This weekend I've been at the Assembly Standing Committee meeting in Sydney - the group who govern the national affairs of the Uniting Church in between our triennial Assemblies. Three meetings per year - two down, seven to go. 18 members, about half new (including me) plus senior Assembly staff and Synod Secretaries. It's a fascinating, challenging, sometimes tedious in detail, often boggling in scope, meeting, with a remarkable group of faithful Christians. I am most deeply moved by people's mature faith, integrity, wisdom and love for God and the church.
I led the closing prayers. Rosemary Young had started the weekend with a reflection on Mark 1 and the call to serve the outback. Last night Deidre Palmer drew us into the story of a suffering woman and spoke of her work with women recovering from abuse. I figured that by the end of the weekend we would have had enough of words...
[Brian Eno music playing in the background throughout - "1/1"]
Prayer
(adapted slightly from the "Celtic Wheel of Year" by Tess Ward)
Blessed be you, Spirit of God
You speak in every different tongue
through the vitality of our language and custom
Yet you share with us the common parlance of the heart
Show us the One Love across every tribe and neighbourhood
as we leave this place and return home.
Praise to you, Word of Life
who speaks from the depths of the silence
to our depths, in our heart-language
not in sentences or commands but in Spirit
reaching to the bottom of our souls
before we can think straight or arrange what we mean
Like when we were held at the beginning and there were no words.
Be still in the silence and aware of God's love with and within...
As the rain and sun come down from the heavens making the earth to grow
so may your word not return to you empty
but embed itself in our souls
May we discover what makes for peace, whatever our language
and know your blessing this day, on which our peace depends.
I then stood up and threw magnetic poetry all over the floor, saying that we'd had a fill of words over the weekend - words written, words spoken.
Then said this:
We are the people of God
Telling the story of faith with our lives:
Our decisions, our dreams,
our discernment, our commitments,
are a narration of the story of discipleship,
what it means to follow Jesus Christ as a community of faith
in this nation at this time
What we have done here and what we will do
will be seen as part of
the ongoing drama of salvation
Our achievements, our failures
our character, our covenants
will speak of God’s goodness and grace
not a bold declaration
but a very human testimony
of gifts of faith, hope and love
to people living with doubt, despair and division
to people crying out for reconciliation
Marshall McLuhan, the famous communication theorist who coined the phrase “The Medium is the Message”, said that it is not that the church is the medium and that Christ is its message. Rather he said, Christ is the medium, and the church, a people transformed by Christ, is the message, the testimony to the One whose body we are, the One in whom we live.
I wonder what story we have been telling this weekend?
I wonder what story we have yet to tell?
What is our witness to this Christ who bears us as his message – as sign, instrument and foretaste of the coming reign of God?
In the beginning, the Word
was not a sentence, but silence
not a letter, but light
not a sermon, but space
not a book, but a brooding Spirit
In the beginning, the Word
was not heard, but seen
not captured in print, but creating the cosmos
not inked, but infinite
This Living Word
shapes our being
narrates our lives
proclaims our future
i invited people to stand and participate in the Gospel reading by echoing aloud the following phrases paraphrased from John chapter 1. I love this way of speaking Scripture together. Thanks to Ken Anderson for demonstrating all those years ago!
In the beginning
the Word was
was with God
the Word was God
In the beginning
All things in the Word
The Word in all things
In this was life
Light for all people
Shining in the darkness
This Word was in the world
and yet this world
our world
did not know him
did not accept him
But to all those
who received him
believed in his name
To all those
he gave power
power to become
to become children of God
This Word became flesh
and lived among us
we have seen his glory
we have seen his glory
the glory of the son
full of grace and truth
full of grace and truth
thanks be to God
I then dropped Signposts cards all over the floor while I said the following:
I invite you to receive a word of grace for your own life - to look and listen for a word to sustain you
- in your faith journey
- in your service to God and the church
- in your life and relationships
Find a card that may be God’s word for you and with you today.
Take a card and contemplate it for a moment
Allow this to be God’s word for you
I invite you to stand with another person.
In silence, swap cards and pray in silence for the person whose card you hold.
Swap the cards back again.
In silence, contemplate this as a word for the church and for the world.
Just in one or two words, name others for whom you would pray. (We then prayed in the whole group.)
Blessing
(from "A Book of Blessings" by Ruth Burgess)
May God the starmaker
cradle you and circle you.
May God the storyteller
beckon and encourage you.
My God the life changer
challenge you and cherish you.
May you walk in the light of God's love and laughter
all the moments of your nights and days.
[Nice to receive some affirming feedback about this.]
We also went to NSW Government House for a reception to honour 100 years of the Australian Inland Mission and Frontier Services, Presbyterian and the Unitingt Church agencies. I wore a suit and tie!
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