Natalie Maxson put together a reflection on the theme of Christ the King for our Monday morning worship today. It inclued a great rap version of Psalm 100 from The Word on the Street, by Rob Lacey. At it's centre was a wonderful pas de deux in place of a sermon. Watching the two dancers pushing, pulling and being pushed by each other, I was struck by how we read judgement as God pushing us around, whereas the end of the dance seemed to be more about judgement freeing us to live in right relationship.
We listened to a powerful reading of the parable of the great judgement from Matthew 25:31-42 and then watched our two young colleagues struggling with judgement and one another, pushing ourselves to try and do the right thing, handing over judgement to God, being set free to live in the Spirit ... as I watched I thought about Jacob wrestling with God. It also spoke to me deeply about how difficult it is to make the right decision, to live in right relationship, to visit those in prison, to clothe the naked, to feed the hungry ...
This was part of our intercessory prayers:
Loving God, You push us to go the extra mile when it's difficult to smile,
You push us, to be better versions of ourselves
and to see the other point of view
You push us when there's nothing else to do
You push us when we think we know it all, when we stumble and we fall…♫
You can find the full liturgy here.
Monday 24 November 2008
When I was hungry ...
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2 Comments:
Jane,
So theological! I love your reflections. I am glad that dance can leave each person to interpret their own meaning and understanding. For me, I feel closest to God when I am dancing. I felt 'pushed' to offer that, my expression of closeness to God, with everyone today. But it felt risky and uncomfortable at first.Luckily, Samson Moyo, who is a wonderful dancer and artist agreed to colloborate with me.
Will it be the last time we hear Madonna's music in the chapel and read her lyrics as part of intercessory prayer??? I always try to transform popular culture and pop music into some theological meaning for myself. I guess because it is what I am surrounded by so much of the time. "Pop theology".
Thanks for asking me to lead worship today...otherwise I might not have been pushed to give all of my creative energy to praise God in that way and to share that with others.
And trust me to not have a clue about Madonna
I stoped doing pop music with the Smiths! though I have occasional relapses with coldplay.
Watching this morning I really assumed that you had been classically trained you looked utterly perfect dancing - but if you want to know there were moments when I was looking at your fragile body and the very, very hard black marble floor and hoping nothing horrible would happen to you - I worry far too much!
I really wish we'd filmed it - if I'd know that was happening I'd have tried to get Peter Williams to turn up.
You and Samson were awesome.
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