e~mergent kiwi

faithful imaginative interpretation

I am starting a series on Deuteronomy. I have been struck by how this is a book for people in the midst of change, written as a guide for the whole of life. I love Brueggemann's phrase: faithful imaginative interpretation

It fits so well with part of the welcome to membership prayer we pray at Opawa.
As your disciples may we know the freedom to move into the unknown and the untried,
To see the opportunities of the new day,
And to serve our present age with compassion, imagination, and courage. (Taken from Terry Falla's, Be Our Freedom Lord).

Anyhow, inspired by faithful imaginative interpretation, I thought it would be Biblically fun and coherent if I could weave Moses benedictions in Deuteronomy 32 into the order of service. So here's my faithful imaginative interpretation of the blessing of Joseph (v. 13-16).

May you be blessed by God:
Blessed with sleep to wake refreshed in each morning
Blessed with a work-life balance that keeps you energised into the evening
Blessed with the sun to warm you on cold days
Blessed with star glimpses that open your mouth in wonder
Blessed with moments to lift up your eyes to the Port Hills
Blessed with all the best from Earth's good gifts,
Blessed with the smile from God’s talking and God’s presence.

the work of God in place and space

in preparing to pray tomorrow, I started to reflect on how our church buildings have been used in the past week:

We take up our offering glad of good gifts,
glad of the actions of God through our work this week

And so O God of place and space,
in our giving, we are joining with your work in and about this church. Amen

If you found this prayer helpful, other prayers I have written for public worship are here

turn this post into a prayer

I needed this today: a post written by the female emergentkiwi, who is undertaking a most excellent spiritual discipline, that of paying attention to God's world by taking a photo a day for a month. Anyhow, here is the post that I am turning into a prayer:

Piano tuners must have the awesome ability
to hear what is becoming, not just what is.
To listen and tune for the future
and not be put off by the current dischord.
A useful skill for anyone
who works with people and things
that are less than perfect
and yet capable of more.

And here is the picture:

Prayer for creative workers

As a church, we try to pray monthly for some dimension of people's work lives. This week we decided to pray for creative workers. We rang and interviewed about 10 people around Opawa, asking them questions like: how do you find satisfaction in your creative work; do you see this as being a dimension of your Christian life. If yes, how?; what could we pray for people who have a creative outlet like yourself. We then asked them to bring something of their “creative work” to display as part of the service.

For Sunday, I then wrote the following prayer:

Introduction:
Today we are surrounded by creativity. We have doves from Pentecost 07, Tiles at back from Pentecost 06, Painted tiles from Pentecost 05.

The first mention of the Spirit in the Bible is in relation to creativity, in Genesis 1: In the beginning God created. The earth was barren and dark; and the Spirit of God was moving over the water. The second mention of the Spirit in the Bible is also in relation to creativity, in Exodus 35: God had chosen two people, Bezalel and Oholiab, and filled them with the Spirit, to be a skilled and creative crafters of objects of art with gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood.

As a church, we try to pray monthly for some dimension of people’s work lives. We ring them and interview them and ask them to bring something from their work. So this month, we are praying for creative people;

Creator God,
Who gave us your creative Spirit,
As we take up this offering, it is a giving of our time and our talents
And so we thankyou for the time and talents of the creative and crafty people in our lives. For Pentecost art, for our musicians and singers, kids and adult, who week by week lead us
For crafty people like Ann and Deirdre
Andy and Jason who cut video
Kathryn and Michial who paint
Peter and Joyce who make art installations,
Gay and Ruth and Steve and Jannette who craft words
We thankyou for these people and for all creative people we know,
We thankyou for the gifts of their lives,
for the way they express the Creative God,
remind us of God’s vibrant colours and God’s attention to beauty,

Thankyou for the way that creativity is a gift, the way a card or a video loop or a well chosen word can give joy and insight,

Thankyou for way that this church - through Easter and Christmas Journey, through Pentecost festival, through Advent art postcards, through music on Sundays - in so many ways nourishes art and creativity. Spirit of God, continue to nourish our creativity I pray,

Creative God, forgive us for the times when we ignore the creativity in our everyday lives, the way we cook and walk and park and dress, when we say "oh, I'm not creative" and in doing so, deny that we are made in the image of the Creator God,

Creative God, you made us all creative,
Give us the courage to take risks, and reveal our creative talents
Help us protect the time and space to be creative
Give stamina and stickability,

God, may our work and the work of this offering, always point to you, the Creator, and never to the Created

This we pray in the name of the One who admired the Creativity of Creation, Amen.

the politics of palm sunday

Palm Sunday and
Jesus enters the city
A hot bed of religious fervour and zealous passion

Some wanted him dead
Some wanted him to take up arms against the oppressor
Some simply wanted a son
alive
once the shouting was over

Jesus what if you were mis-
under-
misquoted, stood?
shot with words
manipu
lated,
riddled with emotion
domesticated,
to a dominant agenda

Jesus give me the courage to keep saying yes
to your call
and your Kingdom
no matter how many people shout
wave, holler

If this prayer means something to you, or you would like to pray it for someone, feel free to leave your initials in the comments.

prayer of formation

Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
Dirt to dirt and Mud to mud

Amen

Written for espresso church community last nite.

prayer for possessions

I quite like writing prayers for our Sunday morning worship. The writer in me enjoys the crafting, the theologian in me enjoys the thinking. So I'm going to add a new category to the blog; called Praying the church year. The prayers are uniquely contextual to what is happening at Opawa, but if you are interested here is a prayer for a church, with some theological reflection on money and possessions, the week after Pentecost ...

Living God,
Creator of the world,
Redeemer, sharing love with people and planet,
Spirit of Life.

We celebrate Pentecost,
Spirit not for special people,
But your Spirit for all,
Tongues heard not in 1 language
But in many languages, your words fresh for all cultures,

Living God,
We are challenged by Pentecost
Spirit not inside the walls of the church,
But outside, visible to the watching community,

Living God,
We are challenged by Pentecost,
Spirit not just spiritual,
Spirit causing possessions to be shared in Acts 2,
Causing fields to be sold for the common Kingdom in Acts 4,
Demanding honesty from Annias and Sapphira in Acts 5,
Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
There is money shared between rich and poor,

And so we stand, Offering in hand,
Help us to be generous with your gifts,
Honest to you with our buying and selling,
Free with the loan of your financial resources.

We pray this in the name of the Life-giving God, Amen

Prayer for financial times

I wrote this prayer today, mixing some Incarnational theology with the collecting of a church offering.

God, you took a risk,
In giving Jesus as a baby.
What if he was misunderstood, misquoted, mistreated?

God, you took a risk
In giving us dreams and visions
What if we deny our gifts, hoard our gifts, compound our private interest?

God, you took a risk
In giving us this earth
What if we pollute it, exploit it, attack each other?

God with this offering we say Yes.
Yes, we participate in your risk
Yes, we give ourselves - our time, our talents - away,
Yes, we care for our people, planet and place.

We pray, we hope,
In the name of the one who took the first risk,
Amen.