I am trying to convince Churches Together to do something more creative, more public friendly, for Good Friday.  We have booked the Community Centre and the usual crowd are going to do the usual activities for children, but I wanted to move things on a bit from the, usually very dull, adult service that runs in parallel, so the idea is to offer a 'drop in' with free tea and hot cross buns as the carrot, so to speak.  Once inside - and hopefully before they reach the room with refreshments (I could almost get a job in a retailing) - the hope is to offer various 'zones' for people to explore - with for example a labyrinth, a place to light a candle and reflect, some images, etc.  One of the things that would be good would be to find a suitable short video of the Passion narrative that runs for not more than 10 minutes (ideally 5) so that people can actually focus on what it's all about.  I know I could use an extract from something like the Jesus video, and copy the relevent chunk to a DVD, but that's a tad clumsy and illegal to boot, so I wondered if anyone knew of anything suitable that could be used?

Of course, the planning meeting might over rule me and say thay want the usual, boring, communal reading of the fourth gospel account...

Today one of my complex pastoral issues reached completion.  A long day, with a lot of waiting, and high on stress levels, but which ended with evidence of grace, resurrection and new life.  Oh, and more evidence that those white plastic things that slot into shirt collars are sometimes useful!

Praise be to the God of grace and mercy, hope and a future.

For some reason formatting is currently doolally and Blogspirit site working very slowy -apologies for near illegible posts

UPDATE

Don't know what happened by after I re-installed Java it is now OK.

Technology.  pah!

I can't say I'm sorry to get to the end of January - it has been a singularly crazy month, demanding physically, emotionally, spiritually. I am due a good telling off from all my minister friends for working 31 days straight, but here you go, it's like that sometimes. Hopefully February will be a tad less loopy, though my diary is already pretty crammed. Anyway, Saturday is our vision day, with the title Pilgrim People, to be led by the minister of a churchin Derby whose situation is not a million miles different from ours - they too have been in schools and other centres for three years after their building was closed by a fire, This morning one of my task is to plan the closing worship for the day, and I have to be honest in my state of exhaustion, it is proving fairly self indulgent - creativity, "secular" resources and letting the Bible speak for itself. So here's what it will be.

Matt 7: 13 -14

Poem : The Road Not Taken

Luke 9: 57 – 10:9

Video Clip – Sister Act “I will follow him”

Response – Footprints (cut from paper) to be pasted onto a poster 'I will follow Him'

Prayer

Close

The preacher at my ordination service used the interelationship of mountain and plain to pull togther my chosen readings from Matt 25 and Matt 28.  As I have pondered the readings from Exodus 24 and Matt 17 for 'Transfiguration Sunday' this relationship has come back to me.

Why go up the mountain?  Precisely because you are going to come down again!

Moses must have been fit (as in healthy and able bodied) as he seems to have been up and down moutains quite a lot, despite his advancing years!  He didn't go up them to see the sights or in search of some kind of personal spiritual 'high', he went to listen to God.  And what God said was all about life on the plain.

Jesus and his cronies went up a high mountain, code for going to seek God's self revelation, and it happened.  Never mind trying to demyhtologise or remytholgise or rationalise it all, Peter, James and John were left terrifed and needed a hug from Jesus (or a touch at any rate) to get them on their feet again.  And the revelation?  Listen to Jesus.  That was it!  Do what he says.  And they came back down the mountain and nothing had changed - there was a crowd and someone seeking healing.

To me, this is an important reminder that Sunday worship is not an escape, nor yet seeking a spiritual high, rather, at least in part, it is coming apart to listen to what God is saying about the everyday.

My sermon will end with some sayings of Jesus as recorded in Matthew that I feel speak into the needs of the three congregations who will hear me speak, along with an invitation to 'listen to Jesus' before going back down the metaphorical mountain and into the world.

The service will end with BPW 201 It's good, Lord, to be here (J Armitage Robinson) the final verse of which says: -

It’s good Lord, to be here!

Yet we may not remain;

But since you bid us leave the mount

Come with us to the plain.

Next week we're in the wilderness and facing temptation and learning to see opportunities for growth and maturity...