Advent 3 Keep Herod in Chirstmas

Week 3 Keep Herod in Christmas ....

We do not live in an ideal world. To be alive in the adventure of Jesus is to face at every turn the destructive reality of violence. To be alive in the adventure of Jesus is to side with vulnerable children in defiance of the adults who see them as expendable. To walk the road with Jesus is to withhold consent & cooperation from the powerful and to invest it instead with the vulnerable. It is to refuse to bow to all the Herods and all their ruthless regimes - and to reserve our loyalty for a better King and a better Kingdom Brian McLaren p90

I found this detail from a Giovanni Painting of the slighter of the innocents on a blog 'Why Red is the Christmas colour' http://spleen-me.com/blog/?p=2892

 

Another picture was posted on another group I am part of .... It seemed relevant to our retreat, The picture is by Daniel Bonnel ... 

Mary answered the angel, 

"Behold, I am the maidservant of the Lord. 

Let it happen to me according to your word." 

And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:38

"Thank you for the faith of a maiden, 

in whose obedience your plan 

for the reconciliation of the whole world was begun.
I beg you, too, that you might empower me in pure simplicity. 

Teach my mouth and all my parts 

to make this simple response 

to whatever task you set before me

- this:
Let it be to me according to your word.
"Yes!"
Amen" 

Walter Wangerin in Preparing for Jesus  

 

I was inspired by Daniel Bonnel's painting and had a go at doing one at our holy::ground meeting - 'falling into Christmas'. (without any visual clue - no wifi!) And if you remember the angel I drew became unintentionally ominous ! More of a fallen angel .... I called the picture 'Whatever!' (thinking whatever anything, something that big and frightening says, will have to be obeyed) So I reworked the one I had originally started on, in a slightly more abstract style.... I still find those words ringing in my ears 'be it unto me according to your word' I find Mary's act of submission totally insprirational .... and so now maybe I'll face the other ' dark angel' and think about evil and keeping Herod in Christmas .... after all RED is a Christmas colour .....

we make the road by walking ......Advent 2 Magnificent Magnificat

MAGNIFICANT MAGNIFICAT: 

encountering an angel, Zachariah is struck dumb, as Elizabeth bears within he a new prophetic voice - John the Baptist - after centuries of silence 'a voice crying in the wilderness 'prepare the way of the Lord' Mary too encounters the angel and realising the impossible can happen, responds" 'be it to me according to your word' - impossible possibilities: possible impossibilities' Everything is turned on its head.. in the upside down kingdom... the weaker feminine takes the lead, the proud are silenced and the exalted are humbled and the humble are exulted. Hungry are filled with good things and the rich are sent away empty.....

my favourite quote this week (p85/86) :

That's what it means to be alive in the adventure of Jesus
We present ourselves
our bodies
our stories
our futures
our possibilities
even our limitations
'Here I am' we say with Mary
'Let it be with me according to your will'

We make the road by walking Advent 1 Prophesy

a fabulous 'prophetic' song by Sinead O'Connor (She looks great in a dog collar) 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8jjudZBWSI

What are your 8 good reasons to stick around? I found myself thinking of this in terms of Brian McLaren's question about prophetic hope in our everyday contemporary context and thinking about what I actually do ......... 
 My 8 good reasons include 

• FAMILY (R T J A J), 
• faith, 
• health, 
• work/ministry, 
• network of friends/contacts; 
•  home/house, 
• Pounstina, 
• Ceili&Walks... 
• and an open fire...

and my favourite quote so far from the book....... 

'to be alive in the adventure of Jesus is to have a desire, a dream, a hope for the future. It is to translate that hope for the future into action.... in the present and to keep acting in the light of it, no matter the disappointments, no matter the setbacks and delays. (p80)

we make the road by walking.... Advent 1

in holy::ground we are using Brian McLaren's Book as the source of our reflections during ADVENT from 30/Nov to 24/Dec.  using various resources from Brian McLaren's book 'We make the road by walking ...... You can join us in two main ways ONLINE and SUPPER conversations every Monday in Advent Details on holy::ground facebook group. You can also continue with Creative Art Journaling

Brian McLaren introduces his book here  - life is a journey and faith is an adventure and we make the road by walking....  

Brian McLaren singing his song 'we make the road by walking' 

the kindle edition of the Retreat book is available for £4.68



I tried a little creative journaling:  

After killing the white on the page with a paint wash I looked to see what I could see on the pages: 'As I looked the ancient of days took his seat. his clothing was white as snow & the hair of his head like pure wool & streams of fire came from him. the court sat .... and books were opened' (from Daniel) My ancient of days looks ever so slightly bored....

holy::ground

holy::ground is now up and running. It is a merger between sacred:space (Christchurch Woking) and Holy Ground (Trinity Methodist)

holy::ground is a fresh expression (FX) of church, that meets twice a month at st michael’s sheerwater.  'we are creative,  experimental and believe in having fun as well as exploring what it means to live well and build community together.'

The website is coming on   worth having a look at....  and if you are interested in participating or finding out more there is a facebook group you can join

And here is the programme for autumn to give you an idea of what we have been doing (ground we have passed)  and what is still to come (the journey ahead) ....


WHAT WE'VE BEEN DOING (ground we have passed)


 





the naming game
choose a name for the newly formed group, followed by night prayer
sun 8^th sept @ 7pm  st michael’sheerwater








reduced greenbelt 
share some of the experiences of greenbelt ‘40’ without the camping or the mud! 
sun 22^nd sept @ 7pm st michael’s sheerwater








little holy communion  share bread and wine together –but first help create our communion table. 
 sun 13^th oct @ 7pm st michael’s sheerwater










death matters  time to talk about death and funerals (and hopefully to stay fairly cheerful!) 
 sun 27^th oct @ 7pm st michael’s sheerwater








starry starry night
exploring the spirituality of vincent van gogh though his life and paintings. including some actual sunflower painting    sun 10^th nov @ 7pm st michael’s sheerwater

 




stir up sunday!
community bake-in to make christmas cakes & puddings to take home and to give away. finishing with night prayer.  sun 24^th nov @4pm st michael’s sheerwater

  
 STILL TO COME (the journey ahead) ......

a global christmas 
international carol service:  a multi-cultural service of songs and readings from around the world celebrating the birth of jesus      sat 7th dec at christchurch woking









welcoming advent
advent meditations ‘from darkness to light’, ending with holy communion
 sun 8^th dec @ 6:30pm  st michael’s sheerwater










christmas leftovers

share christmas leftover food, poems, stories and songs and to swap unwanted gifts – ending with night prayer  sun 29^th dec @ 7pm at venue to be confirmed



 





 orthodox christmas vigil  a holy;;ground trip to brookwood monastry
 to join in the orthodox christmas eve vigil.  ‘come when you can; go when you must’
 7^th jan @ 7pm   meet at trinity carpark to travel together or meet at brookwood

you can find details of this last event on the eventbrite site 
we hope to advertise all future events in this way .......

come and join us