Steve led us this morning with the remit of taking us through the entire history of the Bible in approximately 30 minutes!  It was sunny and beautiful, but surrounded by the travelling fair! Despite that we managed to make it work – and it was great!

It was a time given over to allow us all to reflect and be quiet. The time fell into 4 sections. The first focussed on creation as we all faced the river and heard selected verses from Genesis 1 – 2. These words were taken from The Message and we were all struck by each of the readings in terms of their freshness and power, cutting through our over-familiarity with them. In this case, it was the generosity of God that particularly impacted on me.

We were all invited to create 7 words or images to reflect God’s creation and it was good seeing the different ideas emerge from everyone.

As we turned 90 degrees to face the town, Steve spoke of the Fall and our own personal ‘falls’ and we listened to words from Genesis 3.

Our third section, facing the third direction allowed us to focus on redemption. Here we assumed a bowed position as we received bread and heard Jesus’ words explaining the significance of the incarnation in John 6:31-33. Again the Message seemed to make Jesus’ words so much more accessible: ‘The real significance of that Scripture is not that Moses gave you bread from heaven, but that my Father is right now offering bread from heaven…’ This was followed by the last words from Jesus on the cross (Luke 23:44-46) as we ate the bread and raised our heads.

At stage 3 ½ (!) we heard Paul’s words from Romans 8:18-25 about all creation yearning for redemption. If you haven’t read those words from The Message, just read this:

^18-21 That’s why I don’t think there’s any comparison between the present hard times and the coming good times. The created world itself can hardly wait for what’s coming next. Everything in creation is being more or less held back. God reins it in until both creation and all the creatures are ready and can be released at the same moment into the glorious times ahead. Meanwhile, the joyful anticipation deepens.

^22-25 All around us we observe a pregnant creation. The difficult times of pain throughout the world are simply birth pangs. But it’s not only around us; it’s within us. The Spirit of God is arousing us within. We’re also feeling the birth pangs. These sterile and barren bodies of ours are yearning for full deliverance. That is why waiting does not diminish us, any more than waiting diminishes a pregnant mother. We are enlarged in the waiting. We, of course, don’t see what is enlarging us. But the longer we wait, the larger we become, and the more joyful our expectancy.

Following this we prayed. We took time to write our own responses to ideas linked to being saved, with headings:

I have been saved.     For the past and particularly for this past year, I give thanks for…

I am being saved.       Today I ask for…

I will be saved.           For this coming year I am trusting…

For those known to us undergoing difficult times – birth pangs – who need God’s saving power now…

For those yearning for help who are not known to us, but in situations we are aware of…

We shared our prayers for others and concluded with one hand on the shoulder of the person to the right of us – praying for one another and all named in our prayers, saying:

May the love of God the Father,

the saving power of God the Son

and the peace of God the Holy Spirit

fill you and reside in you,

today and in the year ahead.

 Amen.

Finally, facing the direction of the sun, we drank our cups of wine as we heard the promise of the consummation – the renewed heaven and earth, from Isaiah 25:6-10 and Revelation 21:1-8, with God moving into the neighbourhood and proclaiming ‘It’s happened’. Roll on that day! We finished with a commissioning blessing. Thanks Steve – it felt good to start the new academic year with a sense of being grounded in the very centre of the Christian tradition, being part of God’s work in the world from the start to the conclusion…

Meeting outside to worship has been a revelation to me. Even in the most inclement of weather being outside beats looking at four walls, however beautifully they might be decorated.

 Scenery, flowers, plants and trees, changing seasons, bird song, people walking, children playing and meeting with a great bunch of people – what could be better?

Ever wished you could spend Sunday mornings sunning yourself in the park instead of sitting inside the walls of a church. Well that was what we did at Third Space this morning. The sun shining and a warm gentle breeze led to a relaxed and I hope inspiring experience.

Barbara had come across a couple of moving items on her travels recently.

In Chester Cathedral: 

Judas Tree

In Hell there grew a Judas Tree
Where Judas hanged and died
Because he could not bear to see                                                    
His master crucified
Our Lord descended into Hell
And found his Judas there
For ever hanging on the tree
Grown from his own despair
So Jesus cut his Judas down
And took him in his arms
“It was for this I came” he said
“And not to do you harm
My Father gave me twelve good men
And all of them I kept
Though one betrayed and one denied
Some fled and others slept
In three days’ time I must return
To make the others glad
But first I had to come to Hell
And share the death you had
My tree will grow in place of yours
Its roots lie here as well
There is no final victory
Without this soul from Hell”
So when we all condemned him
As of every traitor worst
Remember that of all his men
Our Lord forgave him first

D. Ruth Etchells

In Norwich Cathedral in a little side chapel this prayer which had been found on a scrap of paper at Ravensbruck concentration camp during the Second World War.

‘O Lord, remember not only the men and women of good will but also those of ill will. But do not remember all the suffering they have inflicted upon us; remember the fruits we have bought, thanks to this suffering, our comradeship, our loyalty, our humility, the courage, the generosity, the greatness of heart which has grown out of this; and when they come to judgement, let all the fruits that we have borne be their forgiveness. Amen’.

Forgiveness – something in the Christian faith which is very distinctive. Something that sounds easy, but is not so easy to do.

We read some stories from The Forgiveness Project which uses the real stories of victims and perpetrators to explore concepts of forgiveness, and to encourage people to consider alternatives to resentment, retaliation and revenge.    www.theforgivenessproject.com

Some bible passages we considered around the subject:

Colossians 3:13 NIV

Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.

Ephesians 4:31-32 NIV

Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Matthew 18: 21-22 NIV

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times? “Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”

1 Corinthians 13:4 – 6 NIV

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonour others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

Matthew 5:23-24 NIV

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift.”

Luke 6:37 NIV

Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.

John 8:7 NIV

When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “If any one of you is without sin, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.”

Acts 7:59-60 NIV

While they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Luke 23:33-34 NIV

When they came to a place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals – one on his right, the other on his left, Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”

Luke 17:3-4 NIV

So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says , ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”

Romans 12:20 NIV

On the contrary: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head.”

Sitting in the “Pews”

  What a good way to do church. Sitting in the sunshine reading inspiring stories.

D Day Bunting

Third Space commemorated D Day by stringing up bunting in the bandstand. Many of us had watched, read or listened to moving accounts of the Normany landings and the battle that followed, which freed Europe from the ideology of National Socialism. It is good to see that since then the countries who had been at war have joined together in peace.

“Blessed are the peacemakers” Matthew 5:9

The commemoration came at the same time as the festival of Pentecost – the birth of the church.

The Holy Spirit came upon the disciples and changed them from a group cowering, scared and hiding in a room to people who told others boldly about Jesus and his teachings.

May we in Third Space use the fruits of the Spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control (Galatians 5:22-23) and bravely bring in the KIngdom of Jesus and his teachings.

Another beautiful sunny day at the bandstand. It is on mornings like this I rejoice that we can meet outside.

The warmth of the sun, the spectacular scenery, the bird song, people looking relaxed and happy dressed in their colourful summer togs. We would miss all this inside four walls.

Opening Worship.

Open our eyes to see the beauty of your world – seeds caught in a lovely spiders web over the river.

God of generosity, justice and peace come into our midst this morning,

Breathe your breath,

Your Holy Spirit,

Your enlivening,

Your imagination on us.

Wake us up,

Open our eyes,                                                                                                                   

Unplug our ears;

That we might hear,

That we might see,

That we might grieve,

That we might dream.

That we might follow the ways of your extraordinary kingdom. Amen.

(Jonny Baker)

Spiritual Gifts

With the season of Pentecost almost upon us Grayden led us with some thoughts about Spritual Gifts. This followed on from a full and frank discussion at the Kenyons when everyone had shared their experiences after discussing the book we are looking at.

 Chapter entitled “Charismatic Streams” in Michael Mitton’s :Travellers of the Heart. 

Grayden talked about some of what Michael Mitton called shadow side of the Charismatic movement and we were sent away with the following questions to consider:

The Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts.

• Do we need to think much more widely about what spiritual gifts are?
• Don’t we all use spiritual gifts when preparing and presenting worship at Third Space and Soul Space?
• Aren’t we using spiritual gifts when we encourage and thank each other for preparing and presenting worship? Do we need to make a point of encouraging others even more?
• Are we put off spiritual gifts because we only associate them with tongues, prophecy and healing?
• Are we shy of talking about spiritual gifts because we think that much of the language used by charismatics is insincere and false?
• When you hold a door open for someone or let someone into a traffic queue don’t you get a feeling of that’s how life should be – generous, considerate and inclusive? Are these actions gifts of the Spirit?

Thinking about spiritual gifts.

Our discussions continued over coffee … 

Third Space hopes to be like the early Christian monks who set off in their coracles, sails hoisted, so the wind of the Spirit could take them forward.

So we need to continue to be open to the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit.

DISCUSSIONS TO BE CONTINUED …

Bread and wine to share

The bread and wine of Jesus.

This is the bread and wine of new expectations

This is the bread and wine where everyone can come to receive

This is the bread and wine for those who haven’t met Jesus yet

This is the bread and wine of reconciliation

This is the bread and wine of acceptance

This is the bread and wine of the kingdom of God

This is the bread and wine of justice and generosity

This is the bread and wine of community

This is the bread and wine of Jesus, our Lord

adapted from Jonny Baker

Closing Prayer.

Kindle in us a love for the wild beauty of the creation of God.

Fan the flame of passion for community.

Heat us to white hot with yearning for culture to be transformed,

And people to know the God who breathed life into them.

Spark in us a fire which rages with all consuming heat against injustice, oppression and evil.

Bright flame, for whom Aidan of Lindisfarne was named,

Passed on from generation to generation,

From winter to winter,

From summer to summer,

From day to day,

Set alight in us the love of the Christ who walks in the world,

Blow on us with the wind of the Spirit…………Amen.

Jonny Baker worship trick 89

Weeping Beech

Just two days after the feast day of St Brendan (the Patron Saint of ThirdSpace?) it seemed appropriate to focus on travel. Brendan had long been an inspiration to us after our friend and writer Michael Mitton likened our journey to that of the Celtic saints who set off in their coracles and let the wind / Spirit blow them to the right destination.

His book ‘Travellers of the heart’ picks up on the theme of travelling across Old and New Testaments, and a week and a half ago we were discussing 2 chapters of this brilliant book, reflecting on our journeys through or around evangelical and charismatic expressions of Christianity.. Some of us felt, when looking at the question of what we might have lost from our evangelical roots, that we needed to return to our prioritising of the Bible.

Here then were the strands that led to this time in the park – in a stunningly beautiful, sunny, warm morning (at last!)

We met at the bandstand and began our gathering with words from Ray Simpson’s book ‘Celtic Worship through the year’ (Hodder & Stoughton):

In the name of the sending Father

In the name of the pilgrim Son

In the name of the wind-like Spirit

In the name of the Three-in-One.

Each then received a copy of verses from the end of Genesis 11 through to Genesis 13:18, charting Abraham’s travels from Ur to Haran, to Canaan, to Egypt and back again to Canaan.

Armed with a map and starting questions we found places in the park to sit and reflect in the tradition of Lectio Divina.

The questions were:

What are the key features of this story that intrigue me?

What does this tell me about Abraham?

What might this story mean to Jewish readers?

What might this story say to Christian readers?

These were followed by four more suggested questions…

Possible questions to explore for ThirdSpace:

What might stop us from travelling onwards?

What have we left behind / do we need to leave behind?

Who or what are we being called to?

What have been our altar moments? (Moments of encounter / sense of God’s presence?)

We will be sharing our reflections on these questions on Wednesday evening when we meet at the Gate on Smedley Street.

We reconvened under a beautiful weeping beech in the park.

It is worth noticing that sacred trees feature often in the early books of the Old Testament as the ‘thin places’ people then found (the oak of Moreh & the oaks of Mamre in our reading today). There they built altars – places of sacrifice. Whether we are from high or low church traditions or not, it seems to me that every re-enactment of the last supper – the breaking of bread and pouring of wine – is a symbolic building of an altar, as Christ is in some mysterious way, sacrificed for us again. So, under our own tree, in our own thin place, we had our altar. There we wanted to be in communion with  those undergoing hard journeys and we prayed for many, placing stones symbolically as we all gave our ‘Amen’ to each prayer…

We ended with the following words:

In this sacred place, in union these people we have named

In this sacred place, in union with our brothers and sisters across the centuries and across all continents,

In this sacred place, in union with our forefathers Abraham and Brendan,

In this sacred place in union with all who have stepped out and journeyed into the unknown in response to your call, we share bread and wine

We break bread:     Jesus our companion.

We drink wine:        Strength for the journey.

And if this all sounds very solemn and deep – who says God doesn’t have a sense of humour? – here’s a picture of Steve who went through the whole things dripping, having had to get into the river to recue the dog who couldn’t get out after a rash entry down a rather steep slope!!

Despite the cold, dull and windy morning we were greeted by birdsong and blossom in the park reminding us that although the temperature seemed to be telling us otherwise the spring season was upon us.

Setting the scene we read John 20:11-18

“11 Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white, seated where Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.

13 They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? “They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where they have put him.” 14 At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.

15 He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.”

She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”).

17 Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”

18 Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she told them that he had said these things to her.”

 

• We heard about Jesus and his radical relationship with women during his ministry. In Jesus society men were not allowed to speak to women in public. Jesus talked to them openly and on equal terms with men. (e.g. Mary from Mary and Martha, the Samaritan woman at the well, the women who numbered among his followers and who supported him from their own means etc.)  Was appearing to Mary Magdalene first after the resurrection a deliberate act on Jesus part?
• We talked about Jesus and Mary in the garden and linked it to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden – how all had been put right through Jesus death and resurrection. 
• We took time listening for God’s voice, being aware of his presence – just as Jesus called Mary by name he could call us by name too.
• We heard remarkable poetry that blessed us, affirmed who we are and what we are doing.

Bringing us together: Community by William Stafford, Right Hear, Right Now by Peter Matthiassen

 

Called into relationship: God’s heart is for us and he desires that our heart beats as one with his.

Sharing the bread and wine

“On their own, the bread and wine are nothing. To become a foretaste and a promise of love made real and a world made whole, they need a story and a blessing and a people who believe… ”   Jonny Baker 

Closing responses – Wellspring

 In the beginning God created all things

AND GOD SAW THAT THEY WERE GOOD

At our beginning, God created us

UNIQUE AND IRREPLACEABLE

LOVED BY GOD AND WANTED BY GOD

KNOWN TO GOD AND TREASURED BY GOD

EVEN BEFORE HE CREATED US.

In all our new beginnings, God creates something new

SO WE WILL SEEK GOD

IN THE FRESHNESS OF MORNING

IN THE LAUGHTER F FRIENDS

IN THE COLOURS OF CREATION

AND IN THE WARMTH OF SPRING-TIME SUNSHINE

Lord God, King of Creation,

OPEN OUR EYES TO SEE YOUR PRESENCE

OUR SOULS TO SENSE YOUR PRESENCE

AND OUR HEARTS TO LOVE YOUR PRESENCE

EVER HERE IN YOUR CREATION

AND EVER BEYOND IT IN ETERNITY.

AMEN.

“Beauty is the illumination of your soul” John O’Donohue

 

Sharing a meal together has always been a special time for those of us in Third Space. So trying to understand something of the tradition of the Passover Meal that Jesus would have shared with his disciples before his arrest and crucifixion was something we attempted to do.

With thanks to Michele Guinness and her book The Heavenly Party we had an abridged/abridged Passover Celebration.

During the meal we shared the four cups traditionally used during the celebration.

• The first cup, the Cup of Sanctification or Holiness (I will bring you out)
• The second cup – the Cup of Promise (I will free you)
• The third cup The Cup of Blessing (I will redeem you)
• The forth cup the Cup of Wrath

After drinking this cup Jesus left and went to the Garden of Gethsemane and on to death taking upon himself the Cup of Wrath in order that we can be forgiven.

Matthew 26

“36 Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, “Sit here while I go over there and pray.” 37 He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with him, and he began to be sorrowful and troubled.38 Then he said to them, “My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.

39 Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.

40 Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. 41 “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.

43 When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. 44 So he left them and went away once more and prayed the third time, saying the same thing.

45 Then he returned to the disciples and said to them, “Are you still sleeping and resting? Look, the hour has come, and the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinners. 46 Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”