I recently took a question box into a class of fifty Grade 4/5 students that I teach each week. These are the questions that get put in the box: see how you go, maybe they'll make you think as hard as I have...
Why is the Dead Sea filled with salt?
You are 46 years old (statement - stop laughing Josie!)
When did you first start believing in God?
Are you strong and brave?
Who is God?/What is God?/ Is God an animal or a person?/Is God a spirit?/Is God clouds?
What does God do?
Where does God live?
Was God the first person in the world?
Did God come to earth like magic?
How do we know God is real?
How does God help us?
Where is God's family?
Where was Jesus' family?
What is God's favourite thing to do?
Would God be proud of the way we're living?
What did God do first?
How did God die?
Why didn't people believe in God when Jesus talked about him?
Why did Eve take the apple off the tree?
When will Jesus come back to the earth?
How much longer will the earth be here?
Is it true that aliens are going to attack?
What is your favourite question?
What is your answer to it?
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
How do we treat a blank cheque?
It's not usual for me to post sermon notes here - particularly now I work off dot points, but I feel this one asks some questions that are worth distributing, so I hope anyone who reads it finds it useful.
Readings:
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29
How do we treat a blank cheque?
I must admit that when I read the Gospel reading for today I wished it would be part of the story we should skip. Where is God in this story of ancient palace ritual, a twisted family dynamic and the horrible manipulative murder of a man who died for his faithfulness to God?
But gifts are a big part of today's stories:
David moving the ark of the covenant to his capital the final claim of becoming King- a realisation of God's promised gift
Herod's daughter offered the fairytale gift voucher "anything, up to half the kingdom"
We too have an enormous gift, a blank cheque if you will, we have a God who died to save us from our sins before we could do anything to deserve it.
How do we respond to a gift of such magnitude from our creator?
Let's look at the two stories in some depth...three ways
What was the pattern of giving?
David lived a life that lived within the presence and gifts of God
Herod's daughter shocked by the gift - a one-off
Secondly the manner in which is given?
David was given the promise as a free gift
Herod's daughter given the gift as a reward for distateful and humiliating service
Thirdly how did they respond?
David gives lavish gifts to God and others- grows closer to God and community
Herod's wife uses gift as an opportunity to justify herself, to silence and critic and secure her own position - but would this have been an act that drew her closer to her husband or bred resentment?
So how, now do we respond to the gifts of God and what does it say about our relationship with God?
Do we trust in the ongoing grace of God or try to secure ourselves and rewrite our pasts?
Do we see what we have as a gift to be shared with God and the world, or do we try top grasp.
In essence, do we see the love of God as a limited resource, or are we willing to share the love around?
Readings:
2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12b-19
Ephesians 1:3-14
Mark 6:14-29
How do we treat a blank cheque?
I must admit that when I read the Gospel reading for today I wished it would be part of the story we should skip. Where is God in this story of ancient palace ritual, a twisted family dynamic and the horrible manipulative murder of a man who died for his faithfulness to God?
But gifts are a big part of today's stories:
David moving the ark of the covenant to his capital the final claim of becoming King- a realisation of God's promised gift
Herod's daughter offered the fairytale gift voucher "anything, up to half the kingdom"
We too have an enormous gift, a blank cheque if you will, we have a God who died to save us from our sins before we could do anything to deserve it.
How do we respond to a gift of such magnitude from our creator?
Let's look at the two stories in some depth...three ways
What was the pattern of giving?
David lived a life that lived within the presence and gifts of God
Herod's daughter shocked by the gift - a one-off
Secondly the manner in which is given?
David was given the promise as a free gift
Herod's daughter given the gift as a reward for distateful and humiliating service
Thirdly how did they respond?
David gives lavish gifts to God and others- grows closer to God and community
Herod's wife uses gift as an opportunity to justify herself, to silence and critic and secure her own position - but would this have been an act that drew her closer to her husband or bred resentment?
So how, now do we respond to the gifts of God and what does it say about our relationship with God?
Do we trust in the ongoing grace of God or try to secure ourselves and rewrite our pasts?
Do we see what we have as a gift to be shared with God and the world, or do we try top grasp.
In essence, do we see the love of God as a limited resource, or are we willing to share the love around?
Friday, March 27, 2009
How can I blaspheme? (poem)
I look upon your cross
a body broken
deserted by friends
forsaken by God
scorned by all.
How can I blaspheme?
Upon the cross I see
the lips that accepted the kiss of a traitor
hands that reached out to give curing touch to a leper
feet prepared for death by the tears and hair of a prostitute
I join the oppressor and say "Surely this is the Son of God."
How can I blaspheme?
Yet I surely blaspheme
when I turn your passionate love into platitudes
your new way into a continuation of our desires
your gift of grace into a free pass
a relationship with a living God into self-analysis.
Shake me.
Mould me.
Stir me.
For I must proclaim.
Lord, grant me the courage not to blaspheme.
a body broken
deserted by friends
forsaken by God
scorned by all.
How can I blaspheme?
Upon the cross I see
the lips that accepted the kiss of a traitor
hands that reached out to give curing touch to a leper
feet prepared for death by the tears and hair of a prostitute
I join the oppressor and say "Surely this is the Son of God."
How can I blaspheme?
Yet I surely blaspheme
when I turn your passionate love into platitudes
your new way into a continuation of our desires
your gift of grace into a free pass
a relationship with a living God into self-analysis.
Shake me.
Mould me.
Stir me.
For I must proclaim.
Lord, grant me the courage not to blaspheme.
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