sustain:if:able kiwi

urban Easter prayer

This Easter, we are gathering with our neighbouring Baptist church. They are struggling and this Easter could literally be a story of death for them. Equally, we are talking with them about partnership and some new forms of church, so this Easter could equally be a story of life.

There’s not much point talking if we first can’t worship together. So Easter Friday is at their place and Easter Sunday at ours, with both pastoral teams planning both services together and sharing bits at each place.

As part of that, we wanted some way to pray in our shared life and our shared mission. So we grabbed a wooden cross and took photos of it at various geographic landmarks between the two buildings – construction site, new Police station, fastfood outlet, well-known development currently growing weeds, local pub facing council housing and a sports stadium. Six slides became a visual backdrop – good-friday-urban-prayermed (click to move through each slide)

Some hard work followed, research into the lives, history and narratives that shape each place and then the seeking to weave these narratives into the events of Easter Thursday and Friday, in the form of a urban Easter prayer. This is the result – our Easter prayer as we consider the cross in our Christ’s church city streets.

A: Jesus, On Easter Thursday,
you prayed for us, you sweated drops of blood for your church
prepared yourself to be dragged from prison to passion, from trial to tribulation

B: Jesus, On Easter Friday
you carried your cross,
you walked through your city streets,
you were willing to love your neighbours, criminals to your left, crucifiers to your right

A: Jesus, This Easter, show us what it means to pray,
to weep for your church and Christ’s church
to carry our cross, to walk our city streets,
to love our neighbours, our communities from Colombo Street to Brougham Village

B: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours,
shopkeepers building right beside us at Beckenham Baptist
A: And so we remember our neighbours
we pray God’s peace on those who shop and those who build
we pray wisdom on those who plan our cities
and smooth process for those who seek consent
Help us live your cross in our communities this Easter

B: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours
the new police station being built
A: And so we remember our neighbours
we pray integrity for our police
we pray restoration for those criminals behind bars
B: We pray redemption for their victims,
grace for those who suffer. And justice in our courts,
Help us walk your cross with our neighbours this Easter

A: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours. McDonalds and so many fast food outlets stretched down Colombo St
B: And so we pray for those who flip burgers and fry fries
for those seeking work in a credit crunch
for those who fear the loss of their daily bread
A: Lord, forgive us our fast food, instant takeway attitudes
Jesus, may our neighbours find You as their daily bread this Easter

B: Jesus, (click), these are our neighbours, developers at Sydenham Central
David Henderson who risked. And the Council who resurrected
Help us show your cross to our neighbours, rich and poor, this Easter

A: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours
those who live in council housing in Brougham Village
B: We pray protection for the vulnerable
safety for the easy led, deliverance for those addicted
freedom for those enslaved by debt and habit
Help us carry your cross to our neighbours, rich and poor, this Easter

A: Jesus, (click) these are our neighbours
the Canterbury crowds, who walk to AMI Stadium,
cheering for winners, jeering for losers
B: Jesus help us look at the crowds as you looked at the crowds,
To feel your compassion for the harrassed and helpless
To weep for your city this Easter,

finding God with flax as Easter spirituality

For the last 10 years, the Easter Journey, has been a feature of ministry at Opawa. However, for the last year or so, there has been a growing feeling that it is time for something new to emerge. Opawa is changing and so are Pete and Joyce. While the Journey has been a tremendous blessing, we have to be sensitive to the moving, changing winds of the Spirit. Too often, good things for a season become institutions the church feels compelled to keep propping up. Letting things go is an essential Christian discipline.

To help us let go, and to start the process of dreaming again, we are starting with an Easter Saturday day of paper making. April 11, 9:45 am for coffee. Bring lunch to share. Together we will turn flax into paper, both for individual journals and for use in the church at Pentecost.

Why paper making? Well this is what I said on radio recently. (more…)

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:

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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 …

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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.