely I know the plans I have for
you, says the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,
plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope. <b><sup>12 </sup></b>Then
when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. <b><sup>13 </sup></b>When
you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, <b><sup>14 </sup></b>I
will let you find me, says the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the
nations and all the places where I have driven you, says the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, and I will bring you back to the place from which I sent you
into exile.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I was five my family
moved from England to Holland; I remember complaining that I would not see the
apple tree we had planted in our garden grow big enough to climb in! Frequent
house moves followed during both childhood and adult life – knowing you won’t live
somewhere long makes it tempting to not bother much with gardening, especially
with planting trees, since you won’t be around to benefit from them in years to
come. But others will benefit even if we do not.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Planting trees is a
present act that shows commitment to the future. The slow growth and long life
of tree mean that most varieties will likely long outlive the humans who plant
them. Their very many benefits – food and shelter, carbon capture and oxygen
supply, and uplift of the spirit – will benefit future generations more than
our own, and the whole eco-system, not just the human race.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>According to some biblical writers, our
brief life on earth is like an exile, waiting to return home to God. But
holding this view does not mean (just as it didn’t mean for Jews in exile in
Babylon) that we should not care for the wellbeing of the place where we find
ourselves here and now – however temporary our stay may be. Planting trees
contributes to the earth’s <i>shalom</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One way to do this is
through the Woodland Trust<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2020%20(15-11-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>:
you can buy native trees to plant yourself, or support their work by dedicating
a tree as a memorial, or a celebration of a birth or anniversary. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One of the themes we’ve
returned to repeatedly in our ‘Trees of Life’ journey so far has been <i>exile</i>.
The kingdom of Judah, centred on Jerusalem, was invaded by the powerful
Babylonian empire (around 590 BCE), Jerusalem was ransacked, and many of the
Jews (especially their leaders and ‘professional’ classes) were taken by their
captors back to Babylon. While they were clearly the ‘losers’ of this
particular inter-national conflict, the evidence suggests that the Jewish
people’s life in Babylon wasn’t awful. Yes, they had all the challenges of
being foreigners in a strange land, but this wasn’t Egypt: they weren’t slaves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With the hindsight
perspective of history, this period of exile was to last somewhere between 50
and 70 years – those who were taken from Jerusalem as adults would see out
their lifetimes in Babylon. But the prophetic books that took shape in exile
(e.g. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, some parts of Isaiah) didn’t have the benefit
of hindsight. For all they knew, the Jewish households and communities who’d
been taken to Babylon could be there for generations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So the exiles were caught
in a dilemma. Do they, on the one hand, ‘sit tight’, wait and pray for a return
home – keeping themselves to themselves as much as possible, trying to preserve
a little ‘outpost’ of Jerusalem, hanging on to what they remember of their past
lives, driven by a homesick, nostalgic longing to go ‘back to the way things
were’? Or do they, on the other hand, make the decision to call <i>this</i>
place ‘home’, settle down, put down roots, get involved with the society around
them – and try to work out new ways of living as faithful children of their God
YHWH?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The passage from Jeremiah
includes elements of both. There is the promise of a home-coming, when God will
‘gather’ the scattered and bring ‘restoration’. But the Jewish exiles are not
to sit tight and wait for that moment. They are to call this place ‘home’ for
the time being, and ‘seek the welfare [<i>shalom</i>]’ of the city where they
are – because in that seeking they will discover their own welfare [<i>shalom</i>]
(Jer. 29:7). Has God abandoned them? Is God waiting for them ‘back home’ in the
ruins of Jerusalem? Is God in their midst, in the strange land of exile? Or
might the answer be Yes to more than one of these questions?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Paul Wright)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I begin by reflecting on
the Biblical portrayal of Babylon. The whole Bible presents us a city devoted
to materialism and sinful pleasure. A place that rejects the One True God. The
prophets mention Babylon as both a warning of punishment and an example of what
displeases God. The New Testament gives it as a symbol of humanities sinfulness
and God's judgment. In 1 Peter 5:13, the apostle cites Babylon to remind
Christians in Rome to be as faithful as Daniel was. Finally, in the book of
Revelation, Babylon again stands for Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, the
enemy of Christianity. Let’s just say the Bible doesn’t paint a good picture of
this place.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In our reading today, I
imagine a place where you feel captive and a place you are in exile is going to
cloud your judgement. It’s a strange place, a foreign land, a place described
by your closest family, friends and leaders as sinful. Probably most felt it
most brutally as a place where they lost their power, entitlements, maybe even
their dignity. So I give them the benefit of the doubt. This Biblical
understanding and in today’s passage the Jewish perspective is of an ‘other’
place. Not our place and not our real home. For me this begs the question who gets
to judge? Who gets to describe it? And what impact does this labelling of
‘other’ places have?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One thing I have learned
from the past few weeks exploring Black History is that maybe it’s not always
wise to just accept how the one’s telling the story describe and treat the
‘other’ places and ‘other’ people! It is interesting how the Rastafarian religion
understands the Biblical experience of Babylon and how they see this in the
imperialistic evil of the British empire, the Transatlantic Slave Trade, and
the exploitation and oppression that still exists today. A place wrapped up in
the history of a white western society rooted in Christianity and the power
influenced by the teachings of the Institutional Church. Maybe we need to start
thinking of the Church as Babylon and ourselves as Babylonians, but that’s for
another day!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There are of course other
historical perspectives of Babylon, a place laced with an intricate system of
canals leading off the Euphrates River, used for irrigation and commerce.
Breathtaking buildings adorned with enamelled brick, neatly paved streets made
Babylon the most impressive city of its time. Described as a centre of
learning, culture, science and knowledge. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a
colossal maze of terraced trees, shrubs, flowers and manmade waterfalls, are
one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>So at least two sides to every story!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I come to today’s
passage. For me this is one of the most influential stories in the Bible. It
influences how I understand God and understand living out my faith. We all will
have a quote or a story that resonates, and today we reflect on some of mine.
It leads me to my story, and the story of a few others, who have moved to Firs
and Bromford and made it our home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now I am very concerned
that there is any hint in my story that I am describing Firs & Bromford as
the Bible portrays Babylon! But what I will say is Firs & Bromford for me
was an ‘other place’. It wasn’t my home and it is different to where I grew up
in Coleshill & Castle Bromwich. I had passed Chipperfield Road on many
occasions on the 90 and 94 bus but had never been down there. I had heard of
this place ‘The Bromford’ and made my own judgements/assumptions based on what
people said. When I spent time living in and hanging out in Smiths Wood,
Chelmsley Wood, Shard End, Kingshurst and Castle Vale (similar 60’s built estates)
I still heard about this place! The other place, the place people who didn’t
live there looked down upon.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I started to do
youth work in Firs & Bromford I heard it described by some professionals as
the problem estate! Workshy, anti-social, apathetic, hard to reach, deprived,
and a sink estate. I have also heard stories and heard myself how Firs &
Bromford has been described by Church members. Statements like ‘watch out for
your car down there’, ‘it’s not safe to walk there’, ‘why would you want to
move there?’, ‘all that stuff in the Bromford is sucking the life out of the
Church’ and being described as ‘you people down there in Bromford’. The more I
call Bromford my home, the more that hurts! I say this not to offend anyone or
call anyone out, I am just drawing attention to the deep-rooted sense of
‘other’ that exists in us all and the deep-rooted power and impact it has.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jeremiah clearly outlines
that God is instructing us to ‘seek the welfare [shalom] of the city where I
have sent you into exile, and pray to the LORD on its behalf, for in its
welfare [shalom] you will find your welfare [shalom]’. Now that is one heck of
a prophetic statement to disrupt the ‘status quo’ of how life was being
understood! Imagine the people hearing that statement. This place that we have
been told is sinful and a wicked ungodly place, the place we are in exile with
no power, status or influence. You are saying seek God’s Shalom here? God is
here? Our welfare is to be found here? Our welfare (or let’s say Salvation) is
intertwined with the people here!? And more than that it can be found in those
people who live here, they will reveal God to us!?’ I bet they didn’t know
whether to laugh, cry or maybe keep listening to the ‘false’ prophets telling
them otherwise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I can imagine them saying,
‘No, no, no, you can’t be right. We must be being saved some other way! Tell us
we will be brought back to our home of power, status and safety. We will ride
it out by sticking with our own, only engage if people are willing to believe what
we believe, look like us, and eventually we will return to you God. Maybe if we
do this we will rescue a few of those people and bring them back with us.’ I
think the passage about building houses, growing gardens, increasing in numbers
could even be misunderstood as this as well, and the passages about eventually
coming ‘home’ might be understood as ‘it’s gonna be tough for a bit, but at the
end of the day I will rescue you’. But this would be ignoring the clear belief
that God’s Shalom is in Babylon, God is here, and I am asking you to seek it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This has been my
experience of moving to Firs and Bromford. I, alongside other Christians, came
with a faith filled with hope & love. I didn’t come with a faith that would
bring light to a dark place, I came seeking the Shalom of the city, seeking the
light that already exists, and a faith that believed God has a plan for this
place and a future filled with hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
have found it and I know others have found it too. The relationships that have
grown, the friendships, the things we do ‘together’ like Junk Food Kitchen, FAB
Church, The Hub, Street Connecting, and so much more. This also includes life
beyond the Firs & Bromford like the Old Rectory and the exciting plans for
the Pantry. This is people who have chosen to move here, those that have lived
here for years (if not all their life) and those who join in. This includes
people of faith (in a range of religions) and of no faith (well not faith in a
particular religion). The ups and downs of community life we experience is ‘of
God’, teaching me and others about God and revealing to us God’s Shalom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">During my time here it is
interesting when some people say to me they see and feel something different in
us, by that they mean the ‘Christians’! They describe compassion, love,
forgiveness, hope and generosity. I say to them that is God’s presence in us,
and I see that in you as well, and all around this community.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Finally, the ‘home
coming’. Well Bromford is now my home, Hodge Hill Parish is my home. I am not
seeking a newly built Jerusalem to move back to because I don’t believe the
home coming as a physical geographical thing. The home coming is seeking and
experiencing ‘The Kingdom of God’ in the now, and the Kingdom to come (the <i>New
Jerusalem</i>). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I finish today bowing my
head in prayer and lifting my heart to the Lord, joining with friends and
neighbours who also seek the Shalom of the City, knowing the answer has already
been laid out before us all:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“11 For surely I know
the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans for your welfare and not for
harm, to give you a future with hope. 12 Then when you call upon me and come
and pray to me, I will hear you. 13 When you search for me, you will find me;
if you seek me with all your heart, 14 I will let you find me, says the LORD,
and I will restore your fortunes and gather you from all the nations and all
the places where I have driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to
the place from which I sent you into exile.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Penny Hall)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Many of us will have
moved house at some point in our lives; often for positive reasons such as a
new job, to be closer to family or for a sunnier climate. Others will have
moved for economic reasons, downsizing or the loss of a job. Often, moving
house is exciting, a challenge, a happy new beginning. Not so many of us will
have been pushed to move because of poverty, war or persecution for our
beliefs. Even fewer of us will have been forced into exile by a dominant power,
as happened to the people of Jerusalem in Jeremiah’s time. Even if we chose to
leave our previous home, there may be a sadness, leaving family, a familiar
culture, especially leaving somewhere you have lived for a large part of your
life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Through Jeremiah, God
tells the exiles to build houses and live in them, to plant gardens and eat the
food, to marry and have children and to seek the welfare of the city and pray
for the city. “<i>In its welfare you will find your welfare”. </i>Jeremiah
encourages the exiles not only to endure their exile but to discover a new life
in faith and hope, to make this new city their home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How could the people of
Jerusalem pray for and settle down in a city which represented those who had
destroyed their home and slaughtered their loved ones? This question reminds me
of a story I heard many years ago, a story about attitudes:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A wise elderly man sat
under a tree outside his village. A traveller came up to him and asked what
kind of people he would meet in the village. The wise man asked him first to
tell him what kind of people he had met on his travels so far. The traveller
replied<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“I have met the most awful
people! People who are selfish and unkind to strangers. People who don’t care
for anyone.” The wise man said “I am sorry to tell you, but if you go into my
village, I’m afraid that’s exactly the kind of people you will meet.” The
traveller carried on along the road without going into the village.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A while later, another
traveller came upon the wise man and asked the same question. Again, the wise
man asked him what kind of people he had met in his travels. The traveller
replied “I have met the most amazing people! People who are kind and generous
to strangers, people who care for one another like family.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The wise man said “I am happy to tell you
that if you go into my village, I am certain that is exactly the kind of people
you will meet”. “Come then” said the traveller “and introduce me to them”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps this story and
God’s words through Jeremiah are both telling us to take some personal
responsibility for finding peace in our community. Was the exile an opportunity
to discover the love of God? Was it a chance to think through what was
important in their lives? Can we discover the word of God in our community?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">So, how can we find
Shalom in our neighbourhoods? I’m sure we could all find bad things in any
neighbourhood, but I’d like to share with you some of the good things happening
on the Bromford. I have lived for just one year on the Bromford estate, part of
Hodge Hill parish. I wasn’t exiled here! On the contrary, I chose to come here
because I already knew quite a few people and I had been involved in lots of
community events. I knew I would find Shalom here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the last few years
there has been a tradition of pop-up places of welcome (PUPOWs) on grassy
street corners. A gazebo, tables and chairs would be set up with drinks games
and activities for children and people would be invited to bring a contribution
to the picnic, but more importantly to bring themselves. People brought
platters of samosas, sandwiches, cakes, pans of chicken and rice. A banquet
would arise from nowhere! People helped elderly neighbours to walk across, or
took food to them if they couldn’t. Neighbours chatted to each other, found out
each other’s names and got to know each other. Relationships were built. It
just needed an opportunity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Since the arrival of
Covid (putting us all into a bit of an exile!), neighbours in my road had a
physically distanced street party to celebrate the anniversary of VE Day. One
neighbour provided music, another provided cakes and we sat on our drives and
enjoyed being neighbours. People passing brought out food and drinks and joined
in.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This week, Sahra will be
telling her amazing story of how she and her neighbours transformed their dull,
overgrown, unused communal<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>garden into
a haven of joy. Out of the shared commitment to improving their environment
came new friendships; another glimpse of God’s kingdom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In our lives, we will
have occasions where we long for the past and hope for the future. But we can
have Shalom here and now. We can find those glimpses of God’s kingdom and be
part of it, and even to help to build it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Lizzie Gawen)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For a long time
now, I have wanted to settle down. To find a sense of permanence and peace in
my life. A community and a place to call home. So, I guess I identify a little
bit with the exiles. They didn’t know if Babylon was a place to call home or if
it was a temporary situation. They didn’t know if they should be vulnerable to
envision a future in a place they wouldn’t be for too long. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yet, God calls
the exiles to seek the welfare of the city. In my life, amid my many house-moves
and time spent in various Christian communities, God has opened up my heart to
seek the welfare of the city through gardening. For me, gardens are not just
lawns and plants. They are places for community, flourishing, growing (tomatoes
and people). I love this Greek proverb: ‘a society grows great when wise men
plant trees whose shade they will never sit in’. Gardens are a long-term
investment that take time and patience. The seasons can’t be hurried. A tree
grows at its own pace. Gardening helps me stay grounded in a changing world and
feel connected to God, in a way that nothing else does. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">In his autobiography <i>A Long Walk to Freedom</i>, Nelson
Mandela talks about the impact of gardening on his life “A garden was one of
the few things in prison that one could control. To plant a seed, watch it
grow, to tend it and then harvest it, offered a simple but enduring
satisfaction. The sense of being the custodian of this small patch of earth
offered a taste of freedom’. Lockdown has impacted all of us and my escape has
been to garden. I’ve reclaimed the raised beds outside Church House with the
help of neighbours and made new raised beds which are filled with flowers and
seedlings. Neighbours can now pick herbs and fruit as they walk by. </span><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Yet, I was still searching for something more. A green oasis
in the city. Not being able to go on retreat or on a holiday has really
impacted my mental health. When I was told that there were plots available at
Black Pit Lane allotments, I visited that weekend and was handed a key. In this
new season of uncertainty, my allotment is my retreat in the city. Something to
invest in for the good of others and for myself. </span><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">In a time where a lot of us have given up planning anything,
I’ve realised the one thing I can plan is my allotment. I can sow some seeds
and watch them grow. It’s my place to be with God and see their goodness in
creation. If you need a retreat and/or a project right now, why not try an
allotment? Or create a small patch to garden? You may find a small piece of
satisfaction and a little bit of God too. </span><span style="background: white; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this week: ‘For an exile’</span></u></i></b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, by John O’Donohue</span></u></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When you
dream, it is always home.<br />
You are there among your own,<br />
The rhythm of their voices rising like song<br />
Your blood would sing through any dark.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Then you
awake to find yourself listening<br />
To the sounds of traffic in another land.<br />
For a moment, your whole body recoils<br />
At the strange emptiness of where you are.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This country
is cold to your voice.<br />
It is still a place without echoes.<br />
Nothing of yours has happened here.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">No one knows
you,<br />
The language slows you,<br />
The thick accent smothers your presence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You sound
foreign to yourself;<br />
Their eyes reflect how strange you seem<br />
When seen across a cold distance<br />
That has no bridge to carry<br />
The charisma in which your friends<br />
Delight at home.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Though your
work here is hard,<br />
It brings relief, helps your mind<br />
In returning to the small<br />
Bounties of your absence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Evening is
without protection;<br />
Your room waits,<br />
Ready to take you<br />
Back like some convict<br />
Who is afraid<br />
Of the life outside.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The things
you brought from home<br />
Look back at you; out of place here<br />
They take on lonely power.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You cringe
at the thought<br />
That someone from home<br />
Might see you now here,<br />
In this unsheltered room.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now is the
time to hold faithful<br />
To your dream, to understand<br />
That this is an interim time<br />
Full of awkward disconnection.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Gradually,
you will come to find<br />
Your way to friends who will open<br />
Doors into a new belonging.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Your heart
will brighten<br />
With new discovery,<br />
Your presence will unclench<br />
And find ease,<br />
Letting your substance<br />
And promise be seen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Slowly, a
new world will open for you.<br />
The eyes of your heart, refined<br />
By this desert time, will be free<br />
To see and celebrate the new life<br />
For which you sacrificed so much.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(from John O’ Donohue, <i>Benedictus: A Book of
Blessings</i>)<b><i><u><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</u></i></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u></u></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><u><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></u></i></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
today’s reading, the people of Israel are coming to terms with being in a
situation they didn’t want – they are working out how to live in a strange
land. Perhaps there are some similarities with our situation now? Think back
over the period of the pandemic. Make a list of things that have changed and a
list of things that have stayed the same. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Look
at your lists of things that have changed and things that have stayed the same.
Where have you noticed God in these things? What are the things you want to thank
God for? What are the things you want to ask God for help with? Are there
things you feel angry or sad about? You can tell God how you are feeling. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Seek
the welfare (<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">shalom</i>) of the city… for
in its welfare you will find your welfare.” Can you think of something you
could do for the welfare of your city? It could be something local, like
helping a neighbour or picking up litter. It could be something for the city as
a whole, like writing to your local councillor about an issue you care about
(eg. climate change or childhood poverty). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“I
know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not
for harm, to give you a future with hope.” It can be hard to imagine the future
at the moment, but it is important to remember that things won’t always stay
the same. What gives you hope? Create something – write a word, draw a picture,
find an object – which reminds you to hope, and put it somewhere you will see
it often. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2020%20(15-11-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/">https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/</a> <o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-32180225542609801202020-11-15T06:15:00.005-08:002020-11-15T06:15:30.104-08:00Week 19: Remembrance: Praying and working for peace<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeRPIStW2Jxeu-Srbbox_VnfDB86TWsHgVsjKq_j7UPWFzZBUkkEHWzF34AjKT3y6zHwF-JtseiHW9dTvvwjR6aQg9eMFs0b1LibwQuXdKv5YQR9w6d4mF47Mddf6YvgqgK3jquj_KxxgX/s500/swords+into+ploughshares.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="374" data-original-width="500" height="299" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeRPIStW2Jxeu-Srbbox_VnfDB86TWsHgVsjKq_j7UPWFzZBUkkEHWzF34AjKT3y6zHwF-JtseiHW9dTvvwjR6aQg9eMFs0b1LibwQuXdKv5YQR9w6d4mF47Mddf6YvgqgK3jquj_KxxgX/w400-h299/swords+into+ploughshares.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Micah 4:1-7 </span></b></span><span class="text"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(see also Isaiah 2:1-4)</span></i></span><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; margin: 0cm;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">4 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
days to come</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">the mountain of the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">’s
house</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">shall be established as the highest of the mountains,</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and shall be raised up above the hills.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">Peoples shall stream to it,</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>2 </sup></b></span></span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and many nations shall come and say:</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">“Come, let us go up to the mountain of the </span><span class="small-caps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text">,</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">to the house of the God of Jacob;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">that he may teach us his ways</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and that we may walk in his paths.”</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and the word of the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> from
Jerusalem.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>3 </sup></b>He shall judge between many peoples,</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and their spears into pruning hooks;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">nation shall not lift up sword against nation,</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">neither shall they learn war any more;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>4 </sup></b>but they shall all sit under their
own vines <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and under their own fig trees,</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and no one shall make them afraid;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">for the mouth of the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> of
hosts has spoken.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; margin: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">5 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For all the peoples walk,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">each in the name of its god,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">but we will walk in the name of the </span><span class="small-caps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"> our God</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">forever and ever.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; margin: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">6 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In that day, says the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I will assemble the lame</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">and gather those who have been driven away,</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and those whom I have afflicted.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>7 </sup></b>The lame I will make the remnant,</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">and those who were cast off, a strong nation;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="text">and the </span><span class="small-caps"><span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"> will
reign over them in Mount Zion</span><br />
</span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 5.0pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">now and forevermore.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; margin: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Revelation
21:1-5a, 22:1-2<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">21 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away, and the sea was no more. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>And I saw the holy
city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>And I heard a loud
voice from the throne saying,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“See,
the home of God is among mortals.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span class="text">He
will dwell with them;</span><br />
<span class="text">they will be his peoples,</span> <span class="text">and God
himself will be with them;</span> <br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>4 </sup></b>he will wipe every tear from their
eyes.</span><br />
<span class="text">Death will be no more;</span> <span class="text">mourning and
crying and pain will be no more,</span><br />
<span class="text">for the first things have passed away.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">5 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making
all things new.” <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">22 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life,
bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb <b><sup>2 </sup></b>through
the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree
of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month;
and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Trees were once vital in human
warfare – used to build chariots, spears, arrows, bows, siege engines, gun
stocks, ships, ammunition crates, pit props and duckboards for trenches…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The two world wars of the 20<sup>th</sup>
century, in addition to their human death toll, saw massive destruction of
trees – not just from the direct devastation to entire forests on battle sites
caused by bombing and shelling, but also from the huge increase in demand for timber
for trenches and all the logistical demands of the war machine. Half Britain’s
productive forests, and alarming amounts from the then colonies, were cut down
to feed WWI. Similar worldwide deforestation was caused by WWII.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The common or European hornbeam,
Carpinus betulus, has a very dense, hard wood, resistant to wear, thus once
used for wheels, handles, shafts, wooden gears. Romans apparently used hornbeam
for their chariots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe this toughness
is why a hornbeam was the one tree left standing after the battle of Delville
Wood on the Somme. That hornbeam is still alive and flourishing today,
surrounded by newly planted trees, part of a memorial to the South African
forces who fought there. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Although our National Memorial
Arboretum is relatively new (first trees planted in 1997), there is a long –
and growing - tradition of planting trees as a memorial to those lost in war.
They live on long after those they commemorate, even those who plant them,
giving solace and hope.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Are we learning
to stop cutting down trees for war, and start growing them for peace?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’re in the second of four weeks of the ‘Kingdom season’,
the time at the turn of the Christian calendar when we ‘remember the future’:
looking back to remember what has been, to grieve for those we have lost, but
also to remember God’s promises of future healing, justice and peace. Promises
that find their voice in the prophets of the Hebrew bible, promises that find
their fulfilment in Jesus of Nazareth – himself both standing in that line of
Jewish prophets, but also ‘the word made flesh’, as we will proclaim again
soon. But what comes to birth with Jesus, the fulfilment of the prophets’
hopes, is not yet complete. The vision glimpsed by Micah and Isaiah, and by
John the Visionary (the writer of Revelation), describes a world that we’re
still longing for, praying for, working for, aching for – a world that is <i>not
yet the world we live in</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s in that context – this season of the liturgical year,
and the ‘big picture’ stretched out between the Hebrew prophets and the coming
Kingdom of peace, with Jesus at the centre – that we Christians mark
Remembrance Sunday. It’s surely a coincidence that Armistice Day fell when it
did (11<sup>th</sup> November 1918). But from a Christian perspective it ‘makes
sense’ to join the wider ‘secular’ remembering of these days (focusing particularly
on those who’ve died in the wars and conflicts of the world) with the ‘big
picture’ remembering of this liturgical season.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When Christian and ‘secular’ moments coincide, however, we
always need to ask ourselves: how do we mark this moment? which story do we
tell? where do we draw the boundaries around the space we’re inhabiting – and
around who is included? Sometimes – as has been the case with our recent Black
History Month – the challenge to remember (to pay attention, to celebrate
stories of hope and struggle and reflect on our past and present failures) has
come from <i>beyond</i> the Church, stretching the horizons of us Christians,
especially those of us who are Christian and white. At other times – and this
week is one of the most important examples of this – our wider cultural
traditions, especially national traditions, need to be challenged and expanded
by the story with which the Church has been entrusted.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Seen within the Christian ‘big picture’, Remembrance Sunday
can never be limited to the affinities of nationhood. The visions of Micah and
Revelation are about the coming together of the <i>whole world</i> and all its
peoples – a world where national identities are a thing of the past, along with
war and death and mourning and pain. Our remembering, this week, must include
the whole world – including those who have at times been labelled our
‘enemies’, including the non-human world that has itself also been scarred by
wars and conflicts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Seen within the Christian ‘big picture’, there is only one
cause which requires the giving of everything, even our lives: not ‘national
security’ or a particular ‘way of life’, but the healing, peace and justice of
God’s kingdom – a world where swords and guns are melted down and turned into
equipment for gardening; where those who have been ‘strong’ are brought to
judgment, and where those who have been wounded (the ‘lame’) and excluded (the
‘cast off’) are at the very centre of the new creation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Between the prophets and the new creation, we find ourselves
in the <i>middle</i> of the story. The ‘middle’ is the space where we have to
do the hard, complicated, compromised work of working out <i>how</i> we join
with God in the work of ‘making all things new’. But the middle is also the
space into which Jesus comes, and lives, and calls us to follow, and
accompanies us on the way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Ruth Harley)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Today’s
readings are all about the future. The future can feel difficult to talk about
at the moment. In these strange and uncertain times in which we live, even
writing these words on Monday, knowing that they will be read and heard on
Sunday, feels like something of a hostage to fortune. Who knows what might have
happened by then?! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But here in
our Bible readings we have a vision for the future, or rather two visions,
written centuries apart, but they are very clearly visions of the same future,
seen from different angles. This is a future of peace and healing, justice and
equity. This future is the kin-dom of God – and it is on its way. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And what a
future it is! Where swords will be beaten into ploughshares and spears into
pruning hooks, where war and death and pain will all be things of the past.
What a beautiful vision, and what a far cry from our present reality. It is, I
think, no accident that visions of the future when God’s rule is fully
realised, appear most often in the Bible as poetry rather than prose. Perhaps
we need the depth and subtlety of the poet’s craft to even begin to grasp the
enormity of the future God promises, especially when it seems at odds with our
present experience. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">These are
indeed beautiful visions. But what good, you may ask, are they to us now? And I
must confess that was my first thought as I read the opening of the reading of
the Malachi reading: “In days to come…” is all very well, but what about here
and now? What about us? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We read of
people coming together from every nation to worship God. What use is that in
the face of a lockdown which doesn’t even allow us to gather with our
neighbours? We read of God gathering together those who have been driven away.
But what use is that to all those people who feel now that they are being
driven to the fringes of society by an elite that just doesn’t care? We read
about swords beaten into ploughshares and about God’s justice which is
righteous. But what use is that in a world riven with injustice and violence,
where teenagers are stabbed in our streets, the national and international
political landscape seems to grow more unstable, and governments continue to
spend outrageously more on nuclear weapons than they do on housing or health or
education? What comfort is it to hear “neither shall they learn war any more”
even as we remember all those who have died in so many conflicts since ‘the war
to end all wars’, which did no such thing? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And then
there is the Revelation reading. “Death will be no more; mourning and crying
and pain will be no more.” That sounds wonderful, but what about now? We are
mourning now, we are hurting and crying now, and so many people are dying now
that can feel hard to untangle the individual lives from the unimaginably big
numbers. The planet on which we live and depend is dying now, and how does that
fit in with a vision of a new heaven and a new earth? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">All these
questions, and more, are ones with which we might approach these texts. All of
them, and more, are questions we might want to bring to God – and we shouldn’t
be afraid to do so. God is big enough to handle even our biggest, scariest,
most anguished questions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There are a
number of ways we can bring these visionary texts into conversation with the
reality of life today. We could say: “it’s ok, none of this is important,
because in the end God will make all things well, and that’s all that matters.”
I think we can all hear how hollow that would sound to any of us who, in
whatever ways, are suffering in the present. And theology (by which I don’t
just mean academic theology, but all the ways we think and speak about God)
which doesn’t resonate with real life just doesn’t ring true. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Instead we
could say: “yes, things are bad now, but we just have to hang on through the
tough stuff and it’ll be worth it in the end.” And sometimes, when we’re
hanging on by a thread, that promise that things will change, it won’t always
be like this, is what we most need to hear. But it perhaps raises more
questions than it answers: is God indifferent to human suffering? Does God not
care? These, perhaps, are the sort of questions the authors of the Psalms are
wrestling with when they cry out, “How long, O Lord, how long?” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We could
say: “We just need to sort it all out, and then things will be ok. There’s
always something we can do.” And often there is, but sometimes there isn’t, and
often what we can do never feels like enough. We must resist the idea that if
we just tried harder, did more, were better people, we could make everything
ok. It’s bad for us, and it’s bad theology. We don’t have that sort of power.
Only God does. Salvation does not depend on us – thank God! The vision of God’s
kin-dom which we receive in scripture is wholly God’s gift, wholly grace freely
given.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So where
does that leave us? We are living in the between times, the now-and-not-yet of
the kin-dom. In Jesus, God’s promises find their fulfilment, but not yet their
completion. It is this position of incompleteness and of promise which we
recognise at Remembrance as we not only remember the dead, but also commit
ourselves to work and pray for peace in whatever imperfect ways we can,
trusting that all our fragile efforts will one day be subsumed by the perfect
peace of God’s kind-dom. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">We find
ourselves grappling with the tension between the reality of the world as it is,
and the vision of the world as it shall be. And somewhere in that tension, if
we sit with it honestly instead of turning away in search of neat answers or
quick solutions, we will find hope. Perhaps we will find it in the poetic
visions of scripture, or in the unexpected kindness of a neighbour, or in the
beauty of the world around us, or in the faithfulness of our companions on the
way. Hope that we are part of a bigger picture. Hope that we are held in the
hand and the heart of God who loves us infinitely. Hope that all these bright,
visionary promises which seem so impossible now, will indeed come to pass –
somehow, someday - because nothing is impossible with God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And
clinging to that hope, which is so precious and so fragile, clinging closely to
God in whom we live and move and have our being, we can find strength just
enough for the next step, the next day, the next breath.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">BLESSING IN A TIME OF VIOLENCE<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Which is to say</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br />
this blessing<br />
is always.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Which is to
say<br />
there is no place<br />
this blessing<br />
does not long<br />
to cry out<br />
in lament,<br />
to weep its words<br />
in sorrow,<br />
to scream its lines<br />
in sacred rage.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Which is to
say<br />
there is no day<br />
this blessing ceases<br />
to whisper<br />
into the ear<br />
of the dying,<br />
the despairing,<br />
the terrified.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Which is to
say<br />
there is no moment<br />
this blessing refuses<br />
to sing itself<br />
into the heart<br /></span><span style="font-size: 12pt;">of the hated <br />and the hateful, <br />the victim <br />and the victimizer, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> <br />with every last <br />ounce of hope <br />it has. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Which is to say <br />there is none <br />that can stop it, <br />none that can <br />halt its course, <br />none that will <br />still its cadence, <br />none that will <br />delay its rising, <br />none that can keep it <br />from springing forth <br />from the mouths of us <br />who hope, <br />from the hands of us <br />who act, <br />from the hearts of us <br />who love, <br />from the feet of us <br />who will not cease <br />our stubborn, aching <br />marching, marching</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">until this
blessing<br />
has spoken<br />
its final word,<br />
until this blessing<br />
has breathed<br />
its benediction<br />
in every place,<br />
in every tongue:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Peace.<br />
Peace.<br />
Peace.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(from Jan Richardson, <i>The Cure for Sorrows: A Book
of Blessings for Times of Grief</i>)<b><i><u><o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people</span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">On
Remembrance Sunday (8</span><sup style="text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">th</sup><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"> November), find a tree in our neighbourhood
where you can take some time to remember…</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">Tie
a red streamer to remember all those who have had their lives taken from them
in war and conflicts in our world</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;">Tie
a white streamer to re-commit yourself to Jesus’ way of peace-making</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJZuhiocTDj7ZmGaFysmPSKoNa0rgLmZToVunElEvHQ3fvvGLP6Ei503nSKoThRh6pFIAYrNYybZsEiucvbWCNdIbZEQwNpduOwrwWkz5jnr4WWGtrG-sShJgwUrQ5QNC97PaQ4Xiwl8HY/s846/remembrance+%25232.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="594" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJZuhiocTDj7ZmGaFysmPSKoNa0rgLmZToVunElEvHQ3fvvGLP6Ei503nSKoThRh6pFIAYrNYybZsEiucvbWCNdIbZEQwNpduOwrwWkz5jnr4WWGtrG-sShJgwUrQ5QNC97PaQ4Xiwl8HY/w281-h400/remembrance+%25232.png" width="281" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9wLn4mjPAr8doj6Ca5mrIO8KOfSPkQfePkA1QefiXQ6ezG05cQUCr_d0tAheaONWcU2aVxCKzJLknfNoOvush1p2qXfNoDWmU_4juRkrsEHgTz8zKlzrAvqFdq3i5Pt6DwJqJxgEt27-a/s846/remembrance+%25233.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="594" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9wLn4mjPAr8doj6Ca5mrIO8KOfSPkQfePkA1QefiXQ6ezG05cQUCr_d0tAheaONWcU2aVxCKzJLknfNoOvush1p2qXfNoDWmU_4juRkrsEHgTz8zKlzrAvqFdq3i5Pt6DwJqJxgEt27-a/w281-h400/remembrance+%25233.png" width="281" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiN-0MJjpypDwqAvQ81_iHC5NIUWiNm85sZL7eTcRX0kE7AjcM0V3qZBN8ITkpWjVV8lK92gQwW_8vnOMDmpQ-_gghNwOFAJ7lwnUYwhu33wbHKxnRoUf1x5_LTSFOjnn_BgfT0wVP2nQU/s846/remembrance+%25234.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="846" data-original-width="594" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiN-0MJjpypDwqAvQ81_iHC5NIUWiNm85sZL7eTcRX0kE7AjcM0V3qZBN8ITkpWjVV8lK92gQwW_8vnOMDmpQ-_gghNwOFAJ7lwnUYwhu33wbHKxnRoUf1x5_LTSFOjnn_BgfT0wVP2nQU/w281-h400/remembrance+%25234.png" width="281" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><br /></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 108.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level3 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span style="mso-ignore: vglayout;"><table align="left" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tbody><tr>
<td height="492" width="276"></td>
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<td><img alt="Text Box: 1 Ayala Croft" height="43" src="file:///C:/Users/hodge/AppData/Local/Temp/msohtmlclip1/01/clip_image009.png" v:shapes="_x0000_s1026" width="159" /></td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-37249779476909389152020-11-15T05:57:00.002-08:002020-11-15T05:57:27.943-08:00Week 18: Who are we grieving?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_2gBhLve_LNcBZfVv_6-4oetQ51smhRJ2qoa0o3wdxUMD-EW75Ytlhv0URWwQGFjHoqhtNrUt6w4wz57OrbYk6BIGQDz23lHn-hwFdiG7Yovl0TxTlhuMeY2fADvmdpSi3RQwb8XYZosD/s1006/lights+%2528Swanson%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1006" data-original-width="788" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_2gBhLve_LNcBZfVv_6-4oetQ51smhRJ2qoa0o3wdxUMD-EW75Ytlhv0URWwQGFjHoqhtNrUt6w4wz57OrbYk6BIGQDz23lHn-hwFdiG7Yovl0TxTlhuMeY2fADvmdpSi3RQwb8XYZosD/w314-h400/lights+%2528Swanson%2529.jpg" width="314" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="Riteheading" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 10.0pt; font-style: normal; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;">(John August Swanson, ‘Festival of
Lights’)<span class="text"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Isaiah 61:1-4<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">61 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
spirit of the Lord </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">God</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> is upon me,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">because the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;"> has anointed me;</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">he has sent me to bring good
news to the oppressed,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">to bind up the brokenhearted,</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">to proclaim liberty to the
captives,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">and release to the prisoners;</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white;">2 </span></sup></b><span style="background: white;">to proclaim the year of the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">’s favor,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">and the day of vengeance of our God;</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">to comfort all who mourn;</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white;">3 </span></sup></b><span style="background: white;">to provide for those who mourn in Zion—</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">to give them a garland instead of
ashes,</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">the oil of gladness instead of
mourning,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">the mantle of praise instead of a
faint spirit.</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">They will be called oaks of
righteousness,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">the planting of the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">, to display his glory.</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white;">4 </span></sup></b><span style="background: white;">They shall build up the ancient ruins,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">they shall raise up the former
devastations;</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">they shall repair the ruined
cities,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">the devastations of many generations.</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Revelation
21:1-5a<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">21 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then I saw a new heaven
and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and
the sea was no more. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>And I saw the holy city, the
new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“See,
the home of God is among mortals.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span class="text">He
will dwell with them;</span><br />
<span class="text">they will be his peoples,</span> <span class="text">and God
himself will be with them;</span> <br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>4 </sup></b>he will wipe every tear from their
eyes.</span><br />
<span class="text">Death will be no more;</span> <span class="text">mourning and
crying and pain will be no more,</span><br />
<span class="text">for the first things have passed away.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">5 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making
all things new.” </span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Spring and Fall: To a young child<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Margaret, are you grieving<br />
Over Goldengrove unleaving?<br />
Leaves, like the things of man, you<br />
With your fresh thoughts care for, can you?<br />
Ah! as the heart grows older<br />
It will come to such sights colder<br />
By and by, nor spare a sigh<br />
Though worlds of wanwood leafmeal lie;<br />
And yet you will weep and know why.<br />
Now no matter, child, the name:<br />
Sorrow's springs are the same.<br />
Nor mouth had, no nor mind, expressed<br />
What héart héard of, ghóst guéssed:<br />
It is the blight man was born for,<br />
It is Margaret you mourn for. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">G M Hopkins’ poem
(written in 1880) reflects on a child’s sorrow at falling autumn leaves: it is
a foretaste of other griefs that come to weigh on us as we grow older, of
mourning for a whole world of loss and decay, including our own mortality. Do
we, as Hopkins suggests, lose that childish grief over fallen leaves as we
mature and deal with adult losses? I think that most of us are still moved by
autumn leaves: first joy at the beauty of the turning colours, then sorrowing
at the reminder of death and decay as they fall. Maybe we can learn though to
see that in shedding their leaves, trees are not looking back but ‘remembering
forward’ to next spring: leaf colours change as green chlorophyll and vital
resources are withdrawn back into the trunk and roots, not lost but stored
there safely until needed for new leaves in the spring.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction
to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Entering November, we find ourselves in the four weeks before
Advent that the Church has in recent years called ‘the Kingdom season’. As we
said last week, although we now leave Black History Month behind us for this
year, this is not about ‘moving on’ from that time of remembering, but now
moving <i>deeper</i> and <i>wider</i> into our remembering. Over the next four
weeks, we have an opportunity – in these reflections, but also in various opportunities
to do things in our own homes, around our neighbourhood, and in the church
building and garden – to remember those we have loved and lost personally,
those who have died in the wars and conflicts of our world, and those saints
who have walked the way of faith before us. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But this remembering is not just about looking <i>back</i>,
to the past. It’s also about looking <i>forward</i>: ‘remembering the future’,
with the hope-filled promises of God in the words of the prophets of Scripture
and the lives and witnesses of the saints that light our way. And there is, in
this looking forward, multiple layers of timing that is often referred to as ‘<i>now
and not yet</i>’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At a time when it’s almost impossible to make plans, to
second guess what might be around the corner for us – globally, nationally,
even locally – this ‘Kingdom season’ invites us to look towards God’s horizon:
the promise of God’s Kingdom, the new creation, in all its fullness. This
horizon is ‘<i>not yet</i>’: out of our reach, but ahead of us in a way that we
can keep in our sights and head towards. But God’s Kingdom, God’s new creation,
is also already springing up <i>now</i>, in our midst. Like seeds buried deep
in the ground, God’s Kingdom is growing beneath our feet, unseen, ready to
burst out into the light at the right time. Or, like little seedlings, it is
quietly peeking up above the ground, fragile but also determined, noticeable
(if we’re looking for it), but also very missable (if we’re not). But, like
seeds and seedlings, God’s Kingdom growing in the present requires us to invest
time, care and attention in nurturing it where we notice it – working with God,
the gardener, to grow it, protect it, enable it to flourish.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Today, then, we bring our memories and our grieving. Our
lament for what has slipped through our fingers. Our tears for the people we
have loved and lost, and for everything that has been lost – or become extinct
– in God’s good Earth. But we also come with eyes open, to look through the
tears for signs of hope, for possibilities of healing and restoration – for the
promise of the new heaven and the new earth – both now, and not yet.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Gloria Smith)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The last time we heard
from Isaiah was in our Black History Month series of reflections and it was
very much about what was wrong with Israel and it was very much criticising the
Hebrews for their behaviour towards the poor and the disadvantaged and how the
leaders had let down the people. He was very much in the mode of giving them a
good telling off. If we contrast this with today’s reading we see that Isaiah
is full of hope for the Jewish people and in particular the marginalised and
the downtrodden. He declares himself the anointed one who is going to bring
good news to the broken-hearted, the prisoners, the captives and the oppressed.
He also includes those who are mourning by saying they will be comforted and be
given ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a garland instead of ashes, the
oil of gladness instead of mourning.’</i> As a sign of mourning in Isaiah’s
time people would often have their head sprinkled with ashes. Isaiah says that
will be changed to ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the oil of gladness’ </i>which
was used in those days when celebrations were happening and people’s heads were
anointed with oil.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Revelation we hear
that ‘…<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">death will be no more, mourning
and crying and pain will be no more’ </i>and finishes with saying <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">“See I am making all things new”</i> This is
a well-known passage commonly used at funerals to comfort mourners and is a
reminder of the resurrection. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It seems through Isaiah
and later through Revelation, God is declaring his intent to make things new,
better. In Luke Chapter 4 the same passage from Isaiah is used when Jesus
teaches in the synagogue in Nazareth just after he begins his ministry and that
is the key. God is making the possibility of things being made new by the
sending of his son Jesus into the world. There is hope for a better future
because of Jesus. But I wonder does it feel like that for you right now?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Today’s theme is ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Who are we grieving?’</i> and I would add to
that ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">What are we grieving for?’<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Since March of this year
it seems we have been doing a lot of mourning, mourning for the people we have
lost, mourning for the things that we are no longer able to do. I wonder in
this 8 months who and what have you been grieving for? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Take a moment to have a think.</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I believe this pandemic
has brought grief to each and every one of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>You may know someone who has died of Covid or other causes this year.
People were unable to grieve in the way they would have liked. Only a few
people were able to attend funerals and this meant many others have been left
mourning in the isolation of their own home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We may have lost touch with family and friends, or not been able to do
something which gave us life and energy. One of the biggest things for me has
not been able to touch people: a handshake, a hug, or a gentle touch on the
arm. In my younger years, I was not a touchy feely kind of person but having
learnt how important it can be, I have found it incredibly frustrating and sad
not to be able to reach out and touch someone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDoZ8wGLUCkIKGaNflTpvLaaN1lC-z09ZKlbaGmspDLwiO3xwzepfzYlAu_C1dBjAGh1Vrh9GWLNr32sWXq_WuA5lHjm8dNu9c_F8cSt3l_brLtHccv7Ib_Gfep8RNutgn6y321p4fZQx4/s600/stages+of+grief.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="489" data-original-width="600" height="326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDoZ8wGLUCkIKGaNflTpvLaaN1lC-z09ZKlbaGmspDLwiO3xwzepfzYlAu_C1dBjAGh1Vrh9GWLNr32sWXq_WuA5lHjm8dNu9c_F8cSt3l_brLtHccv7Ib_Gfep8RNutgn6y321p4fZQx4/w400-h326/stages+of+grief.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Grieving is a natural and
necessary process when someone or something has died and there are five
accepted stages to grief. These are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">denial</i>-
when someone is unable to accept what is happening; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">anger</i>- blaming the person who has died or themselves or someone
else and being unable to process that anger; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">bargaining</i>- a stage when people will offer something to get that
person or thing back; <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">depression</i>-total
despair when it is understood what has happened and then <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">acceptance</i> -where the situation is understood and the person may be
ready to move on. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Do you recognise or remember any of these stages from your
own grief?</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The length of each stage
depends on lots of things but certainly is not the same for everyone. Each
person is different and so handles grief in different ways. Also you can see
from the diagram how it is not a straightforward process but one that can
revisit different stages. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Who or what are you grieving for today?</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The bible readings today
give lots of hope, a hope that is based not on the chance of say a lottery win
but in the trust we have as Christians of God’s unbounded love for each and
every one of us. God sees each and every one of us as made in the image of God
and therefore we are cared for in the darkest of despair or grief as much as in
our moments of pure joy and happiness. Our God wants what is best for us and
never abandons us even when we think that is what has happened. God did not cause
the Covid pandemic because of us doing stuff wrong. God did not make it happen
to change our ways and look at things differently. It may sometimes seem like a
punishment or a warning to change our ways but I don’t believe our God is that
kind of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However, there is an
opportunity for us to look at how we do things and see if they seem right and
if not to change them. This is God’s hope. God believes in us even when we
don’t believe in ourselves. We can use what has happened this year to examine
ourselves and see what we want to do differently. Early on in the pandemic
there was very much a time when we as a community all pulled together and only
by doing that were people who were struggling and or vulnerable to the disease
were able to be fed and cared for. We are capable of so much and God knows
that. In the book of Revelation God says<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">
‘See I am making all things new.’</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">God gives us that chance
to make things different and God sees that goodness in all of us. We just need
to respond to that hope. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">However, a question is
are we ready for that hope? Can we see those small signs of hope that we can
hold on to or are will still in the mourning stage where hope seems a long way
off? One example of those small signs of hope has happened over the last week.
The Manchester United footballer Marcus Rashford started a campaign in June
about providing free school meal vouchers over the holidays to help families
who were struggling and he got the government to do a U turn and agree to his
proposal. He is doing the same again and because the government are refusing to
budge this time there have been offers from the communities to help. Small
local and not so local shops, restaurants and others have committed to step in,
to provide much needed nourishment for our most vulnerable children. Others
have signed petitions and written to their MP asking for a change of heart.
Help for the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘oppressed, the
broken-hearted’</i>. This may only be a small step and you may be able to think
of many others. Tiny shoots of change that say<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">:<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘God will comfort and provide for all who mourn,’ </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> ‘the one who was seated upon the throne said, ‘See I am making all
things new.’’</i><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Paul Nash)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Isaiah 61:1 tells us, <i>‘<span style="background: white;">The spirit of the Lord </span></i></span></span><span class="small-caps"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">God</span></i></span><span class="text"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> is
upon me,</span></i></span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span></i></span><span class="text"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">because
the </span></i></span><span class="small-caps"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Lord</span></i></span><span class="text"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> has
anointed me… to bind up the broken hearted.’</span></i></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As we
know, what and how our hearts are broken are both universal and personal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are broken hearted in so many ways, but
most of these are about loss.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Bereavement is only way of experiencing loss, there are many
others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Loss of role, physical ability,
health, status, belongings and belonging, relationships, faith, liberty,
security etc, so many different ways. It is not just about the tragedy of the
immediate loss but the loss of hopes, aspirations, a future.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I thought
I would share with you some reflections from those who have been broken hearted
through child bereavement. I don’t set out to upset you, but it is sometimes
difficult to know how to bind up the pain of this type of loss.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">“There are so many
clichés that people come out with at times of illness or death, they are not
what you want to hear right now. You must grieve in your own way, both
individually and together, and whatever emotions you feel, from sadness to
anger, <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">it’s okay. God understands.”</span></i><b><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></b></p>
<p style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In researching one of our
bereavement books, we asked families to tell us their top tips for those
supporting them during their palliative and bereavement care. This is what they
recommended: but please remember even these are very personal reflections.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Listen to
our stories, be there for the long haul and continue to talk about our child.</span><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Please let us make sense of what happened in our way
and time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is our grief, not yours
to make sense of.</span><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Offer help with the practical things of life like
shopping or picking up any other children from school or cooking a meal, and
just drop in and visit to help us avoid feeling isolated.</span><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">It helps to be reassured that our child is no longer
in pain because as a mother I always want what is best for my child. It helps
to know that God understands how we feel.</span><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">5.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">Our memories are really important for us to hang on
to. Where possible facilitate the creation of memories through rituals. Be
willing to keep listening to our memories.</span><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">6.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">It can be really helpful to come to memorial services,
both for us as families but also for our or our child’s friends, as it enables
us to continue to show our love for our child. Having our child’s name in a
remembrance book is a comfort too.</span><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">7.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt;">If there
was one word to sum up everything else it is this – listen.</span><span style="color: #b13f9a; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">“Each
day in prayer I thank God for the continued unbroken link which we still have
with our departed loved ones through Him. <br />
We take comfort from the fact that we can indeed talk to God, the One who is
caring for them now and beneath whose gentle, tender love and care they are not
lost at all but are now safe, truly safe, safe from all harm and suffering.
......”</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“I lost my child to cancer, not God”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As
for my tips for caring for those who are bereaved:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“I am so sorry for your loss” is a sincere
response and generally appreciated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
message, a word, a note. I am very mindful many times to say no more. We can
seek to communicate we feel people’s pain and want to show our respects.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">Use the name of the person who
has died with those who are bereaved.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">Ask, don’t assume how they might
like to be supported. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">4.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">Be a channel of appropriate hope.
I never promise people it will stop hurting. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">“My hope
is that the strength of the love <br />
will become stronger than the pain.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One of my favourite pieces of writing that
helps explain good caring practice is the following from a bereaved person:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There's an elephant in the room. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It is large and squatting, so it is hard to
get around it. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Yet we squeeze by with, "How are
you?" and "I'm fine," <br />
and a thousand other forms of trivial chatter. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We talk about the weather. We talk about work.
<br />
We talk about everything else, except the elephant in the room. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There's an elephant in the room. We all know
it's there. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We are thinking about the elephant as we talk
together. <br />
It is constantly on our minds.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For, you see, it is a very large elephant. It
has hurt us all. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But we don't talk about the elephant in the
room. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Oh, please say their name. Oh, please say
their name again.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oh,
please, let's talk about the elephant in the room. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For if we talk about their death, perhaps we
can talk about their life. <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Can I say their name to you and not have you
look away? <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For
if I cannot, then you are leaving me.... alone.... <br />
in a room.... with an elephant<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-themecolor: text1;">As we celebrate All Souls and prepare for
Remembrance Sunday, let us commit ourselves to befriending loss and grief. To
become comfortable in feeling uncomfortable.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>When our new Earth and Heaven promised in our Revelation reading becomes
reality, in the parable of the Sheep and the Goats, we are reminded that God
will ask us what we did for those in loss, in pain. We are mindful that now,
between now and then, we have the opportunity and privilege to serve the
Divine! </span><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm; text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“As the years go on, please don’t forget us. Even if
you’ve not seen our faces for a while, our lives will never be the same again.
There will always be someone missing and there will always be something special
about you who cared.”</span></i><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (Tabea’s family)</span><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">I leave you with a poem for all us, a reminder in these peculiar
challenging times, to be gentle with ourselves as well as others:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Do not
hurry as you walk with grief.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 57.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-indent: -21.6pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">It does
not help the journey.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 57.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-indent: -21.6pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">Walk
slowly, pausing often.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 57.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-indent: -21.6pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">Do not
hurry as you walk with grief.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 57.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-indent: -21.6pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">Be not
disturbed by memories that come unbidden.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 57.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-indent: -21.6pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">Be
gentle with the one who walks with grief; <br />
if it is you, be gentle with yourself. </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 57.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-indent: -21.6pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">Swiftly
forgive, walk slowly, pausing often.</span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 57.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-indent: -21.6pt;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">Take
time to be gentle as you walk with grief.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 21.6pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 6.0pt; text-align: right; text-indent: -21.6pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: DengXian; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast; mso-font-kerning: 12.0pt; mso-text-raise: .5pt; mso-themecolor: text1; position: relative; top: -.5pt;">From <i>Prayers and readings from the Northumbria Community</i>, 2002,
Harper Collins</span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a name="_Hlk43723710"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">BLESSING WHEN THE WORLD IS ENDING<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Look, the world<span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"> </span><br />
is always ending<br />
somewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Somewhere<br />
the sun has come<br />
crashing down.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Somewhere<br />
it has gone<br />
completely dark.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Somewhere<br />
it has ended<br />
with the gun,<br />
the knife,<br />
the fist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Somewhere<br />
it has ended<br />
with the slammed door,<br />
the shattered hope.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Somewhere</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
it has ended</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
with the utter quiet</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
that follows the news</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
from the phone,</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
the television,</span><br /><span style="font-size: 12pt;">
the hospital room.</span><br /></span>Somewhere <br />it has ended <br />with a tenderness <br />that will break <br />your heart.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">But, listen, <br />this blessing means <br />to be anything <br />but morose. <br />It has not come <br />to cause despair. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;">It is here <br />simply because <br />there is nothing <br />a blessing <br />is better suited for <br />than an ending, <br />nothing that cries out more <br />for a blessing <br />than when a world <br />is falling apart.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This blessing<br />
will not fix you,<br />
will not mend you,<br />
will not give you<br />
false comfort;<br />
it will not talk to you<br />
about one door opening<br />
when another closes.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It will simply<br />
sit itself beside you<br />
among the shards<br />
and gently turn your face<br />
toward the direction<br />
from which the light<br />
will come,<br />
gathering itself<br />
about you<br />
as the world begins<br />
again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%;">(Jan
Richardson, <i>Circles of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons</i>)<b><i><u><br clear="all" style="mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</u></i></b><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u></u></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><u><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></u></i></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Hopefully you’ve seen the flyer for our ‘remembering’
activities over November (we’ve sent it out with worship packs, and it’s on our
church Facebook page). Here are some of the ideas we’ve suggested there:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiriw5X_oz-jG-xfRPxzRl-MKzq2dhdscBTSzUqGTFIm4Z9ecH8fAM-agnx_Av8g2IZtg-lF0jyOm1OUZ_gv62ymCCuXh6fQ5eO6cnnH9_KrJHdhZ7OLO1rqfJFh-u8XajxzLbrUZGy3hA/s844/November+%25232.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="844" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiriw5X_oz-jG-xfRPxzRl-MKzq2dhdscBTSzUqGTFIm4Z9ecH8fAM-agnx_Av8g2IZtg-lF0jyOm1OUZ_gv62ymCCuXh6fQ5eO6cnnH9_KrJHdhZ7OLO1rqfJFh-u8XajxzLbrUZGy3hA/w400-h283/November+%25232.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJn62zhOGErmhM1zfONqWglYKmtMhezShihNnGb3bUCvHqfUpwzpDiOQWmEjoBBGf1Q8oBCBvj-vsN6yjaOc3ysfpXw4TFWqv6IzMryBGxzue6ofEnKc1Pbn5v1GIaoUOzoD4hYlXLJ1W7/s845/November+%25233.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="596" data-original-width="845" height="283" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJn62zhOGErmhM1zfONqWglYKmtMhezShihNnGb3bUCvHqfUpwzpDiOQWmEjoBBGf1Q8oBCBvj-vsN6yjaOc3ysfpXw4TFWqv6IzMryBGxzue6ofEnKc1Pbn5v1GIaoUOzoD4hYlXLJ1W7/w400-h283/November+%25233.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br /></p>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-24762771950305623932020-10-22T02:26:00.003-07:002020-10-22T02:26:21.159-07:00Racial Justice (5): Healing for the world<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge_BtuoNzIsLv5ralxoa-PbS5DyYFrBd3ldFiBuTf6nV94lT187UGt4l8hs3Jzwp1SoyXYOI8-nDUWq0UwX-G2KgJZ8S1c12scudeA6Ice84o9mPjaBB3CcQBjFQkpCxdnRtbokFVNL56f/s1061/tree+of+life+%2528hungertuch%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="738" data-original-width="1061" height="279" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEge_BtuoNzIsLv5ralxoa-PbS5DyYFrBd3ldFiBuTf6nV94lT187UGt4l8hs3Jzwp1SoyXYOI8-nDUWq0UwX-G2KgJZ8S1c12scudeA6Ice84o9mPjaBB3CcQBjFQkpCxdnRtbokFVNL56f/w400-h279/tree+of+life+%2528hungertuch%2529.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><strong><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Tree of
Life</span></i></strong><strong><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, by Jacques-Richard Chery (Haiti)</span></strong><strong><span style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">For more details,
look it up <a href="https://www.artway.eu/content.php?id=2108&action=show&lang=en" target="_blank">here</a>.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ezekiel 47:1-12<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">47 </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then he brought me
back to the entrance of the temple; there, water was flowing from below the
threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east); and the
water was flowing down from below the south end of the threshold of the temple,
south of the altar. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>Then he brought me out by way
of the north gate, and led me around on the outside to the outer gate that
faces toward the east; and the water was coming out on the south side.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Going on eastward with a cord in his hand, the man measured one
thousand cubits, and then led me through the water; and it was
ankle-deep. <b><sup>4 </sup></b>Again he measured one thousand, and
led me through the water; and it was knee-deep. Again he measured one thousand,
and led me through the water; and it was up to the waist. <b><sup>5 </sup></b>Again
he measured one thousand, and it was a river that I could not cross, for the
water had risen; it was deep enough to swim in, a river that could not be
crossed. <b><sup>6 </sup></b>He said to me, “Mortal, have you seen
this?”</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then
he led me back along the bank of the river. <b><sup>7 </sup></b>As I
came back, I saw on the bank of the river a great many trees on the one side
and on the other. <b><sup>8 </sup></b>He said to me, “This water
flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it
enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. <b><sup>9 </sup></b>Wherever
the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there
will be very many fish, once these waters reach there. It will become fresh;
and everything will live where the river goes. <b><sup>10 </sup></b>People
will stand fishing beside the sea from En-gedi to En-eglaim; it will be a
place for the spreading of nets; its fish will be of a great many kinds, like
the fish of the Great Sea. <b><sup>11 </sup></b>But its swamps and
marshes will not become fresh; they are to be left for salt. <b><sup>12 </sup></b>On
the banks, on both sides of the river, there will grow all kinds of trees for
food. Their leaves will not wither nor their fruit fail, but they will bear
fresh fruit every month, because the water for them flows from the sanctuary.
Their fruit will be for food, and their leaves for healing.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Revelation
21:1-6, 22-26; 22:1-5<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">21 </span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then I saw a new
heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed
away, and the sea was no more. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>And I saw the holy
city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a
bride adorned for her husband. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>And I heard a loud
voice from the throne saying,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“See,
the home of God is among mortals.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span class="text">He
will dwell with them;</span><br />
<span class="text">they will be his peoples,</span> <span class="text">and God
himself will be with them;</span> <br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>4 </sup></b>he will wipe every tear from their
eyes.</span><br />
<span class="text">Death will be no more;</span> <span class="text">mourning and
crying and pain will be no more,</span><br />
<span class="text">for the first things have passed away.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">5 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making
all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and
true.” <b><sup>6 </sup></b>Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the
Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give
water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">22 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God
the Almighty and the Lamb. <b><sup>23 </sup></b>And the city has no
need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its
lamp is the Lamb. <b><sup>24 </sup></b>The nations will walk by its
light, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. <b><sup>25 </sup></b>Its
gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. <b><sup>26 </sup></b>People
will bring into it the glory and the honour of the nations.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">22 </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life,
bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb <b><sup>2 </sup></b>through
the middle of the street of the city. On either side of the river is the tree
of life with its twelve kinds of fruit, producing its fruit each month;
and the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>Nothing
accursed will be found there any more. But the throne of God and of the Lamb
will be in it, and his servants will worship him; <b><sup>4 </sup></b>they
will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. <b><sup>5 </sup></b>And
there will be no more night; they need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord
God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Wisdom is like a baobab tree; no one individual can embrace
it</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2017%20(25-10-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Baobabs trees are native
to Madagascar, mainland Africa, and Australia, and were introduced to the
Caribbean in the colonial era. They can store up to 120,000 litres of water in
their massive bottle-shaped trunks, and they are deciduous, leafless for 9 months
of the year during the dry season to conserve water. The thin, twisty branches
look more like roots, so the baobab is sometimes known as the ‘Upside Down
Tree’. Myths and stories about baobabs abound, many explaining their
appearance. In one, the baobab is always complaining, so God uproots it and
replants it with its head in the earth and roots in the air! Since then the
baobab has stopped complaining and become the most useful tree around.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Tree of Life’ is another
name often given to baobabs, reflecting their longevity (some live over 2000
years) but also that they provide almost everything humans need to survive,
including water, shelter, clothing and food. The bark and huge stem are used
for making cloth and rope; the leaves are used as condiments and medicines; the
fruit is edible, rich in vitamin C. The hollow trunks of old baobabs were
sometimes used as tombs for griots (traditional storytellers) – the trees
perhaps believed to absorb and preserve the history and traditions contained in
the griot’s words. Did enslaved Africans on Caribbean plantations draw
inspiration and strength in turn from the wise baobabs, transplanted like them
in a foreign land.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Knowledge is a light
that is in man; it is the inheritance of all that the ancestors knew and sowed
deep within us, just as the power of the baobab is contained in its seed.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2017%20(25-10-20).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> </span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’ve come again to the turning of the seasons. This week is
the last of our 5-week season focusing on Black History Month and racial
justice. And the inevitable question is, what next? The danger with any
‘themed’ season (just as with our previous season focusing on Creation) is that
we quickly forget – we put it behind us, and turn our attention to something
else. We ‘move on’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But like Ezekiel in his vision, where we go next is not <i>away</i>
from the river, but <i>deeper</i> into its flow. Next week, and for the four
weeks of November, we’ll be wading further into the waters of remembering: a
remembrance of those we have loved and lost personally, those who have died in
the wars and conflicts of our world, and those saints who have walked the way
of faith before us. And that remembering will be both looking <i>back</i>, to
the past, but also looking <i>forward</i>: ‘remembering the future’, with the
hope-filled promises of God in the words of the prophets of Scripture and the
lives and witnesses of the saints that light our way.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So this week, at the turning again of the seasons, we turn
back to ancient texts that point us towards a future that is still ahead of us:
a universe renewed, ‘a new heaven and a new earth’, a ‘heavenly’ city that is
planted firmly in God’s good earth, a <i>garden</i> city that might be called
‘Jerusalem’, but also ‘Eden’. Here, we’re told of a city whose gates are always
wide open, never shut. A city where whatever glory ‘nations’ used to have, now
pales into insignificance before the glory of God. A city where there is no
more death, no more fearful night-times, no longer any mourning, crying or pain
– a promise for all who have ever grieved, but especially for all who have ever
been oppressed, enslaved, marginalized. A city where there is enough food for
all – and where all have what they need. A city where, as God walks the streets
and climbs the trees alongside her children once again, old wounds are healed –
wounds not just of bodies and minds, but wounds of relationships between
peoples and nations, between humans and our creature-kin, and with the earth
itself. This is a city where the journey of reconciliation has run its course,
and has come to its Source.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But how do we get <i>there</i> from where we are <i>now</i>?
Neither the world we live in, nor the Church of today, are the new Jerusalem.
The water that flows from Ezekiel’s Temple, bringing refreshment, cleansing and
teeming life to the stagnant places of the world, has been dammed up, siphoned
off or poisoned; and what flows out from the Church’s sanctuaries, in the name
of love, is too often polluted with anxious institutional self-interest, the
misuse and abuse of power, or a kind of ‘broadcasting’ that’s indifferent to or
ignorant of the reality of the life of our neighbours. Even when we talk the
language of ‘reconciliation’, it can all too easily become a manipulative word,
that we imagine we can use to engineer change ‘out there’ – to get everyone to
just start being nice to each other – without the discomfort, pain and
costliness of changes in <i>us</i> and the ways we live our lives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">That radical change the Bible calls <i>repentance</i>:
literally, a ‘turning around’. And that, as we’ve seen over the course of this
month, involves some other ‘R’ words too:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">REMEMBERING</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">… We’ve been reminded, in this Black History Month, that
history matters. We may not be personally <i>responsible</i> for what happened
in the generations before we were born, but it has left its mark on us
nevertheless – in benefits or disadvantages, in collective wounds and traumas,
in the shaping of attitudes, relationships and structures in the present. We
remember the past, because its legacy lives on in the present – and we need to
continue the work of disentangling what is worth celebrating, from what is in
need of healing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">RECEIVING</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">… We’ve been blessed, over these last months, by being able to read and
hear ‘5<sup>th</sup> gospel’ reflections on the lived experiences of many
different members of our congregation – and not least during these last few
weeks of Black History Month. Some of those ‘testimonies’ have been hard to
write and speak – and also hard to hear, especially for those of us who are
white to hear of painful experiences of racism in the world, and in the church.
But those stories, those acts of honest sharing, have helped <i>reveal</i> for
us something of the truth, the reality of the world we all share. As the singer
and poet Samantha Lindo puts it, they have been contributions to ‘naming the
water in which [we] swim’.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2017%20(25-10-20).docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">RELINQUISHING</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">… We’re discovering, I think – especially if we’re white, and
even more so if our identity brings with it other kinds of privilege too (male,
middle-class, non-disabled, etc) – that if we’re to truly hear the stories,
truth and witness of others, if we’re to truly receive the challenges in what
we hear and what we remember, in ways that will change us… then there’s some <i>letting
go</i> that we have to do. Letting go of some of our defences and
defensiveness, letting go of our tendencies to jump in too soon with words or
actions (or to try and have the last word), letting go of our need to be
‘centre stage’, to be ‘needed’, or to be the person that ‘fixes’ things. Some
of us are so used to being listened to, looked to, and holding on to our
positions of comfort and status, that any kind of letting go can feel painful,
costly. But it’s necessary. There’s no way round it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">REPARATION</span></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">… As we encountered with Zacchaeus last week, if repentance
is to be real, it needs to be more than a change of heart. The way we relate to
each other, the way the systems work, the circumstances of our neighbours need
to start to change too. The water of life, where it has been dammed up, needs
to be unblocked to flow freely. The fruit of the garden, where it has been
hoarded for the few, needs to be shared in ways that mean no one goes hungry.
The wealth that has been built up through the forced labour of slavery, and
through many other injustices in our world, needs to be redistributed. The
power that has been held on one side of dividing lines of race, class and
gender (among others), needs to wash the barriers away. And where we have been
a beneficiary of these things, we need to play our part in ‘putting things
right’ in ways that are real and tangible, and potentially costly – in our
relationships, our communities, our society, our world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Over the past few weeks, many of us who are white have heard
stories, and been part of conversations, where we’ve felt ashamed of the
history that we’re part of, and the structures we’re entangled in – and where
we’ve felt guilty about what we’ve done, or not done, ourselves. Shame and
guilt, as we saw in the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, can make us want to
hide, can paralyse us. But as we hear God calling us to come out from behind
the tree, as we come face to face with God and face to face with each other
(which also means coming face to face with ourselves), then we discover
ourselves also called to take the next step on a journey – a journey towards
the new heaven and new earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Revd Dr Carlton Turner)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Carlton
is an Anglican priest and tutor at The Queen’s Foundation for Ecumenical
Theological Education.<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">These readings, what we call apocalyptic readings, always
fascinate me. In fact, that final scene from the Book of Revelation always
brings me a deep sense of peace and joy. Having grown up in the Caribbean and
having studied the history and legacies of slavery and colonialism, I am
reminded that the ultimate purpose of God isn’t simply justice, but healing and
wholeness: </span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“See,
the home of God is among mortals.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span class="text">He will dwell with them; they will be his
peoples,</span> <span class="text">and God himself will be with them;</span> <span class="text">he will wipe every tear from their eyes.</span> <span class="text">Death
will be no more;</span> <span class="text">mourning and crying and pain will be
no more,</span> <span class="text">for the first things have passed away (Rev.
21:3-4).” In this reflection I want us to hold on to this idea and hope of
total healing that seems to be the last word throughout the pages of the Bible,
both Old and New Testaments.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In our passage from Ezekiel 47 we
find a vision of a river flowing from God’s temple. As the scene is described,
we become aware of the dynamic nature of this river. Firstly, there is evidence
in the translation of the text to suggest that </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">the river begins as a trickle from
the temple. It starts small but becomes increasingly deeper and more powerful.</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> The prophet is led through this
water by the angelic being, but the further they go, the deeper the river gets.
It eventually becomes overwhelming and they must return to the riverbank. Then,
the deeper truth is revealed about this water trickling from the temple, that
becomes an overwhelming river; It brings healing and renewal wherever it goes.
In fact, the trees and their leaves that are supplied by this water are for the
healing of the nations.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-themecolor: text1;">Nonetheless, it would helpful
if we remember that the beauty and power of this imagery comes in the midst of </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">utter chaos and desolation. Jerusalem
is a city that has no river or stream. Cities were usually built upon rivers
and streams for their sustenance and defence. Ezekiel is writing in the memory
of the destruction of the Jerusalem temple and the first deportation of the
Jews to Babylon. You can inject that famous reggae re-chanting of Psalm 137:1:
“By the rivers of Babylon, where we sat down, and there we wailed, when we
remembered Zion!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We find the same imagery in Revelation 22:1 – 5. The river
flows from God’s throne and it flows through the Holy city. On either side of
the river is the Tree of Life that is meant for the healing of the nations. But
again, we would do well to remember that this last chapter of the Bible is
speaking such amazing promises in the context of predicting war, destruction,
persecution and death. War breaks out in heaven that reflects the very reality
of war on earth. Every successive human civilisation has had to experience
these absolute horrors, and yet, in the midst of these unspeakable images,
there is the God who comes and abides with His people, and then wipes every
tear from their eyes. And, when we look at the text more deeply, we realise
that it promises, as Isaiah 11 does, a peaceable kingdom: there is neither
hunger, nor pain, nor death; neither predator nor prey; neither chaos nor war;
there is only <i>shalom</i>!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We are now at the end of Black History Month in our
observances and this message of healing is appropriate. The story of Black
people in the world is not an easy one to come to grips with. At the beginning
of the month Al introduced the themes that we have been reflecting on. In it he
points to the long history of Black oppression, marginalisation,
criminalisation, and exclusion, and even genocide. The Transatlantic slave
trade, brutal plantation slavery and colonisation, were undergirded by a
philosophical, theological, and sociological idea that blackness was taboo, and
that black people were beast of burdens, without the right to freedom and
autonomy. The legacies of this are clear for the British context: the Windrush
scandal; the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the resulting Macpherson Report;
statistics within the prisons or mental health institutions that have racial
indications; Covid-19 and its exposure of the racial/ethnic face of ill-health;
and then the aftermath of the public killing of George Floyd! Added to this,
the Church of England is being charged with ‘institutional racism’, with books
such as Ben Lindsay’s <i>We Need to Talk about Race</i>, and Azariah France-Williams’
<i>Ghost Ship</i> interrogating the deep insti<span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">tutional nature of racism in British society, including
the Church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But</span>, beyond all this,
there are the internalised wounds that Black people carry; wounds that have
been handed down, and that undoubtedly will be passed on. The biggest question
remains, where is the healing, where is the <i>shalom</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I believe that deep within the wounds of the Black experience
there is a hopefulness and a healing that resides within our lament. A point I
make in my own writing is that slavery <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">wasn’t an event </span>that happened to Black people, but one that they
survived! They survived through their indigenous religious and cultural
observances such as their music, their religious traditions, their proverbs and
their story telling, and their ingenuity and creativity. It is fair <span style="color: black; mso-themecolor: text1;">to say that within the very wounds of
slavery, anti-Africanness, and racism, Black people also have a deep reservoir
of sacred power, or creative spirituality</span>, that surges to the surface
coming out in Reggae, in Soca, in Gospel Music, in pop music, in carnival, in
Pentecostal worship, and even in the alternative spirituality of the Rastafari.
What I’m suggesting is that healing for Black people comes in the midst of
their pain. These means of healing above have been so powerful that Church and
society have often worked hard to criticise or demonise them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As we move into another month and another observance, I
encourage us to remember the need for healing, and the potent forms of healing
that Black culture possesses. Perhaps, these ways of being, acting and seeing
the world will not only be of benefit for Black people, but for all people.
They will be, in a way, like the deepening River of Life, or the Tree of Life;
they are for the healing of the nations, the healing of all people. Let’s end
with the deep lament within Psalm 137 that the African Caribbean experience
brings alive for us: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By the rivers of Babylon,
there we sat down<br />
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There the wicked<br />
Carried us away in captivity<br />
Requiring of us a song<br />
Now how shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Let the words of our
mouth and the meditation of our heart<br />
Be acceptable in thy sight here tonight<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">By the rivers of
Babylon, there we sat down<br />
Yeah, we wept, when we remembered Zion…<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(Lyrics by Boney M)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u></u></i></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><u><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></u></i></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Sybil Gilbert)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I was born in Kingston Hospital. All my life I was the
weakling of the family. I spent so many times in hospital, if anyone mentioned
the word I would have a panic attack. My first encounter with hospital was when
I was a baby in a cot. My cot was looking out of the window. It was late at
night, I could hear a noise and saw nurses or people wheeling trollies past my
window. The worst thing the nurse could do was to move my cot away. I was so
afraid. It was the middle of the night, and no one would explain to a curious
child what was going on. Some years later a cousin of mine explained that there
was an epidemic and several children had died. I asked him to take me to the
morgue. I wanted to know what happened when you died.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">My grandmother’s was the first funeral I can remember
attending. My young cousin who was a ‘towny’ did not want his feet getting
dirty so he sat on my shoulder the whole time. I can remember her coffin was
made in the village, it was lined in purple, beautiful velvet. My gran-mom
smoked a pipe. My cousin Beverley said that now Grandma had died the pipe was
hers. She decided to put some dried yam leaves and lit the pipe. There was an
outside toilet, a small one for the children. It was a good thing she sat on
the child one or else she would have fallen in the pit. It took days to sober
her up! Her parents, my favourite uncle Leslie and Aunt Chris, were very cross.
But they could not help laughing. It was the only time I had rabbit to eat and
never again. Grandma is buried at the back of her home. It was a family plot.
The land was given to her and the family by my grandfather who was a Jew. They
have 5 children but never married.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A story my cousin told me of my grandmother taking him to
meet my grandfather, and coming home gave him a tot of something before putting
him to bed. My grandma was a force to be reckoned with. She was strong. A
district midwife. Someone described her as only looking after poor people. I
admire her because from her there is a list of midwives starting with my
mother, my niece and several others in the caring profession.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In 1956 I met my grandfather for the first time. It was a GCE
year, I was reading the book <i>The 39 Steps</i>. My favourite uncle took me to
see and meet my grandfather. He took me but not my sister, who looked like my
dad (my mum had married a black man). My grandfather said ‘you look like your
mother, come closer and sit by me’. Then he said a strange thing. ‘Your mother
was my favourite daughter, but I disowned her because she married a black man.’
I was so shocked I wanted to leave but my uncle said we could not leave, so we
spent another few days there. My uncle saw how upset I was, so he took us to
Downs River Fall to cheer us up. I never saw my grandfather again, although he
left me something in his will. My father was just as racist as my grandfather.
He had his own dry-cleaning business when he worked for the hotel, and the
white people, they paid; his friends did not pay, they were always paying
tomorrow.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The school I attended was a girls school with children from
America and Jamaica. We mixed very well. Yet when children became grown ups
life changed. Children mix together, they play together, then something
changes. We start to notice the colour of skin, who is rich or poor. God asked
us to share the wealth and bounty he gave us. Yet we don’t. So many refugees
have died trying to seek a better life. Do we see them as God’s people, or just
spongers? Why should we have to share with them? The world has become very
selfish. Coronavirus this year 2020, so many people were put in isolation. The
whole of God’s world was affected. For the first time churches, schools,
offices, etc were closed. We became afraid. Wondering if there was a cure or a
vaccine that could save lives. So far this has not happened. For a short time
we called it a world epidemic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lord, you
care for us, you gave us all we need. You ask us to look after the sick, feed
the hungry and homeless. Grant us Lord the wisdom to share all your bountiful
gifts, in Jesus’ name. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Gloria Smith)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On reading the two bible
passages and Carlton’s reflection I am struck by the hope that is expressed in
all three. Not the kind of hope that the secular world believes in but
Christian hope that trusts that God is faithful, will never abandon us, and in
the end brings healing. I am always in awe of hope in the midst of destruction,
oppression and desolation – and this hope has been a recurring theme over the
last few weeks, even in the midst of some truly awful personal experiences.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I grew up in inner city
Winson Green in the ‘60s and I’m ashamed to say I lived in a home where racism
was commonplace. It was a strange world, because at school there were people
from many different cultures and from what I am able to remember it felt like
at school everyone was treated equally. That was my perception and maybe my
best friend Gloria Peters, an adopted black Caribbean girl, or Ranjit, a young
Sikh boy may have felt differently. But to me it felt different, more inclusive
than home.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Throughout my teaching
career, I have worked in inner city schools where the children were
predominantly from Pakistani/Muslims families. It took me a while to begin to
understand the issues they encountered, but it was made really clear when
taking the children out on trips. There would be strange looks and whispers
from schools with predominantly white children, and on more than one occasion I
felt it important to speak to other teachers about the way both children and
staff were responding.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For the most part, our
children really wanted to learn and we as teachers were given much respect by
parents simply for teaching their children. The gratitude was at times
overwhelming and it made me realise how important education can be. However on
reflecting now, it has also made me realise that although I was in the minority
because of my skin colour I was never ignored or treated negatively, which I
now understand is how my friends of colour often feel treated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I realise now how much was down to my
whiteness because Muslim teachers had far more difficult experiences when they
were perceived as not being as capable, than their white colleagues, even
within their own culture. They had to be outstanding to be acknowledged as half
decent. ‘White privilege’ is so damaging to people of colour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In the final term of Year
1 at Queens theological college I learnt we would be doing a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Black Theology </i>module. I felt excited
because I felt I wasn’t racist and would enjoy the lectures. However, the
lectures and lecturers challenged that perception. At first I struggled with a
black lecturer who on occasions I felt at the time was oversensitive. She began
by telling us we would feel uncomfortable and would be challenged and that made
me feel defensive straightaway. I’m not keen on being told how I will feel! At
the time some other white students felt the same and it seemed to legitimise
our feelings – which can be quite dangerous – but looking back I think she was
simply preparing us for difficult topics that were to come. So now I ask myself
– <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">So who really was feeling
oversensitive?</i> The lecturers were really generous in sharing their own
stories, and as I read more and was prepared to really listen I got to
understand where they were coming from and what invaluable lessons we were
learning.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is why I
passionately believe education to be so important in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the healing of the nations</i>.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>At its best it gives opportunities for understanding other points of
view in a safe environment. It allows people to really hear what is being said
about experiences. But it is also important and necessary for history to be
told from the perspectives of all involved. British history has for far too
long been told from the white person’s perspective, the victors, the powerful.
Now more than ever children and adults too need to hear it from the point of
view of the powerless, the marginalised, the oppressed, the downtrodden, the
slave.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My hope is for that time
when all white people can really see things from the perspective of people of
colour and are prepared to stand alongside, acknowledge and make amends for the
past and move forward together. Then that heavenly vision in Revelation has a
chance of being realised.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">An Act of Commitment to the Work of Racial Justice</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">People of
God, we stand in the line<br />
of Moses, the prophets and the Christ,<br />
crying out for justice and peace.<br />
God calls us to be a people of reconciliation,<br />
loving a world that is hungry, hurting and divided.<br />
Courageous people have taken the risk<br />
of standing up and speaking out<br />
with those who have been pushed to the edges.<br />
This work involves risking ourselves<br />
for the sake of God’s love,<br />
moving beyond ourselves<br />
in order to discover and embrace Christ in one another.<br />
We are all called to the work and ministry<br />
of justice and reconciliation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Therefore
let us join together<br />
with people of faith and no faith throughout the world,<br />
in committing ourselves today to racial justice:</span></p>· Do you affirm the inherent worth and dignity of every person? <br /> I do. <br /><br />· Do you support justice, equity and compassion in human relations, and liberation and flourishing for every person?<br /> I do. <br /><br />· Do you affirm that white privilege is unfair and harmful to those who have it and to those who do not?<br /> I do. <br /><br />· Do you affirm that white privilege and the culture of white supremacy which infest our nation and church must be dismantled?<br /> I do.<p></p><p><br />
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Therefore,
from this day forward:</span></p>· Will you strive daily to understand white privilege and white supremacy and how their existence benefits those among us who are white?<br /> I will. <br /><br />· Will you commit to help transform our church culture to one that is actively engaged in seeking racial justice and equity for everyone?<br /> I will. <br /><br />· Will you make a greater effort to treat all people with the same respect that you expect to receive?<br /> I will. <br /><br />· Will you commit to developing the courage to live your beliefs and values of racial justice and equity?<br /> I will. <br /><br />· Will you strive daily to eliminate racial prejudice from your thoughts and actions so that we can better promote the racial justice efforts of our church?<br /> I will. <br /><br />· Will you renew and honour this pledge daily, knowing that out church, our community, our nation and our world will be better places because of our efforts?<br /> I will.
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 107%;">[‘Racial Equity Pledge’, by First Unitarian Church of
Dallas, Texas;<br />
adapted by St Francis Xavier Church, New York & Fr Robert Thompson]<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In
today’s reading, we read: “the leaves of the trees are for the healing of
the nations.” Gather some leaves. Try to find as many different sizes,
shapes and colours as you can. As you hold each leaf, think of a person,
place or situation which needs healing, and hold them before God in
prayer. Let go of your leaf as a sign of handing over that situation to
God for healing. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In
both our readings today, we read about the “river of life”. Find somewhere
you can put your hand into flowing water. If you can, use a river or
stream, but if you can’t get to one then putting your hand under a tap, or
asking someone to pour water over your hand would also work. What do you
notice about the feeling of water flowing over you? How does it make you
feel? I wonder what it life-giving about flowing water? I wonder what
situations you know of that need new life – in your own life, your
community, the church?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Our
reading from Revelation includes a vision of the heavenly city as
somewhere where “</span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">death will be
no more;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"> <span class="text">mourning and
crying and pain will be no more”. What other things do you think will be
‘no more’ in heavenly city? What would the perfect city be like? Write a
description and/or draw a picture. </span></span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2017%20(25-10-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> West
African proverb<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2017%20(25-10-20).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Tierno
Bokar, a Sufi Muslim who lived in Mali and was known as the Sage of
Bandiagara in the first half of the 20th century.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2017%20(25-10-20).docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Look up <a href="https://www.samanthalindo.com/blog-2/naming-the-water">https://www.samanthalindo.com/blog-2/naming-the-water</a>
for a YouTube video of Samantha Lindo performing this song.</p></div></div><p></p>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-38344084591151516762020-10-14T08:21:00.001-07:002020-10-14T08:21:19.565-07:00Racial Justice (4): Betraying the system<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsa0iMPxDndPtLXN9JopiEusvs9boE30dUXz8yBxvCXFZ5priifnqu_StRuFH5A8JA1RFiXBXuva6qwDIJSIh2qAEtEMBMw4WFenXfJxwdbkopbYVEYTC_rFhBUlwJh05Fm18AbdfaYmG/s2048/Zacchaeus+v2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1666" data-original-width="2048" height="325" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSsa0iMPxDndPtLXN9JopiEusvs9boE30dUXz8yBxvCXFZ5priifnqu_StRuFH5A8JA1RFiXBXuva6qwDIJSIh2qAEtEMBMw4WFenXfJxwdbkopbYVEYTC_rFhBUlwJh05Fm18AbdfaYmG/w400-h325/Zacchaeus+v2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span class="text"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">‘Zacchaeus’</span></i></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, by Revd Ally Barrett<br />
</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-size: 8.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
(one of the illustrations in Al Barrett & Ruth Harley, <br />
<i>Being Interrupted: Re-imagining the Church’s Mission from the Outside, In</i>,
<br />
published by SCM Press on 30<sup>th</sup> November 2020)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span class="text"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Luke 19:1-10<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[Jesus]
entered Jericho and was passing through it. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>A man
was there named Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was rich. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>He
was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not,
because he was short in stature. <b><sup>4 </sup></b>So he ran ahead
and climbed a sycamore tree to see him, because he was going to pass that
way. <b><sup>5 </sup></b>When Jesus came to the place, he looked up
and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down; for I must stay at your house
today.” <b><sup>6 </sup></b>So he hurried down and was happy to
welcome him. <b><sup>7 </sup></b>All who saw it began to grumble and
said, “He has gone to be the guest of one who is a sinner.” <b><sup>8 </sup></b>Zacchaeus
stood there and said to the Lord, “Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will
give to the poor; and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back
four times as much.” <b><sup>9 </sup></b>Then Jesus said to him,
“Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of
Abraham. <b><sup>10 </sup></b>For the Son of Man came to seek out and
to save the lost.”</span></span><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom: Climbing Trees</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Climbing trees can be life-changing!
Zacchaeus was short, so he climbed a tree to be able to see Jesus rather than
remain hidden in the crowd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Often
translated as ‘sycamore’, the word Luke uses for the tree - ‘<i>sukomorea’ - </i>really
refers to a variety of fig tree. This grows to about 20 metres, with wide spreading
branches, good for climbing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wealthy, privileged, a corrupt
beneficiary of an oppressive system… Zacchaeus had all the advantages, apart
from that of height: he needed the tree to be able to see. From high in a tree,
things look different – a wider horizon, a different perspective. Zacchaeus’
short stature, his one disadvantage, compelled him to climb so he could see,
until - being <i>seen</i> by Jesus – suddenly he was able to see clearly how
his own behaviour had disadvantaged others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Luke rarely mentions precise
botanical details, so when he does, we should listen. Elsewhere<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Luke uses figs and fig trees to symbolise fruitfulness, particularly in the
context of repentance and salvation. His contemporaries knew that the <i>sukomorea</i>
fig was mostly eaten by poor people who could not afford better varieties. It
is surely also not a coincidence that when Zacchaeus repents of how he has
defrauded people (verse 8) the word he uses comes from ‘<i>sukophantes’</i> –
meaning an extortioner or defrauder, literally a fig-informer!<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Through this play on words, the fig-tree tells us what Zacchaeus has been,
until his encounter with Jesus – helped by the tree – sets him on the path of
righteousness<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I wonder who we identify with, when we read the stories in
the gospels, of Jesus’ encounters and conversations with those around him?
Often, I’m guessing, we might easily find ourselves in the company of the
disciples: those willing followers, who have seen something irresistible in
Jesus and his way, who delight in being included in ‘the gang’, but who often
come across as slow to ‘get it’ and quick to put their foot in it! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sometimes, we might be tempted to identify with Jesus
himself. Those of us with activist tendencies, especially, are often drawn to
Jesus’ busyness: his teaching, preaching, and proclaiming the kingdom of God;
the way he challenges the authorities, and welcomes the outcast. We want to be
like that Jesus, and we might well have been encouraged – at some points in our
life – to ask the question ‘What Would Jesus Do?’, and try to do likewise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">But what about the ‘baddies’ in the gospel stories? ‘The
scribes and the Pharisees’ with all their trick questions and power games, the
rich young ruler who just couldn’t let go of (all) his many possessions, the
Roman soldiers who pop up occasionally as the human face of the occupying
Empire, and even the ‘baddies-turned-goodies’ like the hated tax-collector,
Zacchaeus. How often do we identify with <i>them</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This question is important. And it’s important not just for
how we relate to the stories themselves, but for <i>how those stories shape the
way we live our lives, and live out our faith</i>. And who we identify with in
the stories is intimately linked with our own <i>identity</i>, and the kind of
position and status our identity gives us, in wider society and in church. For
example (and this may or may not be obvious!), if you’re a woman, you might
well find it easier to identify with <i>female</i> figures in the gospels than
males – female figures who often go unnamed, who are not usually counted among
the core group of disciples called ‘the twelve’. If you’re a man, the chances
are higher that you’ll see yourself among ‘the twelve’, or even put yourself in
Jesus’ shoes. Just ponder, for a moment, the way that this might see our
experiences of reading the gospels diverge in dramatic, and perhaps even
dangerous ways.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Less obviously, the gospels could well read very differently
depending on our skin colour, and our different experiences of life because of
our skin colour. Whiteness (like maleness, and middle-class-ness too) carries a
whole load of assumptions: having the right to speak and be heard, being able
to move unchallenged through any public space, being ‘centre-stage’ (the world
revolves around me!), being the one who <i>does</i> things – for myself, and on
behalf of others – and being ‘in charge’ or ‘in control’. When those of us with
these kind of assumptions read the gospels, identifying with <i>Jesus</i> can
be very dangerous indeed – it can reinforce exactly those assumptions that are
already distorting and damaging our relationships with others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What’s the alternative, then? For those of us who are white
(as well as for those of us who are male, or middle-class, or in a position of
leadership, or non-disabled, or heterosexual – let alone a combination of
several of these), we might be better off identifying with <i>Zacchaeus</i>.
Zacchaeus is an example of someone who benefitted greatly from the status quo,
from the way society was organised and from his own position within it. And
Zacchaeus, when he encounters Jesus, not only <i>repents </i>of the way he has
been living and seeks to make <i>reparations</i> (mostly by giving away much of
his money) to those he has wronged, but also, in quitting his role as a part of
the Roman Empire’s economy, he becomes a <i>traitor</i> to the system. As in
the game of Jenga, he plays his own small part in pulling out one of the many,
many bricks in the tower, that brings the whole edifice just a little closer to
collapsing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">For those of us who are white, then, following in Zacchaeus’
footsteps invites us to become ‘race traitors’: to pull out the next brick or
two in the towers that keep whiteness ‘centre stage’ and ‘in charge’. Remember
adrienne maree brown’s words we quoted two weeks ago: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><a name="_Hlk51234599"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Where
we are born into privilege, we are charged with dismantling any myth of
supremacy. Where we were born into struggle, we are charged with claiming our
dignity, joy, and liberation.’</span></i></a><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk51234599;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></i></span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk51234599;"></span><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection:
Reparations and Reconciliation</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Professor Anthony Reddie)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Anthony
is a Methodist, an author and educator, and is Director of the Oxford Centre
for Religion and Culture.<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">The
resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement has brought our attention to the
vexed question of how we mark the past in terms of the systemic racism that has
confronted Black people over the past 500 years. Violence unleashed on Black
bodies by White power, made manifest in the death of George Floyd, was nothing
new. Being caught on camera was new, but his death itself was not. Long before
George Floyd’s death, we had the era of slavery and then colonialism and the
brutalisation of Black bodies at the hands of White power. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">I write
this piece as a descendant of enslaved Africans. My surname of ‘Reddie’ is a
Scottish name and speaks to the fact that at some point in the 18<sup>th</sup>
century, a Scottish settler in Jamaica owned one of my ancestors. The sins of
the slaveowners were never accounted for in the moral and monetary economy of
the nation. On the contrary, at the abolition of slavery in the British empire in
in 1834, slaveowners were awarded a sum of 20 million pounds, or approximately
40% of the GNP of the nation at the time. This required the then government
taking out a loan that was not repaid until 2015, through taxation. This means
that the descendants of enslaved Africans like myself, who are also British
citizens, having been paying for the repayment of slavery for the incarceration
and oppression of my ancestors.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">Many of
our major institutions were involved in machinery of slavery, given the stupendous
profits that were available for those prepared to dirty their consciences and
souls for the dubious privilege of financial enrichment. One of these
institutions was the Church of England. So in the context of Black Lives Matter,
the call for reparations is one that forces British institutions to consider
the legacies of slavery and what can be done to signal real solidarity with
Black people, especially those who are the descendants of enslaved peoples. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">The
'Black Lives Matter' movement emerged in order to counter the patently obvious
fact that Black lives do not matter. This is not just a question of economics
or materiality, it is also about seemingly 'ephemeral matters' like the impact
on our psyche and associated questions of representation and spirituality. It
has been interesting observing the concern of some white people for matters of
law and order and governance and property re: the tearing down of the Colston
stature in Bristol. The fact that the Church conducted a thanksgiving service
for a slave trader (and philanthropist, as if the latter expunges the former)
until 2017 is a brutal smack in the teeth for the descendants of enslaved
Africans, the majority of whom who still identify as Christians, are Anglicans
in the Church of England. It would appear that our loyalty to the state church
has rarely, if ever, has been reciprocated. Reparations is not simply about
monetary compensation, it is also about the recognition of our pain,
frustration and endless wait for justice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">For Black
lives to matter, the Church in Britain must consider the needs of their Black
sisters and brothers within the body of Christ and be mindful of our
psycho-social needs given the legacies of slavery. Black people in Britain
continue to wrestle with our existential crucifixion that leads to us being
more likely to struggle with mental ill health issues, such as schizophrenia.
In light of Black Lives Matter, White people will have to live with the
discomfort of wrestling with the legacies of the Edward Colston’s of this world
and the patent lack of commitment to confront this unedifying part of British
history, in which White Christianity in Britain is rightly indicted. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;">James H
Cone, the greatest of all Black theologians once argued that Theology’s
greatest sin was silence in the face of White supremacy.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a> We saw that quite clearly in
the many years in which Edward Colston’s statue stood untouched, with a refusal
of the White cultural nationalists who love the Judeo-Christian heritage of
Britain, to even countenance the adding of plaque actually naming the pillar of
English respectability as a slave trader.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is clearly the case that monetary exchange
cannot repair the harm that has been exacted on African peoples, but as the
current CARICOM initiative makes clear, the call for Reparation is as much for
the healing of the damaged psyche of oppressors as it is for those who are the
oppressed. Reparations in the context of this paper is a call for a means of
justice-making that is necessary if catholicity within Christianity is to be
maintained. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Invoking
the biblical motif of reparation, one can identify the model of Zacchaeus (Luke
19: 1-10) as a prototype for the model of restorative justice advocated by the
Tax Justice Network.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a>
I think the example of Zacchaeus is a classic example for us to consider as we
look at the whole question of reparations in light of Black Atlantic chattel
slavery. Jesus meets Zacchaeus where he is and offers to come to his house to
break bread and partake of a meal. That is, Jesus offers forgiveness by way of
accepting his hospitality in the form of a meal, which some have seen as
Eucharistic. Jesus’ presence ‘at table’, in fellowship with Zacchaeus can be
seen as a sign of God's outpouring of love and grace on the sinner. But this
act is not done in isolation. The 'Eucharistic' meal<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><sup><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><sup><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></sup><!--[endif]--></span></sup></a> is
accompanied by Zacchaeus giving back the monies to all the people he has
wronged and cheated. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In adopting a socio-political reading of this
biblical text, one can work on the clear assumption that Zacchaeus’ wealth was
accumulated by means of exploitation, and Jesus’ ethic expects Zacchaeus to
give back that which he has taken from other, in order to be reconciled to God,
through faith in Jesus. Interestingly, Zacchaeus does not need to be told to
pay back that which he has wrongly taken. It would appear that his
understanding of the ‘Jesus Way’ demands restorative justice as the
self-sacrificial price to be paid for entry into this new way of living. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Salvation is by means of faith and
(restorative) action.</i> Zacchaeus can do it, but the rich young man in Luke
18: vv.18-25, cannot! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The power of this process if undertaken with due
consciousness to exposing the truth is one that will be unflinching and
unsparing critique of the hypocrisy of White Christianity, particularly, that
which has emerged from Euro-American evangelicalism. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The notion of the church as a body that is united
under the Lordship of Jesus Christ is one of the enduring truths of the
Christian faith. This sense of unity that is so boldly proclaimed as central to
the self-understanding of the church itself, has often proved more illusionary
than real.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Until the scourge or racism
is seen as detrimental to unity, universality and oneness as say doctrinal
differences, then the case for sacredness of catholicity within Christianity
will remain imperilled.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The Christian church is obliged to preach a gospel
of reconciliation, as her Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, lived a life that was
steeped in and was the epitome of reconciling love. The realities of the cross,
however, is a poignant reminder that this reconciling love comes at a cost.
Many theologians have written of the costly nature of grace, reminding us that
mere rhetoric without prophetic action undergirded by a commitment to
restorative justice is nothing more than a grossly inadequate watered version
of the concentrated real thing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">In age of Trump, Brexit and Covid 19, in which systemic
racism has been made manifest, nothing less than an anti-racist model of
Christian discipleship will do. It is my hope that the resurgence of Black Lives
Matter will create a change of culture and ethical commitment on behalf of
White people in which love and justice for one’s neighbours will be in greater
evidence than has been the case in previous epochs. It is my hope that this
will prove to be case!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Zacchaeus
provides a telling example of what is possible if material, restorative justice
is added to spiritual repentance. Too often, Black people have something of the
latter, but nothing of the former. It is my hope that this will now change!<a name="_Hlk43723710"><o:p></o:p></a></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This week’s ‘5<sup>th</sup> gospel’ reflections are both from
white people. This is not an accident, but intentional, as those of us who are
racialised as ‘white’ continue to reflect on how we listen, learn and respond
to the experiences of racism of our Black sisters and brothers.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<b><i><u><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="page-break-before: always;" />
</span></u></i></b>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Ruth Harley)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">You may be unsurprised to hear that I have a certain sympathy with
Zacchaeus. Not just because – like me – he is ‘short in stature’ but also
because, trying to see Jesus in the crowd, he climbs a tree. I have always
loved climbing trees. As a child I spent a lot of time up trees and one of the
things I loved about being up a tree, among the branches, was the hidden-ness
of it. I could look down and watch other people, but they couldn’t easily see
me. I wonder whether for Zacchaeus, as well as being a handy vantage point, the
tree was appealing because it gave him the option of seeing without being seen?
<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Or so he thought. But Jesus <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">does
</i>see him. Because the truth is, encounter with Jesus is never a spectator
sport.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And so Zacchaeus has a choice:
stay safely in his tree, unchanged by this strange encounter, or come down and
open himself up to whatever might come from it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I wonder if you can remember from childhood the feeling of being up a
tree – or any high place – and preparing to jump? Perhaps you have butterflies
in your stomach, or your heart is beating faster. Once you push off and let go,
there is no going back. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And so it is for Zacchaeus. And so it is for all of us. Opening
ourselves up in relationship with Jesus – as in any relationship – is a risky
business, and there is no going back. Once we know something, or someone, we
cannot un-know. For me, as a White Christian, that has been my experience of
engaging with the experiences of my Black siblings in Christ, and the work of
Black theologians. I cannot un-know what I now know about the racism which has
pervaded, and continues to pervade, the churches and theological traditions
which have formed me. I cannot un-hear the stories of pain and struggle which
my Black sisters and brothers have been generous enough to share. I cannot –
and I would not want to – go back to being oblivious to the unearned and unjust
privilege which my Whiteness confers on me, in the church and society I
inhabit.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“The truth,” Jesus said, “will set you free.” And so it will, but
perhaps not without a struggle. To quote the feminist writer Gloria Steinem:
“the truth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will </i>set you free… but
first it will piss you off.” And so it should, when that truth is the
pervasiveness of the sin of racism, and all the ways that we who are White have
– knowingly or unknowingly – benefitted from it. So it should, when that truth
is that the church has again failed to keep vulnerable children safe, as we
learned in last week’s IICSA report. So it should whenever we see – and cannot
un-see – the truth of all the ways we have failed to love our neighbour as
ourselves. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But the truth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">will </i>set us
free, however hard it may be to hear. The truth will transform us, as
Zacchaeus’ encounter with Jesus transformed him, if only we – like Zacchaeus –
are brave enough to come down from whatever trees we are hiding in, to let go
of whatever illusions we cling to about ourselves and our neighbours, and allow
ourselves to be transformed by God who is truth and love.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)</span></i></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I moved around a fair bit as a child, but most of my
childhood was spent between the (very white, middle-class) market town of
Newbury, in Berkshire, and a (very white) Royal Air Force base on the edge of
London, where housing was ordered strictly by the rank of the RAF employee (in
most cases the man of the family). Among many other things my childhood gave to
me, I was brought up to work hard, to be polite and respectful, and to do as I
was told. Everything around me told me that this was a 2-way ‘deal’: if I kept
my side of the deal, then the institutions of society would keep their side of
the deal too. Those institutions were there for my benefit: to educate me, to
keep me safe and healthy, to enable me to get a job and earn a living, to give
space for my voice, to enable me to flourish. And Church was in on that deal
too: if I kept my side, Church too would be a space where I could grow and
flourish.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thankfully, that wasn’t the sum total of my childhood
learning. I was also brought up to be curious, to ask questions about the
world. When we lived in Newbury, the Greenham Common air base was just down the
road. We would often drive past the large, colourful camp of the ‘peace women’,
and their long-term campaign against the nuclear weapons that were being kept
there. I remember the general attitude of the locals to them: these women <i>weren’t</i>
hard-workers (they were ‘lazy’ and ‘scroungers’), they <i>weren’t </i>polite
and respectful (they were ‘rude’ and ‘smelly’), and they certainly <i>weren’t</i>
doing as they were told – and so they deserved scorn, derision, and whatever
else was coming to them. But what if – my young self wondered, quietly – what
if they’re <i>right</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As I grew up, I began to learn that institutions often care
less about people than I thought: that our end of ‘the deal’ often isn’t
reciprocated as much as we’d like to imagine, and that they can demand more
from us than they have a right to. My dad worked hard, got promoted repeatedly,
but did that make him happy? Not so much.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But it took until my mid-20s before I began to realise that
‘the system’ works much better for <i>some</i> people (especially for people
who were white, middle-class and male like me) than for others. For most of my
adult life I’ve lived in neighbourhoods where it’s been very clear that ‘the
system’ is failing many of my neighbours: failing to keep them safe and
healthy, failing to enable them to learn and grow and flourish. But it’s only
been in very recent years that I’ve really, with my head and heart, begun to
understand how much ‘the system’ is failing so many of my sisters and brothers
of colour: failing to keep them safe and healthy; failing to educate, employ
and pay them fairly; failing to give them justice, to give them space for their
voice, to enable them to flourish.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And the Church – the institution that has kept me in a job
for the last 20 years – has too often been part of that ‘system’, rather than a
prophetic challenge to it. People like me have been part of the problem, rather
than part of the change that’s needed. Even in our own local church, in our
local councils and boards and other structures – even <i>now</i> – those having
their say, making the decisions, setting the agenda remain overwhelmingly
white.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Zacchaeus is an uneasy inspiration for me. As a tax-collector
he no doubt worked hard, he might well have been polite and respectful, and he
did as he was told by the people up the food chain from him. When he
encountered Jesus, he didn’t go back to his job as a good, hard-working,
‘reformed’ tax-collector. He calls out ‘the system’, compensates everyone who’d
been wronged by it at his hands, and – I imagine – walks away from everything
that his previous life involved. He no longer does as he has been told by his
masters. He becomes a traitor to the system that had previously benefitted him.
I’ve only taken the first few steps on Zacchaeus’ journey of conversion. I know
there’s a long way still to go.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some resources for self-reflection
and prayer</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><strong><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">An
Examen for Racial Justice<o:p></o:p></span></strong></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.75pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><strong><i><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">An
‘examen’ is a series of questions for self-reflection, before God, looking back
over a day, a week, a season – or even a lifetime!</span></i></strong></span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Have I fully loved God and fully loved my neighbour as myself?</li><li>Have I caused pain to others by my actions or my words that offended my brother or my sister?</li><li>Have I done enough to inform myself about the sin of racism, its roots, and its historical and contemporary manifestations? Have I opened my heart to see how unequal access to economic opportunity, jobs, housing, and education on the basis of skin colour, race, or ethnicity, has denied and continues to deny the equal dignity of others?</li><li>Is there a root of racism within me that blurs my vision of who my neighbour is?</li><li>Have I ever witnessed an occasion when someone “fell victim” to personal, institutional, systematic or social racism and I did or said nothing, leaving the victim to address their pain alone?</li><li>Have I ever witnessed an occasion when someone “fell victim” to personal, institutional, systematic or social racism with me inflicting the pain, acting opposite of love of God and love of neighbour?</li><li>Have I ever lifted up and aided a person who “fell victim” to personal, institutional, systematic or social racism and paid a price for extending mercy to the other? How did I react? Did my faith grow? Am I willing to grow even more in faith through my actions?</li></ul><p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.75pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">
<em><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">by </span></em></span></span><a href="https://togoforth.org/" target="_blank"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: #002b58; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; padding: 0cm;">To
Go Forth</span></i></span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><em><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> –
a blog from the USCCB, Department of Justice, Peace & Human Development -
inspired by Pope Francis.<o:p></o:p></span></em></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">A Prayer
for my White Colleagues in Education</span></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">, <i>by Sarah Signorino</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">(although
this prayer was written in the United States, in the context of an educational
institution, hardly a word would not apply for those of us who are white in a
UK context, in our workplaces, neighbourhoods, our society more widely – and
yes, our church too)<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Lord,
help me wallow in my discomfort,<br />
stew in my unease,<br />
sit with my disquiet.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">As we
journey through this<br />
racialized pandemic,<br />
harmful leadership,<br />
seeing<br />
clear inequities,<br />
anger,<br />
hurt.<br />
Aid us in our focus.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">How
are we people for and with others?<br />
Help us open our eyes<br />
as we look at our own faculty, our staff, our boards, our students.<br />
What do they look like?<br />
What voices are absent?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Help
us acknowledge our history:<br />
What have we done to exclude, persecute, and silence?<br />
How have we been complicit?<br />
Forgive us for not being there, for not doing enough.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">How
can we invite, empower, and lift up these voices?<br />
We need to do better.<br />
We need to move now.<br />
Who can we invite to our tables?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Help
us go to the margins,<br />
especially those at our own institutions.<br />
Let us stand with the lonely,<br />
the sick, the persecuted, those who have been violated.<br />
Let us sit with them,<br />
in our own unease.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Help
us listen to these voices.<br />
Help us reflect.<br />
Help us prayerfully act.<br />
Help us rise,<br />
not to erase our discomfort<br />
but to be fully present,<br />
seeking solidarity,<br />
seeking repentance.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Lord,
help us wallow in our discomfort,<br />
Let us lean in.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin-bottom: 12.75pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><em><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These
resources for prayer and reflection are taken from:<br />
</span></em></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/prayers-for-racial-justice-and-reconciliation">https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/prayers-for-racial-justice-and-reconciliation</a></span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters <br />
with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In today’s Gospel reading, there were things
Zacchaeus needed to let go of in order to follow Jesus – his money, his
assumptions, his power and privilege… I wonder what you need to let go of?
What separates you from God or neighbour, or stops you following Jesus
more fully? Write or draw the things you need to let go of on a piece of
paper, fold the paper into a paper aeroplane, and let go of it – throw it
as far as you can. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Find a tree you can climb (or, if you can’t
go out, either find something to – safely – climb on indoors, or look at
the image on the front of this week’s worship pack and imagine you have
climbed the tree with Zacchaeus).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Climb to a height were it is just about safe to jump down, but
feels a bit risky. Sit in the tree and wonder… I wonder how Zacchaeus felt
when he was in the tree? I wonder if it was easy or difficult to decide to
come down? I wonder how he felt when he came down from the tree? I wonder
how you feel when you look down from the tree and think about jumping? If
you are feeling brave enough, jump down… I wonder how you felt when you
jumped? <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">After Zacchaeus came down from the tree,
Jesus went back to Zacchaeus’ house with him for a meal. We don’t know
what happened during that meal, or what they talked about, but we can imagine…
Imagine a conversation between Jesus and Zacchaeus. You might want to
write down what you imagine. You could even turn it into a script and
record or video it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0cm;"><br /></p><div style="mso-element: footnote-list;">
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Luke
6.43-45, 13.6-9, 21.29-31<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> ‘Who cares
that it was a sycamore? Climbing trees and playing on words in Luke 19.1-10’, J
L Magness (Leaven, vol 5, 1997) </span><a href="https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1816&context=leaven"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">https://digitalcommons.pepperdine.edu/<br />
cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1816&context=leaven</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Zacchaeus
means ‘righteous’.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> adrienne
maree brown, ‘Report: Recommendations for us right now from a future’,
http://sublevelmag.com/report-recommendations-for-us-right-now-from-a-future<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> See James H.
Cone ‘Theology’s Great Sin: Silence in the face of White Supremacy.’ <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Black Theology: An International Journal</i>,
Vol.2, No.2, 2004), pp.139-152.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> The Church
Action Tax Justice network is seeking to campaign for a progressive and
redistributive model tax that will see rich companies pay their fair share of
taxation that will contribute to the wider cause of social justice. </span><a href="https://www.catj.org.uk/blog/zacchaeus-tax-campaign"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">https://www.catj.org.uk/blog/zacchaeus-tax-campaign</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> I am not
assuming that this meal can necessarily be understood as Eucharistic one in the
strict sense of that term; but even if this is not the case, it still represents
Christ's healing presence with an estranged individual.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn8" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2016%20(18-10-20).docx#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn8;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> </span><a href="https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/08/black-lives-dont-matter-in-britain/"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">https://bylinetimes.com/2020/06/08/black-lives-dont-matter-in-britain/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-67620284620511319142020-10-06T13:38:00.008-07:002020-10-14T08:21:43.240-07:00Racial Justice (3): Faith & injustice (ii) - acknowledging collective sin<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzoONIb3i_pwdIcvOIEvwQyqUDcWhacFMSq_dcpsp-NbTePiQKS5qNq3YZkWL2-YXwyJAXRyFDCR1TqTti3p1EnJnU7zhS9hhAaWRaFi5pNaSUgBSv4pnXMA5DAAsT7N2jp3FrtRV10bj/s640/acknowledging+collective+sin.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="627" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUzoONIb3i_pwdIcvOIEvwQyqUDcWhacFMSq_dcpsp-NbTePiQKS5qNq3YZkWL2-YXwyJAXRyFDCR1TqTti3p1EnJnU7zhS9hhAaWRaFi5pNaSUgBSv4pnXMA5DAAsT7N2jp3FrtRV10bj/w393-h400/acknowledging+collective+sin.jpg" width="393" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">‘Couple reaching up’, Evelyn Williams<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span class="text"><b><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page; mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span></b></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Isaiah 59:1-15 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(<i>The Message</i> version)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">1-8 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Look!
Listen!<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">’s
arm is not amputated—he can still save.<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">’s
ears are not stopped up—he can still hear.<br />
There’s nothing wrong with God; the wrong is in <i>you.</i><br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Your wrongheaded lives caused the split between you
and God.<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Your sins got between you so that he doesn’t hear.<br />
Your hands are drenched in blood,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">your fingers dripping with guilt,<br />
Your lips smeared with lies,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">your tongue swollen from muttering obscenities.<br />
No one speaks up for the right,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">no one deals fairly.<br />
They trust in illusion, they tell lies,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">they get pregnant with mischief and have
sin-babies.<br />
They hatch snake eggs and weave spider webs.<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Eat an egg and die; break an egg and get a snake!<br />
The spider webs are no good for shirts or shawls.<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">No one can wear these weavings!<br />
They weave wickedness,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">they hatch violence.<br />
They compete in the race to do evil<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and run to be the first to murder.<br />
They plan and plot evil, think and breathe evil,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and leave a trail of wrecked lives behind them.<br />
They know nothing about peace<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and less than nothing about justice.<br />
They make tortuously twisted roads.<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">No peace for the wretch who walks down those roads!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">9-11 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Which
means that we’re a far cry from fair dealing,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and we’re not even close to right living.<br />
We long for light but sink into darkness,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">long for brightness but stumble through the night.<br />
Like the blind, we inch along a wall,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">groping eyeless in the dark.<br />
We shuffle our way in broad daylight,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">like the dead, but somehow walking.<br />
We’re no better off than bears, groaning,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and no worse off than doves, moaning.<br />
We look for justice—not a sign of it;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">for salvation—not so much as a hint.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">12-15 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Our
wrongdoings pile up before you, God,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">our sins stand up and accuse us.<br />
Our wrongdoings stare us down;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">we know in detail what we’ve done:<br />
Mocking and denying <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">God</span>,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">not following our God,<br />
Spreading false rumours, inciting sedition,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">pregnant with lies, muttering malice.<br />
Justice is beaten back,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Righteousness is banished to the side-lines,<br />
Truth staggers down the street,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Honesty is nowhere to be found,<br />
Good is missing in action.<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed.<span class="text"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom: Strange Fruit</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The height, shape and strength of trees have allowed humans
to put them to deadly use. Dule trees (trees of sorrow) were used for centuries
in Britain as gallows for public hangings. British colonial forces in India in
the 19<sup>th</sup> century repeatedly used banyan and peepul trees (sacred to
Hindus, Buddhists and Jains) for mass hangings of rebels.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2015%20(11-10-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the United States, in the 19<sup>th</sup> and early 20<sup>th</sup>
centuries, lynching (mostly by hanging from trees), became commonplace as a
form of extrajudicial murder often condoned by the authorities; most victims,
especially after the emancipation of slaves, were African Americans.
Photographs were often taken of these horrific events; one such photo, of the
1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in Indiana, prompted
Jewish-American songwriter and unionist Abel Meeropol to write the song
‘Strange Fruit’, recorded most notably by Billie Holiday. Her performance
conveys the shocking images with searing, haunting power which “leave[s] both
the singer and the audience no place to hide.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2015%20(11-10-20).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Southern trees bear a strange fruit<br />
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root<br />
Black bodies swingin' in the Southern breeze<br />
Strange fruit hangin' from the poplar trees<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Pastoral scene of the gallant South<br />
The bulgin' eyes and the twisted mouth<br />
Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh<br />
Then the sudden smell of burnin' flesh<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck<br />
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck<br />
For the sun to rot, for the tree to drop<br />
Here is a strange and bitter crop<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2015%20(11-10-20).docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a></span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We often think of ‘confession’ is an individual thing –
private, even. The small, curtained boxes called ‘confessionals’ reinforce that
idea. But even when we ‘confess our sins’ in Sunday services of ‘public
worship’, it’s very rare that we name out loud what those ‘sins’ might be. A
lot of that is linked to the destructive dynamics of shame that Sally explored
for us a few weeks ago – if other people (even some of our nearest and dearest)
knew some of the things we’ve done in our worst moments, they would look at us
with horror or disgust, and we’d never be able to look at them in the eye
again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As someone whose ministry includes listening confidentially
to people sharing some of their deepest, most secret truths, and who has also
been on the confessing end of what Anglicans call ‘the sacrament of
reconciliation’, I can testify to the liberating power of being able to speak
out loud those things which weigh heavy on our hearts, and to hear from another
(just as fallible) human being that we are held in God’s love and forgiveness.
But those spaces for being ‘heard to speech’ are safe for us to be fearlessly
honest precisely because we know that what we say in them will not be made
public.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What this week’s reading from Isaiah 59 points us to, is the
possibility, and in fact the necessity, of discovering just such a fearless
honesty <i>in public</i>: not for us as individuals, but for us as a community
– both as a church, and as a society. As we’ve already explored in the first
two weeks of this season focusing on Black History and Racial Justice, racism
goes deep into our history as a nation, and deep into the history of the
Christian Church – whether Anglican or Reformed. And those histories are still
working out their legacy in the present: through the ‘hostile environment’ to
immigrants and those seeking asylum, through the systemic disadvantaging and
devaluing of, and discrimination and violence against, people of colour in our
society, and through the racially-biased inequalities of power and voice in both
nation and church. All this needs confessing, bringing into the open, examining
under the spotlight and before God – as together we seek ways of bringing
change, and living differently. I wonder where we might find ourselves in
Isaiah’s prayer of confession today?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">***</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">UPDATE 7/10/20: Yesterday
the independent inquiry (IICSA) into safeguarding in the Church of England was
published, detailing hundreds of cases of over the years where children and
adults have been abused by clergy and other people in positions of power in the
Church, and where repeatedly those survivors have been ignored or silenced,
their disclosures covered up, and their abusers protected by the institutions
of the Church. Although this is a broader issue than race – including also
imbalances of power that come with differences of class, gender, sexuality, dis/ability, and
position or status – in a week focusing on ‘acknowledging collective sin’ these
systemic failures can’t go unmentioned. Both safeguarding failures, and racism,
are about both an <i>imbalance</i> of power and an <i>abuse</i> of that
imbalance of power – and both demand of us all (and especially any of us in
positions of privilege, power, authority or oversight) public, collective
acknowledgment, repentance, and systemic change – at all levels.</span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection:
faith and faithfulness</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Revd Dr Michael Jagessar)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Michael is a URC minister, a previous Moderator of the URC
General Assembly, and is currently Mission Secretary (Europe) at the Council
for World Mission.<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="color11"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The
reach of racism, of racist frameworks – ideas of exceptionalism, supremacy,
whiteness – has a long, embedded, and subliminal history. </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Black History Month<i> </i>provides us
with an opportunity to highlight and celebrate the achievements and
contributions of ‘people of colour’, and in the process to unearth the latent
histories and narratives that shape our life together. The idol of whiteness
and white privilege is a primary contributing factor as to why ‘black history’
remains hidden and often erased from our consciousness. This idol was
conceived, birthed, and nurtured by human minds and hands in the Northern Hemisphere.
It governs cultural, economic, and political norms and it devours victims
through physical, psychological, and spiritual violence. It leaves a gaping
hole in our collective consciousness. <span class="color11">Though no Church
would claim to be racist nor excluding, racism and exclusion happen in our
faith communities. Recent and current events around us underscore this fact. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="color11"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One
of the easiest and default responses from the authorities, be such state or
church, is to put it down to the obnoxious behaviour of a few bad or ill-brought
up individuals. The Status Quo would have us believe this, missing the
underlying systemic issues, absolving ourselves of collective responsibility,
and thereby protecting the order of things. </span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Idols are strong and systemic do not
wish to be confronted or challenged. It will require more than human minds and
hands. The disintegration of idols and the transformation of death into life,
must also be a matter of faith and faithfulness. Otherwise, the idol will
consume us and refashion us in its own image.<span class="color11"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="color11"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Reflect
on the story of Jesus from this perspective. This maverick Jewish Rabbi</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> took a trip
up-stream, against the flow of such idols in his time. It took him into public
spaces where systemic evil was at work. Consider a few: the gatekeepers of organized
religion angry at him for breaking their religious rules on eating habits, for
keeping company with dodgy outcast characters, for threatening the temple
business, for breaking religious distancing and for generating a large
following. The occupying authorities (Empire’s agents) were suspicious of
anyone stirring up dissent, while keen to please the local ruling elites whom
they have co-opted! Taking on or rising-up against the status quo is always
costly. Jesus paid the ultimate price - with his life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ‘forces’ that kill Jesus are still with
us today, causing much brokenness – pain – crucifixion - death. Organised
religion would want us to believe Jesus died <i>for </i>our sins. This was an
astute move to take our gaze from the fact that Jesus got sacrificed, <i>because</i>
of evil and for taking the side of justice rooted in love to re-claim the image
of God in each one of us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He took on the
system and their distortions of God’s dream for the whole of creation and it
was costly. </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Consider our text (Isaiah 59:1-15):
would<span style="letter-spacing: -0.15pt;"> Jesus have been familiar with it,
given the ways he took on the injustices around him? If we are looking for a
passage to ‘chant down racist Babylon’ (Bob Marley and the Wailers style) then
this text is one you should not miss. I wonder why the liturgical collaborators
who arranged the Common Lectionary readings may have missed this from the 3
year cycle? In these verses you will find doxological style chants against
injustice deploying some very poetic language to take on the collective sins of
the community. Some may wish to read these verses as directed to individual
wrongdoing: this may be what those interpreters who are keen to keep oppressive
systems in place, while safeguarding their own privilege, would have us
believe! <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; letter-spacing: -0.15pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Let me invite you to
firstly read Isaiah 59:1-15 in the version you may be most familiar with. Then
read the passage again a second time: this time using <i>The Message </i>version
that we’ve used here. Read slowly, allowing words, phrases, and images to grab
you, sink in and get under your skin. I can assure you, that once you have
suspended your prejudice for your familiar version of the bible, t</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">he words, images and power of these verses
will hit with real time descriptors to what is happening around us as we lament
injustice – incompetence – privilege – lies – denial of truth – inequities –
the commodification of every aspect of our lives and much more. Allow me to
highlight a few in the context of our thematic focus:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">wrong-headed
lives / weave wickedness / hatch violence / justice beaten back / truth
staggers down the street / honesty is nowhere to be found / good is missing in
action / anyone renouncing evil is beaten and robbed / far cry from fair
dealing / </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">not a soul around to correct this awful
situation / </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">God </span></i><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">couldn’t believe
what God saw….<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These images/words nail the heart of
our collective failure of walking the way of justice and taking the side of the
most vulnerable – reminding people then and today where the wrong and evil is,
and our need to wrestle with our part (consciously or unconsciously) in
allowing truth to stagger in our communities and justice beaten back by our
complicity. Isaiah is spot on then and for today: the wrongness is not with
God: it is with us – our hands and hearts are not clean; we are all dripping
with guilt; lies have taken over every part of our forked tongues; we have
surrounded ourselves with illusions as we are co-opted into the ways of
manufactured lies, and much more. Our wrongdoing piles up before the Divine:
justice and fair dealing are lacking. God cannot believe what God is seeing.
The injustice also suffocates God: as God’s faithfulness (the Hebrew word is <i>hesed</i>)
has been thrown-out, literally experiencing a chronic ‘housing problem’ as we
continue to deny and distort the God’s in our fellow humans and the whole of
creation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">As we continue the long-haul and
demands of cultivating and embodying anti- racist habits, Isaiah’s deploying of
a poetics of justice invites human agency (us) to dare to boldly step out and
into the way of God’s economy of flourishing life for all. Read the verses
again – listen to the whispers of the leaves – sense the root of the injustice
– feel the assuring trunk of the God in Christ and partner to uproot the evil
(starting with self). Here are emancipatory yearnings in the wailings of the
prophet: the edifice of racism must tumble so that all can breathe again and
together.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><em><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Please, I can’t breathe”</span></em><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">:</span></i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> do you remember George Floyd’s
desperate cries for help as he gasped for breath and clung to life due to the
senseless brutality of the policing machinery? Where is the system’s boot on
the neck, throat, and heartbeat of sisters and brother and where is protest and
movement to dare to ask the critical, collective, and systemic questions? Where
and how must our life together reflect change so that a fresh and new <i>con</i>spiring
(breathing together) may take place? What needs to be interrogated? What should
be toppled - thrown out? What new alliances are needed? How will you in your
church space and in the community create empowering ‘breathing spaces’ that
redress deficits, inequities, and foster life-flourishing spaces? How can we
live out our liturgical practices on the street with the protestors</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">? </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">The world
and the communities in which we are located, are waiting to believe us – to see
our words (God’s faithfulness / <i>hesed</i>) embodied in action!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Divine is also waiting to see ‘justice
roll down like waters, and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream’ (Amos
5:24).</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Erica Russell)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="P7" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I was brought
up in a faith-loving family and the church. However, at some time, I wanted to
deviate from the family's traditional faith to one where I could have had a
water baptism (full immersion), but so as to avoid conflict I delayed it at the
time. Eventually when I left home I was given a Bible, a hymnbook and a lecture
to “remember to walk in God’s path, and to be humble if you do not have money.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="P7" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At one point early
in my adult life, during my midwifery training I was approached by the
midwifery superintendent and told there was going to be a James Bond play in
town and promotion was needed. I was selected to pose and would be photograph
in a bikini. I kept asking what would my parents think, so I declined and
regarded it as an affront. It may have counted against me. After that
conversation I saw both the hospital principal and the midwifery superintendent
were in conversation. As I walked towards them, the principal said, “So you
found a way and you got rid of them all." Both laughed. Our intermediate
exam was imminent at the time. The outcome showed all four students of colour
failed, and we were told there would be no repeat. I contacted the midwifery
body and was called by the superintendent. She wanted a verbatim account of my
complaint, then stated “I knew you would be the one to cause trouble”. With
that in mind, and to avoid undue pressure, and fear I abandoned midwifery
training. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="P5" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In more
recent years, one of my neighbours asked me, “Don't you know what is happening
to you. How do you cope?” He was aware of the eggs on my window, the holes on
my house due to an air rifle, all but one of six windows got broken, urine left
on my steps while my front door was sprayed, the constant knocking on my door,
the attacks on different cars and the stoning. The last stoning I encountered
resulted in me ending up in A&E department. I often wondered what fate
awaited me in the evenings. And it goes on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="P5" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In church, I
have tended to sit at the back. Often I would arrive last and leave at the
earliest convenient time so as not to intrude on others. When I started, I sat
at the far side and was once made aware I was not the honoured guest, and that
the seat was designated for someone’s son. Thereafter I relocated and
gravitated to the near side where I sat at the rear. Until I was noticed and
made welcome by Diane. When doing my 3D course, Roy was supportive by
extracting historical church information which I needed. I was grateful. On
completion I spoke with Diane. She too was again supportive by inviting me to
join the bible reader’s rota. More recently Alannah introduced me to becoming a
server, and continued to be supportive when the process became challenging.
Clare was another person who encouraged me. She told me that there would be a
baptism which I capitalized on.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="P7" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In the
negative experiences in my life I have nevertheless found sustenance and
strength. Part of that strength enabled me to pursue my life-long quest for
adult water baptism by full immersion. This is the first to have occurred in
our church in the 21<sup>st</sup> century and we hope others may become
inspired. The relief from fear, and feelings of security promote a
self-confidence that is the very father and mother of courage. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="P5" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" lang="EN-US" style="mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The avalanche
of racism in our world is stacking higher and higher, while God is patiently
waiting, and listening as the people are trampled over. God too is beginning to
be stifled, and choked due to lack of air. But God isn't alarmed when we hit
rock bottom. He made the rock. It seems this is the first time we’ve learnt
about Black History Month in our church. Hopefully it will start spreading its
roots towards eradicating racism in our community and our church. And,
hopefully the community can begin to support those who are being deprived of
unpolluted breath, so they can breathe freely and equally. The God of justice
will prevail.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Tim Evans)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Thinking about writing this reflection I did a bit of pondering about
what had shaped me to get to here. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">I had initially become a Christian into a theological tradition that
emphasised that sin was an individual thing that separated us from God, and
that the Good News was that Jesus had come to take the punishment for my
individual wrongdoing so I could have eternal life in a relationship with
God. We’d never talked about this idea of collective and structural
sin: we were to serve the poor but we didn't talk about what caused
poverty and injustice in the first place. When I did a Masters in
Community Education, and focusing on Anti-Oppressive Practice, we were taught
the ‘PCS’ model: that oppression happens at Personal, Cultural and Structural
levels, and therefore as youth and community workers we should work at
each of those levels. Later in life I became interested in the whole area of
liberation theology, doing our theological reflection from the 'underside'.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">But somehow I have missed something important along the way and
find myself in a deeply challenging part of my life where listening
to my black sisters and brothers and seeing what's happening in the
world around me, I realise that despite study, being part of progressive
church and activist contexts and practicing youth and community work for so
long, I am only at the beginning of a journey of having my eyes truly opened
and even then I sense deeply that there is so much I am yet to understand. In
particular the systemic and collective nature of racism and privilege and my
complicity in it, even though in my conscious acts I wouldn't dream of
discriminating against someone simply because of their skin colour. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">The verse that really stuck out for me was that 'we are not even close
to right living.' I did the study, read the books, tried to live
compassionately, challenged prejudicial language and actions in those I
have worked with and yet didn't do the deep inner work that's needed nor really
see the depth of the structures of privilege around me and of which I am a
part. As our reading says, when we don't address collective evil, which
racism is, when we don't proactively work for a society where all are welcome,
all are genuinely equal as people made in the image of God with the diversity
of God's creation celebrated, then justice is beaten back. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Here's my temptation - I want to fix things. I want to make it right, I
want to work for a better world, I want to change the systems and structures
and the culture that shapes them, I want to do something about what I believe
in. But Martin Luther King said he had a dream not a plan. To share in that
dream where someone is judged for the content of their character rather
than the colour of their skin it seems to me that those of us who are white
have to deeply listen, seek to recognise our privilege, stand in solidarity
with our sisters and brothers and confess our individual and collective
sin. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Our passage and our reflections over the past couple of weeks do call us
to a form of action beyond standing in solidarity and confession but not
without those things. We have to be, positively and humbly, 'anti-racist.'
There is a caution here; a sense of individual and collective guilt should not
result in us being the 'rescuers' of our black sisters and brothers but nor
does our passage today allow us to stand on the side-lines. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">What
am I doing on a <i>personal</i> level to understand and challenge the bias,
assumptions, prejudice in me and how that plays out in my everyday life and
then what can I change about the way I act?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">On a <i>cultural</i>
level, how am I positively working to be part of environments and ways of doing
things that are positively inclusive and speak up when they are not?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">How
am I part of understanding, challenging, campaigning against,
awareness raising of the <i>structural</i> racism that exists for
example in my line of work the disproportionate numbers of black young men who
experience stop and search. Closer to home, what does this mean for me as
someone who has leadership responsibilities in a number of organisational
contexts?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">All of these aspects are interlinked, and our passage moves between our
individual complicity, the cultural assumptions about the way we should do life
together, and the structures that shape that common life, as all leading to
justice being beaten back.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">I can't end this reflection neatly because this is difficult and complex
not least in my own journey of understanding. Our reading points us towards
collective confession, and if we are to do that then we have to be collectively
honest. I have loved the fact that as a church community a good number of us
have been listening, reading, discovering, learning and confessing together not
just in Black History Month but in a number of ways. I have listened to the
stories of my black sisters and brothers and been deeply moved and challenged
and I thank them deeply for the prophetic gift of challenge that their stories
have been to me. I hope that they have felt that I have been someone who has
sought to listen deeply and be open to my own need to change but also someone
who wants to be part of a culture of solidarity and be part of seeing our own
collective church and community institutions better reflect the kind of world
we all seek to live in.<a name="_Hlk43723710"><o:p></o:p></a></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this week</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Father,
bless us <br />
as we strive to find our way to true racial reconciliation. <br />
Open our eyes to all that goes on around us <br />
that contributes to racial injustice. <br />
Grant us the knowledge to understand all that we do, <br />
both personally and as a society, <br />
which prevents us from recognizing and defending <br />
the dignity of all or our brothers and sisters, <br />
and especially at this time, our brothers and sisters of colour <br />
who are now feeling so much pain. <br />
Grant us the grace to reflect on our own actions and inactions <br />
that contribute to this pain. <br />
And grant us the strength to take action to alleviate this pain <br />
and to end racial injustice in all its forms.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: right;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Phil Chick</span></i></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: #222222; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12.75pt;"><a href="https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/prayers-for-racial-justice-and-reconciliation%20"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">https://www.xavier.edu/jesuitresource/online-resources/prayer-index/<br />
prayers-for-racial-justice-and-reconciliation</span></span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u></u></i></b></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><i><u><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></u></i></b></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters <br />
with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 35.7pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Confession is an important part of how we relate
to God and each other. It’s not just about ‘saying sorry’ – it’s about
acknowledging that we have done things wrong, committing to changing how we
behave in future, and asking God to help us with that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 35.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Think
about the things you want to confess to God and ask God to help you change.
Write or draw them, and screw up the paper. (You can share what you have
written/drawn with someone else if you want, but you don’t have to – it can
just be between you and God.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 35.7pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Now set
fire to the paper, and remember that God forgives us and wants to help us to
change things that are wrong in our lives and in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 35.7pt; text-align: justify;"><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">[REMEMBER:
ask an adult to help you set fire to your paper safely!]</span></u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 35.7pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Justice is a really important theme in the Bible.
Can you think of any situations you know about which are unjust? You might want
to look at a news website for inspiration (e.g. BBC Newsround, </span><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">). Make
a list, or a collage of images, of unjust situations to pray for. Are there
ways that you could help to make any of those situations more just? Ask God to
bring justice, and ask God to show you how you can contribute to justice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-left: 35.7pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">What do you think justice means?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Have a look at the set of
pictures below…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7p8JBcIG0dmkiRyYzDCXioq7Wp6FFcBXCvz-8-qDw3F5XaPV6zSgrjnSmsUQfUBb98fJX1vwjIesdyFhNqMd9vx64TdjKpsrPxZ_-ztcqSBA_JbSKOh_QDftUhcbf6YzKs5zpiqHvAkWJ/s1432/justice+images.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1432" data-original-width="640" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7p8JBcIG0dmkiRyYzDCXioq7Wp6FFcBXCvz-8-qDw3F5XaPV6zSgrjnSmsUQfUBb98fJX1vwjIesdyFhNqMd9vx64TdjKpsrPxZ_-ztcqSBA_JbSKOh_QDftUhcbf6YzKs5zpiqHvAkWJ/w286-h640/justice+images.png" width="286" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What do you notice about the pictures?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Which do you think is most fair, and
why?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Can you relate any of these pictures
to some of the unjust situations you named in response to the previous
question?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">…or to some of the ways that you
could help make those situations more just?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page; mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page; mso-special-character: line-break; page-break-before: always;" />
</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2015%20(11-10-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="https://thewire.in/history/the-trees-of-life-that-became-colonial-indias-agents-of-death">https://thewire.in/history/the-trees-of-life-that-became-colonial-indias-agents-of-death</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2015%20(11-10-20).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Tad Hershorn, quoted in <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190415-strange-fruit-the-most-shocking-song-of-all-time">https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20190415-strange-fruit-the-most-shocking-song-of-all-time</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2015%20(11-10-20).docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Billie Holiday’s version can be heard here <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Web007rzSOI</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-48619134698125633682020-10-01T00:59:00.008-07:002020-10-14T08:21:58.304-07:00Racial Justice (2): Faith & injustice (i) - challenging pious hypocrisy<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaqxcWI05sIEWN8_lAWFJLn00ysCo2bszRhyQ0fIYwRN_nLqjNrsnrrZh-SPOnhIewbXb6b1V4LeVG5fT1Vt9_vA-UczybQ_zn2PaC8mPFEqhC2YxF6yV3yMXsugm0TFO82_1y0sg92-J0/s549/angry+christ.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="374" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhaqxcWI05sIEWN8_lAWFJLn00ysCo2bszRhyQ0fIYwRN_nLqjNrsnrrZh-SPOnhIewbXb6b1V4LeVG5fT1Vt9_vA-UczybQ_zn2PaC8mPFEqhC2YxF6yV3yMXsugm0TFO82_1y0sg92-J0/w273-h400/angry+christ.jpg" width="273" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">Lino Ponteboon, <i>The Angry Christ</i> (from <i>The
Christ We Share</i> resource pack)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<br /><br /><b>Isaiah 58:1-12</b> (<i>The Message</i> version) <br /><br />1-3 “Shout! A full-throated shout!<br /> Hold nothing back—a trumpet-blast shout!<br /> Tell my people what’s wrong with their lives,<br /> face my family Jacob with their sins!<br /> They’re busy, busy, busy at worship, and love studying all about me.<br /> To all appearances they’re a nation of right-living people—<br /> law-abiding, God-honouring.<br /> They ask me, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’<br /> and love having me on their side.<br /> But they also complain,<br /> ‘Why do we fast and you don’t look our way?<br /> Why do we humble ourselves and you don’t even notice?’ <br /><br />3-5 “Well, here’s why: <br /><br />“The bottom line on your ‘fast days’ is profit.<br /> You drive your employees much too hard.<br /> You fast, but at the same time you bicker and fight.<br /> You fast, but you swing a mean fist.<br /> The kind of fasting you do<br /> won’t get your prayers off the ground.<br /> Do you think this is the kind of fast day I’m after:<br /> a day to show off humility?<br /> To put on a pious long face and parade around solemnly in black?<br /> Do you call that fasting, a fast day that I, God, would like? <br /><br />6-9 “This is the kind of fast day I’m after:<br /> to break the chains of injustice,<br /> get rid of exploitation in the workplace,<br /> free the oppressed, cancel debts.<br /> What I’m interested in seeing you do is:<br /> sharing your food with the hungry,<br /> inviting the homeless poor into your homes,<br /> putting clothes on the shivering ill-clad,<br /> being available to your own families.<br /> Do this and the lights will turn on,<br /> and your lives will turn around at once.<br /> Your righteousness will pave your way.<br /> The God of glory will secure your passage.<br /> Then when you pray, God will answer.<br /> You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ‘Here I am.’ <br /><br />9-12 “If you get rid of unfair practices,<br /> quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins,<br /> If you are generous with the hungry<br /> and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out,<br /> Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness,<br /> your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight.<br /> I will always show you where to go.<br /> I’ll give you a full life in the emptiest of places—<br /> firm muscles, strong bones.<br /> You’ll be like a well-watered garden,<br /> a gurgling spring that never runs dry.<br /> You’ll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew,<br /> rebuild the foundations from out of your past.<br /> You’ll be known as those who can fix anything,<br /> restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate,<br /> make the community liveable again.
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Matthew 23:1-28<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">23 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then Jesus said to the
crowds and to his disciples, <b><sup>2 </sup></b>“The scribes and the
Pharisees sit on Moses’ seat; <b><sup>3 </sup></b>therefore, do
whatever they teach you and follow it; but do not do as they do, for they do
not practice what they teach. <b><sup>4 </sup></b>They tie up heavy
burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on the shoulders of others; but they
themselves are unwilling to lift a finger to move them. <b><sup>5 </sup></b>They
do all their deeds to be seen by others; for they make their phylacteries broad
and their fringes long. <b><sup>6 </sup></b>They love to have the
place of honour at banquets and the best seats in the synagogues, <b><sup>7 </sup></b>and
to be greeted with respect in the marketplaces, and to have people call them
rabbi. <b><sup>8 </sup></b>But you are not to be called rabbi, for
you have one teacher, and you are all students. <b><sup>9 </sup></b>And
call no one your father on earth, for you have one Father—the one in
heaven. <b><sup>10 </sup></b>Nor are you to be called instructors,
for you have one instructor, the Messiah. <b><sup>11 </sup></b>The
greatest among you will be your servant. <b><sup>12 </sup></b>All who
exalt themselves will be humbled, and all who humble themselves will be exalted.</span></span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">13 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock
people out of the kingdom of heaven. For you do not go in yourselves, and when
others are going in, you stop them. <b><sup>14 </sup></b>Woe to you,
scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you devour widows’ houses and for the
sake of appearance you make long prayers; therefore you will receive the
greater condemnation. <b><sup>15 </sup></b>Woe to you, scribes and
Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cross sea and land to make a single convert, and
you make the new convert twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.</span></span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">16 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Woe to you, blind guides, who say, ‘Whoever swears by the
sanctuary is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gold of the sanctuary
is bound by the oath.’ <b><sup>17 </sup></b>You blind fools! For
which is greater, the gold or the sanctuary that has made the gold
sacred? <b><sup>18 </sup></b>And you say, ‘Whoever swears by the
altar is bound by nothing, but whoever swears by the gift that is on the altar
is bound by the oath.’ <b><sup>19 </sup></b>How blind you are! For
which is greater, the gift or the altar that makes the gift sacred? <b><sup>20 </sup></b>So
whoever swears by the altar, swears by it and by everything on it; <b><sup>21 </sup></b>and
whoever swears by the sanctuary, swears by it and by the one who dwells in
it; <b><sup>22 </sup></b>and whoever swears by heaven, swears by the
throne of God and by the one who is seated upon it.</span></span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">23 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe
mint, dill, and cumin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law:
justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have practiced without
neglecting the others. <b><sup>24 </sup></b>You blind guides! You
strain out a gnat but swallow a camel!</span></span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">25 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the
outside of the cup and of the plate, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. <b><sup>26 </sup></b>You
blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup, so that the outside
also may become clean.</span></span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">27 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs, which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are
full of the bones of the dead and of all kinds of filth. <b><sup>28 </sup></b>So
you also on the outside look righteous to others, but inside you are full of
hypocrisy and lawlessness.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> (Genny Tunbridge)</span></i><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the past, vast numbers of trees in our country were felled
to build ships. This poem explores how many of those ships were used, and the
links between Britain’s prosperity and the international slave trade.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">[You can watch/listen to Mark Thompson reading his poem <a href="https://youtu.be/IK-NxIgG4vw">here</a></span></i><span style="text-align: left;"><i>]</i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Seed of
the fruit – Mark Thompson<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What if these once shivering timbers
could talk?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Tell tales about those who once
walked between them?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The scenes that they’d not so much
seen<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">as absorbed with the salt of the
spray and the tears shed <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">in the triangular trade in which so
many souls were bought and sold,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">young and old alike, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">back in the days when the darker
fruits of the tree of humanity <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">were just another commodity to be
transported <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">for an unfeasibly large profit on a
disgracefully small fee?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A fruit which, like any other, could
so easily spoil<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">once it was separated from the roots
and the soil <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">of the land where it had been grown,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">from all that it ever loved, all it
had ever known,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">imprisoned as much by the high seas
as the tall ships <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">from where the shores were not
visible for weeks at a time,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">where hope disappeared beneath yards
of sail and rope<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">dancing to the twin tunes of the whistle of the wind and the
whip.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There are so many more than nine
tales to be told,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">including those of the weak, the sick
and the unbreakably bold,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">who could not be cowed between stern
and bow<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">and rebelled somehow, despite the
shackles.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Some argue those warriors, brothers,
mothers and others <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">who never made the journey’s end were
in fact the lucky ones - <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">but there were no winners here, in
the squalor between the decks.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For most, just unending fear and
punishment <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">for the crime of not dying.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But that’s a lie.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For some this gamble payed off
royally, <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>building fortunes, cities, even
empires, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">including ours, those of Spain,
Portugal and the Dutch, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">all of which owed as much <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">to the unutterably unholy sales of
not just the flesh present <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">but of the generations to come.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I wonder what my ancestors on board
would have made of me,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Seed of the fruit of the seed of the
fruit <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>of the seed of the fruit of the seed
of the fruit<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Of the tree of which they are the root?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Perhaps one day I’ll ask them. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But until then I’d ask you to remember them,<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">And to join the dots in the chain
that link us all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A poem by Anglo-Jamaican spoken word artist and activist <b>Mark
Thompson</b>, commissioned in 2020 by the National Maritime Museum.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This is our second of five weeks focusing on the vital theme
of racial justice in both the Church and the wider world. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Over the next two weeks, we’ll spend some time with two
chapters of the prophet Isaiah: 58 and 59. Many biblical scholars believe this
‘third part’ of the book of Isaiah was (unlike parts 1 and 2) <i>not </i>written
in the middle of Israel’s exile in Babylon (as the people wrestled with the
pulls of ‘returning home’ and ‘putting down roots in a strange land’). Instead,
they suggest it was written <i>after </i>the ‘return home’ – in a time that
they had hoped would be ‘back to normal’, but which was, in reality, a long way
from paradise. Their beloved city of Jerusalem is in ruins, and the work of
re-building is slow and hard. Many of them long for a day when they can once
again worship in a rebuilt Temple, but there is more than just bricks and
mortar that need attention. As we read in today’s passage, the people have lost
the plot: what they call ‘worship’ has got nothing to do with the deep work of
loving God and loving their neighbours, and everything to do with the shallow
appearance of piety and holiness.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It’s sometimes said that ‘religion
and politics don’t mix’. But the prophet here says the total opposite:
so-called ‘religious’ <i>worship</i> and so-called ‘political’ <i>justice</i>
must go hand in hand; the former without the latter is just play-acting. Or, as
the late Professor John Hull put it with prophetic </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">starkness:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">"Worship
without ethics is blasphemy.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Prayer
without action is futility.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; text-indent: 36pt;"><i><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Faith without works is deadly."<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Greek word from which we get the word
‘hypocrisy’ originally meant ‘acting a part in a play’. Hypocrisy is about
pretending in public to be something different to who we really are. Following
faithfully in a long line of Jewish prophets, Jesus had harsh words for the
religious hypocrites he saw around him:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Woe to
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs,
which on the outside look beautiful, but inside they are full of the bones of
the dead and of all kinds of filth.” (Matthew 23:27)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We cannot claim to worship God, if we live as
if the injustices of poverty,</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"> racism and environmental destruction are ‘somebody else’s problem’.
Isaiah and Jesus speak to <i>us</i>, call us out for <i>our</i> hypocrisy,
challenge <i>us</i> to link our years of faithful church attendance, and fine
words of theology and prayer, with real and ongoing efforts of sharing what we
have with our neighbours near and far, and working with others to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘break the chains of injustice, get rid of exploitation
in the workplace, free the oppressed, [and] cancel debts’ (Isaiah 58:6-9).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This is work for all of us who call ourselves Christians. For
those of us who are white, it also involves honestly facing up to how much we
benefit from the <i>status quo</i>, from the way the world is currently
organised – because it is organised around people who look like <i>us</i>. What
is often called ‘white privilege’ doesn’t mean that those of us who are white
live always-comfortable lives, never have to struggle, have never been on the
sharp end of injustice. ‘White privilege’ just means that those challenges,
struggles and injustices have never been related to the colour of our skin –
because our skin colour is normally invisible to us. Racism, deep in the roots
of our society, means that if your skin is black or brown, you face all those
challenges, struggles and injustices that your white sisters and brothers have
to deal with, <i>and other challenges, struggles and injustices </i>that are
based on your skin colour alone – and that those of us who are white are able
to live most of our lives blissfully unaware of.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">If we’re white, we’re statistically more likely to get a job,
to be paid more for our work, and to be listened to in public conversations,
than our black sisters and brothers. If our skin is black or brown, we’re
statistically more likely to get stopped by the police, imprisoned unjustly,
and die younger, than our white siblings. If our Christian faith can’t
acknowledge this deadly Sin of racism – in our world, in our country, in our
churches, and in our own lives – and work to address it, then that faith is
nothing but a pretty tomb full of dead bones.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Where we are born into privilege, we
are charged with dismantling any myth of supremacy. Where we were born into
struggle, we are charged with claiming our dignity, joy, and liberation.’<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2014%20(4-10-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The book of Genesis, as we saw a few weeks back, begins with
a well-watered garden, where human beings and God are free to walk together, play
together, with dignity and joy, and without fear, suspicion or shame.
Acknowledging injustice, and struggling for justice, are quite literally
joining with God in ‘re-making the world’. That, say Isaiah and Jesus, is what
‘worship’ really means.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Revd Farai Mapamula)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Farai is minister at
Castle Bromwich Methodist Church.<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Isaiah 58: 1 – 12<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Isaiah is
announcing God’s judgment on Judah and Israel on the way their religious
behaviour and practices are not aligned with God’s commandments and their
responsibility as stewards of the earth. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "PT Sans";">As God’s agent, Isaiah
challenged their acts of fasting because their behaviour included false
humility, quarrelling and even fighting. “You call this a fast, a day
acceptable to the Lord?” Isaiah said.</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "PT Sans";">It was
not a matter of going through some routine ritual, like changing our diets for
a period of six weeks. God has different expectations for believers. God wants
genuine repentance and genuine reform. What the Israelites needed to be doing
was aiding the poor, feeding the hungry and clothing the naked. “Is not this
the fast that I choose: to share your bread…?”</span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This
passage resonates with various aspects of our own times. Our lives as people of
God should reflect the Christ-like love for our neighbour. Isaiah is
challenging his fellow citizens and religious leaders who observed the fast but
did not practice peace and justice to turn away from such hypocrisy. Love of
God is not just expressed in the observance of religious order and ritual, but
in the way we treat fellow human beings, because that is what God expects and
demands from us. Love of God expressed through worship and tradition should be
naturally followed by active service and active love of the other, without
qualification of whether they themselves are God fearing or not.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">There are
many self-professed Christians who cannot see the devastation caused by the
consumerism that we buy into – instant, cheap access to everything – food,
clothes, gadgets, furniture etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>All
these creature comforts are mass-produced at the exploitation of other human
beings.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The international economy has
become a finely tuned machine for exploiting and disempowering labour in favour
of capital. UNICEF reports on the use of child labour to produce cheap clothes
that end up in our shops.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because in any
situation of injustice be it of war or strife displacement, children suffer
most, and be it drought, disease or poverty, it is he children who suffer the
most.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This
mass-production is also exploiting and ravaging the earth’s resources, rain
forests are disappearing because of logging and palm oil production. Many
poorer nations in the Global South are now feeling the rough end of Climate
change because the seasons have become shorter or longer, resulting in either
floods or drought. This is devastating our neighbours – both far and near.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">God cares
about every human being, and calls us to care for each other too. Just being at
Church on Sunday is not enough. We must act to reduce or eradicate our
neighbour’s suffering, whether far or near, whether we know them or not.
Therefore, living a Christ like life that exemplifies God’s love in both deed
and word is what God requires of us – to shun all ways of selfishness, greed,
hatred and prejudice and to embrace all ways that foster human flourishing,
always seeking justice and peace for all humanity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; mso-pagination: none; text-align: justify; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">But these
cannot be achieved just by how we worship, fast, sing or pray, but by active
love and compassion. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "PT Sans";">All our missional work should be striving to
achieve social justice, rather than being an expression of how righteous and
good we are as Christians. We are being challenged to a lived-out faith where
one cares for one’s neighbour. What is Isaiah saying to us? Social justice
issues are a given. They deserve a greater priority than ritualistic behaviours
and practices. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "PT Sans";">Matthew 23: 1 – 28<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "PT Sans";">What
robs communities of their peace?? Inequalities of all varieties! These days the
language employed in our political arena is always offering charismatic,
upbeat, promising words to assure citizens that they are doing what is right
and good and necessary. Empires are like that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "PT Sans";">But
to be honest, is our language and Church any different? Sometimes I wonder
whether our litanies and prayers for peace and justice do more to placate our
guilty consciences than they serve to move us to action. It is easy to point
fingers at politicians and leaders whose speeches are designed to give the
public what they want to hear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jesus is
asking us today; what about the disconnect in our own lives between our
ever-so-eloquent religious language and the nitty-gritty choices we make every
day? Do our words match our actions?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "PT Sans";">Jesus’
words in this Gospel reading can be heard as a reminder to practice what we
preach, to do more than wear our prayers for peace as long fringes and broad
phylacteries, symbolic of our piety and faithfulness, but ultimately empty if
they are not part of an active life of service.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "PT Sans";">Until
we suffer with those who suffer; weep with those who weep; look deeply into the
eyes of the Other – our neighbour whoever they are – even those we deem
different or enemy, and crossing the boundaries that we have erected around
ourselves to keep us separate from their pain, peace will remain an illusion.
We have mastered the art of maintaining the status quo, hence change is always
difficult, so we prefer not “to rock the boat”, because this will maintain and
protect our comfort. But what about the suffering, the oppressed, the poor, the
homeless – all those on the margins, what message are we sending to them via
our message of peace? Our words must match our actions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "PT Sans";">Our
calls to justice and peace start with us. Jesus is calling us to an alternative
reality that dies of the ego and awakens as new life in the other! What needs
to die in me today so others may live?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Muriel Francis)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I was born in St Kitts;
my mother was a Methodist and my father was Anglican. They were strict parents
but caring as well. I have 12 siblings and I am the 8<sup>th</sup> child,
although there were many of us, we looked after one another. We had a
plantation with a variety of vegetables and animals to nourish the family. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I went to school at The
Parish of St Thomas Middle Island School. School started at 9:30 and it was a 3
mile walk to get there. Arriving on time was very important and the school held
a high standard of cleanliness and etiquette. I was very active and took part
in many school sports from swimming to running. We lived near the sea so I
could practice swimming regularly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">At the age of 14, I was
convinced to go to a gospel church. The experience was moving as I could feel
the spirit of the Lord. However, I went back to my previous Anglican church and
become a part of the Choir. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">After I left school, I
become a shop assistant while learning needlework.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I came to England in the 1960s and I lived in
Nottingham for 9 months. I moved to Birmingham in 1963. Initially, I was
working at a car factory afterwards I went to work at Smith and Nephew. I
wanted to find a church in Birmingham, so I went to St Philip and St James
church. I didn’t feel accepted by the community and left quickly. Then I went
to Blue Cross church, but I believed that I needed an Anglican church, so I
returned to St Philips and St James church. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On my second try, I was
welcomed by Bill Rogers’ first wife Maureen, Allannah, Penny’s mother, Joan and
Cliff Gerrard, and Lyn. They made me feel comfortable in church and I felt more
secure as they supported me. After that I flourished and became a part of the
church. The minsters as well offered their support. I then began to do small
tasks at the church to give back to the community that supported me. Andrew Fisher
then approached me to ask if I wanted to become a server.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I was nervous and had
trouble expressing myself as I am a reserved person. Over time, I became more
confident in my role as a server and a part of the church community. I also had
the opportunity to go on 3 pilgrimages, all of which made me feel closer to the
lord. Each time was a very spiritual experience and I could feel it stirring my
heart. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Personally, I found the
lockdown quite saddening as the church couldn’t meet together. I enjoy the
communication that we have during services. Although it is inspiring how the
community still manages to keep in contact. Members of the church such as Joy
and Bill, Joe and Pat helped me with my shopping and keep me connected. I hope
that everyone is doing well during this time and I hope everyone remains
strong.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Dear God, thank you for the love and
support of my friends,<br />
please bless everyone in this difficult time and keep us strong. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Janey Barrett)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In our first reading,
Isaiah’s sense of frustration and anguish is real. He is surrounded by people
who seem to be making a real mess of things. They seem largely concerned about
themselves, and whether they are being seen to do the ‘right things’. This is
repeated by Jesus in the gospel reading who is warning his friends and
disciples about the hypocrisy of the Pharisees. Even though these readings are
from a very long time ago, we can look at our world and look at our society and
feel the very same frustrations as Isaiah. We can also look at our government
and see the very same types of hypocrisy that Jesus was talking about. Even
today, there are still some major imbalances and injustices in our world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">If I am totally honest, I
have struggled in the last 6 months to work out what having faith looks like
when the world around me feels so muddled. I don’t understand why people who
are my friends and neighbours are struggling to feed their families. I cannot
believe that it has taken the death of George Floyd for people to begin to
realise that Black Lives Matter. And I can’t make sense of why a teenage girl
is trolled on social media because she realises the severity of the climate
emergency. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Today, as we continue our
journey through Black History Month, I want to focus on what it means for me to
be a white woman clinging onto faith. Without question, the world was rocked by
the death of George Floyd, and it is frightening to think that it is only when
there is tragedy that people become stirred to think differently. When I first
moved to Birmingham I worked in Handsworth and Lozells as a youth and community
worker. One of the defining moments for me there happened one Wednesday evening
at our weekly youth club session. There had been a fight outside the community
centre, and as a result the police presence that night was high. As the youth
club closed and the young people were going home, I saw a police officer
aggressively saying to one of the black young men, “What have you been doing
and where have you been tonight?” The boy said, “in there,” pointing at the community
centre building, and then, understandably, running away. My team and I spent
the rest of the evening taking the young people in the mini bus to their front
doors so we knew they would not get stopped and questioned by the police. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">On reflection, I think I
was quite blasé at the time about the situation, as this was “just what
happened to boys like this”. It was only a year or so later, when I was studying
for my Masters and was doing some specific research about the identity
formation of young black boys from Lozells, that I began to realise not only
the significant difference between me and them, but also my complicity in the
institutional racism of the police, by not doing more for the boys that evening
where the fight broke out. For my non-understanding and lack of action I am
sorry. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I know that there is a
huge amount more to do in tackling racism at all levels of our society, and if
nothing else, I hope this phase of feeling like I’m “hanging on by a thread” is
giving me a deeper awareness of my own privilege, so that I am better able to
stand with those who experience injustice in ways that I don’t because of the
colour of my skin. Part of holding on to faith is working out together how we
can build a world that promotes flourishing, that can support each individual
to know their unique value regardless of ethnicity, that can challenge
injustice, and that truly believes God’s promise that there will be “life in
the emptiest of places” and the community will be “liveable again”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A
lament for slaveholder religion <br />
and the ongoing racism that infects us</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove)</span></i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jesus, we confess that we have inherited a faith that was
used to justify the theft of native lands and the enslavement of Black bodies.
From this sin, we ask for deliverance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Forgive
us for where we have failed to understand, Lord,<br />
and in your mercy, set us free.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Touch hearts
that have been shrivelled by generations of suppressed empathy, and eyes that
have lost the ability to see siblings who suffer from systemic injustice.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Forgive
us for where we have failed to understand, Lord,<br />
and in your mercy, set us free.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Grant us
courage to renounce the false teaching, that we can somehow know you without
being committed to justice for all people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Forgive
us for where we have failed to understand, Lord,<br />
and in your mercy, set us free.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In your
mercy, help us mourn the divisions among the body of Christ, and work for its
healing in the places where we gather to worship you.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Forgive
us for where we have failed to understand, Lord,<br />
and in your mercy, set us free.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Embolden us to resist the political forces that oppose the liberation
and empowerment of many human beings, by appealing to traditional values and
idealizing a past when white men were in charge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Forgive
us for where we have failed to understand, Lord,<br />
and in your mercy, set us free.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As we name and unlearn the habits of racist religion, give us
grace to draw deeply from the witness of the movements that have always
resisted injustice in the power of your Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Forgive
us for where we have failed to understand, Lord,<br />
and in your mercy, set us free.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We give thanks that there is a river of witnesses that flows
from Sojourner Truth and Olaudah Equiano, through Mary Seacole and Martin
Luther King Jr., through Desmond Tutu and Delores Williams, to the prophetic
leaders who guide, challenge and inspire us today. Give us grace to follow them
to freedom.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Forgive
us for where we have failed to understand, Lord,<br />
and in your mercy, set us free.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;">(adapted
from Britney Winn Lee (ed.), <i>Rally: Communal Prayers for Lovers of Jesus and
Justice</i>, Nashville: Fresh Air Books, 2020)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span><b><i><u><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page; page-break-before: always;" />
</span></u></i></b>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters <br />
with young (and not-so-young!) people</span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left;"></p><ul><li> Both of this week’s bible readings make a stark contrast between doing things to look good (‘hypocrisy’), and doing what God wants us to do. Read again the Isaiah (chapter 58) reading. Can you think of people in the news, or people that you know, who are living in the contrasting ways Isaiah describes here?</li><li>‘Hypocrisy’ literally means ‘playing a part in a play’ – it suggests the idea of wearing a mask. Try drawing / painting / cutting out 2 masks that would fit your face (you could attach them to your head with string or elastic).</li><li>Thinking of one of the people in the news from the first action point, make one mask to depict how you think they want to be seen by other people, and one mask which is more honest about their actions. </li><li>What might your masks look like if you depicted your own face – how you want to be seen, and how you are in reality?</li><li>Read the Isaiah reading again. Remember that God knows you and loves you just as you are. Does the Isaiah reading inspire you with one action or commitment that you could decide to do, that would (in Isaiah’s poetic words) make you ‘begin to glow in the darkness’?</li></ul><!--[if !supportLists]--><p></p>
<div style="text-align: left;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr size="1" style="text-align: left;" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2014%20(4-10-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> adrienne
maree brown, ‘Report: Recommendations for us right now from a future’, http://sublevelmag.com/report-recommendations-for-us-right-now-from-a-future<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-49003424122147819052020-09-24T03:40:00.006-07:002020-10-14T08:22:12.365-07:00Racial Justice (1): Holy ground & calling - called out of slavery<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVWKNC2mgd0_9yVondvEFIcByuCe76aUYceE6GW0RpseTS9vUDUN77HoKndve0vVh94SDlTVdVpLL3N9LsSMNg0i-21bSZFyoWYP-lqmmkHHjloz7erFSmuRwrjFdWC8KTVee2DDEOHYdA/s1024/breaking+chains.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="970" data-original-width="1024" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVWKNC2mgd0_9yVondvEFIcByuCe76aUYceE6GW0RpseTS9vUDUN77HoKndve0vVh94SDlTVdVpLL3N9LsSMNg0i-21bSZFyoWYP-lqmmkHHjloz7erFSmuRwrjFdWC8KTVee2DDEOHYdA/s320/breaking+chains.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<br /><br />Exodus 3:1-15 <br /><br />3 Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law Jethro, the priest of Midian; he led his flock beyond the wilderness, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 There the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of a bush; he looked, and the bush was blazing, yet it was not consumed. 3 Then Moses said, “I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up.” 4 When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Come no closer! Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 He said further, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. <br /><br />7 Then the Lord said, “I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. 10 So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “I will be with you; and this shall be the sign for you that it is I who sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God on this mountain.” <br /><br />13 But Moses said to God, “If I come to the Israelites and say to them, ‘The God of your ancestors has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” 14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” He said further, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the Israelites, ‘The Lord [‘I AM’], the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you’: This is my name forever, and this my title for all generations.
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What kind of plant was the burning
bush, and what meaning does it have? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jewish commentaries interpreted it as
symbolising the experience of the enslaved Israelites. Reading between the
lines a bit, scholars deduced that the bush must have been a thorn bush -
thorns representing the savage prison of slavery:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Just as this bush was
the thorniest of all the trees in the world, in that any bird that entered into
it could not manage to exit without tearing itself limb from limb, likewise was
the slavery of Israel in Egypt the most oppressive slavery in the world.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2013%20(27-9-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There were theories about what kind
of bush: a type of acacia, or a variety of blackberry prone to catching fire in
the summer heat? But the exact species is less important than the fact that
this was not some lofty, majestic tree like the cedar of Lebanon but a humble
shrub, lowly as the downtrodden, humiliated Israelites. The flames too were
symbolic, representing the peril of the Israelites’ captivity in Egypt.
Elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, their plight is often referred to in terms of
blazing heat - ‘the iron furnace’ (eg Jeremiah 11.4). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">God speaking from <i>within</i> the
burning bush was therefore understood to be a sign of the Lord’s compassionate
presence <i>with</i> the Israelites, identifying with them in their suffering;
and the bush unconsumed by the flames represents God’s protection. God calls
Moses to help his people not from on high but from a place of fellow-suffering
and saving solidarity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We’ve spent the last four weeks celebrating God’s good
creation, lamenting our disconnection within it, and exploring possibilities
for a different way of inhabiting our planet. This week, we’re shifting our
focus, from creation as a whole, to some more specific human relationships
within it: those that have been shaped, and distorted, by unjust power
relationships based on the different colours of our skin – what we call ‘race’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">At least three things have happened this year that have made
it more urgent than ever for us, as a multi-coloured Christian community in multi-cultural
Birmingham, to make this a vital focus for our reflections on Christian faith
and discipleship. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Firstly, on 25<sup>th</sup> May, a 46-year-old black man,
George Floyd, was murdered in Minneapolis by white police officers, who brutally
restrained him and knelt on his neck while he repeatedly gasped “I can’t
breathe”. The <i>Black Lives Matter</i> protests across the world in response to
Floyd’s killing were on a scale rarely seen by any previous generation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Secondly, it became clear early on in the COVID19 pandemic
that, in the UK, people from Black, Asian and other minority ethnic backgrounds
were dying at a higher rate than those from White ethnic backgrounds. This
highlighted, among other things, stubborn links between race, poverty, poor
housing and working conditions, and worse access to healthcare. The way our
country is organised makes you more likely to be poor, and to die, if your skin
is black or brown. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And thirdly, in response to the ‘Windrush scandal’ in which
the government has been stripping British subjects from the Caribbean, many of
whom have lived and worked in this country for 50-60 years, of their
citizenship and right to remain here, the Church of England held a debate in
its February General Synod in which the Archbishop of Canterbury apologised for
the Church’s history, and its present reality, as ‘institutionally racist’.
Not long after this, a book was published offering much more evidence to
support that, by a black Anglican priest, Fr Azariah France-Williams: <i>Ghost
Ship: Institutional Racism in the Church of England</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The time to face racism in our country, and in our churches,
then, is well and truly overdue. It’s a question about our <i>past</i> (the
historic entanglement of British history, and the history of British churches,
with the transatlantic slave trade), but also about our <i>present</i>. Racism
isn’t just about individual <i>acts</i> (using hurtful words, or discriminating
unjustly) and individual <i>people</i> (the nasty skinheads who do Nazi
salutes). Racism is what we call <i>systemic</i>: it affects our assumptions
and attitudes, our habits and relationships, our communities and gatherings,
our structures and strategies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In Hodge Hill, a small number of us, black and white, began a
conversation last year, where we began reading two books (<i>White Fragility</i>
by Robin DiAngelo, and <i>We Need to Talk about Race</i> by Ben Lindsay), and
meeting together to share our responses and reflections, and our experiences of
racism in our own lives. We had planned another session in late March, which
the COVID lockdown put a stop to. But we had resolved, as a group, that this
was a conversation that could not, must not, lose momentum. Black members of
our church congregation continue to experience racism as a daily reality in the
world, and have experienced it in churches too, including our own. We pride
ourselves here on being an ‘Inclusive Church’ – but we still have a long way to
go, especially if we tell ourselves ‘we’re alright here’, or ‘I don’t see
colour’. We have a long way to go to be genuinely <i>anti-racist</i> in our
shared life and worship, and public witness and action as a church.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So we’ve given ourselves a month – certainly not our last chance,
but not our first either – to spend a significant amount of time together,
paying attention to the critical issue of racial justice, in both the world and
the church. During this month, we will have the opportunity to hear black
voices lead our reflections on Scripture, and on the life of the world, the
life and mission of the Church, and our diverse, unique experiences of life.
Some of those black voices will be from within our local church community here
in Hodge Hill. Some of them will be from the wider Church – ministers and
theologians from Anglican, URC and Methodist churches. And there will also be
some space (both within these weekly resources, as well as in the various
opportunities for us to meet and talk together that we offer every week) for
white voices to be heard, responding to what they/we have heard from our black
sisters and brothers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What are we hoping for, from this month? As Fr Azariah puts
it: ‘[b]lack and brown people are not asking for white protectors, but they are
asking for partners who see, hear and speak up for the full human flourishing
of black and brown people. They are asking for partners who will fight
alongside them against racism in the arena, not just cheer them on from the
safety of the stadium seats: white people who speak up, listen up and look up,
whether or not those people of colour are in the meetings.’<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2013%20(27-9-20).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
This is a chance for us to listen to each other, especially to voices that have
been less heard, and for each of us to respond, from our unique life-story and
location, in solidarity together, engaging in the particular work that God is
calling each of us to: to do justice, to love with kindness, and to walk humbly
with our God (Micah 6:8).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And if we do, we may discover, like Moses, that we are
standing not just on <i>common</i> ground but on <i>holy</i> ground: where we
are fully present to each other, and where God is fully present to us. In our
community-building work here, we often repeat a quote first expressed by a
group of native Australian activists. It is profoundly relevant for this work
together too:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“If you have come here to help us, <br />
then you are wasting our time.<br />
But if you have come <br />
because your liberation is bound up with ours,<br />
then let us work together.”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection:
‘The God who sees’</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Revd Dr Sharon Prentis)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sharon is Intercultural Mission Enabler and Dean of Black,
Asian and Minority Ethnic Affairs in the diocese of Birmingham<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I
am not by nature, someone who has green fingers. However, earlier this year I
managed to grow, much to my delight, a variety of vegetables and flowers in my
garden. Like many people, the last few months has made me think differently
about things such as, “how I define myself” and “what makes me who I am?”.
Learning to garden in a time of disruption helped me realise there are many
other things I could do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
the story of the burning bush in Exodus 3, we see God begin the work of
liberation, of the people of Israel out of Egypt, by disrupting Moses’ routine
in the desert. At the time of the story Moses is 80 years of age, and for the
last 40 years he has lived in exile. A man who was destined to be a Prince of
Egypt is now a shepherd. The first half of his life was spent in luxury, the
second in relative obscurity. I would imagine that any individual, especially
someone who had the opportunities like Moses would have wondered occasionally
how things might have been. To go from Pharaoh’s court to being a shepherd must
have been a difficult transition and caused him to lose hope. These though,
were the condition for a huge shift in his expectations. For it is in the
desert, he sees the burning bush and after 40 years of herding sheep that must
have been a sight!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It
is sometimes in the difficult places that our attention is drawn to what we
must see. Here in that difficult place away from the false comforts of Egypt,
bought at expense of the enslavement of others, is where God catches Moses
attention. God calls him by name first, then calls him into a sacred encounter
through the symbolic act of removing his sandals. This recognises something
extraordinary is happening because Moses is named by God the divine ‘I AM’:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 36.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Moses,
Moses I know you take off your shoes and worship me and through that worship I
will completely restore you and there you will discover your destiny.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In
God’s statement of being called ‘I AM’ Moses understands his own identity and
his destiny or call.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God reminds Moses
of his ancestral heritage and God’s presence with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob
ordinary folk, people who did not lead exemplary lives. People who had to live
with the reality of their own brokenness. Moses is about to join the great
company of the chosen: Abraham who lied, Isaac who did the same and Jacob who
stole his brother’s inheritance. It is important to remind ourselves that God
uses imperfect people to bring about an act of divine deliverance for others. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">After
Moses’ encounter with God, he understood that God was going to use him to
deliver a nation in bondage; and more importantly, he understands this as being
part of his own destiny, his call. Once he grasps this there is no holding him
back. You see, our identity, what are we created to be once given freely to a
loving God enables us to do the things that we are called to do; but first, we
have to first recognise that we are worthy to called to be who we are. Moses recognised
that he was not defined by his past, but who he was, his core identity was
defined by a greater identity, the one called ‘I Am’– the God who sees, and in
whose image everyone can be seen. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This
month as we celebrate Black History, the story of the exodus from Egypt is even
more poignant given the tragedies of the last few months. History, when told
from the perspective of the marginalised, reflects the barren and difficult
places in the human story. Slavery and its legacy of subjugation and oppression
still has a devastating impact today. For over 165 years, Britain played a
significant role in promoting it. Millions of people were trafficked across the
Atlantic- many losing their lives before reaching land. This period was marked
by brutality, humiliation and death. Black bodies were regarded as property and
sold because of greed and fear. Sadly, the church was complicit in the trade
with many slave ships being blessed by bishops before they commenced their
maiden voyages. On the island of Barbados in the Caribbean, it was known that
after slavery was abolished in 1837 the Church of England received financial
compensation from the government for the slaves it owned. Today, that would
amount to hundreds of thousands of pounds. The sad truth is the legacy of
slavery still has repercussions. Black people are still livings with the
effects of those times. The social and psychological consequences of
post-traumatic stress arising from the disintegration of generations of
families and the economic disadvantages from inequality. Bishop Rose Hudson-
Wilkin said, “The impact of slavery has damaged not only these people, but the
fabric of society”. We need to look back to go forward, because what happened
historically is still impacting today; and, if we can’t stop and recognise
this, we won’t be able to address it.” <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
God who sees, calls us, like Moses, to join in with the work of liberation so
that we all can be free. Moses was in the right place at the right time to
understand his call and what God would do through him to bless others. Before
then, he had learned to live a quiet life thinking he was unseen in the desert.
The God who sees caught Moses attention and called on him to fulfil his
destiny. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Joy Curtis)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Almost everyone knows the story about
Moses and the ‘burning bush’, when he appeared on the mountain; saw a ball of
fire which was not burning anything around it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Out of these flames a voice called out to Moses and asked him to remove
his sandals, as he was standing on Holy Ground.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The presence of God created this Holiness. This tells me that I could
have my calling from God at any time, any place; anywhere when I least expect
it. God is divine and it is very humbling when we are told He appeared from the
burning bush. How often do we see rubbish burning in the bushes, often set
alight by vandals; or the farmer burning his field after reaping the best of
his crops and what is left over is deemed worthless only to be burned and
turned into compost to enrich the soil for the next crop.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does this not show that God can change
everything, every human being for the good of His Kingdom? When God appeared to
Moses in such an environment it is nothing short of extreme humility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whenever I receive my calling to do God’s
work it will be a case of being called as I am.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The question is however, why did God
call Moses; What role did God have up his sleeves for him to carry out? The
scripture further tells us that God was not happy with the way in which the
Israelites were being treated by the Egyptians, v.9 ‘the cry of the Israelites
has now come to me, I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This oppression was slavery – where one
person is owned by another and treated as property and forced to give his labour
under very harsh conditions. This story of God’s people held in bondage was
popularised by the late international reggae singer Bob Marley in his song
‘Exodus, movement of Jah people’, meaning stop the oppression of God’s people
and release them from bondage.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is
the message that God wanted Moses to convey to the Egyptian rulers. Moses was
therefore upgraded from being animal minder to God’s messenger in order to free
the slaves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Slavery has come a long way since
biblical times. Anyone can be enslaved, but the enslavement of black people at
the hands of the white European ruling classes is one of history’s greatest
atrocities. Between 10 million and 12 million black people were forcibly taken
by white people from Africa and transported to places such as the West Indies
and North America to work in sugar and cotton plantations, until campaigners
such as William Wilberforce and Olaudah Equiano got slavery abolished in the
1830s. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Since this time, however, black
people have continued to face injustice, inequality and discrimination by their
white counterparts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Research has shown
that black people are more likely to be sent to prison for minor offences,
suffer higher rates of unemployment and have recently been hit very hard by the
Covid-19 pandemic, including suffering more deaths working on the frontline
within the healthcare delivery system. These inequalities in our society are
linked to what is called ‘white privilege’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This is defined by BBC Newsround as ‘people with white skin having
advantages in society that other people do not have’. Basically, the odds are
stacked against me because I am black. I am treated less favourably by some
white people and institutions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This has
been my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is lived experience
and rich data. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I often feel that I have to pay the
penalty for being born black.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I have
experienced racism, injustice and discrimination in the most appalling ways:</span></p>· my windows have been egged and broken; <br /><br />· mud has been thrown all over my washing hanging on the line to dry; <br /><br />· my car has been spat on when parked and whilst waiting at traffic lights; <br /><br />· I’ve been called negative names such as ‘blackie’, ‘monkey’, ‘nigga’, ‘gorilla’ (these are only the names that common decency allows me to include);
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">whilst
sitting on a train I had peanuts shoved into my face and the man who did this
said ‘he wanted to make me feel at home!’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I was so humiliated and embarrassed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I recalled at Sunday School we were always taught to ‘turn the other
cheek’. Matt. 5:39. I’m pretty sure this saved me from a possible prison
sentence.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Even the Church discriminates against
people of colour. I’ve had first-hand experience of this.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Years gone by I was never asked to contribute
to worship in any meaningful way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I
would just sit at the back of the Church for an hour, then go home again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Luckily, things have now changed for the
better and the Church now takes a more inclusive approach.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The recent ‘Black Lives Matter
Movement’ borne out of the unlawful killing of the American black man George
Floyd has drawn international condemnation of the treatment of black people for
no other reason but the colour of their skin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Better understanding and cultural awareness is needed if black and
minority ethnic people are to live in harmony in the way in which God intended
when he created the Earth. This is probably a Utopian perception, but with God
all things are possible and we live in hope. Black History must be taught in
schools, the significant contribution made by black people to make Britain a
‘Great Nation State’ should be highlighted as part of the standard history
curriculum in schools. The negative perceptions and stereotypical views of
black people must change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Moses had his calling and was
promoted from being animal minder to God's messenger who appealed to Pharaoh to
end slavery and release His people from bondage. It does not matter who we
are, God can uplift us to great heights. God has created all of us in His
own image and accepts us no matter what our appearance. The late American Civil
Rights activist Martin Luther King said in one of his speeches "I have a
dream that people will be judged by the content of their character and not the
colour of their skin.” We may still be a long way off, but again we live
in hope. I may be angry, and a little impatient whilst I am waiting for change
but I thank God that I am surrounded by so much love by both black and white
people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I refuse to hate. If it happened
to God's people in biblical times; it can happen to us. God will take his long-suffering
people to that land flowing with milk and honey.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Penny Hall)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘I have observed the misery of my
people…’</span></i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> says God in
today’s reading. I wonder how well I have observed the misery of people who
were classed as a different ‘race’ in order to justify people making money out
of keeping them in slavery over 200 years ago. And how well am I observing that
suffering now?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">From the early 1980s, for many years,
I worked in a college of further education. The college had clearly tried to
ensure that there was equality of opportunity for all racial groups. Students,
tutors, heads of department and assistant principals included people of colour.
Staff groups were set up to ensure that opportunities for students of colour
were being promoted. My perception was that the college certainly seemed to be
proactive in promoting racial justice. On a personal level, I prided myself in
being ‘colourblind’, having friends and colleagues who were people of colour.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Fast forward now a couple of decades.
Last year, Al recommended two books on the theme of racial (in)justice. The
first book, ‘White fragility’ by Robin DiAngelo seemed to me to accuse white
women in particular of turning racism around so that they (we!) became the
victims – hurt by the very suggestion that we might be racist. DiAngelo implied
that ‘colour blindness’ was an excuse for not noticing what was going on. I
felt that the book was aimed at the US, not the UK. (There’s not much racism
here is there?) The second book, ‘We need to talk about race’ by Ben Lindsay
spread the load of guilt to the church’s past and present performance regarding
racial justice. Both these books left me feeling uncertain about my current
understanding of racial justice. However, it wasn’t until Al invited those of
us who had read the books to a small discussion group, that my eyes were
opened. Friends of colour shared examples of recent racism which they were
experiencing on an almost daily basis. I was stunned as I hadn’t realised this
was happening. Because I hadn’t seen it, I hadn’t understood it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Then I was introduced to a third
book, ‘Ghost Ship’ by Azariah France-Williams, which deals with institutional
racism in the Church of England. Within the first few pages, I really saw and
understood. I didn’t feel accused but now I could see enough to accuse myself!
The author explains through stories how the ‘unseen nuances of racism’ wear
people down. One description especially hit me: ‘These mini assaults on one’s
personhood are death by a thousand paper cuts’. This book, together with
listening to people’s personal experiences, has helped me to understand what I
had previously failed to see, that racism is not always obvious, often hardly
noticeable to the casual observer, but cutting to the recipient. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘I have observed the misery of my
people… <br />
I know their sufferings <br />
and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians’.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Now that I have seen the suffering, I
want to listen more and to know. And then what am I going to do about it? Steve
Chalke, in his endorsement of ‘Ghost Ship’, says ‘Racism thrives best in the
company of silence’! So perhaps that’s my starting point, to watch, to listen
and to not be silent.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Some prayers to begin this month</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:</span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">To God we pray:<br />
who sees us whatever we or others try to hide.<br />
We pray to the one <br />
who shows us the working is in the margins<br />
and makes that place home;<br />
who makes the out, in;<br />
who gives the keys of the kingdom<br />
to those who forge faith at the well… in the cave… in the hold…<br />
to those who know the Cross.<br />
Gather us we pray.<br />
Open our hearts to reality.<br />
Create in us clean hearts<br />
and renew a right spirit within. <br />
<b>Amen.</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Lord, your Gospel rises<br />
when the mighty are cast down from their thrones<br />
and the lowly are lifted up.<br />
It is good news when the lowly exhale <br />
all of the abundant gift that has been held in.<br />
We pray for a church that believes in God,<br />
and God’s wide abundance and gift.<br />
We pray for the love that is stronger than death. <br />
<b>Amen.</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Spirit, who hovered over the waters,<br />
welcome in this place.<br />
Aid us in our memory.<br />
Rewire our flawed minds.<br />
We cry out for the souls of all who have been enslaved,<br />
of all who have been the victims of racist brutality,<br />
of all who have been seen as less than human<br />
because of the colour of their skin.<br />
We recognise the gifts of survivors<br />
and nurture into flourishing those who now see<br />
the black beauty that God has always seen. <br />
<b>Amen.</b></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Let us rejoice and give thanks <br />
for brave slaves who no longer <br />
merely plug the holes of broken vessels,<br />
for those who inspire us to say yes to God’s will and way,<br />
who hear the Spirit speaking through the reality of life<br />
and with whole hearts agree <br />
that the answer is yes, Lord, yes.<br />
In the name of the Holy Trinity. <br />
<b>Amen.</b></span></span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Adapted from
prayers by Fr Richard Springer, 1<sup>st</sup> August 2020,<br />
at the launch of Azariah France-Williams’ book, <i>Ghost Ship</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<b><i><u><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div></u></i></b>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">On this week’s theme </span></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(questions offered by Sharon Prentis)<b>…<i><o:p></o:p></i></b></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 19.65pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -19.65pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">1.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In your life, what is
catching your attention today?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 19.65pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -19.65pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">2.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Call / destiny is always in
relation to other people; who are the ‘others’ for you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 19.65pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-list: l4 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -19.65pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: "Arial Unicode MS";"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">3.<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What small step might you
take towards getting a vision of what God wants to show you?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><u style="font-weight: bold;">Activities
/ conversation-starters </u><br /><u style="font-weight: bold;">
with young (and not-so-young!) people</u> (Ruth Harley)</span></i></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In today’s story, Moses learns something
about his identity. Spend some time thinking about your identity. Who are
you? What makes you who you are? Draw a picture of yourself, or find a
photo of yourself. Around the picture, write some words or draw some symbols
of different aspects of your identity. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Moses also learns something about God’s
identity. Spend some time thinking about God’s identity. How many
different names or images can you think of for God? Make a list, or draw
some pictures. You could ask your family, friends, or other people from
church what they think about who God is. Which names or images of God do
you like? Are there any you don’t like, or have questions about?<o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo5; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">God calls Moses to lead people out of
slavery and into freedom. In our reflections today, we heard a bit about
slavery and how it is linked to racism. You can read some more about that
here: </span><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52965665"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/52965665</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">
Think about all the ways slavery has affected people, and the ways its
legacy still affects people today. Sometimes it is hard to know how to
pray about such a big, difficult situation. Make a list of key words,
people involved, or collect or create some images, to use as a prompt for
prayer. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2013%20(27-9-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Midrash quoted in <a href="https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/15609/what-type-of-plant-was-the-bush-of-exodus-32">https://hermeneutics.stackexchange.com/questions/15609/what-type-of-plant-was-the-bush-of-exodus-32</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2013%20(27-9-20).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
France-Williams, p.208<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-35993257522779886662020-09-15T07:06:00.007-07:002020-09-15T07:08:01.012-07:00Creation season (4): human injustice and disconnection from creation<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSJylkx7lCvXc1bpJmmbz1ewS4_InxbKTROJ7ysX3oNM06zdbpFC2HZV2a8Lv_gfy58qebU8wMuGqybVEpc6ltO5gbdYUfFsCN2Td5qW5qXSoVYe7YYzWE6o00FAKDdFtntnazrzcnNqXQ/s800/wasteland.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="800" height="243" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSJylkx7lCvXc1bpJmmbz1ewS4_InxbKTROJ7ysX3oNM06zdbpFC2HZV2a8Lv_gfy58qebU8wMuGqybVEpc6ltO5gbdYUfFsCN2Td5qW5qXSoVYe7YYzWE6o00FAKDdFtntnazrzcnNqXQ/w400-h243/wasteland.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Isaiah 5:5-7<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">5 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And
now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.<br />
I will remove its hedge, and it shall be devoured;<br />
I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.<br />
<b><sup>6 </sup></b>I will make it a waste; it shall not be pruned or
hoed,<br />
and it shall be overgrown with briers and thorns;<br />
I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">7 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">For
the vineyard of the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> of
hosts is the house of Israel,<br />
and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting;<br />
he expected justice, but saw bloodshed;<br />
righteousness, but heard a cry!<br />
<sup>8</sup> </span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ah, you
who join house to house,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span class="text"><span style="background: white;">who add field to field,</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">until there is room for no one
but you,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">and you are left to live alone</span></span>
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">in the midst of the land!</span></span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white;"><br /></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jeremiah 9:10-14<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; margin: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">10 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Take up weeping and wailing for the mountains,</span></span><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness,</span><br />
<span class="text">because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
the lowing of cattle is not heard;</span><br />
<span class="text">both the birds of the air and the animals</span> <span class="text">have fled and are gone.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>11 </sup></b>I will make Jerusalem a heap of
ruins,</span> <span class="text">a lair of jackals;</span><br />
<span class="text">and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation,</span> <span class="text">without inhabitant.</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="top-1" style="background: white; margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">12 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Who
is wise enough to understand this? To whom has the mouth of the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> spoken,
so that they may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a
wilderness, so that no one passes through? <b><sup>13 </sup></b>And
the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> says: Because they have forsaken my law that I set before
them, and have not obeyed my voice, or walked in accordance with it, <b><sup>14 </sup></b>but
have stubbornly followed their own hearts and have gone after the Baals, as
their ancestors taught them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="top-1" style="background: white; margin-top: 12pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: black; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Hosea 4:1-3, 5:15 - 6:3<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">4 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Hear the word of the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">, O people of
Israel;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">for the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;"> has an indictment against the
inhabitants of the land.</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">There is no faithfulness or
loyalty,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">and no knowledge of God in the land.</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white;">2 </span></sup></b><span style="background: white;">Swearing, lying, and murder,</span></span><span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">and stealing and adultery break out;</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">bloodshed follows bloodshed.</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white;">3 </span></sup></b><span style="background: white;">Therefore the land mourns,</span></span> <span class="text"><span style="background: white;">and all who live in it languish;</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">together with the wild animals</span></span>
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">and the birds of the air,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">even the fish of the sea are
perishing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">5 </span></b></span><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">15 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I will
return again to my place, [says the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Lord],</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">until they acknowledge their guilt
and seek my face.</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">In their distress they will beg my
favour:<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">6 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Come, let us
return to the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; font-variant: small-caps; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">for it is he who has torn, and he
will heal us;</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">he has struck down, and he will bind
us up.</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white;">2 </span></sup></b><span style="background: white;">After two days he will revive us;</span></span> <span class="text"><span style="background: white;">on the third day he will raise us up,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">that we may live before him.</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white;">3 </span></sup></b><span style="background: white;">Let us know, let us press on to know the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">;</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">his appearing is as sure as the dawn;</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">he will come to us like the
showers,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">like the spring rains that water the
earth.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">Ark - by
Simon Armitage<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">They sent out a dove<br />
It wobbled home, wings slicked in a rainbow of oil<br />
A sprig of tinsel snagged in its beak<br />
A yard of fishing line binding its feet<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bring back, bring back the leaf<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">They sent out an arctic fox<br />
It plodded the bays of the Northern fringe<br />
in muddy socks and a nylon cape.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bring back, bring back the leaf<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bring back the reed and the reef<br />
set the ice sheet back on its frozen plinth,<br />
tuck the restless water course into its bed,<br />
sit the glacier down on its highland throne,<br />
put the snow-cap back on the mountain peak.<br />
Let the Northern lights be the Northern lights<br />
not the alien glow over Glasgow or Leeds.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">A camel capsized in a tropical flood.<br />
Caimans dozed in Antarctic lakes.<br />
Polymers rolled in the sturgeon’s blood.<br />
Hippos wandered the housing estates.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bring back, bring back the leaf.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bring back the tusk and the horn unshorn.<br />
Bring back the fern, the fish, the frond and the fowl,<br />
the golden toad and the pygmy owl.<br />
revisit the scene where swallowtails fly<br />
through acres of unexhausted sky<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">They sent out a boat<br />
Go little breaker,<br />
splinter the pack- ice and flows,<br />
nose through the rafts and pads of wrappers<br />
and bottles and nurdles and cans,<br />
the bergs and atolls and islands and states <br />
of plastic bags and micro beads<br />
and the forests of smoke. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Bring back, bring back the leaf,<br />
bring back the river and sea.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We’ve reached the final
week of our month-long Creation season, focusing on the world that God has
created, and our place within it as human beings. Last week we looked at the
‘just-so story’ in Genesis chapter 3, and we explored the idea of Sin (with a
capital S) as our <i>disconnection</i>: from our fellow human beings, from the
earth and all its creatures, from God – and even from our own selves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This week we explore
three passages from the Hebrew Bible (the Christian ‘Old Testament’) which
describe fertile earth being ‘laid waste’ (Jeremiah 9), becoming a hostile,
inhospitable wilderness, ‘overgrown with briers and thorns’ (Isaiah 5). We hear
the prophet Hosea describing the land as ‘mourning’. These are glimpses of the
flip side of what we saw in Psalm 96 (in week 10), which tells of the earth
‘rejoicing’, the sea ‘roaring’, the field ‘exulting’, and the trees ‘singing
for joy’. If the non-human world can praise God, it seems it is also capable of
lamenting. And all of this is as a result of what human beings have done: the
response of the earth itself (with the support of its Creator) to human greed,
injustice and bloodshed (Isaiah 5 and Hosea 4), to humans forsaking God’s laws
and not listening to God’s voice (Jeremiah 9). These passages paint a stark
picture of how what we human beings do, and how the earth responds, are
entangled together. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We’ve not quoted the
passage here (mostly because it’s got some difficult stuff about sex in it that
we’d need a whole separate session to unpick!), but in Leviticus chapter 18 we
hear the boldest example of this imagery: when what human beings do ‘defiles’
the land, the land itself ‘vomits out its inhabitants’ (Lev. 18:25). But if we
follow through the story in that book of the bible, we also catch some glimmers
of hope. As the humans are ‘scattered’ and the land is made ‘desolate’, then
the land gets to enjoy the time of ‘sabbath rest’ that it has been longing for (Lev.
26:33-35, 43). And this ‘breathing space’ for the land also offers the
scattered humans some time to reflect on their injustice and hostility, and an
opportunity to discover some humility and to begin to ‘make amends’ (Lev.
26:40-42). God remains faithful, and does not forget her human creatures, any
more than she forgets the earth she has also made. This is also the promise
that the people hold on to in Hosea’s prophecy: returning to God, acknowledging
their Sin, rediscovering their connection with the land, and a renewal of a
healthy ecology (including the return of rain to thirsty ground), all go hand
in hand. This promise, for a people exiled, disconnected, from their roots, is
but a whisper today. But in the coming months, as we approach and then enter
Advent, we will hear it repeated, with growing strength.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Might we wonder, as we
reflect on the experience of the last few months in the grip of the COVID-19
pandemic, both through our own eyes and from the perspective of the earth
itself… have we perhaps caught a glimpse of the earth’s ‘vomiting’, an
involuntary response of the non-human world to human habits of greed and
disconnection?<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2012%20(20-9-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Has
the enforced ‘scattering’ of human beings to our homes, away from our usual
gathering places and access to global travel, given the earth just a little ‘breathing
space’? And has it offered us an opportunity to reflect, repent, and rediscover
a more healthy, connected way of living with each other, with the earth, and
with God? And if the answer to those questions is ‘Yes’, then what – we need to
ask ourselves – has changed, or is changing, for good?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s320/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">I knew roughly what I wanted to say in this reflection by
last Sunday evening. And then I watched David Attenborough’s powerful,
heart-wrenching documentary, <i>Extinction: The Facts</i> – which said it all
for me, more eloquently and with pictures too! So, I could just stop here and
encourage you all to go and watch it, if you haven’t already.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the uncomfortable, disturbing truth needs
to be heard and this is an opportunity to reflect on it together, so here goes…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Attenborough’s documentary presented the shocking statistics:
one million species out of the total eight million on earth are threatened with
extinction. Since 1970, populations of vertebrates have declined by 60%.
Extinction is a natural process; the problem is the extent - hundreds of times
faster than the natural evolutionary rate, and accelerating. Prehistoric mass
extinctions were caused by volcanoes or meteors, but scientists believe we are
now in the middle of another mass extinction event – this time caused by human
activity.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">These losses are not just affecting large, exotic, photogenic
mammals (though these are the ones which grab our attention - like the only two
surviving northern white rhinos in the world, Najin and her daughter Fatu, who
featured in the documentary). We are also losing all kinds of birds, fish,
insects and plants. And it’s not just happening in the teeming rainforests but
on our doorstep. Over the past 200 years, over 400 species have been lost from
England alone – including 22 species of bee, 78 of beetles, 7 kinds of bird and
5 kinds of butterfly – to name only those beginning with ‘b’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Species Recovery Trust keeps an archive
of lost native species, which lists the reasons for each one’s extinction. It
makes for a sad litany: habitat destruction, agricultural intensification,
pollution, drainage of wetlands, poor land management, egg collecting, hunting,
urban development, overfishing, climate change, loss of mature trees…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A similar set of destructive activities is responsible for
global biodiversity loss. Some of this human behaviour, like overfishing,
poaching and hunting, is a deliberate choice to kill creatures for our own
consumption or for profit – prioritising immediate gratification over long-term
sustainability. Much destruction is not intended but rather a careless
consequence of our (mis)management of natural resources, relentlessly and
heedlessly pursuing growth, cheap food and profit for the benefit of humans alone,
either unaware of or choosing to ignore the impact this has on the rest of
creation. If we carry on like this, we will indeed be alone, fulfilling
Isaiah’s startling prophecy:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Ah, you who join house to house, who add field to field,<br />
until there is room for no one but you,<br />
and you are left to live alone in the midst of the
land!<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Over two thousand years ago, already the prophets knew how
damaging human behaviour could be. Greed and violence, selfishness and
indifference, cut us off not only from our human neighbours but from all our
sisters and brothers in creation. The trouble is that too often we don’t
acknowledge that kinship – we find it hard enough to treat fellow humans as
brothers and sisters when they look different; how much harder we have found it
to recognise that other creatures, from mountain gorillas to tiny beetles, have
equal value and a right to thrive.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But though we struggle to care about all these threatened
creatures for their own sake, we are beginning to (re)discover that our well-being
is ultimately bound up with theirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Most
of us haven’t noticed the disappearance of many insect species, and would not,
if we’re honest, be particularly upset by their loss. But - as one scene in the
documentary dramatically showed - a diversity of insects is vital for breaking
down organic matter and maintaining healthy soil. When too many insects are
lost, we will end up with a dustbowl that no amount of chemical fertiliser can
put right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not just about
soil:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>the more diverse and species-rich
any ecosystem is, the more resilient it is to change. And though the existence
of one endangered species may not appear to have any benefit for humans, its
loss will have an impact on us all. A single link in a spider’s web may not
seem important, “but the links altogether provide the web with strength and
stability. If enough links are lost however the entire web will collapse in the
slightest gust of wind. Humans are as intrinsically part of this web as any
other organism on the planet.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2012%20(20-9-20).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The current pandemic is one example of how damage to one part
of the web of nature has far-reaching consequences and can lead to a major
collapse, affecting human society. The growing frequency and severity of viral
pandemics in the last century seems to be a result of intensifying human
disruption of nature; deforestation and climate change cause stress and
migration in animals and create opportunities for viruses to transfer to
humans. So the enforced isolation and disconnection from each other which we
have endured for the past six months – and which sadly looks set to continue
for some while – is a symptom of our greater disconnection from nature and is
something which we humans have helped to bring upon ourselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">It’s hard not to feel deeply despairing, depressed, angered
and ashamed by all this – I find myself living with all of these emotions and
more, when I allow myself to face these difficult truths. Avoidance and denial
- too long our solution - are no longer an option. It is time for humanity to
change the way we think about and act towards our fellow creatures.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Extinction Rebellion’s non-violent disruption
on our streets and Attenborough’s hard-hitting presentation in our living rooms
are part of an awakening, a growing resolve among ordinary people to find ways
of making a difference. Our unlooked-for pause during lockdown has made so many
of us reflect on what was wrong with the ‘old normal’, not least the damage we
have been doing to our planet – and at the same time it has given many of us a
chance to reconnect with nature in surprising and refreshing ways,
rediscovering the joys of our gardens and local woods, learning the names of
trees and recognising birdsong. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As people of faith, who understand the nature of sin and
recognise our own share in this, but also believe in restoration and renewal,
we are called to play a part in this awakening, to make the changes we are able
to in our own lives, to join in challenging the powerful systems which drive so
much of this destruction, and to encourage and collaborate with all
fellow-travellers in hope. A few examples: for me one sign of hope began three
years ago with the publication of a beautiful book, <i>The Lost Words</i>,
naming and illustrating some once-common nature words like acorn and bluebell
or which were in danger of being lost from children’s vocabulary. Like a
sprouting mustard seed, the book rapidly became a huge success, and offshoots
keep growing in the form of music, murals and much more. I think its success
lies in the way it encourages us to reconnect with some of our fellow creatures
by knowing their name, seeing their beauty and recognising their uniqueness. If
you haven’t already, I’d urge you to buy a copy to give to any children in your
life – and keep one for yourself too! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The work of the Species Recovery Trust is different example
of reconnecting, using volunteers to help endangered species and aiming to
“train a whole new generation of wildlife enthusiasts to ensure we never lose
touch with the natural world around us”. Another hopeful sign is the growing
movement to tackle food waste – in which our own Real Junk Food Kitchen plays a
part: if we stop wasting so much food globally, we can feed more people without
destructively intensive agriculture.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">If you missed <i>Extinction: The Facts</i>, do watch it if
you can. Expect to feel angry and sorrowful, but don’t give up hope. You might
need to hear the words which young Dara McAnulty (whom I mentioned in my last
reflection) wrote to a parent who asked on Twitter: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“My 9 year old watched and cried and has asked me what can he
do. What can I tell him?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">“Tell him to love all living things.
Tell him not to be afraid. Tell him to share his enthusiasm and hope with
others. Learning how everything is connected will have a positive effect on
decision making. Give him a hug from me.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Ruth Harley)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“Come, let us
return to the Lord…”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">How different those
words sounded just a few weeks ago, when the worship planning group met to plan
for our return to in-person gathered worship, which was to have been this
weekend. Then, those words spoke of joyful return, of a promise fulfilled. But
the world has changed quickly since then, and our plans have changed with it,
and we are not gathering. I wonder how those words sound to you today?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“Come, let us return
to the Lord…” <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Perhaps it sounds
like a promise of things to come – after all, our gathering for worship is not
cancelled, but postponed. Or perhaps, as this fresh loss compounds our grief
for all the losses of this time, it sounds like an empty promise, hollow words
when we cannot return. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is, I think, no
coincidence that the book of Hosea, like many of the prophetic texts in the
Bible, was written during or just after a time of upheaval, sadness, separation
and loss, when the people of Israel were taken in exile to Babylon. There was
perhaps something about that experience of devastation and separation which
enabled people to face some of the harder, more uncomfortable truths about what
it means to live in the world in relationship with God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“Come, let us
return to the Lord…”<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is not really
about returning to worship, though it might have fitted that context well. Nor
is it about returning home, returning to a beloved community, though it might
have had those resonances for its original hearers as well as for us. It is
about turning to God, and not just turning but re-turning, turning again,
setting our face in the direction of God, living our lives oriented towards
God, and accepting that to do so is not a once-and-for all decision, but a
continual process of turning and returning. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">The life of faith
is not static, it requires us to be continually ready to move, to change, to
turn and re-turn, as we try to keep ourselves firmly pointed towards God, in
all the changing, challenging and confusing circumstances of life. Church
traditions, at their worst, encourage us to stay still, to stay put, to resist
change, because ‘we have always done it like that’. But at its best, the
tradition of the church encourages us to root ourselves in a long line of faithful
people who have turned and returned to God in every generation, adapting to all
manner of circumstances, and trying to work out afresh what it means to remain
faithful to God now, in this time and place and situation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Our readings today
contain some pretty devastating imagery. Imagery of violence and destruction,
of turmoil, loss, devastation and extinction. This is, perhaps, not the sort of
stuff we expect to hear very often in church. But it is important stuff to
engage with, and to engage with well. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Some of this
imagery has been used badly, to suggest a vengeful God who destroys or harms as
punishment for human sin. That is not a God I recognise. Sometimes this sort of
imagery has been used to justify human violence, the violence of the privileged
towards the oppressed, and that is never right. We need to be very careful to
resist any reading that could seem to condone abuse or violence. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So how do we read
these texts? It helps, I think, to start by remembering that the relationship
between God and human beings is not – in the ordinary sense – an interpersonal
relationship. God is not a person, and our relationship with God is not the
same as our relationship with other humans. Nor is God’s relationship with
God’s own creation the same as our relationship with God’s creation, of which
we are a part. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">A careful reading
of the text from Jeremiah may also help us here. ‘Why is the land ruined and
laid waste like a wilderness?’ asks the prophet. A question we may well echo as
we see the destructive impact of climate change on our world. And God replies
‘Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them and have not obeyed
my voice or walked in accordance with it.’ It would be easy to read that as God
punishing people for their disobedience by destroying the land. But I think it
is better read, especially if we are looking for parallels with our present
climate emergency, as God spelling out the inevitable consequences of humanity
turning away from the way God wants us to live in relationship with creation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It’s a bit like if
you say to a child: “if you touch the cooker, you’ll get burned” – that’s not a
threat of punishment, but a warning about consequences. So, in these sometimes
disturbingly violent texts, God is not threatening us, but warning us about the
consequence of our own actions and inactions, and the choices we make in how we
relate to one another, to God, and to the creation of which we are a part. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">“Come, let us
return to the Lord…” <o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is a call to
turn back towards God, to notice those times when we too have ‘stubbornly
followed our own hearts’, to commit again to walking in God’s ways and placing
ourselves in right relationship with God, with our neighbours, and with
creation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">This is not easy
stuff. It never is, but especially now. It is not easy in terms of how we
respond either to the climate crisis or to the Coronavirus pandemic. Sometimes
it will mean making decisions which are costly or even painful. Often it will
mean wrestling long and hard with what it looks like to love God and love our
neighbour as ourselves, now, in these circumstances, in response to these
crises. What that looks like will continue to change, and we will need to be
prepared to change in response, to turn and turn again towards God who is
unchanging in faithfulness and love. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There is a
spiritual which emerged from the Shaker tradition which has the chorus “to
turn, turn will be our delight, til turning, turning we come round right” and
as they sang it, the Shakers would dance, turning and moving as they worshiped
God. Dance is often used as a metaphor for the life of God in the Trinity, as
one of continual movement in relationship. We too are caught up in this dance,
in this turning and returning to God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">It is hard,
sometimes, to learn new ways of dancing, new ways of living, new ways of
expressing our love for God and neighbour. It is hard, and it can be
heartbreaking, and it can be joyful, and inspiring, and devastating, and
beautiful - sometimes all at the same time. But we do not do it alone. Even
when we cannot meet, we are still part of the same dance, turning together
towards the same God, seeking together to walk with Jesus, bound together in
the life of the Holy Spirit.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">So come,
let us return to the Lord, together-but-apart, let us know, let us press on to
know, the Eternal One whose appearing is as sure as the dawn. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Too
often we have treated the planet as a commodity, <br />
as raw material to be used and consumed. <br />
We have burnt the skies and sickened the waters. <br />
We have treated our companion creatures <br />
with cruelty and indifference. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So we
ask for a turning of our hearts. <br />
We offer you the harvest of the earth, sea and sky: <br />
may it be the fruit of care and persistent love, <br />
sustaining the richness of living things. </span></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Too
often we have treated one another as means to an end: <br />
as things to be labelled, abused and enslaved. <br />
We have not always raised our voices <br />
when our sisters and brothers have been treated with contempt. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So we ask for a turning of our
hearts. <br />
We offer you the harvest of our lives: <br />
May it be a gathering of peace and justice, <br />
sharing life in solidarity and courage. Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: right;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(from Steven Shakespeare, <i>The
Earth Cries Glory</i>)</span><span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w200-h200/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters <br />
with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This week we’ve included resources for a ‘wild pilgrimage’,
to mark the end of our Creation season. All the suggested activities, and the
practical resources to do them, will be contained in ‘pilgrimage bags’ –
delivered to your doorstep with the paper worship packs, or available from the
Old Rectory driveway on Sunday 20<sup>th</sup> September, 10.30am - 4.30pm.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2012%20(20-9-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> See Megan Warner, ‘Resilience in a Time of COVID-19 –
Three Biblical Models: Plague, Uncleanness and Indigestion’ (conference paper
presented 17 June 2020), </span><a href="https://www.winchester.ac.uk/media/content-assets/documents/rke-documents/covid-and-theology-conference-papers/Warner,-Resilience-in-a-time-of-COVID-19.pdf"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">https://www.winchester.ac.uk/media/content-assets/documents/rke-documents/covid-and-theology-conference-papers/Warner,-Resilience-in-a-time-of-COVID-19.pdf</span></a><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2012%20(20-9-20).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></span></a><span style="font-size: 9pt;"> From the Species Recovery Trust website:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="https://www.speciesrecoverytrust.org.uk/about-us"><span style="font-size: 9pt;">https://www.speciesrecoverytrust.org.uk/about-us</span></a><span style="font-size: 9pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-59477629822268940412020-09-08T10:05:00.011-07:002020-09-08T10:05:53.409-07:00Creation season (3): hiding from God – sin and shame<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfetOVCs9Yo3dnTb9r7BLCyFjWY0bP__7-qabgrEE7aiziwUsbg2Hj7ahP6AtpCa1OViHEeIMm4i5W5sxsXtkyiGL6CsXLZIs6pLOQ44OPntYberRfLjin6miK_2stDtgnaVFRmEQFFFQ2/s1200/hiding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="627" data-original-width="1200" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfetOVCs9Yo3dnTb9r7BLCyFjWY0bP__7-qabgrEE7aiziwUsbg2Hj7ahP6AtpCa1OViHEeIMm4i5W5sxsXtkyiGL6CsXLZIs6pLOQ44OPntYberRfLjin6miK_2stDtgnaVFRmEQFFFQ2/w400-h209/hiding.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Genesis 3:1-21<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="chapter-1" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">3 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now the serpent was
more crafty than any other wild animal that the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God say, ‘You shall
not eat from any tree in the garden’?” <b><sup>2 </sup></b>The woman
said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; <b><sup>3 </sup></b>but
God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of
the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.’” <b><sup>4 </sup></b>But
the serpent said to the woman, “You will not die; <b><sup>5 </sup></b>for
God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be
like God, knowing good and evil.” <b><sup>6 </sup></b>So when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the
eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its
fruit and ate; and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he
ate. <b><sup>7 </sup></b>Then the eyes of both were opened, and they
knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made
loincloths for themselves.</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">8 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">They heard the sound of the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze,
and the man [earth-creature] and his wife hid themselves from the presence of
the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God among the trees of the garden. <b><sup>9 </sup></b>But
the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God called to the man [earth-creature], and said to him,
“Where are you?” <b><sup>10 </sup></b>He said, “I heard the sound of
you in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.” <b><sup>11 </sup></b>He
said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which
I commanded you not to eat?” <b><sup>12 </sup></b>The man said, “The
woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit from the tree, and I
ate.” <b><sup>13 </sup></b>Then the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent tricked me, and I ate.” <b><sup>14 </sup></b>The </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God said to the serpent,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Because
you have done this,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <span class="text">cursed are you among all animals</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
among all wild creatures;</span><br />
<span class="text">upon your belly you shall go,</span> <span class="text">and dust
you shall eat</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">all
the days of your life.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>15 </sup></b>I will put enmity between you and
the woman,</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
between your offspring and hers;</span><br />
<span class="text">he will strike your head,</span> <span class="text">and you will
strike his heel.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="first-line-none" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">16 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">To the woman he said,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“I
will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">in
pain you shall bring forth children,</span><br />
<span class="text">yet your desire shall be for your husband,</span> <span class="text">and he shall rule over you.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="first-line-none" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">17 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And to the man [earth-creature] he said,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm;"><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“Because
you have listened to the voice of your wife,</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
have eaten of the tree</span><br />
<span class="text">about which I commanded you,</span> <span class="text">‘You
shall not eat of it,’</span><br />
<span class="text">cursed is the ground [earth] because of you;</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">in
toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life;</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>18 </sup></b>thorns and thistles it shall bring
forth for you;</span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
you shall eat the plants of the field.</span><br />
<span class="text"><b><sup>19 </sup></b>By the sweat of your face</span> <span class="text">you shall eat bread</span><br />
<span class="text">until you return to the ground [earth],</span> <span class="text">for out of it you were taken;</span><br />
<span class="text">you are dust,</span> <span class="text">and to dust you shall
return.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 0cm; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">20 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The man [earth-creature] named his wife Eve, because she was
the mother of all living. <b><sup>21 </sup></b>And the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="color: black; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God made garments of skins for the man and for his
wife, and clothed them.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Adam and Eve’s fruit is never
named.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jewish scholars argued about its
identity: was it grapes, a fig, or a pomegranate? Some preferred not to
identify it, lest the fruit be blamed for humanity’s downfall. But in Western
Christian tradition it has long been depicted as an apple.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is thanks to a pun on the Latin
words for apple – <i>mālus</i> – and evil – <i>malus: </i>the fruit of the tree
of knowledge of good and evil became an apple. It is interesting that this does
not seem to have harmed the reputation of the apple in our culture. Apple trees
have had close and positive associations with human civilisation, and seem to
be the very opposite of a symbol of sin or disconnection from nature and from
each other. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But perhaps the burden of sin is
carried by the poor crab apple – the original wild apple, whose name may derive
from its crabbed, twisted branches or its small, sour fruit. A short story,
‘Why crab apples are sour’, playfully imagines the history of these trees since
the Fall: cursed, embittered, ignored in favour of sweeter varieties – but
hopeful:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“‘Anything’s better than
nothing,’ the woman thought. She filled her pockets with fruit and went home to
make crab apple jelly…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her stove was
smoky, her pan dented and her spoon bent, yet as she stirred and skimmed she
was working a universal magic: the ancient art of bringing forth sweet out of
sour, of reclaiming and redeeming, making good out of <i>malus.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2011%20(13-9-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We’re in the third of the
four week’s of our ‘Creation season’, and for the next two weeks we’re thinking
about <i>sin</i>. This may be the point where I need to encourage you to keep
reading! We’ve spent two weeks focused mostly on the wonder, complexity and
beauty of the created world, its relationship with its Creator God, and the
place of us human beings within it all. But we’re all too aware that this is
only half the story. The other half of the story is that the world is also a
messy, dangerous place; that death is an inevitable part of reality, for every
living thing; and that we human beings have consistently, and tragically,
failed to live up to God’s calling and commands to ‘tend the earth’ and love
our neighbours, human and non-human alike.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This week’s bible
reading, from the 3<sup>rd</sup> chapter of Genesis, is a continuation of the
second story (in Genesis chapter 2) that we encountered two weeks ago. It’s a
story on which massive, weighty structures have been built over the centuries –
theological structures (within both Judaism and Christianity), but also beliefs
and practices that have spread much wider in our culture. And a lot of that
stuff, we need to acknowledge, has been unhealthy, often deadly, and just plain
wrong. We’ll tease out some of that in the other reflections. But we need to
start by trying to return to the story itself, as a <i>story</i>. It’s similar,
in many ways, to the ‘Just-So Stories’ of Rudyard Kipling, and the ‘Tinga-Tinga
Tales’ (based on African folk tales) that you can find on CBeebies (‘Why
Giraffe has a long neck’, ‘Why Lion roars’, etc.). It’s a story that you can
imagine elders telling to the younger members of the community in response to
their endless ‘Why?’ questions:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Why are snakes
deadly? Why is childbirth so painful? Why are relationships messy? Why is life /
farming / gardening often hard work? Why do we die?’<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And the answers to these particular
‘Why?’ questions are told in the form of a story, about a garden, and a tree,
and a man, a woman and a very crafty snake. The story ends up with the man and
woman hiding from God, blaming each other (well, the man blames the woman and
the woman blames the snake) for what’s gone wrong, and being expelled from the
garden, to live the rest of their not-so-perfect-any-more lives in the harsh
world beyond.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What Christians have
often done with this story, over the centuries, is that they’ve focused in on
the little details of the story rather than the big picture that the story is
painting for us. They’ve argued about exactly what the <i>particular ‘first sin’</i>
was, that Adam and Eve committed (was it not being able to resist the tempting
fruit? or wanting to be like God? or doing what the snake told them to do?),
the effects of which (pain, hard work, death, etc) have somehow been passed
down all the generations since. And with tragic irony (considering the story
itself degenerates into a blame game that is quite clearly ridiculous, and that
the whole point of the story is that the way things are <i>isn’t </i>how things
are meant to be), Christians have used this story to justify a world where
women have been associated with ‘desire’, sin and earthiness, and men’s ‘rule’
(the literal meaning of the word <i>patriarchy </i>= ‘the rule of the father’)
has been seen as divinely commanded. And that way of seeing the world has done
untold damage to women, to men, and to our relationship with each other and the
earth itself.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But the story is in fact much
less about one particular sinful act and its consequences, and much more about
what Sin (maybe we should give it a capital S!) <i>is</i>. Remember back to our
early reflections on the roots of the tree, as what <i>connected</i> us to each
other, to the earth and all its creatures, to God, to our own self. Our
rootedness is what enables us to grow spiritually, we said – to grow in our
connectedness – which is the source of all other kinds of growth. Sin (with a
capital S) is another name for <i>disconnection</i>: from our fellow human
beings, from the earth and all its creatures, from God – and even from our own
selves. Sin is what prevents us from growing spiritually – prevents us from
growing and thriving in any way at all. Sin is not about earthiness, or
‘desire’ <i>in itself </i>(or indeed sex), but is at the root of our blame
games, and our hierarchical worldviews that enforce the ‘rule’ of some and the
subservience of others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And so we know, from our
own bitter experience, as well as a glance at the way the world is (and always
has been), that Sin isn’t really about ‘bad people doing bad things’. Sin is a
tragic fact of life that infects every part of our world: from the most
intimate levels, to the planetary scale.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But Sin doesn’t have the
last word. While it can be destructive, it doesn’t destroy everything. While it
can paralyse us, it’s not all powerful. While it can affect our decisions and
distort our desires, we are not completely in its grip. The created world’s
goodness remains, endures. God’s faith, hope and love remain, endure…<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
end of this <i>chapter</i> in the story tells us of God lovingly clothing her
children, before journeying with them (as we’ve seen with Abraham and Sarah,
Hagar and Ishmael, and Jacob/Israel) way beyond the garden of beginnings.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
very end of this whole Big Story (in Revelation 22, that we’ve already caught a
glimpse of, and that we’ll return to before too long) reminds us that the Tree
of Life still stands ahead of us, in a garden-city whose gates are always open,
waiting for us to enter – a place where we might once again bump into God in
the cool of the day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Somewhere
between the beginning and the end of the Story, we catch a glimpse of that
garden-in-the-city, not as future promise, but as a place already present (it’s
early in the morning on a whole new ‘first day’), where a woman (Mary
Magdalene) does indeed bump into God and hear God speak her name.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We’re living in the
middle of the Story, somewhere between the beginning and the end. And here, and
now, the ‘go-between God’ of creativity and connection is always at work,
re-connecting what has become disconnected, inviting us into the garden,
inviting us into relationship and community, inviting us to join her in her
labour of love.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Sally Nash)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Imagine a chubby little girl in a
primary school classroom and the teacher says “What is happening next is that
we are going to work out the average weight of the class, you will all come to
the front to be weighed and then I will show you how to work it out”.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The little girl died inside and pretended to
be ill so she could hide from the rest of the class because she was ashamed of
her weight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s not only God we hide
from when we think of sin, it’s others too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I sinned, I lied to get out of a situation but I would probably argue
now that I was sinned against too by a teacher who hadn’t done what we would
now call a risk assessment on an activity that was probably only devised to try
and make maths more interesting! This incident was the trigger that led me to
write a book on shame fifty years later! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">What is shame?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At its very simplest shame is feeling bad
about who we are (whereas guilt is feeling bad about what we have done).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In my example if I had said something to the
teacher he might have felt guilt but I felt shame, I was a bad person because I
was the heaviest girl in the class. When we feel shame we might feel useless or
dirty or flawed, or weak or defective or inadequate… and many more words that
when we read them don’t sound like much fun!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>We can also experience shame physically, blushing, stomach pains or body
language that shows we are hiding are some of the ways.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In Genesis 2.25 we read that Adam and
Eve were naked and not ashamed and by the end of our Bible passage today they
are feeling shame, apportioning blame, not taking responsibility and hiding
from God, and sin is the reason.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At its
simplest we sin when we break God’s law and, in essence, I understand that to
be about loving God, loving our neighbour and loving ourselves (Luke 10.27).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We all sin and we all do things which are
wrong in each of these three areas and sometimes we will feel shame about
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This shame can then make us want
to hide from God because we wonder how on earth God could love someone as awful
as us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also feel it about some of our
relationships and can get into self-loathing too.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Shame can be dangerous to our wellbeing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When we sin and experience shame then
we need to process and deal with it rather than let it linger and gnaw at our
inner selves.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There may not always be a
quick fix, particularly if there is something we have felt shame about for a
long time (and many of us feel shame over things we should not feel shame
about, particularly when that was inflicted on us when we were children, often
by someone else).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We also need to
recognize what triggers shame in us, so we can recognize it and try to move on
rather than being dragged down by it. For example, I can get very frustrated
supermarket shopping and end up snapping at the person on the checkout, that
causes me shame, it is not the sort of person I want to be, I would like to
appreciate everyone for their contribution to my life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, when I do it, if I catch myself quickly
I can apologize to the person, or if not, can say sorry to God and pray for
patience, and thus have tried to become more the person I hope to be.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I appreciate not all shame experiences are
such an everyday experience but it is getting me into better habits of
realising when I feel shame and wanting to do something about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The most important verse to me in
today’s passage is the final one – Genesis 3.21 which says that God clothes
them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They are having to live with the
consequences of their sin but the final act we read about is God showing them
compassion, forgiveness and mercy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Think
of how a good parent might act, they would tell a child off for something they
have done wrong but ensure at the end of the process that the child feels loved
and accepted and that their actions have not impacted the parent’s global perspective
of them as beloved.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes we find it
hard to believe that this is how God feels towards us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As I reflect on this passage, there
are several things I find it helpful to consider:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Adam
and Eve hid from God – that is what is known as today as a flight response, it
is a common reaction to conflict.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When
we find ourselves hiding, we need to think about why, what caused it and
remember that God calls our name, God looks for us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">We
should take responsibility for what we do, not blame others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Exclusion,
as happened to Adam and Eve, impacts our identity and relationships and causes
us shame, we need to be aware of the dangers of excluding others and causing
them to feel shame (with the exception of usual safeguarding issues).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo4; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The
boundaries and constraints there are on human behaviour – living God’s laws,
enable us to live together and experience the shalom that is possible for the
children of God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I want to finish with a prayer for
those times when we are feeling shame because of others reactions to us written
for my book by the children’s author Gemma Willis:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When they tell me I’m not good enough<br />
<b>I am more because you say that I am</b><br />
When they tell me I’ll never make it<br />
<b>I am more because you say I am</b><br />
When they tell me I’m unwanted<br />
<b>I am more, because you say I am</b><br />
When they tell me I’m dirty and worthless<br />
<b>I am more because you say I am</b><br />
Help me Jesus to see everyone as you see them, <br />
to be a bringer of worth, value and peace to those you love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Amen.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(David Walton)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The blame game seems so important to
us, we all play it at some time at some level.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Adam blames Eve, “The woman whom you gave to be with me…” So, is he at
another level blaming God who had created Eve?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The blame game can take the guilt away from us and put it firmly
somewhere else.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If it is not our fault
perhaps it can be easier to live with the consequences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But all to easily pouring that guilt on
someone else can lead to feelings of revenge rather than justice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I got my first car many years ago, I
actually read the insurance documents.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’ve not been so vigilant of the detail since.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The one thing I remember is that if I was
involved in an accident, I was not to admit any responsibility, even if it was
obvious that I was at fault.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>That might
have consequences if there were claims and litigation later. How many times has
something gone wrong in an institution, company, health service and a grieving
or hurting family simply want someone to apologise, but no apology is
forthcoming as that might be an admission of responsibility which might have
consequences if litigation follows.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>There have been attempts to move on from that in recent years, but it
doesn’t always prove easy.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The 11<sup>th</sup> September marked
the nineteenth anniversary of the atrocities in New York and Washington DC and
the struggle on board UA Flight 93 on 11 September 2001. As the unforgettable
images of the Twin Towers falling are brought to mind once more, it is
particularly poignant this week to remind ourselves of what the Hebrew Bible has
to say about the fallen state of humanity in one of its most familiar and
evocative stories: Adam and Eve’s Fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>It is a reminder of the depth of evil that does exist in our world and
how far people are prepared to go.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On
one level the blame is easy, those who carried out the attack, those who
thought it up, organised and financed it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But if we dig deeper in the causes and reasons people go to such
extremes, then blame becomes much more complicated and messier.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It does not take more than a day of
following the world’s news cycle to see how much truth is contained within the
story of Adam and Eve and our fallen state. With a very different style of
writing from the more liturgical creation account in the first chapter of
Genesis, the philosophical reflection by means of mythology on the nature of
humanity that we find here could easily be its own story. It does, however,
helpfully provide that reflection on the more formal creation account that
precedes it. That reflection is one of trying to create understanding of what
is: how we are who we are. It helps us grapple with the reality of living in a
world with such capacity for evil on the one hand and good on the other. It is
a story that challenges the way of thinking that sees a purely individualised sense
of moral responsibility to one in which we recognise the habits and poor
decisions of those who have gone before us that have shaped our world in large
part. It helps to focus the Hebrew people as they think back to the arc of
their own story to see how, right from the earliest times, there was a
struggle. That struggle initially, as the mythic story tells, revolves around
the temptation of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the original
case of forbidden fruit, the temptation is too much to bear. Eve and Adam
succumb. They do it together, we do not blame one more than the other, and
lament the historical use of this passage to demonise women. The struggle with
their decision continues throughout the story of the Hebrews. This is a crucial
part of the story that one feels has been rather misunderstood as it has been
adopted into wider theological paradigms such as Adam’s ‘original sin’. This
story is not just about a once and for all event, rather it is a story to help
us all understand that each day brings opportunities in which people make
decisions—some for the good, but sadly many that are not, most not with
malintent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story of the Hebrews is
of continuous occasions of ‘fall’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">How often do we, when we have the
allure of a titbit of knowledge—something that we think might give us an
advantage over someone else or assist us in a particular situation—decide to
ignore the knowledge that it is but gossip and utilise it instead? But, and
this is where it goes wrong, while Adam and Eve ate of that fruit and thus
gained knowledge, their capacity to fully understand that knowledge was still
limited. Whereas God can hold it all together, we cannot. As Paul, much later,
would say, “we see things imperfectly as if through a cloudy mirror”. Without
that complete understanding things can go awry rapidly. This may not be out of
any particular desire to do evil, but rather that there are unforeseen
consequences to the decisions we make of which we may not be fully aware at the
time we make our decision. Nonetheless, the story is clear that the decisions
we do make will impact us, whether we fully understand those implications or
not. Such was the way for the Hebrews, such is the way for humanity today.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">5<sup>th</sup>
Gospel</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Ros
Sheppard)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a name="_Hlk43723710"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I think about the Genesis reading
this week and my own journey with God there are three things that spring to
mind. The first one is when I was working for NACRO (</span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">National Association for the Care and
Resettlement of Offenders)</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> in the late 80’s, the second one is
when I was on a ministry exploration placement at Swinfen YOI (</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Young Offenders Institute)</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> and the third one is bringing up my own children!<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Working at NACRO involved helping
young people to develop computer skills and to apply for jobs. It was also
about working with adult colleagues to help shape the thinking, ethos, and
development of the centre we all worked at. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It struck me quite early on, that
even though the young folk and adults had ‘done wrong’ and some had served
time, that there was basically no difference between them and myself. I may not
have committed Grievous Bodily Harm or stolen large amounts of money, but I was
capable and had potential to engage in this type of wrongdoing and had done
wrong in other ways.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Working at Swinfen around 10 years
ago with the Chaplain, I got to know some of the inmates quite well. I joined
in the bible study groups and Sunday worship, and visited cells and had
conversations. I was struck by the sadness of some of the stories I heard and
the real difficulties these young men had experienced throughout their entire
lives right from the moment of being born. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">It was hard not to feel that there
was a link between these awful life experiences through no fault of their own
and the crimes that they had gone on to commit. I felt that if I or anyone
else, had experienced and lived the lives of these young men, then who knows
whether this would have led into such crimes being committed. I reflected on
the words ‘there but for the grace of God go I (and many others)’. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bringing up my own children<b>:</b> I
remember my mother telling me when I was quite young that ‘two wrongs do not
make a right’ and ‘treat others as you wish to be treated’. With my own
children I soon realised the importance of establishing what was acceptable
behaviour and what was not. I allowed them some freedom to work this out for
themselves. I always felt uncomfortable with punishment for the sake of it but
wanted to encourage and persuade them to think deeply about the result,
consequences and effect of their actions on other people and themselves, and
help them to work out their own ways of compensating for any wrong behaviour. <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In the reading from Genesis, God
punishes the snake, the woman and the man. So, what is the place of punishment
when we think about sin and wrongdoing? I would like to offer some questions
for reflection and discussion:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How
do we deal with punishment as a society, as a community and as individuals? How
important is it to us?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Can
sin be dealt with through confession and repentance and forgiveness alone or is
punishment needed?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">If
punishment is necessary, how should it be decided upon, and how should it be
implemented?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">What
other possibilities might there be for responding to wrong-doing, reforming
wrong-doers and restoring relationships?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters <br />
with young (and not-so-young!) people</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">TO DO:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">play
a game of hide and seek – in some woodland, if possible!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">TO REFLECT ON (alone or with people you love and trust):<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Think
of the last time that you wanted to hide away (that wasn’t playing a game).
What had happened, that made you want to hide? How were you feeling? What
helped you come out of hiding? What helped you feel better?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When
you fall out with someone, what are the things that help restore that
relationship? What do you need them to do? What do you need to do? What do you
sometimes need other people (a ‘third party’) to help with?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Who do you know that isn’t popular, who might feel bad about
themselves? What can you do over the next week to help them?</span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">TO PRAY:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l3 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With
someone you love and trust, you might want to pray together the prayer at the
end of Sally’s reflection, above.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2011%20(13-9-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
‘Why crab apples are sour’ by Maria McCann, from <i>Why Willows Weep:
Contemporary Tales from the Woods</i>, edited by Tracy Chevalier and Simon
Prosser (IndieBooks, 2011).<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-37945177030254923592020-09-03T06:21:00.002-07:002020-09-03T06:21:26.873-07:00Creation season (2): the world through non-human eyes<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXQN4TMOjFan37RsqKMRJxtxUnW4xduTId46L3XvRmBvQUDuZ22bOc8otgzIQSZzEpegX9xwbrFvdwtChly_h5f027zpYNJE8K-Md2vgYwidzYj2XHgVqw1mHzpE2VEgiUf1l_dVK0UTG/s1000/trees+%2526+mountains+-+marina+cano.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="428" data-original-width="1000" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGXQN4TMOjFan37RsqKMRJxtxUnW4xduTId46L3XvRmBvQUDuZ22bOc8otgzIQSZzEpegX9xwbrFvdwtChly_h5f027zpYNJE8K-Md2vgYwidzYj2XHgVqw1mHzpE2VEgiUf1l_dVK0UTG/w500-h214/trees+%2526+mountains+-+marina+cano.jpg" width="500" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Photograph: Amboseli National Park, Kenya ©
Marina Cano<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Job 38:1 - 42:6</span></b></span><span class="text"><b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">This is a
long section – over four chapters of the book of Job – but well worth reading
from beginning to end! Rather than printing the whole text here, we suggest you
look it up in a bible, and/or listen to it on this week’s dial-up reflection
line.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Psalm 96<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">1 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">O
sing to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> a new song;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">sing to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,
all the earth.<br />
<b><sup>2 </sup></b>Sing to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,
bless his name;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">tell of his salvation from day to day.<br />
<b><sup>3 </sup></b>Declare his glory among the nations,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">his marvellous works among all the peoples.<br />
<b><sup>4 </sup></b>For great is the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>,
and greatly to be praised;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">he is to be revered above all gods.<br />
<b><sup>5 </sup></b>For all the gods of the peoples are idols,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">but the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> made
the heavens.<br />
<b><sup>6 </sup></b>Honour and majesty are before him;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">7 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Ascribe
to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>, O families of
the peoples,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">ascribe to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> glory
and strength.<br />
<b><sup>8 </sup></b>Ascribe to the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> the
glory due his name;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">bring an offering, and come into his courts.<br />
<b><sup>9 </sup></b>Worship the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> in
holy splendour;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">tremble before him, all the earth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%;"><b><sup><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">10 </span></sup></b><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Say
among the nations, “The <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span> is
king!<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">The world is firmly established; it shall never be
moved.<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">He will judge the peoples with equity.”<br />
<b><sup>11 </sup></b>Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">let the sea roar, and all that fills it;<br />
<b><sup>12 </sup></b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">let the field exult, and everything in it.<br />
Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy<br />
<b><sup>13 </sup></b></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">before the <span style="font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span>;
for he is coming,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">for he is coming to judge the earth.<br />
He will judge the world with righteousness,<br />
</span><span style="color: black; font-size: 5.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> </span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and the peoples with his truth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A
‘cutting’ of tree wisdom: Tree voices</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“To dwellers in a wood almost every species of tree has its
voice as well as its feature” (Thomas Hardy, <i>Under the Greenwood Tree</i>)<i>.</i>
One voice often noticed is the aspen’s, whose long-stalked leaves quaking in
the wind sound like a shower of rain. For war poet Edward Thomas, aspens talk
of rain and – like poets - conjure memories:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Aspens<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All day and night, save winter, every weather,<br />
Above the inn, the smithy, and the shop,<br />
The aspens at the cross-roads talk together<br />
Of rain, until their last leaves fall from the top. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Out of the blacksmith's cavern comes the ringing<br />
Of hammer, shoe, and anvil; out of the inn<br />
The clink, the hum, the roar, the random singing—<br />
The sounds that for these fifty years have been. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The whisper of the aspens is not drowned,<br />
And over lightless pane and footless road,<br />
Empty as sky, with every other sound<br />
Not ceasing, calls their ghosts from their abode, <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A silent smithy, a silent inn, nor fails<br />
In the bare moonlight or the thick-furred gloom,<br />
In tempest or the night of nightingales,<br />
To turn the cross-roads to a ghostly room. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And it would be the same were no house near.<br />
Over all sorts of weather, men, and times,<br />
Aspens must shake their leaves and men may hear<br />
But need not listen, more than to my rhymes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Whatever wind blows, while they and I have leaves<br />
We cannot other than an aspen be<br />
That ceaselessly, unreasonably grieves,<br />
Or so men think who like a different tree.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: center;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is the second of our
four-week ‘creation season’. Last week, we looked at the two most familiar
stories of the ‘beginnings’ of the universe, of the world God has created, and
all its creatures – including us human beings. And although those stories weren’t
<i>just</i> about human beings, in different ways human beings were at the
centre of both of them: as the last creature to be made, and made ‘in the image
of God’, to have ‘dominion’ over all other creatures (Genesis 1); or as the
‘earth-creature’, made from the dust, placed in the garden ‘to till it and keep
it’ (Genesis 2). This week, we look at the created world from a different
perspective: through the eyes, and with the voices, of its <i>non</i>-human
creatures. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Far too often, over the
course of human history, we humans have imagined that the rest of creation is
there for our benefit: to feed us, to please us, to provide raw materials for
our projects and commodities to enrich us. But what that way of seeing the
world misses is the testimony of Job (one of the texts we’ve chosen for this
week) who offers us a worldview where ‘the natural world in all its wildness is
presented alongside humanity, who remains humbled before its savagery and
ambiguity’, and where ‘God’s authority reigns to support the needs of wildlife,
rather than just that of human beings’.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
To Job’s complaints, which come out of a very real suffering, the voice of God
in the midst of the whirlwind replies: ‘look at the wild things’. It’s not that
this God <i>doesn’t care</i> about human beings, it’s that the universe that
God has made is <i>so much bigger and more complex</i> than we humans can even
understand or imagine. ‘Do we yet care,’ asks Catherine Keller, ‘when the
antelope calves, or how the wild ass scours the hills for green? Do we consider
their lives, their patterns of eating, mating, birthing and moving, so far
beneath the dignity of theology, so much less important than human suffering,’
that we have passed over them, and in the process ‘colluded in the rapid <i>dis</i>creation
[i.e. destruction] of all these carefully crafted species?’<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Across the Psalms too
(Psalm 96 is just one example – look up Psalms 19, 69, 98, 103, 150…), we hear
of all kinds of non-human creatures <i>praising God</i>: the ‘heavens’, the
earth, the sea, the fields, the forests, and all the creatures that inhabit
those places. Akin with the worldviews of other indigenous peoples, this is the
complete opposite of the theologies that most of us have grown up with (shaped
by our own nation’s history of colonialism and capitalism), where the world
‘sits silently, passively, waiting to give itself up and give up what lies
within it’. Instead, we’re offered a vision of life which ‘recognizes the world
as never silent, never passive, but always already … speaking in and through
creatures’ – including, but by no means only, the human creature.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
This offers us a different image not just of the world but also of <i>God</i>:
‘as a power for life, balancing the needs of all creatures, not just humans,
cherishing freedom, full of fierce love and delight for each thing without
regard for its utility, acknowledging the deep interconnectedness of death and
life, restraining and nurturing each element in the ecology of all creation’.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When we think about how
we should be living in today’s world, we need to make a choice between these
two ways of viewing the world, as a matter of urgency.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; margin-left: 18.0pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Genny Tunbridge)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On the whole I prefer
listening to watching. I’ve had a radio far longer than a TV, and I love
listening to BBC Radio 4, stumbling across new ideas and new voices in many of
its best programmes. One of these, called ‘The Sussuration of Trees’,<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
was the inspiration for this week’s cutting about tree voices. It made me
realise that, despite all the time I have spent recently getting to know trees
on the Common, I have a long way to go before I recognise their individual
voices. During these last few strange months, however, I have been listening to
three new voices – a nightingale, an oak, and a robin – which have opened up
joyful new ways of thinking about and connecting to nature. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Listening to nightingales
was the highlight of my lockdown spring. Through live-stream organised by
folk-singer Sam Lee, late every night for 2 weeks I was transported into a wood
somewhere to hear the incredible fluid song of this endangered bird, on its own
and duetting with Sam and with other musicians. Sitting outside one night
listening via headphones in the moonlight I was visited by a fox!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As for the oak: not a
tree, but a remarkable teenager from Northern Ireland called Dara McAnulty
(Dara is Irish for ‘oak’) who has just published his ‘Diary of a Young
Naturalist’, written during his 14<sup>th</sup> year. Dara is autistic and was
struggling with bullying at school, but finds in his intense connection to
nature a place of safety and of joy, which he shares in his writing with
amazing power, beauty and wisdom beyond his years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The robin is my most
recent discovery, on a podcast<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
I just stumbled across: Robin Wall Kimmerer, a botanist of Native American
heritage. She is a bryologist (an expert in moss), a professor of environmental
biology, and works with tribal nations on environmental sustainability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Listening to her talking about the natural
world and our relationship with it filled me with joy and delight. She
contrasts two ways of approaching nature: the scientific way in which she is
trained, and the indigenous wisdom which is her heritage: “Science polishes the
gift of seeing, indigenous traditions work with gifts of listening and
language”. The scientific approach is all about looking closely, honing the
ability to see, and that gives much knowledge – but it is knowledge of material
reality, seeing the surface, regarding plants and animals as objects not as
subjects. “But in indigenous ways of knowing”, Robin says, “we say that we know
a thing when we know it not only with our physical senses, with our intellect,
but also when we engage our intuitive ways of knowing, of emotional knowledge
and spiritual knowledge. And that’s really what I mean by listening… And what
is the story that that being might share with us if we know how to listen as
well as we know how to see?”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In other words, she says,
“Science asks us to learn <i>about</i> organisms. Traditional knowledge asks us
to learn <i>from</i> them.” And she gives the example of her beloved mosses:
“As the most ancient of land plants, they have been here for a very long time.
They’ve figured out a lot about how to live well on the earth… in their
simplicity, in the power of being small; mosses become so successful all over
the world because they live in these tiny little layers on rocks, on logs, and
on trees… they are exemplars of not only surviving, but flourishing by working
with natural processes. Mosses are superb teachers about living within your
means.” And they are in conversation: “There is an ancient conversation going
on between mosses and rocks, poetry to be sure. About light and shadow and the
drift of continents.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Despite the unhelpful
ways in which some of our scriptures have been interpreted, there is so much in
our own Hebrew and Christian spiritual traditions reminding us that the whole
of creation has a voice and that we humans take our place along with plants and
animals, rocks and stones in relationship with and praise of our Creator. The
four-and-a-bit chapters of Job which we are listening to this week express this
powerfully. In response to Job’s suffering and questioning which have filled
the previous chapters, God answers with questions in turn: who is Job in
relation to all the beings, great and small, created and sustained by the Lord
– from mountain goats, wild asses and ostriches to the mythical land and sea
monsters, Behemoth and Leviathan? Even the stars, the seas, the weather are
part of the conversation, described as having been ‘birthed’, seen almost as
persons, not inanimate objects.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">All this is not to mock
or humiliate Job for his insignificance and his powerlessness compared to the
all-powerful creator (though some have read it this way); nor do God’s words
give reasons and justifications for Job’s suffering. Instead they are a
compassionate reminder of Job’s place in the vastness and complexity of the
created order – created and intimately sustained equally by God’s grace. In
Chapter 3 Job cursed the day he was born, and wished himself uncreated. In this
dialogue, God re-creates Job alongside his fellow creatures. The voice of God
here is a gift to Job and to us, challenging us to enlarge our theology to
encompass all of creation, in relationship with God and with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In understanding that
relationship, I was especially moved by Robin Wall Kimmerer speaking about
reciprocity – a better notion than sustainability.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every creature, including humans, has their
gift to give. I’ve tasted these reciprocal gifts in duets between nightingales
and musicians, in Dara’s passionate advocacy for raptors or woodlice, in
Robin’s own writing: “It’s that which I can give and it comes from my years as
a scientist, of deep paying attention to the living world, and not only to
their names, but to their songs…” It’s a song that we are invited not only to
listen to but to join in:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And by the Spirit you and I can join
our voice to the holy cry<br />
And sing, sing, sing to the Maker too.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></b></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Lyn Lynch)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Over the past weeks I have been deeply moved by all the
reflections on Trees of Life. After reflecting on this week’s theme and
spending some prayer time walking through our local woodland, I have been drawn
more and more to try and understand, not only our deep connections with God,
with each other and with those we meet each day, but with the whole of God’s
wonderful creation that lives and breathes all around us.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">We believe everyone has a story to tell, so what are the
stories other species are telling us? If we are ready to listen, we might just
hear their song, the songs that God hears, and perhaps we can join our songs to
theirs, especially if like Saint Francis we see God’s face in all creation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">David Attenborough wrote in his book, <i>Life on Earth</i>:
“it is most important for us to see that we ourselves are part of the natural
world and are dependent on it, and the natural world, since we have become the
most powerful of all creatures, is now dependent on us.” So we come upon a
vision of a God-given interdependence needing a delicate balance of caring and
harmony between all God’s creatures, each of us and every species supporting
one another, living under God’s rule of love. Perhaps we can liken such a
relationship to our vision of the body of Christ. Each member is dependent on
all the other members, one cannot function without the other members, and we
are all dependent on Jesus being at the heart of it all.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I have been watching a documentary following a team of
experts who travelled into the heart of the island of New Guinea, to explore
for the very first time a giant extinct volcano. The indigenous people who
believed this to be a sacred place and had protected it over the generations
sang their requests to enter before leading the team into this blessed place, where
creation lived and grew in abundance, undisturbed and safe, known only to God. Taking
great care not to damage this special place, the team discovered many new and
amazing species of plants and creatures not seen before. Each new species was
photographed and observed in situ, before being left in peace. I was reminded
of one of our prayers of confession: “God our Maker, all creation belongs to
you. Forgive us when we trample the earth carelessly. Lord, have mercy.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">There is still so much about the abundance of creation that
we have yet to learn, and so much remains a mystery, and there are so many more
secrets yet to be revealed to us. Frequently in Scripture, God confronts us
with the vastness and magnificence of creation. Now and again we area confronted
with the awesomeness of God’s glory, as he did with Job in the overwhelming
power, wisdom and mystery of creation. John Calvin, the 16<sup>th</sup> Century
theologian, said: “human beings possess a God-given <i>sensus divinatis</i>, an
awareness of God. It is by this awareness that we can recognise that all
creation is God’s work of divine love, generosity and abundant blessings.” I
have a deep feeling that all creation has some awareness of God, because we all
carry our maker’s mark, and are given life in abundance.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Thomas Merton wrote, “A tree gives glory to God first of all
by being a tree. For being what God means it to be it is obeying him. It
consents so to speak of creative love. It is expressing an idea which is God’s,
which is not distinct from the essence of God. So a tree imitates God by being
a tree.” So we can see God’s glory reflected in all of creation. At times we
marvel at the vastness of the heavens and the power of nature reflecting God’s
greatness, yet we can also see God in the less spectacular and more familiar
things around us everyday.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">So how often do we put a little time aside from our busy
lives to be still, to stop and listen to the sounds of the life and creatures
around us? The more we listen, the more we might hear the songs of all living
things praising God for the gift of life, and by being what God wants them to
be. I wonder what their songs are saying to us, we who have the responsibility
to care for and preserve their wellbeing as we share God’s creation and live
under his rule.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I thought of our beautiful bees, who seem to sing in joy and
harmony as they work in unison for the good of the whole hive. Bees have much
to teach us about the joy of living in harmony together.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As we walk, do we consider the song of the tiny insects and
worms that move beneath our feet and work the earth? Without them the balance
of life would be damaged, so we must tread carefully with respect for the earth
and the work of the smallest, sometimes unseen creatures who are vital in God’s
order of life. We can learn from the life of ants and their colonies that the
best decisions are made together, working with God all our problems will be
solved for the good of all creation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">How often do we hear the movement of the trees as their
leaves sing and rustle in the wind, making music and keeping our air clean?
Perhaps trees are challenging us to think about our use of transport and ways
of world travel that can cause so much damage to our climate and season
patterns.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In our great oceans, dolphins sing their songs that travel
through the water to each other, and they are known to swim alongside sea-going
vessels. They bring so much joy to those who witness such an awesome sight. I
wonder if they are asking us to stop polluting their natural habitat with our
rubbish and mountains of plastics which cause so much damage to all marine
life.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Just as we human beings who share in this world have many
languages to sing our praise and songs of thanksgiving to God our loving
creator, so too must our partners in the natural world. So, can we all join
together and sing in harmony:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18.0pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">All creatures of our God and King<br />
lift up your voice and with us sing:<br />
Hallelujah, Hallelujah!<br />
Let all things our creator bless,<br />
and worship him in humbleness:<br />
O praise him, Hallelujah!<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">5<sup>th</sup>
Gospel</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Andy
Sheppard)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I grew up in the 1960s and like many children
at the time I was fascinated by astronauts and the space race to the moon. One
of the most exciting moments was getting up in the middle of the night on 20
July 1969 with my dad, to watch on the television as Neil Armstrong became the
first man to step onto the moon’s surface. However exciting as this was the
most lasting and significant image which we saw in the 1960s was the one taken
by Apollo Eight on Christmas Eve 1968. Apollo Eight was the first space mission
to leave earth’s orbit and orbit the moon and as the spacecraft flew over the
moon’s surface taking photographs the astronauts were suddenly startled to see
planet earth rising above the moon’s horizon in front of them. The astronauts
later broadcast the picture from the spacecraft and read out the first ten
verses of the book of Genesis. William Anders the astronaut who took the
photograph of planet earth said afterwards ‘We set out to explore the moon and
discovered the earth’. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Prior to the space race humans could only
climb to the top of a mountain if they wanted to look at the earth but now
thanks to Apollo Eight we could see and begin to appreciate the whole planet as
God sees it; a bright blue, white and multi-coloured shining sphere in the darkness
of space. Encouraged by the image of planet earth the first Annual Earth Day
was held in 1970 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When God asks Job in Chapter 38 v 18 ‘Have you
comprehended the vast expanses of the earth?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>And in v 22 - ‘Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the
storehouses of the hail…?’ in some ways with our satellites and spacecraft we
can see where weather comes from and we can see how wonderful earth is seen
from space. Through film and live broadcasts, we can also see the beauty of
nature and of wildlife all over the earth and in the seas. However, with
knowledge comes responsibility we cannot now say that we do not know how
wonderful planet earth is, or how responsible we are for much of the damage already
done to it. We have all the pictures and all the evidence, and we also know
what we should do as good stewards of the earth to care for it, we just need to
put it into practice. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; margin-left: 35.7pt; margin-right: 0cm; margin-top: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div><p></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this week</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I open my
mouth -<br />
praise takes flight<br />
like a bird on the wing,<br />
soaring, gliding,<br />
fearless, free.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">This new
day,<br />
this glorious revelation<br />
of sky and cloud, earth and green,<br />
this gift, this wondrous gift.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Earth and
heaven have cradled this song,<br />
sunlight and starlight have bathed it;<br />
loam and rock, peat and marsh<br />
structure footfall;<br />
ocean and river, stream and pool<br />
crescendo and trickle,<br />
here, a stop;<br />
breath, sheltered by the mountains.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The dawn
chorus prelude is drawn<br />
from the stillness of dewfall.<br />
The lengthening rays of the sun summon<br />
croaking, yelping, mewling, rutting life.<br />
Warmth coaxes seedlings from the soil;<br />
leaves stretch and bow towards the source;<br />
field and fruit suckle and ripen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">And me, I
am ripening too.<br />
Holy hands cup beauty;<br />
wonder opens way.<br />
This song, my life, an offering<br />
made gratefully, made hopefully,<br />
made joyfully.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><i><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Earthed in heaven, the heart sings<br />
its way home.<br />
Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;">(a version of Psalm 96 from <i>Psalms Redux</i> by
Carla Grosch-Miller)<b><i><u><o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="84" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w84-h84/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="84" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters with young & not-so-young people</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Go
out for a walk – early in the morning, if you’re feeling brave! Find somewhere
where you can stop and listen for a while to the animals, and the trees… what
do you hear? what kind of song might they be singing?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">You
might want to watch an episode of a wildlife programme (e.g. David
Attenborough’s <i>Seven Worlds, One Planet </i>[BBC], <i>Our Planet</i>
[Netflix] or <i>Planet Earth II </i>and <i>Blue Planet II </i>[BBC]). What was
the most <i>amazing</i> thing you saw or heard? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Imagine
Planet Earth with no human beings on it. I wonder what it might be like? What
would be very different to the world as we know it? How could we live
differently, so that we had less of an impact on the planet?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Listen
to ‘The Last Songs of Gaia’, a radio programme about musicians, sound artists
and poets responding to the loss of species: </span><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k99s"><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k99s</span></a><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 6.0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18.0pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Choose
an animal, or a plant or tree that you know something about. What story would
they tell you, if you could understand them – of their life, their experiences,
their world? If you’re feeling creative, you might want to write it down or
record it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> Celia
Deane-Drummond, <i>A Primer in Ecotheology</i> (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2017)<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Catherine Keller, <i>The Face of the Deep: A Theology of Becoming</i> (London:
Routledge, 2003)<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn3" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn3;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Willie Jennings, ‘Reframing the Word: Toward an Actual Christian Doctrine of
Creation’, <i>International Journal of Systematic Theology </i>21:4 (Oct 2019)<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn4" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn4;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Carol Newsom, quoted in Keller, <i>Face of the Deep<o:p></o:p></i></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn5" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn5;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> (still
available on BBC Sounds)<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn6" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn6;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
Podcast On Being with Krista Tippett, the episode ‘Robin Wall Kimmerer: The
Intelligence of Plants’ – full transcript available here: <a href="https://onbeing.org/programs/robin-wall-kimmerer-the-intelligence-of-plants/#transcript">https://onbeing.org/programs/robin-wall-kimmerer-the-intelligence-of-plants/#transcript</a></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn7" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%2010%20(6-9-20).docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn7;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
‘It’s a song of praise to the Maker’ by Ruth Duck<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-54072015499705071632020-08-21T04:26:00.001-07:002020-08-23T04:09:01.766-07:00Creation season (1): stories of ‘beginnings’<p><br /></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJuN6olE8dxKCmQGQ3_Fi3elUG5519GIdz2jHI2V3K8xzlQ59xr3tq3sMMpDR9sD61-PxXQTMJ5TKiAqLtU-2GWOp5h-7BXiUL4C3DpEJsqmJHgOmPQopcaRSxNFLej5taQ6JKkYmoH6Ym/s1063/tree+of+life+mandala.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1040" data-original-width="1063" height="501" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJuN6olE8dxKCmQGQ3_Fi3elUG5519GIdz2jHI2V3K8xzlQ59xr3tq3sMMpDR9sD61-PxXQTMJ5TKiAqLtU-2GWOp5h-7BXiUL4C3DpEJsqmJHgOmPQopcaRSxNFLej5taQ6JKkYmoH6Ym/w512-h501/tree+of+life+mandala.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">‘Tree of Life Mandala’ by Caterina Martinico<br />
</span></i><a href="http://caterina-artfullmusings.blogspot.com/2011/10/tree-of-life-mandala-completed.html"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">http://caterina-artfullmusings.blogspot.com/</span></a><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><div style="font-weight: bold;"><span class="text"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></b></span></div>You can LISTEN to this week's readings and reflections <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/f7svekdllqdpav2/Trees%20of%20Life%20Wk%209%20reflection.mp3?dl=0">here</a>.</span></span><div><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><br /></b></span></span><p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Genesis
1:1-2:4a<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">1</span><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">In the beginning when God created the heavens and
the earth, </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">2</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">the earth was a formless void and darkness covered
the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">3</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was
light. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">4</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And God saw that the light was good; and God
separated the light from the darkness. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">5</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God called the light Day, and the
darkness he called Night. And there was evening and there was morning, the
first day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">6</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And God said, “Let there be a dome in the midst of
the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.” </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">7</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">So God made the dome and separated the waters that were under the dome
from the waters that were above the dome. And it was so. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">8</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God called the dome Sky. And there was evening and there was morning,
the second day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">9</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be
gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was
so. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">10</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that
were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">11</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Then God said, “Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding
seed, and fruit trees of every kind on earth that bear fruit with the seed in
it.” And it was so. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">12</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">The earth brought forth vegetation: plants yielding
seed of every kind, and trees of every kind bearing fruit with the seed in it.
And God saw that it was good. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">13</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And
there was evening and there was morning, the third day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">14</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And God said, “Let there be lights in the dome of
the sky to separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for
seasons and for days and years, </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">15</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">and
let them be lights in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth.” And it
was so. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">16</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God made the two great lights—the greater light to
rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night—and the stars. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">17</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God set them in the dome of the sky to give light upon the earth, </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">18</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">to rule over the day and over the night, and to separate the light from
the darkness. And God saw that it was good. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">19</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And there was evening and there was morning, the fourth day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">20</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And God said, “Let the waters bring forth swarms of
living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the
sky.” </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">21</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">So God created the great sea monsters and every
living creature that moves, of every kind, with which the waters swarm, and
every winged bird of every kind. And God saw that it was good. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">22</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters
in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">23</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And there was evening and there was morning, the fifth day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">24</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living
creatures of every kind: cattle and creeping things and wild animals of the
earth of every kind.” And it was so. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">25</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God
made the wild animals of the earth of every kind, and the cattle of every kind,
and everything that creeps upon the ground of every kind. And God saw that it
was good.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">26</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Then God said, “Let us make humankind in our image,
according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea,
and over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild
animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the
earth.” </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">27</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">So God created humankind in his image, in the image
of God he created them; male and female he created them. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">28</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and
fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and
over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the
earth.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">29</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God said, “See, I have given you every plant
yielding seed that is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed
in its fruit; you shall have them for food. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">30</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And to every beast of the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to
everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I
have given every green plant for food.” And it was so.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">31</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">God saw everything that he had made, and indeed, it
was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">2</span><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and
all their multitude. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">2</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">And on the seventh day God finished the work that
he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all the work that he had
done. </span><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">3</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">So God blessed the seventh day and hallowed it,
because on it God rested from all the work that he had done in creation.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><sup><span style="color: #777777; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">4</span></sup><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">These are the generations of the heavens and the
earth when they were created.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="color: #010000; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Genesis 2:4b-25<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
the day that the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God
made the earth and the heavens, <b><sup>5 </sup></b>when no plant of
the field was yet in the earth and no herb of the field had yet sprung up—for
the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was
no one to till the ground; <b><sup>6 </sup></b>but a stream would
rise from the earth, and water the whole face of the ground— <b><sup>7 </sup></b>then
the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God formed an earth-creature [<i>adam</i>]<i> </i>from the
dust of the ground [<i>adamah</i>], and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and the earth-creature became a living being. <b><sup>8 </sup></b>And
the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God planted a garden in Eden, in the east; and there he put
the earth-creature whom he had formed. <b><sup>9 </sup></b>Out of the
ground the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and
good for food, the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree
of the knowledge of good and evil.</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">10 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A river flows out of Eden to water the garden, and from there it
divides and becomes four branches. <b><sup>11 </sup></b>The name of
the first is Pishon; it is the one that flows around the whole land of Havilah,
where there is gold; <b><sup>12 </sup></b>and the gold of that land
is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. <b><sup>13 </sup></b>The
name of the second river is Gihon; it is the one that flows around the whole
land of Cush. <b><sup>14 </sup></b>The name of the third river is
Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates.</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">15 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God
took the earth-creature and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep
it. <b><sup>16 </sup></b>And the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God
commanded the earth-creature, “You may freely eat of every tree of the
garden; <b><sup>17 </sup></b>but of the tree of the knowledge of good
and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall die.”</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">18 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Then the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God
said, “It is not good that the earth-creature should be alone; I will make him
a helper as his partner.” <b><sup>19 </sup></b>So out of the ground
the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God formed every animal of the field and every bird of the
air, and brought them to the earth-creature to see what he would call them; and
whatever the earth-creature called every living creature, that was its
name. <b><sup>20 </sup></b>The earth-creature gave names to all
cattle, and to the birds of the air, and to every animal of the field; but for
the earth-creature there was not found a helper as his partner. <b><sup>21 </sup></b>So
the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the earth-creature, and
he slept; then he took one of his ribs and closed up its place with
flesh. <b><sup>22 </sup></b>And the rib that the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> God
had taken from the earth-creature he made into a woman and brought her to the earth-creature. <b><sup>23 </sup></b>Then
the earth-creature said,</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="line" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“This
at last is bone of my bones</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">and
flesh of my flesh;</span><br />
<span class="text">this one shall be called Woman [<i>ishshah</i>],</span> <br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"> </span><span class="text">for
out of Man [<i>ish</i>]<i> </i>this one was taken.”</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="first-line-none" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">24 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Therefore
a man leaves his father and his mother and clings to his wife, and they become
one flesh. <b><sup>25 </sup></b>And the earth-creature and his wife
were both naked, and were not ashamed.</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)</span></i><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the beginning, in an evolutionary sense, was the algae -
among the simplest life forms on earth: not plants, but ancestors of all plants
including the largest trees. Next in the story come simple plants like today’s
mosses and liverworts, limited in size, moisture dependent, reproducing by
spores. Then emerged plants with vascular tissue, able to conduct water and
nutrients, and thus grow taller. These early plants did not have roots or
leaves, relying on symbiotic fungi to obtain minerals and water. As soil
established, so vascular plants developed root systems: they included ferns,
clubmosses and horsetails, which are still around – though today’s relatives
are much smaller than the often tree-sized prehistoric kinds.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">About 350 million years ago more advanced, seed-bearing
plants began to develop. “Seeds enable plants to reproduce with greater
certainty: they contain not just genetic information but emergency rations and
a self-assembly starter kit for the plant to get growing faster.”<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%209%20(30-8-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
First came <i>gymnosperms </i>(naked-seeded plants like conifers and ginkgoes).
Conifers were better adapted as the climate changed, becoming drier, and so
came to dominate. Flowering plants (or <i>angiosperms </i>= encased seeds <i>i.e.</i>
fruits) developed much later.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their
evolution was aided by the emergence of bees who helped to pollinate the
flowers. Magnolias and figs trees are among the most ancient varieties still
existing. Angiosperms expanded greatly in diversity and range, and soon these
broad-leaved trees like oaks became predominant. Relative youngsters like
beech, ash, birch, hazel, all emerged in the last 2 million years or so,
adapting to new challenges and conditions.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For the next four weeks,
we’re going to be focusing our attention on the created world. I say
‘focusing’, but we’re talking about <i>everything that exists</i>, the whole
universe, from the biggest spiral galaxy to the tiniest particle of matter. So
less ‘focusing’, perhaps, and more about looking <i>beyond</i>: beyond the
limited dimension of life that is focused on human beings and our interactions
and concerns, to a bigger reality that is <i>not just about us</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">There is also, however,
lots of continuity with what we’ve explored already. In our first few weeks on ‘growing’,
we were reminded that our <i>spirituality</i> as Christians needs to be ‘rooted’
in our connection with the earth beneath our feet as much as in our connections
with other human beings and with God. And we suggested that our <i>mission</i>
as Christians (i.e. joining in with <i>God’s</i> mission, God’s ‘sending’, in
the world) should begin with ‘discovering where God is sustaining and renewing
the life of the earth’ and ‘joining with others in striving to safeguard the
integrity of creation’. Over the last two weeks, as we’ve begun to think about
the ‘big story’ of the Bible as the story of God’s journey with God’s people,
we’ve named the places where we encounter God as ‘holy ground’. And as we enter
into this Creation Season, we remember that <i>all </i>ground is holy, because <i>every
</i>place is potentially a place of encounter with God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This week, we’re staying
with stories of beginnings – the two stories of beginnings we find at the
beginning of the first book of the bible, the book of Genesis. The word
‘Genesis’ itself is a Greek word for ‘beginning’. And although these two
different stories are about the beginnings of everything, and tell us something
(not everything, but something) important about the world we live in, they are
also the ‘beginnings stories’ for a particular <i>people</i>, the people of
Israel, and so they also tell us something important about how this particular
people understood their <i>God</i>, and their relationship with their God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As the eco-theologian
Ruth Valerio reminds us, in her recent book <i>Saying Yes to Life</i>,<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%209%20(30-8-20).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
these creation stories were actually some of the later texts of the Hebrew
Bible (our ‘Old Testament’) to be written down, probably during the time when
the Israelites were in captivity, in exile, in Babylon (around the time that
prophets such as Jeremiah and Ezekiel were speaking). The people of Israel
found themselves as ‘strangers in a strange land, surrounded by peoples,
customs and religions very different from their own. Babylon was a land of
domination, where kings ruled absolutely and the rest of the population were
their subjects’. And the Babylonians’ creation story, called <i>Enuma Elish</i>,
tells a violent tale of murder, double-crossing and conquest among the gods. It
begins: ‘In the beginning, before the heavens and earth existed, lived a god
and a goddess…’. And it ends like this:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt 36pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">‘Marduk sliced Tiamat’s dead body in
two and formed the heavens from one half of her and the earth from the other.
He created the Euphrates and Tigris rivers to flow from her eyes and from her
breasts he created the mountains. Then, from the blood of the defeated and
slain Kingu, he created humankind, to serve the gods and set the gods free from
having to do any work. And thus the world and its inhabitants were created.’<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The Israelites’ creation
stories, in Genesis chapters 1 and 2, begin in just the same way as the
creation story of their Babylonian captors, but what unfolds is radically
different. As Ruth Valerio puts it, ‘its message is one of hope, peace and
confidence: a good God who reigns supreme has created a very good world, with
people created to work with him in taking care of it and one another, not as
his slaves but as his friends’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As we read these very
familiar stories once again, how might we hear them afresh? What might they be
telling us about the world, and our role within it, that might challenge the
prevailing culture of consumption that surrounds us? What resonances might we
hear in these stories, with the breath-taking complexity we catch glimpses of
in wildlife documentaries, with the warnings we hear from environmental
scientists, with the challenges to live differently presented to us by our
younger generations?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What might it mean for
us, today, that human beings – <i>all </i>human beings, not just some deemed
‘special’, or some more than others – are created in the image of the creator
God, endowed with equal dignity and worth? What might it mean for us, today, to
remember our identity as ‘earth-creatures’, sharing the same raw material as
everything else in the created world, interdependent with all our brothers and
sisters, human and non-human, animate and inanimate – even ‘mother earth’
herself? What might it mean for us, today, to understand our first and foremost
vocation to be, as Pope Francis puts it, to work together with all living
creatures to care for the home we share?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Gloria Smith)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Have you ever heard an
event told to you by two people who actually watched it happen? Yes, the
important bits are similar, but the way in how it is told is very much
dependent upon lots of things such as the perspective of the person retelling
it or the audience for whom it is intended. This inevitably means small
incidental details are different and the interpretation of the whole event can
have a very different feel to it. It’s recognisable as the same event yet
somehow different. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Today we heard two
versions of how the Jewish people understood the creation and like every story,
especially those passed on verbally there are differences but the question is –
Are those differences important and what do we notice are the key points to
take away from them? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The first story is
organised in a seven ‘day’ period of time and begins with God bringing light
into the world, then the creation of the moon and stars, the earth, then
creatures of the sea, land and air and culminates in the creation of humankind.
It seems it is done by an awesome, powerful yet remote God who looks at the
creation and sees it as ‘good’. God then seems to pass on that same kind of
power to humankind to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">subdue</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have dominion over</i> everything on earth.
I wonder is this why humankind interprets this as the right to use, abuse and
destroy God’s creation? I wonder was that meant to rule as God would rule with
love and compassion, not as has been interpreted by humankind over the
centuries by some cultures including our own? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Then the second story has
a different feel to it. This time God on the very first day creates this
earth-creature known as Adam and then places him in the Garden of Eden to ‘till
it and keep it’. God creates all the plants and in doing so provides food for
the man. It seems as if God worries that the man may be lonely and decides that
he needs a partner and creates all the different creatures without finding a
suitable partner until finally woman is created. More than that God works with
humankind to name all the creatures and this sounds so much more like a
partnership in which God values Adam and is happy for him to make decisions.
Within this version God appears to care for what has been created and it also
feels a more personal relationship. He puts Adam in a place where he can find
food and shelter and then instructs him to look after it. God provides all that
is needed but does that mean humankind can do what it looks? I don’t think so.
I believe God wants us to look after the earth and in identifying the creatures
as possible partners for Adam he indicates that all creatures on earth are
equal to humankind and therefore should be treated as such. We are not on this
planet on our own and without these <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘partner’</i>
creatures, humankind could not survive. So in this version God does not talk of
subjugation and domination but of partnerships and equality. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It is interesting what
people remember about the creation stories. I think that there has been in the
past a way of looking at the creation stories and cherry-picking what is to be
promoted through the Bible and what is overlooked or even worse deliberately
ignored. For example, in both versions man and woman are created equally and
yet for generations, interpreters of the Bible did not promote this idea and
consequently for many centuries women were considered less equal than men. I do
not believe God made any of creation any more special than anything or anyone
else and that includes humankind with different people of colour and no colour,
gender, culture and religion.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So I have often wondered
why are both versions included in the bible, especially as they are different
both in content and tone. Does this mean that one version is right and
therefore the other must be wrong? I think it is more that the first version is
one that is primarily about the order in which the world was created, like the
prologue at the beginning of a story, play etc. Or maybe even what is known as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘the big picture’. </i>It kind of sets the
scene, almost like giving the ‘facts’. The second is more about the finer
details like exactly where this ‘event’ took place, the naming of the creatures
and the developing relationship between God and humankind.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In seeing both versions,
one following on from the other, does it help to notice the important parts of
the narratives for you? Which parts stand out that have not been given the
prominence they should have, and which parts have been over-emphasised and used
to justify destruction and inequality?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Allannah Brennan)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Although I
have been involved in churches for most of my life, I had reached middle age
before I began to wonder how the early books of the Old Testament had been
written.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The New Testament, of course,
was easy – letters from Paul and others and the Gospel writers. I suppose as a
child I saw the Old Testament as the dictated word of God and somehow had never
really moved on from that until I started to do some study.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I wonder now how many others have never
really thought about it and possibly see the early Bible books as they did when
they first heard them as children.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">The two
readings for today is the same story told twice and were the result of people
trying to make sense of and express, what they understood of God’s relationship
with themselves and the created world in which they lived.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Oddly the
second reading from Genesis chapter 2 was written<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>400 – 500 years before the account in Genesis
1 so nearly a thousand years before Jesus.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What probably happened is that the Jewish hierarchy at some time later
wanted to make perhaps a clearer or more structured account of the relationship
between God and the children of Israel – and this is how the later account came
to be written.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I love the
way when reading through the Bible I can find so many things that relate to my
daily life or events in the news, so the current pandemic is like one of the
plagues that people endured in Egypt when Moses was around. I like too to think
about those early people – some 3000 years ago now, trying to make sense of and
understand their relationship with God and the earth – rather like many are
doing today as they wrestle with climate change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For us there is a wealth of knowledge and
wisdom already around and all this helps us with our understanding.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Living
things change and change continually – we were thinking about trees recently
and if you follow a tree through the seasons you will see how it changes. Our
faith is a living faith and it is ok for our interpretation of it to change too
although embracing change in what we believe can sometimes be disturbing and
difficult. So few people today, but there are some, believe that the world was
made as described in today’s readings with every plant and animal being created
all at the same time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I look at
my own journey of faith and find that what I believe now about a lot of things
is quite different from when I was a young adult.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For example, I used to believe in an
almighty, dreadful God who was to be feared, who might strike me dead at any
moment or lift up and throw a mountain. But overtime I have come to see God as
Christ like – a vulnerable baby, growing to manhood with all of the ups and
downs of human life, and eventually hanging on a cross to die.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And yes, thankfully rose again.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I wonder
what our natural world teaches us about God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Well God has made good provision for us and each year the earth can grow
enough food for all to be adequately fed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>God made this provision before we came along – it was not until all was
in place to keep us fed and clothed that humans were created. God recognised
the need for community too as humans were not to be alone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So we see God as a provider for all our
needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But all of this was not to be a
holiday paradise for us to lounge about in – the people had to look after it
and to care for it, to work at it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">I love my
garden but it is always a work in progress – never is everything just
right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I used to say I would like a sabbatical
to get it completely straight – and look I have just had one – but there are
still areas of neglect and it probably isn’t much better than other years at
this time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of course, the “I’m leaving
that bit for wildlife” is quite a handy phrase when I have a visitor and we are
standing by a particularly overgrown bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>But I do love it and I love being in it and there is so much to wonder
at and to wonder about the God who created it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">One thing
I have learnt about gardening is that you can’t rest on your laurels and you
need to keep working at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>So sometimes
I attack a flower bed, pull out the weeds, deadhead and cut back some of the
vegetation, maybe plant a few new plants and turn over some of the soil.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I survey the finished article with satisfaction
but three days later I inspect it to find slugs have eaten the new plants,
there are new weeds and spent flowers and Sylvester (my cat) has rolled around
on the soil and been doing others things in it too. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">So for
gardening – I have learnt one fix isn’t for all time and I have to keep working
at it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And it is true too for our planet
– we need to keep learning and doing new things to care for and preserve the
wonderful natural world that God has provided for us – once is not enough we
have to keep at it if it is to be flourishing for future generations. It’s also
true for my relationship with God – if it is living which I hope it is, it will
change, I will understand it differently and if I keep at it, it will give me
hope, peace and confidence through all of what lies ahead in life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="107" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w107-h107/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="107" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5<sup>th</sup>
Gospel</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Wendy
Kerr)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When I saw the picture of the tree of life on
the front of this week’s booklet it made me think of ‘Roots and Branches’. That
is the name my friend Rose gave to an idea we shared. In 1999 I went on a
course organised by The Rock Group of Churches. People from Anglican, Catholic,
Methodist, Baptist and free churches in Alum Rock got together to learn about
our changing neighbourhood. The course was called, ‘Understanding Islam’ and at
the end I wanted to explore practical ways of building bridges between our
parallel communities. I was given the contact details of a Muslim lady called
Rosemin Ahmed who worked at Nansen Primary School. I wrote her a very formal
letter inviting her to meet me. We shared concerns about perceptions based on
misunderstanding, ‘After all’, said Rose, ‘We are the roots and branches from
the tree of life created by God’.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Since then we have been working to create
common experiences that strangers can share. At first, we were a women’s group
and met in the community rooms at Nansen School. Our first big project was to
raise £5,000 to help rebuild a school in Pakistan that has been ruined in an
earthquake. After numerous fund-raising events including coffee mornings, chai
afternoons, cake and samosa sales, we raised £30,000 and, in partnership with
the Read Foundation, Rose and I were invited to Pakistan to open Roots and
Branches Community School in 2012.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When the National Curriculum began to include
visits to different places of worship many parents were apprehensive, so we
started a programme that continues today, taking adults to different places of
worship. Our first outing took mothers from Nansen School to Emmanuel Free
Church of England. As they walked that half mile some of the women were
terrified that they might be seen going to a Christian Church, others worried
that the visit might taint them in some way. But these brave women came out of
the church full of smiles, cups of tea, cake and warm welcome. Since then we
have taken groups of men and women, young and old, to Muslim Masjids, Buddhist
Temples, Sikh Gurdwaras, Hindu Mandirs, Jewish Synagogues and Christian
churches.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">At the beginning we organised day trips for
ladies and saw women from different communities enjoying shopping at Merry
Hill, visits to Bourton-on-the Water, Ludlow and Ashby-de-la-Zouch. We toured
Tamworth, Warwick and Kenilworth Castles. One very rainy day we decided to
brave the weather and venture from the tea-room to the rose garden at Warwick,
two very startled Somalian friends were greatly impressed to hear that Rose had
her own garden in the castle!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The day trips for ladies evolved into family
trips to the seaside, our regular morning meetings moved to Emmanuel Church and
then to St. John’s Convent. Prior to ‘Lockdown’ we had weekly coffee mornings
for men and women at St. John’s House and have interested passers by in Ward
End Park recently with our very mixed group of friends enjoying al-fresco
coffee.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So, 20 years from it beginning our ‘Roots and
Branches’ have spread, like ripples from a stone thrown in a pond, showing
anyone who cares to look that all people are the roots and branches of God’s
tree.<a name="_Hlk43723710"><o:p></o:p></a></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this Creation season</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Each leaf, each petal, each grain,
each person, <br />
sings your praises, Creator God.<br />
Each creature on the earth, <br />
all the mountains and great seas show your glory, Spirit of love.<br />
And yet the hand of greed has patented and plundered your splendour,<br />
has taken and not shared your gift,<br />
has lived as owner of the earth, not guest.<br />
And so the ice is cracked, the rivers dry, <br />
the valleys flooded and the snowcaps melt.<br />
Loving God, show us how to step gently, how to live simply,<br />
how to walk lightly with respect and love for all that you have made. <br />
<b>Amen.<o:p></o:p></b></span></span></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 107%;">(Linda Jones, in <i>God’s
Good Earth: Praise and Prayer for Creation</i>)<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">On this week’s theme…<i><o:p></o:p></i></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What
does each of the two creation stories tell us about God? about the world? about
us human beings?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">How
does each story make you <i>feel</i>?<i> </i>What resonates for you, in each of
the two stories? And what feels more difficult?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What
might it mean for us, today, to understand our first and foremost vocation to
be, as Pope Francis puts it, to work together with all living creatures to care
for the home we share?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Any other reflections…<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Watch the Godly Play version of
the story of creation on YouTube: </span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBUF51c1T04"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBUF51c1T04</span></a><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">. Have a go at making and
telling your own version. You could use craft materials, things from your
recycling box, or natural resources from your garden. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the other version of the
creation story, God creates humans from the earth. Spend some time
outside, and see what you can create from the earth and natural materials
you find. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This week we are thinking about
stories of beginnings. Can you think of other stories about beginnings,
either in the Bible, or from books/films/TV? What do you like about them?
What similarities or differences do you notice? <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Think about a time in your life
when you have begun something new, or something new which you are
beginning soon. How did/do you feel about new beginnings? <o:p></o:p></span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As we start to think about
creation, think about what aspects of creation you are particularly drawn
to, or which help you to feel close to God? Do you have a favourite
animal, plant, or landscape? How does it make you feel? You might want to
find or create an image and spend some time with it, thanking God for
creation. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page; mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%209%20(30-8-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <i>The
Wisdom of Trees</i>, Max Adams (2014), p 43.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%209%20(30-8-20).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
<span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Ruth Valerio, <i>Saying Yes to
Life</i> (London: SPCK, 2020), pp. xiii-xvii<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div></div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-30345631014149310092020-08-21T04:21:00.003-07:002020-08-23T04:08:03.232-07:00Week 8: Holy ground: where do we meet God?<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-no-proof: yes;"><br /><!--[endif]--></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXwOMcZcY4cHB6622jVWbKm5XQZUmVJ_oNYLBn31tcWphL5ijAsF-yNJARmmTuBYypRhEb7lmDK2rHOMxmMtNPiBrK_ACv-GBTxbe7Msf4V3XQ32oc-bZeyJjHZLhdBSL1LbJ_MkXdVY_X/s900/hagar.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="621" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXwOMcZcY4cHB6622jVWbKm5XQZUmVJ_oNYLBn31tcWphL5ijAsF-yNJARmmTuBYypRhEb7lmDK2rHOMxmMtNPiBrK_ACv-GBTxbe7Msf4V3XQ32oc-bZeyJjHZLhdBSL1LbJ_MkXdVY_X/s640/hagar.jpg" /></a></div><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b><p></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">‘Hagar and Ishmael’, Jakob Steinhardt</span></i><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page; mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">You can LISTEN to this week's readings and reflections <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/siqa577sufjk28w/Trees%20of%20Life%20Wk%208%20reflection.mp3?dl=0">here</a>.</span></span></p><p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Genesis
21:8-21</span></b></span><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">8 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The child [Isaac] grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great
feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. <b><sup>9 </sup></b>But Sarah
saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with
her son Isaac. <b><sup>10 </sup></b>So she said to Abraham, “Cast out
this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not
inherit along with my son Isaac.” <b><sup>11 </sup></b>The matter was
very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. <b><sup>12 </sup></b>But
God said to Abraham, “Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of
your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is
through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. <b><sup>13 </sup></b>As
for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is
your offspring.” <b><sup>14 </sup></b>So Abraham rose early in the
morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it
on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and
wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">15 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one
of the bushes. <b><sup>16 </sup></b>Then she went and sat down
opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, “Do
not let me look on the death of the child.” And as she sat opposite him, she
lifted up her voice and wept. <b><sup>17 </sup></b>And God heard the
voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to
her, “What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice
of the boy where he is. <b><sup>18 </sup></b>Come, lift up the boy
and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.” <b><sup>19 </sup></b>Then
God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin
with water, and gave the boy a drink.</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">20 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">God
was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an
expert with the bow. <b><sup>21 </sup></b>He lived in the wilderness
of Paran; and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-top: 0cm; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Genesis 32:22-32</span></b><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="background: white; color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">22 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="background: white; color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The same night [Jacob] got up and took his two wives, his two
maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. <b><sup>23 </sup></b>He
took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he
had. <b><sup>24 </sup></b>Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled
with him until daybreak. <b><sup>25 </sup></b>When the man saw that
he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s
hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. <b><sup>26 </sup></b>Then
he said, “Let me go, for the day is breaking.” But Jacob said, “I will not let
you go, unless you bless me.” <b><sup>27 </sup></b>So he said to him,
“What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” <b><sup>28 </sup></b>Then
the man said, “You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for
you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.” <b><sup>29 </sup></b>Then
Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you
ask my name?” And there he blessed him. <b><sup>30 </sup></b>So Jacob
called the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and
yet my life is preserved.” <b><sup>31 </sup></b>The sun rose upon him
as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom: the value of thorny scrub</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)</span></i><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The desperate Hagar finds shelter in
the wilderness for Ishmael under a bush, and comes to see this wild, apparently
inhospitable place as home. In our own country we have ‘wasteland’ as seemingly
inhospitable as Hagar’s wilderness – characterised by dense thickets of thorny
scrub, full of brambles, gorse, hawthorn and blackthorn. There are edible gifts
hidden here – blackberries ripe for the picking, and sloes on the blackthorn
waiting to be turned into sloe gin – but we are rightly wary of the prickles
and thorns.</span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet the very thorns which deter us
offer protection to other species. The safest nursery for young oak saplings is
in the middle of thorny scrub, shielded from nibbling by rabbits or deer until
grown large enough to survive – thus an old forestry saying ‘The thorn is the
mother of the oak’.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%208%20(23-8-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Perceived as ‘messy, unproductive
wasteland’, much scrub has been cleared in recent decades – one reason for the
dramatic decline of the UK nightingale population (down 90% in the since
1960s). Arriving in spring, these West African migrants need thickets of
blackthorn and bramble to sing, mate and build their nests, safe from predators
behind impenetrable thorns, as described in John Clare’s poem ‘The
Nightingale’s Nest’<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%208%20(23-8-20).docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Aye, as I live! her secret nest is
here,<br />
Upon this white-thorn stump! I’ve searched about<br />
For hours in vain. There! put that bramble by …<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Snug lie her curious eggs in number
five…<br />
And the old prickly thorn-bush guards them well.<br />
So here we’ll leave them ….<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-left: 36pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Nature is the builder, and contrives<br />
Homes for her children’s comfort, even here.</span></p>
<b><i><u><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div></u></i></b>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction
to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Last week, we began thinking about the kinds of ‘holy ground’
where we encounter God, and some of the ways that God calls us. With Abraham
and Sarah, we heard God’s call to ‘go’, to leave behind what is familiar, and
to set out on a journey, trusting God’s promises to go with us and to bless us.
This is the story of the beginnings of the people of Israel: a people through
whom God would bring blessing to the whole world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This week, we go a little bit further with Abraham and Sarah,
but turn our attention to two of their descendants. And we think a bit more about
<i>where</i> and <i>how</i> we encounter God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Hagar and Ishmael<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">God had promised a child to Abraham and Sarah, but that child
was slow to appear. Rather than waiting for God’s promise to come in its own
good time, Abraham and Sarah tried other options! Abraham had a son with
Sarah’s ‘slave-girl’, Hagar – Ishmael, they called him. And then, 14 years
later, Sarah had a son too – Isaac. In Genesis chapter 21, Sarah is jealous of
Ishmael, and gets Abraham to get rid of both Ishmael and his mother Hagar. And
it’s wandering in the wilderness, at the point of despair, that Hagar and
Ishmael meet with God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In fact, it’s the second time that Hagar has met God in the
wilderness. She had already run away from Sarah’s anger once before – and that
time God had promised her a son, and given him the name Ishmael, which means
‘God hears’. And Hagar had given God a name too: ‘El-roi’, which means ‘God who
sees’ (Genesis 16, v.13). Twice, then, Hagar has met God in the wilderness: a
God who <i>sees</i> her, and <i>hears</i> her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Jacob / Israel<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">That second encounter in the desert is the last we hear of Hagar
and Ishmael. Isaac becomes the centre of the story. When he grows up, and not
long after Sarah’s death, Abraham commissions his head servant ‘back home’ (to
the land Abraham had left, at the beginning of this journey) to find Isaac a
wife. The servant goes, and he meets a woman at a well (familiar?!): Rebekah.
Rebekah goes with the servant to meet Isaac, and the two of them get married.
They have twin sons, Esau and Jacob, and the first thing we hear about Jacob
(Genesis 25) is that he tricks his older brother out of his birthright – as the
price for a helping of stew! The <i>next </i>thing we hear about Jacob (Genesis
27) is that he tricks his blind, dying father into giving his blessing to Jacob
rather than Esau. Unsurprisingly, Esau is furious, and Jacob runs away. When we
meet Jacob in chapter 32, he is on his way to meet Esau. He has heard that Esau
is coming to meet him with 400 men, which doesn’t sound promising, and so Jacob
sends an advance party ahead with a present for his brother: goats, sheep, camels,
cows and donkeys. Jacob is worried, and he’s not taking any chances. And that’s
when he finds himself, in the middle of the night, in the middle of a stream,
wrestling with none other than God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Where Hagar in the wilderness gets to give God a new name, in
this night-time struggle in the stream God refuses to give away her name and it
is <i>Jacob</i> who is re-named: he is no longer Jacob ‘the trickster’, but
Israel, the one who has ‘struggled with God’. Jacob-who-is-now-Israel goes away
blessed, and wounded, but nevertheless, like Hagar, he has seen God face to
face.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyaKoprsGE622QdU9NJ2zRB93VHxzw30U46ecOSpiNDi2Xjz_qkUdCd05d6ulN-UDp5-TUZVqhpkmnHl2GyFsjSvMyyoQ6ZRelqwWqhZXh1GkIotkgq-6nF_3tW3NY8gQOazG1TcXEKA3B/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Ruth Harley)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In today’s
texts we have the stories of two quite different encounters with God: Hagar in
the wilderness at the point of despair, receiving the water she needs to keep
her son and herself alive; and Jacob, wrestling for a blessing, which he does
receive, but only alongside an injury. Neither of these are, perhaps, typical
of what we might think of when we think about meeting God. But one thing the
many and varied stories of scripture teach us is that there is no ‘one size
fits all’ model of encounter with the divine. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When I was
a little girl, I went to a Church of England primary school. This is where I
first heard about God, and first encountered the idea that God is someone you
could have a relationship with, could communicate with. It was where I first came
across the idea of prayer. At my primary school, we were given a very clear
idea of how prayer should happen. Prayers were to begin “Dear God”, they were
to end “Amen.”, and – and this was very thoroughly impressed upon us – they
were to include the words “thank you” and/or “please”. This is how I was taught
to approach God – it was important to get it right, and important to be polite.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And, of
course, those please and thank you prayers have a place in my prayer life
still, although perhaps not in such rigid forms. But they are not the be all
and end all of the life of faith. Certainly they are a far cry from the sort of
encounter with God which we see in today’s stories. These are not nice, polite,
scripted interactions between God and God’s people. They are desperate, raw,
real encounters between the awesome and merciful power of God and the frailty
of human lives. And they can teach us something about our own encounters with
God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Let’s look
at Hagar first. She is desperate at this point in the story – really desperate.
Driven out of her home, and now with her son at the point of death, she has
nobody to turn to. So what does she do? She does not compose a nice “Dear God…
please… Amen” prayer. It is not clear that the words she does speak – “Do not
let me look on the death of my child” – are addressed to God at all, or indeed
to anyone. They are the distressed cry of a desperate woman. Watching the news
recently, of refugees making dangerous sea crossings, of the explosion in
Beirut, of the continuing devastation caused by Covid-19 around the world – I
wonder how many parents might be uttering those same words. Hagar does not ask
God for anything. And yet God acts, and acts in a way which she could never
have expected, providing the lifesaving resource of water, or perhaps opening
Hagar’s eyes to a resource that was already there – the text is unclear on this
point. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">And then
there is Jacob, wrestling all night with this mysterious stranger, who is
perhaps an angel, a messenger from God, or perhaps is God. Either way, as Jacob
wrestles, this strange dialogue takes place. There are no ‘please’ and ‘thank
you’s here either, although there are certainly demands. Jacob asks for a
blessing and the stranger replies by asking his name, and giving him a new one:
Israel. Jacob asks the stranger’s name, and instead of answering he gives Jacob
the blessing he had asked for before. It’s a curious conversation, and
certainly a long way from how we might have been taught as children to think
about “talking to God”. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But the God
we see in these stories, and throughout much of scripture, is altogether more
complicated than the God of the children’s prayer book who awaits our polite
requests and grants them. And our relationship with God is, or has the
potential to be, far more complex too – richer and deeper, encompassing every
aspect of life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In the
story of Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness, we see a God who does not wait to
be asked, a God whose saving action does not rely on politely phrased requests.
This is the God who hears our despair even when we can’t put it into words, and
who is still present and active when the situation seems to us to be too far
beyond hope even to pray about it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">In the
story of Jacob wrestling, we see a God who does not give us easy answers, but
who allows us to grapple and wrestle with who God is and who we are in relation
to God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This is the God who has room for
the difficult questions, space for us to bring all our doubts and wonderings.
This is the God who responds to our demands – but not in the ways we expect.
This too is the God who does not allow us to remain unchanged.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">There is a
strand of Christian thought that wants to iron out the difficult parts of life,
to package faith – and by extension God – into a nice neat framework. But I
don’t think God is like that. I don’t think life is like that. And I don’t
think the life of faith can, or needs to, duck the tough questions like that.
We live in a complex world, and we lead complex lives, and God is big enough to
deal with it all. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When we
find ourselves pushed beyond our capacity to cope, when we reach a point of
desperation, God will meet us there in unexpected ways. Not to solve our
problems or make it all ok, but perhaps just to nudge us towards what we need
for the next step, the next breath, the next moment. When we find ourselves
wrestling with big decisions or difficult questions, problems that seem
unsolvable, God will be right there wrestling with us, and even as we wrestle,
we will be blessed in strange and unexpected ways which change us forever. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">When we
think of meeting God, it is tempting to think of drawing apart from our
everyday lives, in search of beauty, peace or inspiration. And there is a time
and a place for that. But these stories, and so many others like them, inspire
us to keep alert to the presence of God in the ordinary, God in the tough
stuff, God in the uncertainty. God does not wait for our polite requests or our
set-aside times, but comes to meet us, to bless us, and to transform us in all
the difficult, glorious, grace infused, human mess of our lives.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Jeannie Lynch)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If
God had a name what would it be?<br />
And would you call it to his face?<br />
If you were faced with him in all his glory?<br />
What would you ask if you had just one question?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">What
if God was one of us,<br />
Just like a slob like one of us<br />
Just a stranger on a bus,<br />
Trying to make his way home.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If
God had a face, what would it look like?<br />
And would you want to see <br />
If seeing meant that you would have to believe<br />
in things like heaven and Jesus and the Saints<br />
And all the Prophets<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">God is love and his face shines brightly like
the sun and we cannot look upon it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But
what if we could see God; in our every day, what if when we are out and about,
on the bus, in our cars, sitting on our sofas; we could see God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What would you say?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As Alanis Morrissette, sings in her beautiful
song? What one question would you ask?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>What would his answer be?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">One thing for sure is that God loves us his
people, he loves our world and is often out and about in it especially during
ancient times as our bible reading shows us today.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Poor Hagar, she has already run away from
Abraham and Sarah and now she is forced to leave with her child and very little
to sustain them both.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She journeys into
the desert and expects first her child to die and then her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What she does not expect is to find God
waiting to save them both and she is given a second chance at life. What Hagar
has discovered is that the way someone who loves you says your name, it is
different.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She knew that her name and
identity, all she was, was enough for God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not for Sarah but enough for God, her name was safe when he said it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If you were Hagar, faced with the unexpected
God, what would you do?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would you be
angry at your circumstances, tell him about all those who you struggle with,
where would He lead you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Would your
current journey be the same as the one he would show you? How would you cope
seeing Him in the ordinary every day?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Would he still be enough for you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I hope you know that God did not just die for the beautiful dressed
people that sit in church every Sunday and read their bibles regularly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He died for us who cry at night while the
world sleeps, then wakes up too late for church and makes seemingly unforgivable
mistakes and don’t communicate with him for weeks.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He died for each and every one of us and we
are, each and every one of us, enough for Him. Don’t forget that.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Our stories are intricate tapestries just like
the people in ancient times. We have treads of thanksgiving for many things such
as families, homes, jobs, health. But, also interwoven are strands of sorrow
woven with letting go and holding tight onto love things, people we love.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May we remember that who we are is made up of
every part of your journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Where others
often see mess, may we see beauty and remember you are enough. As we journey on
in our lives with Gods love shining through with strands of gold, interwoven
with his grace, know he has plans for you and you are loved, like Hagar, like
you.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you see God on the bus, give him
my love.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5<sup>th</sup>
Gospel</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Beth
Millman)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><a name="_Hlk43723710"><span style="border: 1pt none; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN; padding: 0cm;">Growing up I went to church
every Sunday Morning and also had set times in the calendar year
where my faith would be more prominent and structured in my life such as
Christmas and Easter. I never really thought what about where else I could
find God as these times were always present.</span></a><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"> However over
the last several years due to being at university, travelling and moving
further away from Hodge Hill Church this has been more difficult. This has
encouraged me and enabled me to think more about where I can find God and where
I can express my faith away from “Church”. </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">There are two significant
examples that come to me when I think about finding God in other places. The
first one was in New Zealand when I was travelling. I had been travelling for a
couple of months and was really missing worship and struggling to find the head
space to pray and reflect. I found myself sat on an empty beach fairly early in
the morning. I spent a long time sat watching the waves, listening to the
nature around me and feeling the wind against my skin. I put some Music on my
phone and was lost in thoughts and found myself praying and reflecting more than
I had for months. After that morning every time I sat on a quiet beach I was
taken back to that place and was extremely thankful for the ability to
reconnect with God and reflect. </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">The second one was much
closer to home. Most of you will probably I am a physiotherapist at Birmingham
children’s hospital. This mean I sometimes have to work weekends and bank
holidays. This specific time was the first time I had ever worked Christmas
Day. I was working from 8 in the morning until 10 in the evening. I
had lots of concerns about missing family time, dinner, drinks and presents but
I hadn’t really thought how I felt about not having a period of time at church
or for reflection. I got half way though my day and although there were
presents, Christmas songs and Santas everywhere in the Hospital I just didn’t
feel that Christmas magic.... until I walked past our beautiful chapel and
heard O little town of Bethlehem coming from inside. I sat in the chapel and
listened to the music and was taken to a deep reflective Christmassy place
which I was able to take with me for the rest of the day. </span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;">One thing that I have
realised really helps me connect with God is music. This can be worship music,
music with reflective lyrics or even music that takes me on a journey. This
always helps me to look around and see God’s Kingdom and meet with God in the
most unlikely places.</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: ZH-CN;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this journey</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">:<b><i><u><o:p></o:p></u></i></b></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If you would enter into the wilderness, do not
begin without a blessing.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Do not leave without hearing who you are: </span></i></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Beloved<i>, <br />
named by the One who has travelled this path before you.<o:p></o:p></i></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Do not go without letting it echo in your ears,<br />
and if you find it is hard to let it into your heart,<br />
do not despair. That is what this journey is for.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I cannot promise this blessing will free you<br />
from danger, from fear, from hunger or thirst,<br />
from the scorching of sun or the fall of the night.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">But I can tell you that on this path there will be
help.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I can tell you that on this way there will be rest.<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">I can tell you that you will know the strange
graces<br />
that come to our aid only on a road such as this,<br />
that fly to meet us bearing comfort and strength,<br />
that come alongside us for no other cause<br />
than to lean themselves toward our ear<br />
and with their curious insistence whisper our name:<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Beloved. Beloved. Beloved.</span></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page; mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></u></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><br /></span></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">(Jan Richardson, <i>Circles of Grace: A Book of Blessings for the Seasons</i>)</span></span></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">On this week’s theme –<i> Holy
ground: where do we meet God?<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">How
have I encountered God ‘in church’ – or in gatherings together? What kind of
experience was it?</span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">How
have I encountered God at home – especially in this time when we’ve not been
able to meet together ‘in church’? What kind of experience was it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Where
have I encountered God in places of difficulty and hardship? What kind of
experience was it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Where
else in the world have I encountered God? What kind of experience was it?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Any other reflections…<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people</span></u></i></b><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Think
about the places where you’ve encountered God. Where have you felt awe and
wonder – places that made you go ‘wow’? Where have you been filled with joy?
Where have you experienced a sense of peace? As you remember these places, you
might like to find or create pictures of them, or write down how you felt when
you were there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%;">Make
your own portable prayer station: Choose or create things which help you to
feel close to God. You could include pictures, words and objects. They might
link to a special time, place or person that has helped you feel close to God,
or they might remind you of God. Pack all your items into a bag, box or other
container (you might want to decorate it). Try spending time with your prayer
station items in different locations – in your bedroom, in the garden, or out
and about.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(You can find out more about
portable prayer stations on Ruth’s blog <a href="https://becausegodislove.wordpress.com/2014/10/24/make-your-own-prayer-stations-portable-version/">here</a>.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%;">This
week’s readings are both about people who encounter God in difficult times –
Hagar and Jacob. Can you think of other people in the Bible who encounter God
in difficult circumstances? Or stories of people in history (eg. Martin Luther
King, Oscar Romero, Mother Teresa)? Can you think of times in your own life
which have been (or are) difficult – how might God have been (or be) present in
those times? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 18.0pt; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you tried the ‘awareness walk’ or the ‘make
your own pilgrimage’ options last week, try repeating them this week. What did
you notice that was the same? What did you notice that was different, or that
you didn’t notice before? I wonder what God might be saying to you through
this… You might want to consider making awareness walking/pilgrimage a regular
habit, and be aware of what you notice over time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%208%20(23-8-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;">“We need to bring back the wildwoods
of Britain to fight climate change” Guardian article by </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/profile/isabella-tree"><span color="" style="color: windowtext; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Isabella Tree</span></a><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;">, 26.11.18 </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/26/wildwoods-britain-climate-change-northern-forest"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%;">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/26/wildwoods-britain-climate-change-northern-forest</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="ftn2" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%208%20(23-8-20).docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn2;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>
First published in <i>The Rural Muse, Poems by John Clare</i> in 1835.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-86896939329797848162020-08-04T07:04:00.004-07:002020-08-23T04:09:46.501-07:00Week 7: Holy ground and calling (1): called to a journey<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuYMGG5KvA6qfi01WcaCdDuZE92kgzbchdQ6_YTFINLVyENjvCIfXOPrx7AigFQ6x8xduKIVIeB8gnUJZX0ByB4G8Pi2f767FlIHbP9s9T8dbKhSqenmtK38ttBkYZzVilRhU-ZcHH4uv/s997/Trinity.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="997" data-original-width="772" height="512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnuYMGG5KvA6qfi01WcaCdDuZE92kgzbchdQ6_YTFINLVyENjvCIfXOPrx7AigFQ6x8xduKIVIeB8gnUJZX0ByB4G8Pi2f767FlIHbP9s9T8dbKhSqenmtK38ttBkYZzVilRhU-ZcHH4uv/w397-h512/Trinity.jpg" width="397" /></a></div>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Icon by Andrei Rublev, 15<sup>th</sup> Century
<br />
‘Trinity’ or ‘The Hospitality of Abraham’</span></i><b><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br clear="all" style="break-before: page; mso-special-character: line-break;" />
</span></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">You can LISTEN to this week's readings and reflections <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/kyf9foyohb2i9e6/Trees%20of%20Life%20Wk%207%20reflection.mp3?dl=0">here</a>.</span></p><p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Genesis
12:1-5a</span></b><span face="" style="background: white; color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">12 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and
your father’s house to the land that I will show you. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>I
will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name
great, so that you will be a blessing. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>I will
bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you
all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">4 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So Abram went, as the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five
years old when he departed from Haran. <b><sup>5 </sup></b>Abram took his
wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had
gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth
to go to the land of Canaan.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></b></span></p><p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Genesis
18:1-15</span></b></span><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="chapter-2" style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="chapternum"><b><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">18 </span></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, as he
sat at the entrance of his tent in the heat of the day. <b><sup>2 </sup></b>He
looked up and saw three men standing near him. When he saw them, he ran from
the tent entrance to meet them, and bowed down to the ground. <b><sup>3 </sup></b>He
said, “My lord, if I find favour with you, do not pass by your servant. <b><sup>4 </sup></b>Let
a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the
tree. <b><sup>5 </sup></b>Let me bring a little bread, that you may
refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your
servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” <b><sup>6 </sup></b>And
Abraham hastened into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Make ready quickly three
measures of choice flour, knead it, and make cakes.” <b><sup>7 </sup></b>Abraham
ran to the herd, and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to the servant,
who hastened to prepare it. <b><sup>8 </sup></b>Then he took curds
and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them; and he
stood by them under the tree while they ate.</span></span><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">9 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">They said to him, “Where is your wife Sarah?” And he said, “There,
in the tent.” <b><sup>10 </sup></b>Then one said, “I will surely
return to you in due season, and your wife Sarah shall have a son.” And Sarah
was listening at the tent entrance behind him. <b><sup>11 </sup></b>Now
Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in age; it had ceased to be with Sarah
after the manner of women. <b><sup>12 </sup></b>So Sarah laughed to
herself, saying, “After I have grown old, and my husband is old, shall I have
pleasure?” <b><sup>13 </sup></b>The </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh, and say, ‘Shall I
indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ <b><sup>14 </sup></b>Is
anything too wonderful for the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-variant: small-caps; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span face="" style="color: black; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">? At the set time I will return to you, in due season, and Sarah
shall have a son.” <b><sup>15 </sup></b>But Sarah denied, saying, “I
did not laugh”; for she was afraid. He said, “Oh yes, you did laugh.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)</span></i><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The oaks of Mamre mentioned in
Genesis were probably Palestinian oaks (<i>Quercus calliprinos</i>). These oaks
are generally somewhat smaller than their English cousins (<i>Quercus robur</i>),
growing only up to about 18 metres instead of up to 40. But ancient Hebrew
tradition suggests that Mamre was the site of an unusually large tree, or grove
of trees, which was regarded as a holy place even before the time of Abraham.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Oak trees have been seen as venerable
or sacred in many cultures and religions, including ancient British druids and
early Germanic and Slavic tribes. This is partly no doubt because their size
and broad, spreading shape make them a highly visible and very suitable
gathering place. Within the Hebrew and Christian traditions too, especially
before temples and church buildings were built, a large, spreading tree was a
natural place to meet, shelter, rest, share hospitality and pray.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Other characteristics of oaks
encourage people to treat them as holy ground. They are long-lived: oaks
typically spend 300 years growing, 300 resting and 300 gradually declining –
some live to over 1000. They are most fruitful at 80-120 years when many other
trees are at the end of their life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And
they are host to a huge variety of other living things: 2300 different birds,
mosses, fungi, invertebrates, lichens and mammals are listed in a database of
species supported by oaks in the UK.<a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%207%20(16-8-20).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Maybe Abraham and Sarah learned about
patience, late flourishing in maturity, and generous hospitality from the oaks
at Mamre.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Over the past six weeks, as we’ve begun our ‘Trees of Life’
journey together, we’ve been thinking about how we’re ‘growing’: spiritually,
communally, missionally, evangelistically, and with the fruit of the Kingdom.
Hopefully we’ve been able to recognise all kinds of ways in which God has been
helping us to grow through these challenging times. We’ve also begun to get a
sense of how the different kinds of growing are connected together: our roots,
trunk, branches, leaves and fruit all depend on each other for life, growth and
health. And we’ve also been reminded that this ‘growing’ isn’t just about us as
individuals, or just about us as a church community – although both of those
are important – but about our connectedness within our wider neighbourhoods,
and the wider world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This week we’re going to shift our focus a bit. We’re going
to catch our first proper glimpse of the ‘Big Story’ that is told through the
pages of the Bible, at the beginning of God’s journey with the people of Israel
– the beginning, in fact, of the people of Israel themselves. Abraham and Sarah
(who begin life as ‘Abram and Sarai’ – name changes are often important in
bible stories) are the ancestors of the people who will come to know themselves
as ‘God’s people’. And yet, at the beginning of the story, this seems highly
unlikely. We’re told (in Genesis chapter 11, verse 30) that ‘Sarai was barren’
– unable, so the story goes, to have children. So when God says ‘Go – leave
home’ to 75-year-old Abram, and promises to make of him ‘a great nation’,
through whom all the peoples of the world will be blessed, it’s difficult for
Abram and Sarai to work out, practically, how that’s going to happen. It’s no
more believable when we meet them again, in chapter 18, pausing on their
journey under the oak trees in a place called Mamre. No wonder Sarah laughs!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">You might recognise the picture this week. It’s one we’ve
explored together in church on several occasions, and there’s a large version
of it in the living room of the Old Rectory. It’s often seen as an image of God
as Trinity – Father/Creator, Son/Jesus and Holy Spirit. But it’s got another
name too: ‘The Hospitality of Abraham’. It tells the story of God (in the three
‘men’) coming to visit Abraham and Sarah, at their camp by the oaks of Mamre.
Can you see the tree in the middle of the picture, and Abraham and Sarah’s
house on the left-hand side at the back? It tells of an encounter with some
strangers, over a meal, and some strange and wonderful promises – things that
we struggle to imagine, that turn out to be possible with God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When we talk about ‘vocations’, our imagination is often
limited to certain kinds of ‘special jobs’: being a vicar, for example!
‘Vocations’ are just for <i>some</i> people, we think, and are a
once-in-a-lifetime call and response. But ‘vocation’ just means ‘calling’. And
if God is always going on ahead of us (as the women followers of Jesus were
told at the empty tomb), God is <i>always</i> calling us to take a next step on
our journey: not often to a ‘new job’ (although that does happen sometimes!),
and much more often to be <i>in this particular situation</i>, <i>in this
particular way</i>. It’s significant, as I’ve already hinted, that Abram and
Sarai are given new and subtly different names, as their journey with God
unfolds. As they take each step along the way in response to God’s call, they
are learning, slowly, more about what it means to be who God intends them to be
– in the place where they find themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">How might God be paying each of <i>us</i> a visit at the
moment, I wonder? In what strangers, in what ordinary or extraordinary places,
might we encounter God – as Creator, as Jesus, as Spirit? And what might we be
sensing God calling us to? What kinds of ‘leaving behind’ might that God be
asking of us? And what strange and wonderful things might lie ahead on our
journeys, if we dare to respond, in courage and trust?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Revd Calvert Prntis)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="" style="background: white; border: 1pt none; color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;">Calvert is Director of
Ordinands & Vocations Development for Church of England -
Birmingham</span></i><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span lang="" style="background: white; border: 1pt none; color: #201f1e; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0cm; padding: 0cm;"><br /></span></i></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In 1999 I completed my curacy period and the thought
of what lied waiting ahead in the year 2000 was immense. I felt I learnt my
first profound lesson in how God calls us to a journey when I moved on to my
first post as a vicar. It was a relatively small church, aptly called
‘Community Church’. After a couple of years, I discovered as many people who
were joining the church a good percentage were also leaving for good reasons
such as for employment, university or training. We came to that time in the
service again when a young family were out at the front as they were moving on.
When they shared, the woman told us that as they were coming to Britain, her
mother said to her, ‘make sure you find a good church and put down roots’. ‘We
did what my mother said’ shared Jo, ‘We found a good church, but you have given
us wings’. It was then the penny dropped for me; we were not meant to be a huge
all dazzling church where people stayed for many years. Our calling was one of
being called to a journey with others, equip them and allow them to move to
what God is calling and preparing the next thing for them. </span><span color="" face="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The theme of the Tree of Life is a profound one. It
speaks of being rooted and being productive as a result of having such strong
foundations. Leaves are so visible, and gardeners tell me that you can tell the
health or condition of a tree by its leaves. </span><span color="" face="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;">It was in hope that Abraham set out from where he lived
to journey to unknown places with God. It was not carefully calculation in
anyway but a deep hope in God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think
Abrahams faith must have been like a tree planted with the roots going very
deep which enabled him to move in the breeze of God’s voice. Of course, Abram
did not know for certain that God would take him somewhere where God would make
of him a new nation. Just as a newly dating couple has no idea where the
relationship will go, Abraham sets out in hope. Nothing more. Just hope. One
author said, ‘I guess, sometimes, there is not much more that we can do either.
We can just hope that God has not fallen asleep; we can just hope that God will
deliver us from evil; we can just hope that God will give us something to
trust; we can that Jesus’ death and resurrection means new life for us also;
when all else has failed, at the bottom of life we still have the gift of hope.
And sometimes, hope is enough. When we stare out at the hills, we imagine that
God will come and deliver us in some unexpected way. But, until we see God
crest the hill, we lift our eyes to the hills and hope. Maybe, this sort of
hope is actually what faith is all about’. </span><span style="background: white; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-color-alt: windowtext;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I am struck with the clarity of the readings in that
God appears to be it seems very clear, firstly the command to ‘Go’ and then to
the precise place. Some people hear God very clearly directing them to a
particular place or task and some do not find it so easy to hear God. I have
often thought that the greatest vocation advisor is God, who always finds the
appropriate way to speak to people and knows and listens to our heart’s
desires.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To ‘Go’ can be very hard to
commit to, however our readings point to the depth of blessing that is found in
responding to God’s call whatever it might be and wherever it may lead us.
There is much vulnerability in following God. But there is the promise of being
blessed and we ourselves will in turn be a blessing because of going into the
unknown with God. </span><span color="" face="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">It sounds like an abrupt and uncomfortable command of
departure given to Abram by God. Still today many leave their country of birth
not because of desire but out of real desperation to save their own lives and
the lives of their families. This journey is in the hope that they can live the
life that God intended them to live and this for them has meant uprooting and
journeying in faith and trust in God and others.</span><span color="" face="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Abram was obedient to God’s. God’s plan is often a
better one than ours. I am also struck that in this journey we see God’s call
to Abram and also us, that Gods call to journey with him does not disqualify us
because of experience, lack of experience, skill, gender, ethnicity or age.
Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. This venture at
this age must have been empowering as well as scary but Abraham digs deep into
his faith in God. </span><span color="" face="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I can think of several times in my life I can recall
when I sensed God in powerful ways. Of course, the fact is that God is always
near. Wherever God meets us is holy ground. It’s just at times we may lose
sight of him. I am always struck how God brings people into our life at
different phases of our life as we try and follow God’s call. As Abraham was
sitting his day changed dramatically as he sees three strangers coming towards
him and is very receptive towards them. This fantastic hospitality that Abraham
gives to the strangers is outstanding. It emphasizes I believe how God might
want us to journey with God and others. </span><span color="" face="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">On hearing what God intended of Sarah, she laughs.
Nervous laughter will always be with us as we are continually surprised by what
and how God calls us to be and to do. </span><span color="" face="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Body" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" face="" lang="" style="color: windowtext; font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Sarah’s laughter is
not at God but because of what God has said. She may have thought what to do
with this God who keeps pushing her to consider new possibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God asks the question of Sarah, Abraham, and
of us: </span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span color="" dir="RTL" lang="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: AR-SA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>“</span><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Do you think there is
anything I cannot do?” It’s a question we all might want to keep asking, </span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span color="" dir="RTL" lang="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: AR-SA; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>“</span><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">do
you think there is anything God cannot do?” How we live our lives of faith
reveals our answer to God<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang=""><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>’</span></span><span color="" lang="PT" style="color: windowtext; mso-ansi-language: PT; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">s question.</span><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> And
as we consider the question, a little nervous laughter might leak out! In the
story, Sarah<span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL" lang=""><span dir="RTL"></span><span dir="RTL"></span>’</span>s laughter shows the human side of
things, which is met by the God who appears in the present of the three strangers.</span><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">There is a reminder
here that God is discovered in real and intimate ways, especially through each
other.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is clear that God desires a
real and intimate relationship with us.</span><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="Default" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Through these stories
in Genesis we are reminded how challenging being faithful to God is and yet it
is God’s faithfulness to us that spurs us on. </span><span color="" style="color: windowtext; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Arial; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5<sup>th</sup>
Gospel</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Gloria
Smith)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I have found that life is
pretty much like a journey and for some one of my age it’s quite a long journey
and hence a long story so I’m only going to talk about the last couple of
years.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Most of you know I was a
teacher for getting on for 30 years. I absolutely loved teaching and felt it
was more than a job, I saw it as a calling. However, although I really enjoyed
teaching, during the last few years I felt there was something else that was
calling me, although it was difficult to articulate exactly what. It came to a
head when I was taking part in our Spiritual Companions 1-to-1 meetings when we
were encouraged to think about our gifts, passions and what we could offer. I
had already decided to give up being Churchwarden as I wanted to explore what
or who was calling me. It was suggested to me that it might be to ordination
and I found myself shocked, surprised and yet with a feeling of it not being a
total impossibility. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The upshot was that I
eventually went on a period of discernment. (I say ‘eventually’ because shortly
after the initial discernment Steve, as many of you know, had a serious heart
attack and everything was put on hold. I was then too old or so I was told and
only with the help of Al and Sally was I allowed to continue). I was questioned
lots about my faith and had to articulate what I thought my calling was. Saying
it out loud was interesting as it didn’t sound wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I planned to retire at
the end of the Summer Term 2018 but prior to that went to a selection panel for
training to be ordained and I got through. I started my training at Queens as
an ordinand. That was just another step on my journey, but what a step it was!
It challenged many things about myself and my faith and it felt as if I was
being given the space to really grow, deepening my understanding of my faith
and my relationship with God. I don’t just mean it was college - I like to
share and so I shared ideas from college with people at church and had lots of
discussions and found I became more confident and able to articulate my
beliefs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Then came a bombshell
when I found a lump and had to have chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I thought it
would be an end to this calling but college and the diocese were happy for me
to complete what I needed to do to be ordained.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The last year has been an
interesting one but one in which my faith in God has continued to grow. I don’t
believe my illness was God punishing me for past things, or testing my faith
but rather I felt Jesus as a loving presence through it all, so why would he do
any of those bad things. My illness just happened, but my faith and the support
and love of my family and friends has got me through this without a doubt. It
would be easy to think does God really want me to do this as there have been
these barriers put in the way. I don’t believe they were barriers put there by
God or anyone else, they just happened like the cancer and through them I have
been able to see clearer and grow closer to God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNoSpacing" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Over the past few weeks
of the season based around trees I have realised the fundamental necessity of
relationships. Looking back that is what has sustained and supported me, a
relationship not only with God, but relationships with family and friends all
of which have nourished me and allowed me to flourish and for that I am
thankful. Now I am starting<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>a new phase
of my journey of faith and life and who knows where it will lead, but God has
travelled with me on my journey thus far, so I will continue to trust and have
faith in that loving presence forever beside me.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflections on the last 6 weeks</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Muriel Francis)</i><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Muriel has been writing brief
reflections over these first weeks of ‘Trees of Life’, on what she has heard
God saying to her, through the readings and reflections. She has agreed to
share them here. If you were to write your own one sentence summaries, what
would they say?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Week 1:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Make the Lord my hope and confidence to be strong and sure like the tree
planted along the river bank<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Week 2:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; text-indent: 36pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Week 3:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When you are connected to the Father through Jesus you are connected to
your life source like a branch sustained in the vine<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Week 4:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">No matter how small our faith is it can grow to accomplish great things</span></i></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Week 5:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Where love flowers we produce healing leaves, [bringing] health and
strength wherever love goes<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Week 6:<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">We want the fruit of the spirit to grow in us, we must know his love and
want the Spirit to live in us<o:p></o:p></span></i></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">On this week’s theme –<i> Holy ground
and calling<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 18pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When
in my life have I experienced God journeying with me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 18pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When
in my life have I felt God calling me to something new?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 18pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">When
in my life have I had to trust God, even if it’s been hard to ‘believe’?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 18pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What
new beginning, or what ‘leaving behind’, might God be calling me to now? Who
could I talk to about these questions?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt; text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Any other reflections…<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 18pt; text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">‘Prayer for the waiting time’</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> by Nicola Slee<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Give me the resolution to say ‘No’ to the good<br />
so that I will be ready to give my ‘Yes’ to the better.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Give me the courage to keep living in the
open-endedness of the future<br />
without foreclosing the mysterious work of your Spirit <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in my haste or fear.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Give me the persistence to stay in the wilderness
of unknowing<br />
until I am ready to receive your call.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Give me the strength to keep still and waiting<br />
when all about me is pushing towards <br />
movement and activity and choice.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Give me the acceptance to live these days <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>in uneventfulness, simplicity and
hiddenness,<br />
without craving excitement, distraction or change.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Give me the grace to live in the emptiness of not
doing<br />
without the rewards of achievement, fulfilment or success.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Give me the wisdom to discriminate between <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>my own impatience to move forward<br />
and your Spirit’s deep stirring of my spirit <br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>when the time is right to move.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Give me the faith to trust in your obscurity,<br />
the obedience to stay faithful to your mystery,<br />
the courage to keep tryst with your inscrutability.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="right" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: right;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">from Nicola Slee, <i>Praying Like a
Woman </i>(London: SPCK, 2004)</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; font-weight: 700; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversa<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b><b style="font-size: 12pt; font-style: italic; text-decoration-line: underline;"><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">tion-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people</span></u></i></b></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Go for an Awareness Walk. Before you set
out, ask God to draw your attention to whatever God wants you to become
aware of. As you walk, notice what your attention is caught by. You might
want to photograph what you notice (or pick it up, if it is something
suitable, like a leaf or a stone).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Spend some time with the things you notice, paying attention to
what God might be drawing your attention to through them. <o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><div><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Create your own ‘pilgrimage route’ around
your garden or a local outdoor space (or inside your home). Choose
particular places to stop and pray or think about particular concerns, and
mark them in some way (with chalk, or a rock or arrangement of sticks
etc). Invite your family or neighbours to try out your pilgrimage route.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><div><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Think about the people in your life who show
you something about God. You might like to look through photos to remind
you. Thank God for each person as you see their picture. Remember the
times you have spent with them, and the ways they have helped you to know
God. <o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div style="mso-element: footnote-list;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1" style="mso-element: footnote;">
<p class="MsoFootnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/hodge/Dropbox/COVID-19%20action%20planning/Church/Trees%20of%20Life/Weeks%20-%20completed/Trees%20of%20Life%20-%20Week%207%20(16-8-20).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" style="mso-footnote-id: ftn1;" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> <a href="https://www.hutton.ac.uk/news/protecting-britain%E2%80%99s-iconic-oak-trees-and-their-biodiversity">https://www.hutton.ac.uk/news/protecting-britain%E2%80%99s-iconic-oak-trees-and-their-biodiversity</a><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div><br />Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9106321650625619177.post-41890824845555184462020-08-04T06:57:00.006-07:002020-08-23T04:13:16.126-07:00Week 6: growing the Kingdom - 'fruit'<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">‘seeking justice, loving with
kindness,<br />
walking humbly with God’<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisnePPxMbrLq3PP_c5-nlVqRcSmkJOf4DlVSVnelubP1aAZw8TnnKGHT59RwpvcP6O1XdUIt9dGIMTmpId0x8UsVogeRRJrhsBeyJZ4VlCTn8iAo5mbbirMLBOJ6NuB-bUN4FYHRA0euo-/s1066/fruit.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="1066" height="342" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisnePPxMbrLq3PP_c5-nlVqRcSmkJOf4DlVSVnelubP1aAZw8TnnKGHT59RwpvcP6O1XdUIt9dGIMTmpId0x8UsVogeRRJrhsBeyJZ4VlCTn8iAo5mbbirMLBOJ6NuB-bUN4FYHRA0euo-/w512-h342/fruit.jpg" width="512" /></a></div><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;">You can LISTEN to this week's readings and reflections <a href="https://www.dropbox.com/s/829uxq07zmyc46o/Trees%20of%20Life%20Wk%206%20reflection.mp3?dl=0">here</a>.</p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Micah 6:8</span></b><span face="" style="background: white; color: black; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He has told you, O mortal, what is good;</span></span><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">and what does the </span></span><span class="small-caps"><span style="background: white; font-variant: small-caps;">Lord</span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;"> require of you</span></span><br />
<span class="text"><span style="background: white;">but to do justice, and to love
kindness,</span></span><br />
<span class="indent-1-breaks"><span style="background: white;"> </span></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white;">and to walk humbly with your God?</span></span></span><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Galatians
5:22-26<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">22 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">By
contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
generosity, faithfulness, <b><sup>23 </sup></b>gentleness, and self-control.
There is no law against such things. <b><sup>24 </sup></b>And those
who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires. <b><sup>25 </sup></b>If we live by the Spirit, let us also
be guided by the Spirit. <b><sup>26 </sup></b>Let us not become
conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.</span></span><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Matthew
6:28-33<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><b><sup><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">28 </span></sup></b></span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And why
do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow;
they neither toil nor spin, <b><sup>29 </sup></b>yet I tell you, even
Solomon in all his glory was not clothed like one of these. <b><sup>30 </sup></b>But
if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is
thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you—you of little
faith? <b><sup>31 </sup></b>Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What
will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear?’ <b><sup>32 </sup></b>For
it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your heavenly
Father knows that you need all these things. <b><sup>33 </sup></b>But
strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all
these things will be given to you as well.</span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A ‘cutting’ of tree wisdom</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Genny Tunbridge)</span></i><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">So much of what we enjoy
eating and drinking daily has come from trees – from apples and plums locally
to imported bananas and mangoes. A character in <i>The Overstory </i>by Richard
Powers, who has just bought an orange, a chocolate bar, and a cup of coffee,
reflects that these are “three priceless tree treasures”. Not just for humans
but for many birds, mammals and insects, fruit and nuts provide food necessary
for survival. In turn, the creatures that benefit from fruit are also helping
trees to reproduce. Trees rely on outside help to move their seed to where it
can grow – and different species have evolved a huge variety of ways to package
their seeds to take advantage of different kinds of help. Some use the wind to
scatter seed widely (very light seeds, without tasty sweet packaging), some
work with birds and mammals to move larger seeds a shorter distance from the
mother tree. Jays love acorns – they eat masses and bury more for later; the
ones they forget sprout into new oaks. Birds gorge on cherries and excrete the
pip – so the seed is distributed complete with fertilizer!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apple pips remain dormant until stomach acid
strips away their outer coating so they can grow. If all trees had the same
type of seed, all would be in competition and few would survive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The variety which we so enjoy is a result of
trees diversifying to use every possible niche, and exchanging gifts with other
creatures for mutual flourishing. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Introduction to the theme</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Al Barrett)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">This week, we come to the last of five aspects of ‘growing’ –
for the tree(s) that we’ve been thinking about, and for us as individuals, and
as a church community together – the ‘fruit’. It’s no coincidence we started
with the roots, and finish with the fruit. The roots are where any plant or
tree begins, deep in the soil. The fruit are, for many plants and trees, the
‘end product’ – at least as far as we humans are often concerned – fruit to
pick, and eat, and enjoy. But for a plant or tree, the fruit also take us back
to the beginning of the life cycle: they contain the seeds that, when they fall
to the ground, grow into new plants or trees themselves.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In the Bible, the image of ‘fruit’ comes up a lot. The three
passages we’ve chosen for this week are among many others that we could have
explored. In Matthew chapter 7, for example, Jesus warns us against so-called
‘prophets’ who come as ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing’, and then tells us (in
verses 16 to 20) that <i>we can judge the goodness of a tree by its fruit</i>:
not by its size, or how fast it’s growing – but by the quality of its fruit. In
Luke chapter 13 (verses 6 to 9), we hear Jesus, through the voice of a careful
gardener, urging <i>patience with apparently ‘fruitless’ trees</i>: sometimes
they (we?) just need a bit more digging, a bit more manure, and a bit more
time, to bear fruit. And among many places Psalm 1, verse 3, reminds us that no
tree gives fruit all of the time – it comes in the right <i>season</i> – and
other times of the year are times for rest and renewal.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">But what might ‘good fruit’ <i>look</i> like or <i>taste</i>
like? The passage from the Letter to the Ephesians that we’ve used here gives
us one vivid picture: the good fruit include ‘</span><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, generosity, faithful-ness, gentleness, and self-control’.
At first glance, these might sound like qualities of <i>individuals</i>, in our
interpersonal relationships – and obviously these are important. But they could
describe <i>communities</i> too – we want to be a church community that
embodies these values (e.g. our church mission statement here: ‘growing loving
community’ – which includes, we’ve said, the ‘good fruit’ of compassion,
generosity, trust, friendship and hope). And then, to stretch our horizons even
wider, the prophet Micah reminds us that good fruit must include ‘seeking <i>justice</i>’:
good fruit must be good not just for ‘us’ (whoever we include in that ‘us’),
they must be good for <i>everybody</i>.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If it’s beginning
to feel like the many different words to describe good fruit are raining down
on us (a bit like sitting under a tree full of ripe apples, that’s being shaken
by the wind!), then the bible focuses in on two words which sum up so much of
what we’re thinking about. One is the Hebrew word (used often in what we
sometimes call the ‘Old Testament’, or better, the ‘Hebrew Bible’) is the word <i>shalom</i>,
which (as we’ve encountered a few times already in these last weeks), means
peace and justice, healing and wellbeing, wholeness and integrity. The other is
a word that runs right through the whole of Scripture, and in at least 2 of our
readings today: the word <i>love</i>. Love God, love your neighbour – that’s
the heart of it, as Jesus reminds us often. And love is not only about our
personal and interpersonal relationships – it’s also about our political and
global relationships too. ‘Justice’, said French philosopher Simone Weil, is as
simple (and as hard) as treating every other created being as if they were our
beloved.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But with words
like these, we are reminded that these ‘good fruit’ aren’t just to be found
among Christians, and not just in our church community. We don’t have any kind
of monopoly on them! We discover such ‘good fruit’ all the time among our
neighbours, Christian, Muslim, and people of other faiths and no explicit
faith. That’s one of the most important things that our ‘Hodge Hill Unsung
Heroes’ events have celebrated, repeatedly, over the years. When we think this
week about ‘growing the Kingdom’, then, we should remember that it’s not the <i>church</i>
that makes the Kingdom grow – it’s <i>God</i> that makes the Kingdom grow, out
of control and all over the place (like the growth of the wild mustard seed
that we explored in Week 4).<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span class="text"><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">So if <i>we</i>
can’t do the growing of the good fruit, what <i>can</i> we get stuck into
doing? Firstly, we can look around for where fruit is growing, and <b>seek</b> them
out – within our church community, in our neighbourhoods, and in the wider
world. Secondly, when we discover good fruit, we can <b>enjoy</b> them: taste them,
be nourished by them, celebrate them, share them, and point others to where they
can be found. Thirdly, we can do what we can to <b>nurture</b> good fruit and
encourage them to continue to grow and flourish – in all our neighbours. And
fourthly, we can <b>root ourselves</b> as deeply as we can in those particular
patches of earth where we’ve found good fruit growing, and call those places
‘home’.</span></span><span style="background: white; color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Paying attention to the fruit of the Kingdom, then, brings us
full circle. We are ‘rooted and grounded in love’ (as we read in the letter to
the Ephesians in Week 2) precisely by seeking out love in the world, enjoy it
where we find it, and nurturing it in ourselves and others. The tree’s fruit
itself makes new life take root. As the prophet Micah puts it, growing the
fruit of the Kingdom is about <i>‘seeking justice, loving with kindness, and
walking humbly with God’</i>. The fruit of justice, loving-kindness and
humility are both our ‘destination’ (<i>what</i> we’re seeking out, working
towards, in our world) and also the ‘way’ (<i>how</i> we’re called to walk, and
live).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Penny Hall)<o:p></o:p></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Here is a story about a
little plum tree… A man had an idea that if lots of people planted fruit trees
in their front gardens or on common land then people who didn’t have fruit
trees or even gardens would be able to enjoy free fruit. He spoke to other
people in the community who also thought it was a good idea and they advised
him to speak to a local grant awarding body. He was awarded a small grant which
he used to buy lots of compost and small fruit trees and he set about planting
them all over the community. This is a true story and I am one of many people
who now have a little fruit tree growing in their front garden. Mine is a dwarf
Victoria plum tree.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Some people said it was
not a good idea to plant fruit trees in front gardens as they might be damaged
by passers-by and the fruits would be taken, leaving nothing for the
owners.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>However, the point is that we
actively want others to share the fruit. My hope is that my little plum tree
will bear fruit next year and lots of children on their way to and from school
will enjoy its fruits.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The fruits of the Spirit:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and
self-control, can be experienced in three ways. Firstly, by ourselves as
individuals; we can love ourselves, be at peace with ourselves and so on. We
can receive fruits from others by their acts of kindness, generosity etc.
Lastly, we can share the fruits with others by our own acts.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">While street connecting
in Hodge Hill, I have noticed that, where there is one person sharing the
fruits of the Spirit, being kind, generous and friendly, there are several
others doing the same. For instance where someone has started to pick up litter
around their road, other neighbours will join them until there is a regular
team of litter pickers. Other neighbours have started to look after the
communal garden, planting new plants, adding garden decorations, weeding, and
others have joined in. It is as though there is something about caring that is
catching. When I moved in to my new road last year, there was already a group
of friendly, generous neighbours who frequently leave gifts of food, chocolate,
books for my grandchildren and other delights on my doorstep and generally make
me feel welcomed into the neighbourhood.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I sometimes ask myself
‘who do we share these good fruits with?’. It is very easy to share fruits with
family, friends and kind neighbours, perhaps because it tends to be a two-way
process; you do a kindness for a friend and when able, they will return with a
kindness for you. But sometimes I wonder if we can be at risk of becoming a bit
restricted in who we share our fruits with. We might hand out our fruits to
special friends but not notice those on the edges. Perhaps not all neighbours
are as blessed as I have been. Perhaps those who do not appear so outgoing,
friendly or generous themselves are not used to receiving good fruits from
others.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As God’s kingdom is for
everyone, let’s share those fruits with everyone. Let’s notice and rejoice in
the sharing of the fruits in our neighbourhood and learn from those
examples.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But also, let’s notice the
newcomer, the stranger, the reserved person, the side-lined, and make sure they
have the best of God’s fruits as well. Let’s be kind and generous with the
stranger, patient with the slow person in front of us in the queue and gentle
with those we disagree with. Let’s have courage like the man who planted the
fruit trees. Let’s be the ones to take a risk and be first to reach out. Let’s
walk the way God intends for us and the seeds of new trees will be planted as
we go. Then there will be plenty of good fruit for everyone.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt 18pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Reflection</span></u></i></b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> (Mike Lynch)<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Today, we are looking at the fruit as part of
our Trees of Life series. It struck me that when Paul writes to the Galatians
he says the fruit of the Spirit <b><i>is</i></b> love, joy, peace etc and not
the fruit<b>s</b> (plural) of the Spirit <b><i>are</i></b>. So Paul’s
understanding is that the Spirit develops all nine fruits in the lives of every
Christian. I don’t know about you, and it might be my age, but I find
remembering long lists of things more difficult. We have been holding a family
quiz each week during lock down and one of the questions was, what are the
names of Snow White’s seven dwarves. Can you remember them all? (Answers at the bottom of this post.)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">With the fruit of the Spirit there are nine to
remember - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness,
gentleness and self-control. But thankfully the Spirit isn’t our quiz master
nor our manager who checks up on our progress at our quarterly evaluation
meetings. The Spirit works in and through us to develop all the fruit and
sometimes it is only by looking back and reflecting that we aware of growth and
the quiet actions of the Spirit in our lives. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">But, thinking about the analogy of fruit, in
nature, all the fruits have a season just by example there are the
predominantly summer fruits like strawberries and raspberries and as the year
moves towards autumn we have more blackberries and apples. It made me ask the
question is there a seasonality associated with the fruit of the Spirit and at
different times and stages of our lives are some fruit of the Spirit ‘in
season’?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">This thought of seasonality is picked up in
chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="chapter-1" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">For everything
there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><i><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a time to be born, and a time to die;<br />
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;<br />
a time to kill, and a time to heal;<br />
a time to break down, and a time to build up;<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><i><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a time to weep, and a time to laugh;<br />
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><i><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a time to throw away stones, and a time to gather
stones together;<br />
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;<br />
a time to seek, and a time to lose;<br />
a time to keep, and a time to throw away;<br />
a time to tear, and a time to sew;<br />
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><i><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">a time to love, and a time to hate;<br />
a time for war, and a time for peace.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt;"><i><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></i></p>
<p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Who would have
thought that the book of Ecclesiastes would pick up on social distancing? – a
time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing. I know that for many not
being able to hug has caused heart-ache but it will just be for a season.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">I thought of this
seasonality again when I read the Gospel reading from Matthew and the message
of do not worry. We are ordinary people living in extraordinary times and it is
really difficult not to worry. We worry for our nearest and dearest, we worry for
members of our families working in hospitals and care homes, we worry for
ourselves and every time we leave the house constantly weighing up the risks,
are we doing everything to keep safe and well? For me it made me reflect that,
perhaps, if there is a seasonality in the fruit of the Spirit then the fruit of
Peace may speak the most to us at this time. The world doesn’t offer us much
peace, because the world doesn’t know the One who is peace. But those of us who
have the fruit of the Spirit of peace growing within us can experience Christ’s
peace no matter what our circumstances or worries may be. Jesus is part of our
past, our present and our future and we can bring all our worries, fears and
concerns to him in prayer knowing that they are safe in his hands.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Jesus offers us two
ways to deal with worry the first is to seek first, to concentrate upon, the
kingdom of God. We know in our own lives how a great love can drive out every
other concern, inspire our work, intensify our studies and potentially dominate
our whole being, Jesus’ conviction is that worry is diminished when God becomes
the dominating power of our lives. If we start to worry actively seek his peace
and seek his kingdom. For those familiar with the hymn <i>Seek ye First the
Kingdom of God</i>, it might help you to sing aloud or hum along silently to
the words.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="line" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span face="" style="font-family: calibri, sans-serif; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></p>
<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="MsoNormalTable" style="border-collapse: collapse; mso-yfti-tbllook: 1184;">
<tbody><tr style="mso-yfti-firstrow: yes; mso-yfti-irow: 0;">
<td style="padding: 0cm;"></td>
<td style="padding: 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Seek ye first the kingdom of God / And His
righteousness; <br />
And all these things shall be added unto you. Hallelu, Hallelujah!<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 1;">
<td style="padding: 0cm;"></td>
<td style="padding: 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ask, and it shall be given unto you; Seek,
and you shall find. <br />
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. Hallelu, Hallelujah!<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
</td>
</tr>
<tr style="mso-yfti-irow: 2; mso-yfti-lastrow: yes;">
<td style="padding: 0cm;"></td>
<td style="padding: 0cm;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">We shall not live by bread alone, But by
every word<br />
that proceeds out from the mouth of God. Hallelu, Hallelujah!<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The second way to seek the fruit of
peace is to follow the Jewish saying, ‘Do not worry about tomorrow’s evils,
for you do not know what today will bring forth’. The advice is to handle the
demands of each day as it comes, without worrying about the unknown future
and the things that may never happen. But although the fruit of peace may be
in season the Holy Spirit continues to grow and develop the other 8 gifts
within us and we like any good gardener try to provide the right conditions
for that growth and the reading from Micah tells us what those conditions
are. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">He has told you, O mortal, what is
good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love
kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">5<sup>th</sup>
Gospel</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"> <i>(Joy
Curtis)<b><u><o:p></o:p></u></b></i></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">As I prepare for this 5<sup>th</sup>
Gospel, I recall when my son Matthew was at primary school, almost everything
he wrote had the title ‘My Story’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
is my story and my testimony based on growing the fruits of God’s Kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I wonder which fruits
spring to mind in God’s Kingdom, considering we are in the middle of Summer.
Would you think of seasonal fruits such as strawberries or pears?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You would not be wrong if you thought about
these, but these are material fruits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>The fruits mentioned in the Church’s Tree of Life and those in God’s
Kingdom will not have a best before or sell-by date and will not rot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These fruits are everlasting and
eternal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Growing the fruits of the
Kingdom is a metaphor for the conditions that must be fulfilled as a follower
of God. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In Matthew 7, Jesus says,
“By their fruits you shall know God’s followers” – with these conditions or
fruits, I am drawn closer to the Almighty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>These fruits, therefore, map out my life as a Christian and a servant of
God.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">During the height of the
Coronavirus pandemic, my neighbour was taken to hospital. Just before the
ambulance pulled out, I felt all sorts of emotions including grief, pain and
loss. I thought I would never again see my neighbour alive. The reason being,
she had Covid-19 symptoms, underlying health problems and was aged over
65.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The criteria for basically being a
‘goner’.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This means that if she had
deteriorated, she would not be resuscitated.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Her earthly life would have come to an end.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She has never believed in God and thought
everything to do with faith or religion was very much ‘clap-trap’ – her words
not mine. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I did not even bother to
think this was a person who did not believe in God. I just did what every good
Christian would have done, I found myself praying that she would make a speedy
recovery. Prayers were answered and my neighbour was discharged from hospital 3
weeks later but remains under lockdown. My continuing to pray for her, showing
her love, kindness and compassion without expecting anything back in return was
the order of the day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This lady has now
changed in thought, word and deed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She
is now at peace within herself, patiently reflecting and changing her thought
processes. I approached the situation in a non-judgemental manner with a
certain amount of fairness, gentleness, self-control and perseverance allowing
my neighbour to be herself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is very
humbling to see the change in her to the point where I am being asked to pray.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">1 Corinthians 12 tells us
that the body is made up of different parts and we all have gifts to perpetuate
God’s Kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is a similar
message regarding the fruits of the Kingdom. There are so many kinds of fruits,
but they are all equally capable of doing great things. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">It has given me so much
joy to see a relationship blossom through kindness, generosity, patience and
faithfulness. I can honestly say that I am trying to be one of these fruits to
continue growing God’s Kingdom.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It may
be difficult to tell which fruit I identify with, but God treats us all
equally.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Every fruit is capable of
growing God’s Kingdom; every fruit has its purpose.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Questions for reflection / discussion</span></u></i></b></span><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">As I read / listened to <i>the
readings and reflections</i> for this week…<o:p></o:p></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did I <b>notice</b>, or what particularly stood out for me?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
did they make me <b>wonder</b>, or what questions am I pondering?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 3pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">what
have they helped me <b>realise</b>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">is <span style="background: white; color: #201f1e;">there anything I want to <b>do </b>or<b>
change</b> in the light of this week's topic?</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">On this week’s theme –<i> growing the
Kingdom (‘fruit’):<o:p></o:p></i></span></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 18pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">In
what ways am I noticing God’s Kingdom growing during this time? In what ways am
I (or us as a church) involved in that?</span></span></p><p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 18pt 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0cm 35.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -17.85pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What
are the things that are <i>helping</i> me [or us] get involved with enjoying
and nurturing the Kingdom at the moment?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What
am I noticing at the moment that it would be good <i>for us, as a church
community, to nurture and develop</i>, in the coming months, to help us
continue to nurture God’s Kingdom?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">What
is not happening at the moment, that am I <i>missing</i>, that would usually
help me [or us] get involved with seeking, enjoying, nurturing and rooting
ourselves in God’s Kingdom?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p><br /></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><!--[if !supportLists]--><span style="font-family: Symbol; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "times new roman";">
</span></span></span><!--[endif]--><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Is
there anything that is not happening at the moment, that we have an opportunity
<i>to let go of</i>?<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0cm;"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><b><i><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Any other reflections…<o:p></o:p></span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk43723710;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">A prayer for this journey</span></u></i></b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">God our
Maker, Jesus our Grounding, Holy Spirit our Living Water,<br />
in you is our hope, in you is our life, in you we grow and flourish:<br />
in the changes, challenges and uncertainties of our world,<br />
help us to reach down deep, as we root our trust in you;<br />
help us to reach out wide,<br />
in loving connection with our neighbours near and far;<br />
and may we see and share your goodness<br />
as the life of your kingdom springs up in us, around us and beyond us.<br />
Amen.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="color: black; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/s1300/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1300" height="86" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiDXtOatzokGoTOTNZj1tBB5RLCtwIkhAZ2LBHsn1DxG5pKZu0lcQ3xFsS4jQZ9ighMRtiszeHoXSib7Hv3d-IE8iDPHN1eujNQExr6mnXFck6CiOEt2leE7biSNuhdhaZUXPCWw6xHRp8/w86-h86/tree+clipart+B%2526W.jpg" width="86" /></a></i></div><p></p><p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin: 0cm 0cm 6pt 18pt; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><i><u><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Activities
/ conversation-starters with young (and not-so-young!) people<o:p></o:p></span></u></i></b></p>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">If you are
able to go out for a walk, look for fruit and berries on the plants and
trees. How many types can you find? <b><u>REMEMBER</u></b>: not all fruits
are edible! But if you do find some that you are confident it’s ok to eat
– blackberries are probably the most likely type at this time of year –
pick some and eat them, noticing the colour, taste and texture.</span></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">At home, use
some fruit to make something to eat or drink. You could try making a
smoothie, or look up a recipe which includes a type of fruit you have got.
<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Today, we are
thinking about God’s kingdom. When you picture God’s kingdom, what is it
like? Try to come up with a list of adjectives (describing words) which
you think describe God’s kingdom. Now look at your adjectives – can you
think of things, people, events or places which could also be described
using some of those words? Maybe these are some of the signs of God’s
kingdom…<o:p></o:p></span></li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">You could try
using some of your </span>adjectives to write a poem about God’s kingdom, or as
inspiration for a picture or another type of art showing what God’s
kingdom is like.</li></ul><div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 0cm; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;">Pray for the
world to become more like God’s kingdom. You might like to try matching
your adjectives to situations which need to become more like that – e.g.
matching ‘peaceful’ to somewhere there is war or fighting, to pray for
that place to<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>become more peaceful.
<o:p></o:p></span></li>
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">(* the 7 Dwarves are Sneezy, Grumpy, Bashful,
Happy, Dopey, Sleepy and Doc!)</span></p>Revd Al Barretthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04007631614710782918noreply@blogger.com0