Fragments for Maundy Thursday

We weave together on this day
Perfume and water
Wine and bread
Tales of liberation
Meals of hope and a story of deep, deep betrayal
We know that death will follow the bread and the wine
And yet they still speak of hope
Of a red sea crossed
Of an older covenant fulfilled and a new one to be fulfilled in our wtiness

And then a Brazilian Friend on Facebook translated the beginning to my homily ...

Fragmentos de uma Quinta-feira Santa.
Tecemos juntos neste dia
Perfume e água
Vinho e pão
... Contos de libertação
......Refeições de esperança e de uma história de profunda, profunda, traição
Sabemos que a morte seguirá o pão eo vinho
E ainda assim eles nos falam de esperança
De um mar vermelho atravessado
De uma antiga aliança cumprida e uma nova para ser cumprida em nosso testemunho ...

Remembering: passion, betrayal, resurrection and ... painting

Today I taught KT on my own and turned up to spend time with the young people with some paint brushes and a clear idea that we would read the passion narrative together.

We began by doing about half an hour of remembering the passion story. To help with this I put on the table some branches of hazel - a bowl, a towel, a jug of water, one of the communion chalices and the communion patten. The more I use the remembered Bible method the more I realise how affiriming of people's inner Bibles it is. It was great with the young people today because the two less academic ones actually know the Bible stories much better. One thing that struck me as we were remembering together was how time is concertina-d - you go forwards backwards and sideways - and of course you're dealing with four gospels at the same time too so there's lots going on and amazing how details get remembered - one girl today remembered the ear being chopped off.

After our remembering we started reading Luke's gospel, aloud, sitting peaceably around the table. We began with the entry into Jerusalem - the branches on the table were to prompt thoughts of this. Palm Sunday is called "branches Sunday" in French. It is branches rather than palm crosses which are blessed and taken home from Roman Catholic churches. We ended with Jesus being laid in the tomb. It was qutie extraordinary sitting there on a wonderful sunny spring day with a group of adolescents remembering and reading the Bible. After reading we wrote prayers of thanksgiving for Christ's witness for the way he had chosen. Each of us tried to focus on three things. All of us wrote powerful words. I could tell that the group were completely engaged with the story. We also read the footwashing from John's gospel ... and we talked about prisoners of conscience and the work of Amnesty International and Christian Action Against Torture, and we prayed. We talked about violence, their experiences of it at school and in daily life.

After lunch we read the story of the resurrection in Luke's gospel, the Emmaus story right on through to the ascension. And we talked about hope and life, the meaning and gift of resurrection. And then we painted and they just took over and the act of painting became part of our remembering and understanding. They created a sort of Jackson Pollock like fabulous mess in the centre of the paper, then surrounded it with images of flowers and smiley faces hearts and points of colour and their names and words of hope. What was brilliant was listening to how they came to an agreement about what to do and then seeing their pure glee in all starting to paint together and throw the paint around. Wonderful energy. I think I was moved that they wanted to put their own names as part of the resurrection framework for the painting.
Now I just have to hope that they become friends with me on Facebook so that I get to see the photos of our work of art - yes I took my paintbrushes but forgot to take my camera so we'll have to wait a while for some pictures.

Bread not stone, stone not bread ... the Bible speaks to itself and challenges us

Yesterday morning Peter Prove preached a thought provoking sermon. I suggested two texts from Matthew's gospel as we were preparing the service - Christ's first temptation in Matthew 4 to turn stone into bread and then the passage later in Matthew 7 where Christ says which of you would give your child a stone when asked for bread?
What fascinated me about the way that Peter reflected on these passages is how brilliantly the Bible speaks to itself, and how challenging it is to have as inspiration a book of life which says seemingly contradictory things. What was particularly strange for me is that I had chosen these passages because they seemed to me to be part of the same continuum and ongoing discussion. I had never really thought about the passages as opposing one another. In his sermon Peter linked the two sayings:

In the first reading, Jesus – famished after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting – is tempted by the devil: "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But even in the extremity of his physical hunger, Jesus rebuffs this temptation with the words from Scripture: “One does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." But of course Jesus’ point is not – and cannot be – that food is not necessary.
His words in the second reading strike a different note. “Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”
Bread and fish. Not stones or snakes…

The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance ,which Peter is director of, is running a Lenten campaign on food justice as part of its Fast for Life and Food for Life campaigns. I was struck by the idea about where is it in our world today, in our individual lives that we are trying to turn stones into bread? Treating people and the earth in a way that does not listen to God's word of life, that does not proceed from God's lips? Yesterday morning Peter posed the question like this:

In what ways are we today tempted to unlearn this lesson, and to try to turn stones into bread? Could it be that our artificial fertilizers, nutritional supplements, genetically-modified organisms and other technological fixes all in some way represent our prideful response to the tempter’s ruse? And that in our headlong rush towards agrofuel at the expense of food production, we are succumbing to the opposite but equal temptation – to turn bread into stone?

Sixteen years ago I preached with a view in the Temple in Divonne les Bains. I turned up with a stone in my hand to begin my sermon (on the woman taken in adultery ...), later I placed the stone on communion table next to the bread and wine. "Bread not stone" has long, long been one of my favourite refrains - even before I had read Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza - yet thinking once more about these texts makes me wonder whether my focus on bread not stone made me less able to see where sometimes the most life-giving thing is to trust in the word rather than break your teeth on stone.
I'll post a link to Peter's sermon once it goes online, you can find EAA's daily devotions for Lent here, and for now I'll end with his words:

In this Lenten season, what fast shall we choose? And what shall we offer the hungry
children: bread, or stones?

Fast for Life?

Anyone looking at my ever expanding wasteline (I cannot believe I just typed that like that rather than like this: waistline: ed) hardly needs to be told that I am not very talented at fasting.
Today is Ash Wednesday, a holy day in the western Christian calendar, Lent begins, absitinence, fasting, giving things up, praying more, being better, discipline ... hmm the pressure mounts, I think I may be developing a spiritual overload headache induced by guilt.

The Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance launched its Fast for Life campaign today. Those of us who gathered in the chapel at the ecumenical centre at midday donated the cost of lunch to the local Salvation Army, as a small contribution to feeding Geneva's poorest.

Given my own complex, difficult and sinful relationship with food, I find this time of the Christian year particularly challenging spiritually. Will I ever get past my guilt, accept something like forgiveness and move towards true transformation? Notice how even here I only evoke rather than really address the issue. Perhaps food is an issue I should preach a sermon about in order to be more honest about the meaning of food and its weight in my life and spirituality ... as well as on my hips! Still not sure what text I would choose for such a sermon, after all the Bible is full of stories of food, feasting and fasting let me know if you have an idea.
Such thoughts bring my rather neatly to the EAA sermon competition on food for life - there're still a couple of weeks left to submit your sermons, closing date March 30!
So what have you got to say about Food for life, what do you think God might have to say about food for life?

And while you're thinking about that here are some more action ideas from the EAA website
Join by taking either individual or collective action:
i) Fast from food as a symbolic gesture in solidarity with people living with hunger.
ii) Fast from fossil fuels by parking your car and walk, ride a bike, or take public transport to help reduce greenhouse gases.
iii) Fast from over-consumption by leaving your wallet at home and commit to ‘buy nothing ‘on 9 March.
iv) Organize a worship service on Ash Wednesday to reflect on the inequalities that allow for hunger and over-consumption in this world.
v) Share your resources on food consumption, reflections and prayers on Facebook on the Food for Life Campaign – Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance page
vi) Sign a letter to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in support of the land and water rights of vulnerable communities

A poem by Elizabeth Jennings for Good Friday

It always seems to me that prose is not enough for some days, for some events, yet I've never really be able to write poetry - or not poetry I think much of or that says what I would like it to ...
On Good Friday I turn to poetry, and this year as last to Elizabeth Jennings

Friday
We nailed the hands long ago,
Wove the thorns, took up the scourge and shouted
For excitement's sake, we stood at the dusty edge
Of the pebbled path and watched the extreme of pain.

But one or two prayed, one or two
Were silent, shocked, stood back
And remembered remnants of words, a new vision.
The cross is up with its crying victim, the clouds
Cover the sun, we learn a new way to lose
What we did not know we had
Until this bleak and sacrificial day,
Until we turned from our bad
Past and knelt and cried out our dismay,
The dice still clicking, the voices dying away.

Elizabeth Jennings Collected Poems

Foot washing - the dream ...

On Maundy Thursday I always have crazy day dreams that the kings and queens and presidents and primeministers might be found at the local homeless shelter washing people's feet. Or that the CEO of a top company will wash the feet of the cleaning personnel - or maybe make coffee for the secretaries ...

These days of course such events would simply be part of the constant barrage of the celebrity round of photo opportunities.

Such gentle focused sensitivity, such practical sensuality in Christ caring for his disciples' feet, washing them and preparing them for the way ahead.

A crazy dream that the great of this world, the true leaders will have humility enough to care - enough even to care for the betrayer.

If I am not ready to take up bowl and towel I am not ready to lead.

Betrayal ...

It's a week for thoughts on passionate elemental themes. Manoj Kurian led prayers in the ecumenical centre this morning and encouraged us to think about betrayal.
I realised that the end of Christ's betrayal begins with a kiss, Judas delivers Jesus to the authorities using a kiss of greeting. Does betrayal matter? It is certainly a powerful word and emotion, a feeling most of us will encounter in some way in our lives.
I got lost in thought this morning about the pettiness of much that we think of as betrayal, yet also the deep personal pain that is caused by lying, adultery and simply not bothering to stand up for others when they are under fire.
Then I got to wondering who and what I have betrayed in my life ... of course I cannot think particularly of anyone or anything as I write this. I am clear minded enought to realise this doesn't at all mean that I am a person of exemplary integrity, quite the reverse. I am aware I am not even a person who always tries to do the right thing. My betrayals often begin not with a kiss but with good intentions of some kind - or intentions I like to think of as good ... I want to believe that I am driven by the idea of what is right ... is that what it was like for Judas?

Are Christians making any difference?

We are praying this week for the peoples and churches in Brunei, Singapore and Malaysia. As Holy Week begins our colleague Dr Manoj Kurian prepared a liturgy for which he wrote music for a Malaysian version of the Orthodox acclamation of the gospel - using the in recent times much contested word "Allah" to refer to the trinitarian Christian God.
In his sermon on the suffering servant from Isaiah Manoj asked us whether the more than two billion Christians in today's world were making any real difference. "We conform so often to what Christ was against rather than try to find new ways to transform society". Just like the people who celebrated Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, we need to ask ourselves what kind of Messiah we are expecting, just a new king who'll sort out all our problems or someone working to a different set of rules, a new system of renewed relationships as opposed to the systems of the world that push the poor to the margins.
Manoj went on to plead that to follow the way of Christ the suffering servant we we should see our service as part of our worship and see God in each other.
So are we Christians making a difference or would the world be just the same without us?

Christ's trial as a gross violation of human rights

Yesterday morning I led a Bible study on Mark 14 53-65, Jesus' trial before the Sanhedrin. The global Anglican Peace and Justice Network is meeting in Geneva this week and they were looking at the whole area of victim's rights, reparation, reconciliation and much more besides.
Although only asked a few days earlier I felt quite excited by tackling this text and the good thing was that I was able to read bits of Morna Hooker's excellent commentary on Mark again. It was an interesting journey with the text and for once although I prepared quite carefully I didn't really have a full written paper - the disadvantage of that of course is that I'm not entirely sure what I said in the end! I began by doing some rememebred Bible with them about the trial - partly because it helps as part of the group process but also because much of the account of the trial is about how the witnesses don't agree. In terms of violations of human rights believing the witnesses, finding credible witensses is also part of the process ... so it was good to use our remembered Bibles to begin this process. Then we read the text and aloud said one or two words that struck us ... And we looked at the text like a human rights lawyer of activist in terms of due process, proper defence, demonizing the victim and the perpetrators. We also looked at how Mark's account of the Sanhedrin is hardly accurate - what does this almost demonization of the perpetrators say about how we tell the story of the victim? Did Peter really see all of this or had he fled from the scene only to deny Christ moments later?

I also told some stories from my own family - when you are the granddaughter of someone who has been in a concentration camp then issues of violation of human rights are not abstract ideals. I reflected on how because this is a text often read during Holy Week we are somehow already turned towards Easter, towards finding meaning in suffering and transformation through resurrection.

Yet as I left the Bible study and went back up the street to the ecumenical centre I was left with many questions - at the heart of our faith is this story of the violation of the human rights of God's son; is concentrating on this suffering in some way a celebration of the pornography of violence; can there ever be meaning in suffering; how dare we Christians point to the hope of resurrection, transformed societies, reconciliation; how dare we Christians not point to exactly those hopes ...
Perhaps during Holy Week I'll have time to return thinking about these things.

Holy Water celebrates the feast of the Theophany

Over on the Ecumenical Water Network Elias Abramides has been writing about Holy Water and the Feast of the Theophany.

The ceremony of the Holy Water is conducted inside the church but if possible, across the world, it mostly takes place near open bodies of water: a river, a lake or by the sea. As a sign of blessing just as Christ blessed the waters of the Jordan, Holy Water is poured into a body of water (a lake, river, pond or stream) and a cross is plunged into the water (being retrieved later by divers who in this way are blessed).
Holy Water blessed at the Feast of Theophany is given to the faithful to drink for health, and for the blessing of the body. In the weeks following Theophany, the clergy may visit the home of the faithful and conduct a ceremony of blessing using the Holy Water that was blessed at Theophany.

I wrote about our own blessing of the waters service at the Ecumenical Centre earlier this year. It is a moving service and can have great meaning, not only for those from the Orthodox tradition. You can find see some images and commentaries about how the Feast of the Theophany is marked on the Keeping the Faith site.
One of the things I am enjoying particularly about Seven Weeks for Water this year is plunging into the holy waters of traditions different to my own, having my horizons opened to other spiritualites and also learning more about water and its liturgical uses.

It's all about baptism on seven weeks for water

Pictured here are rather younger visitors to the ecumenical centre chapel than we usually get. The children are running through the waters of baptism at the entrance to the chapel in front of the mosaic depicting Christ's baptism in the Jordan. The water they are running through is only figurative but it is still a strong and powerful symbol. I love telling visitors I take around the chapel that they are walking through or even on water.
The way we use real water in baptism liturgies is taken up this week by David R. Holeton over on Seven Weeks for Water:

It should not be surprising that, for centuries, all Christians wished to baptise in “living” (that is copious, preferably flowing) water. This generous use of water in baptism evokes its death-dealing as well as its life-giving qualities ...
Over the centuries, however, most churches have become accustomed to using water in such a minimalist fashion that the powerful symbolic realities behind it are all but impossible to see. The few drops that are sprinkled or poured on the candidate say little about death or new birth – either to the candidate or the community present ...
Instead of saving water during baptism, you can find out about other ways of improving the environmental and water footprint of your church. For example, Eco-congregations.org offers various modules with guidance and ideas for congregations on how to cut down on energy, recycle more, water and be generally a great deal kinder to the planet than we are already. The National Council of Churches in Denmark has identified 48 points for becoming a "green church". Remember that saving energy and reducing waste also protects our water resources.
Read more here.
David Holeton's piece reminded me on my friend Janet who baptised several members of her congregation in the sea off Iona a few years ago. All of those present still remember and talk abotu the event.
Photo by Peter Williams copyright WCC.

Walter Brueggemann's marked by ashes

Marked by Ashes
Ruler of the Night, Guarantor of the day . . .
This day — a gift from you.
This day — like none other you have ever given, or we have ever received.
This Wednesday dazzles us with gift and newness and possibility.
This Wednesday burdens us with the tasks of the day, for we are already halfway home
halfway back to committees and memos,
halfway back to calls and appointments,
halfway on to next Sunday,
halfway back, half frazzled, half expectant,
half turned toward you, half rather not.

All our Wednesdays are marked by ashes —
we begin this day with that taste of ash in our mouth:
of failed hope and broken promises,
of forgotten children and frightened women,
we ourselves are ashes to ashes, dust to dust;
we can taste our mortality as we roll the ash around on our tongues.
We are able to ponder our ashness with
some confidence, only because our every Wednesday of ashes
anticipates your Easter victory over that dry, flaky taste of death.
On this Wednesday, we submit our ashen way to you —
your Easter parade of newness.
Before the sun sets, take our Wednesday and Easter us,
Easter us to joy and energy and courage and freedom;
Easter us that we may be fearless for your truth.
Come here and Easter our Wednesday with
mercy and justice and peace and generosity.

Copyright (c) Walter Brueggemann (b. 1933)

Rich spiritual food for an Ash Wednesday of fasting

The Ecumenical Centre chapel hosted three services today. Morning prayer and Holden Evening Prayer began and closed the day and at lunchtime we had a special service to launch the Ecumenical Advocacy Alliance's Food for Life - Fasting for Life campaign.

Jenny Borden who is currently Acting Director of EAA, preached a good sermon including this:

More than one billion people are suffering from hunger around the world. Despite the goodness and bounty of God’s gifts to us in creation so many people experience scarcity: famine, hunger, deprivation and want. And yet at the same time there are people in all parts of the world who suffer the effects of too much – too much salt, sugar, fat, calories – too much choice, too many things, too much wealth.

And concluding with this:

- we live in the hope of a costly cross that proved love to be creative and not a disaster
- and we accept that we’re never going to get it all right and so live confidently in the sorrow and forgiveness of Ash Wednesday, that does not reject us because we fail but wraps us around and includes us all as part of a community, where even failures like us are still valued for what we can achieve.

You can find the whole of Jenny' sermon here. More on the Food for life campaign here.

It was a day of rich spiritual fare in the chapel with much to ponder as we met to sing "Let my prayer rise up like incense before you" at the end of the day

Angels and demons - a brief meditation for Ash Wednesday by Manoj Kurian

At morning prayer for Ash Wedenesday we listened to the reading of Christ's baptism and temptation from Mark's gospel. Afterwards Theodore Gill read a large part of the reflection from the Guardian's comment is free on Orthodox Lent by Aaron Taylor which I mentioned over the weekend- noting in particular the contrast between the idea of Clean Monday in the Eastern tradition and Ash Wednesday in the Western tradition. We also reflected on the contrast in the text between water and wilderness, angels and demons, bright sadness and much more besides.
Morning prayer outline can be found here.

Later in the day we received a wonderful email from Manoj Kurian with this great prayer-poem which we then read aloud at Holden Evening Prayer. It's great when the morning liturgy becomes part of the evening leitourgia and things feed into and out of each other.

Angels, Demons...

The Devil, the Holy Spirit...

Clean Monday, Ash Wednesday...

Contradictions of the world...

Conflicts we carry...

Always room for improvement..

Always room for repentance..

Always room for forgiveness...

Always room for redemption.

Manoj Kurian copyright (c) WCC

Going into the desert with Seven Weeks for Water

On Ash Wednesday western Christians reflect on 40 days in the desert. Over on Seven Weeks for Water Anne Louise Mahoney writes about how the font in her church dries up during Lent, not only is there no water in it but the font is filled with sand. It's a powerful image of the spiritual wilderness pilgrimage that Lent represents.

For seven long weeks I pass by the sand-filled font each Sunday. I miss the water – its moisture, its gurgling, its cooling presence. I am prompted to face the desert areas in my own life – dried-up relationships, destructive habits, empty prayer, selfishness, pride, lack of compassion. I linger reluctantly in that barren place, trying to rediscover what is life giving.

As tonight I eat my mardi gras pancakes and think of the ashes I shall receive tomorrow as Lent begins, I too am thinking about the dried up, dessicated parts of my life and relationships.
Yet the wilderness is not only dry and barren, thisdesert is also a place of deep yearning and relationship, offering the possibility to get closer to God and closer to my own deeper and true desires. Can I bear to be this close, this vulnerbale and truly search for what I most want?
Read more on Holy Water here.

Clean Monday, kite flying, bright sadness and a different entry point into Lent

Tomorrow is Clean Monday for Orthodox Christians and marks the beginning of Lent. Writing in the Guardian Aaron Taylor says how the Orthodox spiritual approach to Lenten observance is one of "bright sadness". He ends his article:

As long as there is evil in the world, we can be sure that some of it still lies hidden in our hearts. And as long as we are able to shed tears over our condition, there remains hope that we will one day see the glorious day of resurrection.

I've also been interested to learn that on Clean Monday there is a tradition of flying kites. I haven't quite managed to find out why, there seems again to be some link to the aspect of joy, kites do reach up to heaven in some way. fasting is not supposed to make up feel surly and grumpy but make us look for higher things.

Eggs, ashes and water

Ruth Burgess and Chris Polhill wrote and edited Eggs and Ashes, a book of Lenten prayers, liturgies and meditations by Wild Goose publications.

I was pleased to discover that week two in the Lenten discipline they propose focuses on Water - week one was transport. You can read a pdf extract of the book here.

Here's an extract from a prayer by Yvonne Morland in the book entitled Living Water:

We are connected in creation
by water which gives us life
...
Let our marks be gentle
Let us respect the sacredness of water
which moves between us
as ablessing from the hand of God

Christian Aid's journey to Jerusalem

For Lent Christian Aid is putting daily meditations online encouraging readers to travel to Jerusalem. There is a prayer section where you can add your own prayers and develop a sense of community.

Drip, drip, drip - Water network blog goes online in four languages

Today the Ecumenical Water Network's blog went online with its first of seven weekly meditations during Lent. This is all about getting Christians and churches to take action on issues of water and justice, to link with one another and be aware of what is going on in other parts of the world.

It so happens that the first meditation is written by me and is called drip, drip, drip. I really loved reading it in translation - my French and German are so much more elegant than if I had written myself - and it's even there in Spanish!

Anyway you can get the meditations via an RSS feed and we really want people to leave comments and tell us about what they are doing to prepare for World Water Day. So please, read, comment and share.

Seven Weeks for Water - English

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/activities/ewn-home/resources-and-links/seven-weeks-for-water.html

Sept semaines pour l'eau

http://www.oikoumene.org/fr/activities/roe/ressources-et-liens/sept-semaines-pour-leau.html

Sieben Wochen im Zeichen des Wassers

http://www.oikoumene.org/de/activities/oekumenisches-wassernetzwerk-oewn/ressourcen-und-links/sieben-wochen-fuer-wasser.html

Siete Semanas para el Agua

http://www.oikoumene.org/es/activities/la-reda/recursos-y-enlaces/siete-semanas-para-el-agua.html

Seven Weeks for Water is back and it's multilingual!

More on this soon but for now here's the press release, the first meditation goes online on Wednesday 25 February and of course you can still access last year's meditations.


For the season of Lent the Ecumenical Water Network (EWN) invites Christians to mark the occasion with reflection and action on water justice.
During the Seven Weeks for Water initiative, theologians and church activists from Africa, Europe, North and South America will share short biblical meditations for each week along with some campaigning ideas and resources.
The first set of materials will be available on the EWN website water.oikoumene.org from 25 February - Ash Wednesday according to Western Christian tradition. EWN also provides an RSS stream for the seven weeks, which allows groups and congregations to give visibility to their participation on their own websites.
"Traditionally Lent is a time for concentrating on what is essential in life and opening our hearts to our neighbours, for example by fasting and giving to the needy," says Maike Gorsboth, the EWN coordinator. "The Seven Weeks for Water initiative encourages Christian groups and individuals to deepen this experience, reflecting on the concrete issue of water justice."
Another opportunity to highlight the importance of water comes on World Water Day, 22 March. EWN has already put together a collection of resources and links that can help congregations address the issue, inspired by prayer, biblical texts on justice and on water, and the experiences of church agencies with the challenges posed by inequal access to freshwater and sanitation.
The Seven Weeks for Water initiative was first celebrated during Lent 2008. This year, the resources will for the first time be available in four languages - English, Spanish, German and French.

More information on the Seven Weeks for Water

Ideas for World Water Day 2009

UN website for World Water Day