Theology with the kids

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?

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?

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.

At A Glance: Your Cross

At A Glance: Your Cross

A great poem, well done Josie! Have been asked to write 250 words for church newsletter for Easter - am seriously considering submitting this in your name.

God has a sense of humour

Yesterday I was unwell, but still able to participate in worship. It was great the way the leaders gathered around me - any part of the service that I had written a full text for was handed out (including the Eucharist - having accredited lay presidents in the your congregations is a real benefit). Basically I was just asked to do the children's address and sermon.

At the first service, there was a concern about me having to drive between congregations, so I preached from a chair and microphone out the front of the pulpit. I was more dependent than ever on the list of dot points that I use as my prompts, but I felt like I had wandered everywhere. At the end of the sermon I commented that it probably wasn't the most coherent of sermons, but I heard one of the congregation mutter under her breath "Wow, that was really powerful." Really powerful? I must admit to a moment of outrage. I could not have felt less powerful. My body had let me down (I know, I had let my body down first) and I was unable to enjoy the full scope of my vocation, I was sitting down as I was too weak, and felt like I was having to suck ideas through a straw. Yet God still uses this to great effect. If I ever take my contribution too seriously, I need to remember this moment.

At the second service, I was a lot more relaxed about taking a seat for a service I had written, and I relaxed and enjoyed the liturgy as I would if I was attending a service someone else had written. This, in itself, is a good reality check for a liturgist as it lets you see if the movements of worship work the way you envision them. Then I found myself noticing features that I had not even planned, particularly in the Eucharist section where lay presiders (like myself) are limited to using approved resources. I was able to make connections as to why some of my instinctive (or spirit-led) selections were so appealing to me at the time of selection. I came out of that service with a great deal of energy.

So, once again God acts through my frailty. Why should I be surprised?

Youth and Children as a reality check

Sometimes I think we just get too accustomed to the Biblical narratives. There is nothing like the response of a young person to a biblical passage to shock and awe us anew.

I can remember once getting a youth group to perform a dramatization of the parable of the talents for a Presbytery meeting where I was leading the Bible study. At the end of the run-through a young woman was visibly shaking with anger... "Are you going to explain this to us? You need to explain this to us! The others all gambled and Jesus went off at the one who played it safe!"

Yesterday the RE lesson for grade 7 was based on the story of the prostitute (and, yes, that is the title used in the resource) washing the feet of Jesus. As soon as I used the title a boy's hand went up, "are you allowed to use that word in school?" After reassuring, I moved on and after talking about Jesus allowing this woman to wash his feet I asked the class if they would let that sort of person get that close to them. A girl in the back row visibly cringed and shrunk back into herself. I think she gave the right answer, as did the rest of the class in quite strong voice immediately after. I'm not sure that I have enough love to let the prostitute wash my feet either... I can only hope God continues to teach me how to love.

Why do we preach?

I was reading some of John Wesley's "An earnest appeal to Men of Reason and Religion", and some of it really struck home. If interested, it was found on pages 390-391 of John Wesley Edited by Albert C. Outler:

"...you preach to a great number of people every night and morning. Pray, what would you do with them? Whither would you lead them? What religion do you preach? What is it good for?" I replied, " I do preach to as many who desire to hear, every night and morning. You ask, what would I do with them? I would make them virtuous and happy, easy in themselves and useful to others. Whither would I lead them? To heaven: to God the judge, the lover of all, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant. What religion do I preach? The religion of love: the law of kindness brought to light by the gospel. What is this good for? To make all who receive it enjoy God and themselves: to make them like God, lovers of all, contented in their lives and crying out at their death, in calm assurance, 'O grave, where is thy victory? Thanks be unto God, who giveth me the victory through my Lord Jesus Christ' (cf I Cor. 55.57). "

So, why do we preach?

Transfiguration Sunday - on discipleship

Yesterday was Transfiguration Sunday, and we were having an abbreviated service to allow time for a congregational meeting. So my children's address had to do double duty as a sermon (not altogether a bad thing).

I was reflecting on the Transfiguration, and wondering why Jesus was only revealed in this way to a limited number of his disciples for a limited time. Surely he could have done this at any time he would want. But then I thought of bright lights in darkness: the shock in a child's eyes if you turn on the lights of they are talking after lights out. No wonder the gospel records that Peter goes out and says something that shows a complete lack of understanding - Peter always has to say something. The disciples did not know what to say, they were just kangaroos transfixed in the headlights of Christ's glory.

When I was in research one way we used to soften light was to use mirrors. A mirror can be used to take a small part of the light of a bright object and reflect it into an area of shadow. So, can discipleship be seen as being a mirror. A mirror serves to assist the light to shine into the darkness. A mirror does not produce any light. A mirror does not need to understand electromagnetic theory or practical optics - a mirror reflects because that is what a mirror does. I pray that God polishes us all into more effective mirrors for the world.

But now I have a second image coming into my mind : a mirror works only in constant connection. This does not really express the cycles of our lives in ministry - those of going out and coming back. When my sister was in her early teens, she was really keen on a collection of toys called glow-bugs. They were moulded plastic figures made of a dullish yellowy-green plastic. But when they were exposed to sunlight for a few ours, and then taken into darkness they shone with a soft green glow that would last all night. As a physicist, the knowledge that the light the toy gives off is less energetic than the sunlight appeals to me - we can never shine with the full glory of God in this place. But isn't that more like our lives of worship, witness and service? If we fail to enter into the presence and appreciation of God, or if we fail to enter the dark places of the world, we can never reach our full potential nor appreciate what we truly are - bringers of the light of God's love into the world. Now all I have to do is work out how a glow bug can point back to the source of its life (as the mirror does), rather than just displaying what is happening.

Any comments?

Gardening at last

Those of you who know me from college would know that one of the things I was really looking forward to doing once in placement was establishing a vegetable garden - I suppose three years of surviving on institutional food can do that to you!

So, over the last few weeks (Wow, it's been that long already!) I have been working on establishing a vegetable garden. As you can see, it actually has two beds, the first (the one at the back) was established in my first week here and I was finally happy to start planting in it yesterday. The second is only a few days old at this stage, and hopefully I will be able to raise some seedlings to plant in it in a few weeks' time.

So, what is this doing in my faith-based blog? For me, gardening is a beautiful and spiritual. It is a uniting of my physicality with my mind, and a time where I can get dirty and sweaty as I use my hands. It is a time which is so different to the creativity of words that form the majority of my days. Yet still, my mind and spirit are engaged in a different way.

The first point I would like to make is the sheer wonder of creation. The scientist in me knows all about semi-permeable membranes, genetic reproduction and the like, but there is still something wonderful about the anticipation and the sights of first sprouts rising from the ground with the variation between the explosion of a new bean shoot and the tentative searchings of something like chives. The sheer act of relating this wonder to eating reminds me of our reliance on the creative power of God in the world around us in a way that picking up a bag from the supermarket never can. In this way, I am also connecting with the spirituality of many of my congregation who are farmers - at least I am not as dependent on the weather as they are, you can see the tank in the background!

We often have the image of God as a gardener. Yet we can forget how violent an action gardening is. I know Linda's father the sheep rancher refers to himself as a grower of grass, but the vegetable garden needed to be wrestled clod by clod out of the grass lawn. To gain a reasonable depth for the side walls, all of the soil needed to be removed from the whole and then replaced. Additives like manures and mulches need to be worked through the soil before you can even think about planting a crop. A gardener is intimately involved with the garden, the first watering is sweat from the brow. It is far too easy for us to see God as removed and detached, but in the image of Christ crucified we see the ultimate in price paid for creation.

I often see Christian leadership as a gardening function. The image of the trellis in the background is one point in case. When people are asked to do things for the first time, they often need to be lent support and structure, but the same structures can become choking as they grow and develop.

The final thing gardening (and other events in my life at the moment) is teaching me at the moment is how to relax. This morning, after taking the photo, I watched a wasp hunting in the mature bed for about five minutes. Gardening is an activity of attempting to create opportunities for life that many creatures enjoy (indeed, a sterile garden is a dead garden). So this little disruption in the environment at my hands gives me tho opportunity to see life on a smaller scale and relate it to the bigger picture of my faith life and that of my community.

May you all find opportunities for similar moments of connectedness with God, and I'll try to keep you in touch with developments. Please feel free to jump in with the insight you get from your hobbies also.