sustain:if:able kiwi

public kiwi mission: carols by glowstick

Some churches use public peace labyrinths. Some use controversial billboards. Some use carols, done well – high quality musicians; high quality graphics; quality networking to gain sponsorship from Auckland City Council, Vector Arena, DDB Capital; preaching; carols; prayer; offering.

= 6,000 people in attendance. For a writeup, go here.

advent blessings bannering: from process to prayer

A fabric artist, visiting from another city, was just in the auditorium admiring our banners. It’s neat to have people in the church for “creativity’s sake”. All four banners are now up, and looking fine.

(poor shot, but it gives you some idea of the height, scope and colours.) The process is pretty team-like

• Lynne did the design on publisher
• emailed it to Lawence, who as an engineer works for a firm that has a photocopier that prints to A0
• who gives the black and white banners to Carolyn and Jan, who add pastels
• who gives them to Pete, who hangs them.

Cost. $16! Plus creative time. The response has been simply excellent and it’s given some real shape and energy to our Advent.

My spiritual director challenged me to weave the four Advent blessings into the lighting of the Advent candles. So here’s version 1.

In Numbers, Old
God faces
failed Aaron, and wrestling Jacob
shines grace
ALL: Old to New, in Jesus, come

In Corinthians, New
as Spirit waters prayerless,
hard edged prisons, now new,
graced spaces
ALL: Old to New, in Jesus, come

In Jude, future
face forward
new Adam builds blushing bride
ALL: Old to New, in Jesus, come

In Luke, Mary giggles – yes
Elizabeth embraces – out of bounds no
as Jesus moves heaven to earth
ALL: Old to New, in Jesus, come

Advent blessings – four; we await the face of God in Christ
ALL: Old to New, in Jesus, we say welcome

So there we are. I suspect a totally unique approach to Advent!

Salvation as eschatology: mixing redemption, Advent, eschatology, Irenaus

The Bible text is Jude 24, 25

And now to him who can keep you on your feet, standing tall in his bright presence, fresh and celebrating—to our one God, our only Savior, through Jesus Christ, our Master, be glory, majesty, strength, and rule before all time, and now, and to the end of all time. Yes.

Which generated the following reflection: a move between salvation, Advent, eschatology and Irenaeus. Complete with wedding vows. Perhaps not your standard evangelical gospel presentation. But surely Biblical, and perhaps thoughtfully, evocatively, transformative (more…)

Christmas Journey floats in Santa Parade

The Christmas journey is up in Latimer Square, Christchurch, again this year. About 1,000 bales of hay are used to create a labyrinth, in which various stations reflecting on peace are staged. Latimer Square is a major thoroughfare in the central city, and a redlight area at night, so it’s a neat place to offer Christian spiritual practice.

To help with promotion, the Journey placed a float in the citywide Santa Parade. The sides are painted by a local community youth trust. The four towers, with Advent words are set in the four corners. The centre peace is a laminated list of names from the phone book, with Pentecost symbols, to denote the Spirit at the Anunciation.

From the rear, a grassed area is visible, on which are stuck some “stick people” (driftwood, with eyes). These are given at the start of the labyrinth and people are invited to place them at the central stable area. Over 2,500 of these stick people were given out at the Santa parade, with the hope they will bring them to the labyrinth when it opens just before Christmas.

The Christmas journey represents one of the key evolutions in “emerging church” in the last 5 years – that of large scale outdoor creative engagement. The creativity and contextuality often used to re-frame worship has now been focused on the public square, to offer spiritual practice outside the church. These types of initiative are important in keeping alive the Christmas story, in a society where the Christian story is less known. The downside is that they are extremely labour intensive and can rely on the creativity of a few. They also make problematic the relationship between individualised experience and Christian community.

an advent blessing: some great u2 theology

Following posts on Advent creative prayers stations and Advent creative spirituality2go home prayer activities, here’s an Advent blessing I’m pondering.

It’s not mine. It’s from Bono. At the end of City of Blinding lights, live streamed on the internet from Los Angeles, he ad libbed a new ending:

Blessings, not just for the ones who kneel
Luckily, luckily
We don’t believe in luck.
Grace abounds.
Grace abounds.

Seems to me to be great theology and particularly suitable for Advent. It was so easy for Israel to think they were the centre of God’s world. And so easy for the church and Christians to think today they are the centre of God’s world. But as we are reminded in Psalm 67: 1-2
May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face shine upon us,
that your ways may be known on earth, 
your salvation among all nations.

God’s face shines most fully both on Jesus, and in Jesus. A message not just for the lucky ones, but for all upon whom God’s grace abounds.

advent blessings as spirituality to go

Following on from some excellent feedback on some advent creative prayer stations, here are four more, that could easily be home-based, during the week Advent activities. Again they sync with our Advent 2009 theme of blessings.

ADVENT ONE: Choose white candle. Mark 24 notches in it. On a piece of paper, or in your journal, write the names of 24 people or places you want God to bless this Advent. Burn one segment a day.

ADVENT TWO:Each day this week, take a can of food out of your pantry. Read the labels. Consider who made it. What will Christmas be like for them? This Advent, what might it mean for you to join with Christians who pray the Lord’s Prayer: “Give us this day our daily bread.”

ADVENT THREE: Make a list of your enemies. It might be someone who has hurt you and it still gets to you. It might be someone in the Christian community you disagree with, or a political opponent or someone you feel ripped you off. Place their names carefully in a blessing bowl, as you do imagining that you are letting them go by placing them in God’s hands.

ADVENT FOUR: Take some time to consider joy this week. Start by finding some bubbles. (If you don’t know, ask a child). Use the bubbles to pray. What words describe their shape, their colour, their flight? Blow these prayers on yourself. Blow them on the places you sleep and eat. Blow them on your pets. Be bold and blow them down your street.

advent blessings creative prayer stations

Updated: based on the interest in this post, I’ve added another post with four more creative advent ideas, this time more do at home, type stations.

We kicked off Advent at Opawa today. Someone noted how much work is involved. “Too right,” is my response. It’s like adding a tablecloth, some flowers and mood music to an everyday meal. It draws attention to the church seasons and gives distinctive shape to the church year. It’s an essential spiritual practice to the Christmas consumerist frenzy.

This year we are tracing Incarnational themes through four church blessings/benedictions. The hope is also to add some content to what we hear regularly as church services end, plus ensure a real God focus as I conclude my ministry at Opawa.

Alongside the first Advent banner (which looks stunning against the black background curtains), three “blessing” stations were presented. Physically, they are marked with black wooden stands, draped in cloth. They will be with us for the weeks of Advent, with the “blessing” texts changed each week.

Scriptural prayer: (Spark from here) Consider the words from Numbers 6:24-27. What strikes you? What questions would you like to ask the writer? In the white space, around the words, write or draw your comments and questions.

Intercession bowl: Write or draw the names of people and places you want to see blessed this Christmas. Place them in the bowl.

Fridge magnet prayers: (Spark from here) The Bible is written in Hebrew and Greek. As words are translated, they take on different shades of meaning. This provides an opportunity for prayer and reflection. First, consider words of similar meaning.

(spread on table — lord/protector/saviour/redeemer/provider/the/and/you/us/his/her/with/in/be/bless/benedict/kiss/impart/watch/guard/keep/strengthen/sustain/protect/shine/glow/highlight/enlighten/illuminate/magnify/reflect/gracious/kind/merciful/give favour/hug/lift up/hold/extend/face/peace/shalom/tranquility/whole of life)

Second, arrange the words into your prayer of blessing. When you are satisfied with your work, write your prayer in the Advent journal. Please note that by writing out your prayer, we are asking your permission to display it publicly, perhaps on the church website or projected at a service or in an outside art installation.

So here are three of the “fridge magnet” blessings. (more…)

advent blessings: worship 2 go 2009 resource

These are a draft copy of our 2009 Advent resources. It marks a different Advent approach. Rather than journey with either Christmas art (and copyright issues) or Lukan story or the Old Testament prophecies, it takes the theme of blessings.

Specifically, four blessings – Numbers 6:23ff, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Jude, Luke 1:42. Each blessing is also an ending, and so as the year ends, what does it mean for Christmas to be about blessings. Each with a reflection, an invitation to consider blessings of God and faith embodied. Each with suggestions for practical blessing to do during the week. A spirituality2go resource.

The art work is done to include the possibility of turning the cards into banners. This allows Sunday worship to interface with the cards. We are also working on a video, to be played in and around the blessings.

They go to the printers on Friday 20 November, 3 days away. So if you want to to share the “blessings” of shared costs, ie piggyback, you have 3 days to let us know. $2/set of 4, plus postage and packaging.

a wilderness faith

Update: I think this sermon has roots in this reflection I wrote in 2005 – on the place of wilderness faith for the emerging church.

I don’t normally put up sermons here, both due to time constraints and the fact that sermons are a spoken, not a written encounter.

(Taken by Mike Bischoff here)

But there’s always a time to break a rule. Also because this is the sermon I would have liked to preach to frame a “wilderness spirituality2go” web-project I designed last year. Everyone was given a rock, and this was used at the end, by way of prayerful mediation. So with a few edits, here is a reflection on Mark 1:2-13 and the need for wilderness in spirituality.

(more…)

stars and Christianity

We’ve had a few days break as a family, which included an evening star-gazing at Mt John, Tekapo. It was chosen as one of the best places in the Southern Hemisphere to launch astronomy research, became a University research centre and is now open to the public.

It was a fantastic experience, a warm nite, soft cafe light, expert guidance and insight into a vast space. Sometimes the vastness of space freaks me, but this evoked a deep sense of peace.

And it got me thinking about the essential role of star gazing in Christian history. Just a few examples, and there are surely more …
: Abraham who found his future written in the stars
: Magi who followed the stars. As I have written here: For a Jew, following stars was idol worship. And so by including magi, Matthew is telling us that all sorts of people can seek Jesus, and they are not always from folks we’d prefer. That Jesus is not just Savior of his Israel! But he’s the saviour of all people.
: passages in the book of Revelation, in which Jesus is the morning star, and if I remember my theological education, Revelation does engage with the signs of the Zodiac.

I wonder what Christianity misses if we neglect the stars and what it might mean to recapture them? Worship wrapped in warm blankets outdoors with hot chocolate?

girl in gaza as contemporary epiphany icon?

Random swirl of connections today:

Lectionary reading = Genesis 12. Abram sent by God to a new land, in which Canaanites are already present. Read the text – verse 6. Nation of Israel and God’s people, are expected to live among cultures and people already present, already unlike them. In other words, Gaza needs to exist alongside Israel. This does not legitimate rockets or bombings or human shields, but nor does it permit a theology in which blessedness comes at the expense of anOther. This has huge implications for the way we preach and live the gospel of Jesus – that we have to have a theology which includes the option of people having different primary narratives. (Another piece of sustainable spirituality for me, a faith that lives within plurality)

Contemporary advent icon = made out of Christmas advertising, 1/4 created each week. “An artist in the community traced the image onto poster board indicating what color should go in each shape. People ages 6-65 cut out the right color from the ads and glued it in the space.”

here. I love the way it mixes initial creative skill with community participation, and the subversiveness of using Christmas advertising.

Gaza today = the icon is in an ancient style. So what, would happen if the icon was in fact titled “Girl from Gaza” (which Mary sort of, almost was) and sketched from a contemporary picture, say this …

or “Gaza refugee escaping to Egypt”, like here, which is the Epiphany narrative?

Random linkage? Or is that by keeping our faith ancient, we are in fact closing our eyes to the horror of what it would have been like for Mary to run in fear from the steel blades of soldiers sent from Jerusalem? Why, oh why, do we construct faith systems that can in fact be used to legitimate the suffering of the innocent?

merry Christmas

it just keeps on raining
veiled tears for the virgin’s birth

… They sold me a dream of Christmas, they sold me a silent night, they sold me a fairy story
but I believe in the Israelite.

nice! may this Christmas serve to sustain your belief in the Israelite,

and God giggled

A Christmas story. I’m not sure it’s got anything directly to do with Christmas, but it’s a great story.

A few weeks ago our 11 year old suggested that this year the Taylor family not buy a pine Christmas tree. Instead, we dig out and put up the old plastic one that lives in the garage. And that the money we save, we give to people in need.

This provoked a good deal of family discussion and weighing of priorities and deciding who we’d give the saved money to.

That was a week ago. Yesterday, the kids were off with grandparents and Lynne and I were driving down the road. As we drove past the local Anglican church, we see a sign “Free. Please take me” attached to a Christmas tree.

And we look at each other. And giggle in disbelief. And stop and take the tree home. And a real life pine tree now sits in our lounge room.

Not sure it’s got anything directly to do with Christmas, but it’s a great story to be part of. Our kids have just been part of giving, only to see God give back.

DIY Advent

At Opawa, we’re using Si Smith’s Advent figures (downloadable from Proost). They’ve been quite a hit, with all sorts of people connecting in various ways and a lot of joy being had as families and individuals make them. Some are even taking their (A4) size figures to work or in their cars.

We’ve blown up onto A0 paper a set for church. They stand about 50 cm high and each week we add 7 more, placing them around the Christmas tree and telling the story of how they fit into the Christmas countdown. Closer to Christmas, they’ll become part of the Great Opawa Christmas Countdown Treasure Hunt, adopted by various families, needing to be discovered in exchange for a Christmas carol or two!