Christmas Day

People say that there won't be many about Christmas Day

The night before with our B@tCH congregation the hall was full and a great atmosphere. Today we followed on.

- New Zealand on holiday. But we were jammed (nearly) as good as any other Sunday!

Had a BBQ out up front and we took the service selected off the BBQ at random(people took the tongs and came and took something off. Worked really well. In fact - a young mother ended up reading Luke 2:1-15 Near the close she was a little in tears overcome with reading how Mary pondered these things in her heart deeply. Her child only 3 weeks old and all that the birth meant and the child was to the her and the family. She shared why and it has spoken deeply to many in thier own reflections - indeed, a number who were only there that day! What a God given blessing her tears and story were amidst the celebrations of Jesus birth. It said it all.

Shalom

Advent Shed

I recently came across the art of Nicholas Mynheer, whose work is iconographic in what strikes me as having a simplicity, yet is very evocative and inviting. Consequently, in preparations for something else and beginning to refelct on this artists amazing work I have tried my own version on our Advent Shed. (See below and slideshow opposite) This is - 'Micah and the Bethlehem event- after Mynheer.'

The figure calling into the darkness is Micah, the prophet, sounding a wake-up call to the people to the God who is 'Second -to- None.' He points to a scene with Mary and Joesph in Beth-lehem overlooked by an angelic figure. The side you can't see has 3 red gift boxes and the words from Micah 6 v8 'Do Justice, love kindness and walk humbly with your God.'

Through Advent we will be exploring the prophetic message - 'WHO IS AS GOD?" - and the incarnation as a word for us today! The Shed is a simple presence to the traffic that flows steadily past - postcards have also been run and sent out and available.

Restful Restlessness

A long break away from this blog, but there are priorities in ministry from the pastoral to the directional aspects of the ministry and mission we are in. The past few months have invovled a restful restlessness, and my seeking to balance things.

Lots of actual encouragements along the way and thankful to be sharing so much with the ministry team and the leaders here. They've done heaps and we have kept our mission moving ahead. Indeed, there is a liberty among people that is starting to come andf the creativity of the Spirit through this. We experienced a turning point this year back in May and we've agreed to fcus upon 'practices' rather than burnout on huge goals. Been doing much reflecting and planning for Advent (more later), for CAim congregation, for setting up a retreat at Roslyn for a pilot of people to reflect and learn something of church plant. So already looking forward to these and other things on the cards.

Finally, art.... I had 3 great weeks refreshing holiday space too in Sept/October. I managed to finish some paintings and work on others. A sample are on the slideshow now on my blog.

Power of Art - Picasso

It strikes me that in the likes of Picasso through the development of his own art, we come through so muych 'disorientation' and wrestling in life, such as we find written and expressed in the psalms. I was intrigued by the ways in which he almost shunned anything political and yet in time came to gather up so much of his own 'nightmare scenes' with that of the world stage of the time. The way he expressed this was shown in several ways, but Schama uses Guernica, after the little town bombed and devastated. The painting below is the result. (from his surrealist period)

Schama states,

"This is the reason why the painting has such an impact. Instead of a laboured literal commentary on German warplanes, Basque civilians and incendiary bombs, Picasso connects with our worst nightmares. He's saying here's where the world's horror comes from; the dark pit of our psyche."

This picture remains a powerful political artwork against such attrocities, it is a visual 'lament' really that lingers and echoes on into our day.

Reflecting on Picasso's image alongside Lamentations 3 speaks powerfully...

I'm the man who has seen trouble, trouble coming from the lash of God's anger. 2 He took me by the hand and walked me into pitch-black darkness. 3 Yes, he's given me the back of his hand over and over and over again. 4 He turned me into a scarecrow of skin and bones, then broke the bones. 5 He hemmed me in, ganged up on me, poured on the trouble and hard times. 6 He locked me up in deep darkness, like a corpse nailed inside a coffin. 7 He shuts me in so I'll never get out, manacles my hands, shackles my feet. 8 Even when I cry out and plead for help, he locks up my prayers and throws away the key. 9 He sets up blockades with quarried limestone. He's got me cornered. 10 He's a prowling bear tracking me down, a lion in hiding ready to pounce. 11 He knocked me from the path and ripped me to pieces. When he finished, there was nothing left of me. 12 He took out his bow and arrows and used me for target practice. 13 He shot me in the stomach with arrows from his quiver. 14 Everyone took me for a joke, made me the butt of their mocking ballads. 15 He forced rotten, stinking food down my throat, bloated me with vile drinks. 16 He ground my face into the gravel. He pounded me into the mud. 17 I gave up on life altogether. I've forgotten what the good life is like. 18 I said to myself, "This is it. I'm finished. God is a lost cause." It's a Good Thing to Hope for Help from God 19 I'll never forget the trouble, the utter lostness, the taste of ashes, the poison I've swallowed. 20 I remember it all - oh, how well I remember - the feeling of hitting the bottom.
21 But there's one other thing I remember, and remembering, I keep a grip on hope: 22 God's loyal love couldn't have run out, his merciful love couldn't have dried up. 23 They're created new every morning. How great your faithfulness! 24 I'm sticking with God (I say it over and over). He's all I've got left. 25 God proves to be good to the man who passionately waits, to the woman who diligently seeks. 26 It's a good thing to quietly hope, quietly hope for help from God. 27 It's a good thing when you're young to stick it out through the hard times. 28 When life is heavy and hard to take, go off by yourself. Enter the silence. 29 Bow in prayer. Don't ask questions: Wait for hope to appear. 30 Don't run from trouble. Take it full-face. The "worst" is never the worst. 31 Why? Because the Master won't ever walk out and fail to return. 32 If he works severely, he also works tenderly. His stockpiles of loyal love are immense. 33 He takes no pleasure in making life hard, in throwing roadblocks in the way: 34 Stomping down hard on luckless prisoners, 35 Refusing justice to victims in the court of High God, 36 Tampering with evidence - the Master does not approve of such things. God Speaks Both Good Things and Hard Things into Being

Power of Art - Van Gogh

Week 3- and it was Van Gogh. The story of his life is powerful and tragic. Indeed, his own life a wrestling of faith, evangleism and the descent into the raw fabric of life among those 'outcast' and in the gutter. He may have been no preacher, but through the torment of the life communicated in his art there is meaning conveyed. I am no art critic, but I stand amazed and in awe at the shift from the darkness of the potato eaters to the transformed and brilliantly colourful world of his later works.

See here the Wheatfield with Crows(1890)

Schama says, "His art would reclaim what had once belonged to religion - consolation for our mortality through the relish of the gift of life. It wasn't the art crowd he was after; he wanted was to open the eyes and the hearts of everyone who saw his paintings. I feel he got what he wanted. So what are we looking at with this painting? There’s suffocation, but elation too. The crows might be coming at us, but equally they might be flying away, demons gone as we immerse ourselves in the power of nature. It's a massive wall of writhing brilliant paint, in which the colour itself seems to tremble and pulse and sway."

What intrigues me is wha must have been going on in his head. The tensions of the grind and brokenness of his life and that of others he had immersed himself in and yet this wonderful artistic genius that had him paint a painting a day at one stage, the rapid energy that poured out of him and generated such artworks and yet drained him of his very life too.

Recently we reflected upon Psalm 8 at the Caim readings. As I look at van Gogh's art here it comes to mind:

PSALM 8
1 God, brilliant Lord, yours is a household name. 2 Nursing infants gurgle choruses about you; toddlers shout the songs That drown out enemy talk, and silence atheist babble.
3 I look up at your macro-skies, dark and enormous, your handmade sky-jewelry, Moon and stars mounted in their settings. 4 Then I look at my micro-self and wonder, Why do you bother with us? Why take a second look our way? 5 Yet we've so narrowly missed being gods, bright with Eden's dawn light. 6 You put us in charge of your handcrafted world, repeated to us your Genesis-charge, 7 Made us lords of sheep and cattle, even animals out in the wild, 8 Birds flying and fish swimming, whales singing in the ocean deeps. 9 God, brilliant Lord, your name echoes around the world.

Power of Art - Rembrandt

Week 2 of Simon Scama's Power of art explored Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 - 1669)

A man of humble birth who came to know the good life basically. Sounds like he and his rich wife could 'shop to you drop'. Amazing portraits and yet after the death of hsi wife his paitings begin to change from the very finished dutch style to a rougher 'incompleteness' is suggested, but et how powerful. He also seems to have been an artist who knew what the people wanted and could provide it in his art. The painting Schama focussed upon was one destoned for the City Chambers of Amsterdam

Schama says,

"Claudius Civilis is a painting drunk on its own wildness. It is a painting that would not just be the ruin of Rembrandt's comeback, but also the ruin of his greatest vision. Or so I think, for I can't be sure. None of us can, because we don't know what the big picture looked like. What we're looking at here is a fragment, a fifth of the original size, the bit rescued from Rembrandt's knife. This may just be the most heartbreaking fragment in the entire history of painting. The painting was commissioned as a stirring depiction of the legendary story of how the Dutch nation came to be born. What they got was Rembrandt's version of history: ugliness, deformity, barbarism; a bunch of cackling louts, onion chewers and bloody-minded rebels. The paint slashed and stabbed, caked on like the make up of warriors. Despite making him bankrupt he's saying: these are your flesh and blood, rough and honest, your barbarian ancestry. They made you Dutch."

A brave thing really - yet how powerful this art was and is.

The Return of the Prodigal is of course a favourite, made more so by Henri Nouwen's book on the painting.

"Often I have asked friends to give me their first impression of Rembrandt's Prodigal Son. Inevitably, they point to the wise old man who forgives his son: the benevolent patriarch.
"The longer I look at 'the patriarch', the clearer it becomes to me that Rembrandt has done something quite different from letting God pose as the wise old head of a family. It all began with the hands. The two are quite different. The father's left hand touching the son's shoulder is strong and muscular. The fingers are spread out and cover a large part of the prodigal son's shoulder and back. I can see a certain pressure, especially in the thumb. That hand seems not only to touch, but, with its strength, also to hold. Even though there is a gentleness in the way the father's left hand touches his son, it is not without a firm grip." (excerpt)

However, from the programme I was introduced briefly to his painting of Simeon. Here is the old man almost overwhelmed and his hands holding Jesus yet almost prayerful at the same time. A reverence.

Power of Art- Caravaggio

Here in NZ a new series by Simon Schama on the 'Power of Art' is now running Sunday nights.

I want to use tis for my own reflection as one who enjoys art.

Week one was on Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Schama is a narrator to the life and paintings of Caravaggio that invites you into the paintings of a man who was deeply disturbed and troubled in himself. In many ways painting became a means of confession and a reckoning. Schama gives focus to his painting of David with the head of Goliath. Notably, Goliath is painted in the image of Caravaggio.

Schama says,

"In this painting of the victory of virtue over evil it's supposed to be David who is the centre of attention, but have you ever seen a less jubilant victory?
On his sword is inscribed "Humilitus Occideit Superbium", that is, humility conquers pride. This is the battle that has been fought out inside Caravaggio's head between the two sides of the painter that are portrayed here.

For me the power of Caravaggio's art is the power of truth, not least about ourselves. If we are ever to hope for redemption we have to begin with the recognition that in all of us the Goliath competes with the David."

Schama also points out the ways in which Caravaggio paints the fleshly humanity he knows, the earthy-ness of humanity he portrays in so many religious artwork he paints.

For me I have always appreciated his Supper at Emmaus. But there are 2 versions: on in London (1601) the other in Milan (1606).

In the first (London) the image is full of rich, victorious splendour. The light throughout the paiting, the shadows created help our eyes 'read' the painting. Jesus is portrayed without a beard which is quite unusual. His hand gesture appears soft and gentlein blessing. Indeed it almost reaches out to us.There is also a full table of food before them . The intensity of the emotions of Christ's disciples is conveyed by their gestures and expression at this moment in time (of recognition) when Jesus is blessing their meal. We are made to feel a participant in the event from the perspective we are permitted at the table. The painting in so inviting us asks us to consider what the resurrection of Christ means for us.

Some 5 years later though and the image has changed. Is there a shift in Caravaggio’s understanding of the resurrection of Jesus? The arrangement of the figures tells the story. No more the victorious Christ, nor the energy of the disciples recognition of who this 'stranger' is. In contrast, the arrangement of the figures in the Milan Emmaus makes us aware that people need time to recognise the reality of Jesus at this table and so the resurrection. The light here is more subtle and subdued, indeed here is an older, bearded Jesus blessing the meal and a different pace of recognition conveyed. Here the disciples hand rests near Jesus' hand, no large gestures. I sense here a quiter and gentler invitation to come share at this table at a meal that is far simpler too.

Globe lessons

I managed into a public lecture today given by Patrick Spottiswoode (director of Globe Education). His topic was concerned with Shakespeare's Globe and how the space/ shape influences performance and the actor -audience relationship. I confess I haven't seen it, but it is a space that has intrigued me for a number of years since church planting and being concerned about space and worship and congregational matters.

The theatre we were in was typically for a large lecture. He described it as a 'confrontational space in which we awaited knowledge to be imparted and given to us. It is a typical space and familiar in most buildings, but he turned it on its head and spoke of how the theatre Shakespeare knew at the Globe was more a place for seminar, where ideas were thrown out for the audience to consider. The round-ish (20 sided building) offered more of a 'hug' and an intimacy in ;'gathering round'.. as he said 'we do not gather square!' Here then you see the audience and talk to them as part of the drama on stage. It also has significant open air light. Today he somewhat lamented the modern theatre and its turning off lights. He caricatured this to going to be as a child and turning the lights out to go to sleep, or to quietening a parrot that is noisey, you cover it with a blanket. In a fashion this is what we have done to audiences. At the Globe, actors and audience share the same light, there is an interface that allows for opportunities of 'improvised' engagement in ways that bring the text to life. Indeed, he spoke of the energy that occurs between the two and how thre actors in turn are energised as the audience is engaged in the drama. It is a two-way interaction.He further shared how we often speak of 'going to SEE' a movie, a play eyc. In Shakespeare's Globe you paid to see, but most of all the HEARING places as the language and metre of the drama play around with the words/sounds.

He also made comment on the historical context. Theatre and actors were of low social status on the margins of society. They were margineli those small extra notes in the margins of some books which added some commentarytot the central text. However, he suggested that rather than such a simple reading it was more that the city was worried about the theatre as graffitti. Theatre was no wholly respectable and its commentary was forced to the marghins/suburbs among the brothels.

This is a brief summary of what was a very entertaining and engaging lecture. It was in itself 'rough theatre' and he is a very gifted communicator. Plenty food for thought.

Pentecost - No ordinary Time

Pentecost by Solomon Raj, India.





It was a very windy day here in Dunedin. Boy was it blowing - perfect for Pentecost Sunday!

The scene was set well before anyone turned up. Papers flew around and people arrived windswept.

We had large kites from each corner and a calling of one another to worship as we gathered and brought them to the front. We had a bunch of colourful balloons in each was a slip of paper which would tell us what we would do next in the service - a sense of unknown, of anticipation. The wind rattled the roof.



I got people who wished to come pop a balloon. It was great fun and soon people got into it and I didn't have to even ask. We had a dramatic reading of Acts story, prayers, songs... everyone had a kite in their seat .



In immersing ourselves in the text of Acts 2 we really thought aorund Peter's sermon and his picking up of Joel 2. All sounds so strange,

Then afterward I will pour out my spirit on all flesh; your sons and your
daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, and your young men
shall see visions. 29 Even on the male and female slaves, in those days, I
will pour out my spirit. 30 I will show portents in the heavens and on the
earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. 31 The sun shall be turned to
darkness, and the moon to blood, before the great and terrible day of the Lord
comes. 32 Then everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved;
for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those who escape, as the Lord
has said, and among the survivors shall be those whom the Lord calls.

JOEL 2

We considered the strangeness and how on that day people attempted to explain away the event of the Spirit. How do we explain so much away?

In the face of this and a world of fears, anxieties and greeds what are we called to be as God's people? We are to fly some kites - prophesy, dreams and visions - testify to the strrange workings of God in the world and life. A people of freedoms, liberated by the Spirit, Loving practices which drive out fears, hopefilled in pointing people to a new reality at work in the midst of everything they see as so settled and explainable, how does or life as individuals and communally give witness to all this?



We are going to fly some kites in our day and our place!

Come Holy Spirit, Come!

Holy Week

This week we have used this as our main image for our House of Sorrows. You can see some of the things we did in worship there in the link.

Pete Wheeler, A Dunedin artist gave us some of his artwork based on Unotuchables in India. We had a wonderful balance of Gospel, Lamentations readings and following the thread of sorrow through these to prayerfully pray for the cities we know, the troubles places and peoples of the world.

We await Sunday with a whole new outlook of anticipation.

Rejection

As we enter Holy Week we come to a climatic point in Jesus journey - entry into the city of Jerusalem.

I have often wondered about several aspects of this event and never truly made sense of them. Jesus has been readying himself for this day and the events that follow: Luke 9 v51-56 tells us he set his face for Jerusalem and preparations were to be made for his arrival. They refused him in the Samaritan village and the disciples ask if he wants fore to come upon the village.

So he comes to Jerusalem and awaits the 'celebrity' status welcome from the city. It is Jesus signaling that he is royalty - well documented throughout Luke's account. The preparations and the procession on the colt, set apart, the cloaks thrown down and absence of city officials and priests etc reveal the hardened spiritual condition of the city. This insult and rejection for the visitation - 'blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!' as God's agent makes for even greater impact. As a result, Jesus pronounces judgement and weeps that they did not recognise the divine visitation in him.

I wonder how my city, your city, town, village may or may not receive Christ still? In what ways are there still insults, rejections to the extent that the very stones are cryng out instead, in place of those of us who should watch and pray? How has the church lost sight of the Kingly visit?

Yield - Psalm 32

Last Sunday we explored Psalm 32. We began by considering whatthings we woiuld placve in our pursuit of happiness sack? On the surface it is easy to look ‘perfect’ and ‘happy’, but the Psalm today and Scripture at large remind us that what often fills our happiness sack are some things that deep down become such cravings that in actual fact they drive us, they cut us off from life. Lamentations 1 speaks of how God was 'woven my sins into a rope and harnessed me to captivities yoke' . We cling to our sack and forget God.
In Psalm 32 we are given an inside glimpse to someone’s inner life, to the bits that make them tick as person, v3-7 allow us to look inside the psalmists life – and there we discover a life that has been full of denials as to the real ‘life condition’, listen again, ‘when I kept it all bottled up inside, my bones turned to powder, my words groans all day long, the pressure never let up, all the juices of my life dried up.’
The word the Bible applies to such a life alienated form the source of Life who is God is SIN. He informs us then of the traumatic experience of unconfessed sin, due to stubborn silence, there were torments, like Lady Macbeth he suffered the guilt and agonies. Our culture has lost an awareness of sin and guilt. Our use of the word and the ways we label things ‘sinful’ have changed considerably.
The Bible is clear though in recognizing that human existence knows the experience of being cut off from life. For a long time, this experience of alienation from the source of life is summed up as sin. According to 1 John 1 v8 to claim that we have no sin is a great self-deception. So we look beneath the surface of his life and we see somewhat mirrored , if we are honest, we all fall far short. The point however is that the psalmist places this in the context of a God who is moved beyond such silence as the denial of sin in me. The psalm begins with acknowledging the ‘happiness’ the integrity, the honesty of those who make confession, they are the ones who are recipient of God’s benevolent action of forgiveness. – ‘Whose rebellion has been borne (by God)’ and ‘whose sin has been covered up (by God)’. Genuine ‘happiness’ is something God gives with God’s initiative, nothing earned, worked for but GRACE. The words used - ‘To carry’, ‘to cover’, ‘to impute’ emphasise the extent of God’s forgiveness; additionally, to avoid reducing human ‘sin or wrongdoing to cliché, 3 words for wrongdoing and deeds are used: each an aspect of sin; pasa = political term means to rebel; hatta = to miss the target; cawon = crooked act, also entails a persons conscience and so a sense of ‘guilt’.
But v5 is the turning point, the repentant turning in confession to the Lord. Indeed, it repeats the 3 common words from v1,2 for sin. And so the ‘pressure’ is lifted, guilt dissolved, sin disappeared. We suffer a demise of confession in our reformed tradition today, we have culturally assimilated and dismissed notions of sin. In liturgy perhaps especially, indeed the protestant form of confession is GOSSIP whereby we confess and point out our neighbours sin instead of our own. However you want to label it, if we stick with the biblical word sin for whatever the crime or pathology in todays terms. Robert Jenson refers to confession of sin being as necessary as taking out the rubbish/garbage.
‘Sin is like garbage. You don’t want to let it build up. Confessing sin is like taking out the garbage. You want to do that regularly because taking out the garbage is an extremely healthy thing to do.’ The psalmist urges and invites people to ‘yield’ repent, turn around to God, confession of sin, the practice of penitence before it is too late. The climax in v7 concludes that we can find shelter in the Lord. “You are my hiding place’, a place of refuge in the distress and threat of life and encircles him with shouts of deliverance at the celebration, all in sharp contrast to the immobilizing distress of v3,4. Finally, v8,9 provide further instruction. The image exhorts the psalmist and others not to be like the horse or stubborn mule that needs a bridle because they lack understanding’. Those who do not and persist in alienation will always find trouble and discontentment, in contrast to those who trust will be sheltered, covered, live under God’s hesed, covenant loyalty. Psalm 32 functions as a psalm that directs us in a new direction in/to life when we yield, confess our sin and trust in (see v1,2) He concludes with a resounding call to praise and celebrate God with honest, open hearts. We concluded with a time of COnfession inviting people to symbolically wash their hands in a bowl beneath the cross as a Taize Chant was played. It was confession as a people of God and as individuals.

Lenten Project

We aim to use Lamentations as the basis for creating a -
"House of Sorrows" at our Roslyn Church as we journey through Lent we are looking to use this website to make some posts, but also have some interactive response that allows us to create this House of Sorrows for this season. We want people to feed in prayers, stories that show us something of the 'lament' in our present world. Ideally, we'd like to hear from places where the voice heard is more first hand.We would also like it if you could post to us a small piece of cloth/rag that we may set your poem/story beside and place in the House of Sorrows which we hope will become an installation that can give voice to lament and be a place for offering prayers of Hope. ( we can give you the address)

for more go to our Lament Blog:http://lament.highgatemission.info/index.html