Introduction
I spoke about Sarah’s book and our journey as a church. I liked the chapter on going slow but it didn’t quite work for me, but I liked the notion and the importance of giving time and intentionality to the work of the spirit in our lives.
Provided a brief precis of the pace of life we all encounter these days and the pressures to ‘be’ and the little time we have to give to God usually just quick answers, sound bytes, that can distort our u/s of God….
I also introduced the role narratives play in our lives and the power of our stories in shaping who we are, this led into a brief focus on how as Christians we belong to God and our narrative locates in God, ie I’m a child of Abraham first and foremost. The dilemma I led to in the introduction was how do we incorporate God’s story into our narrative?
I gave three suggestions that I emphasised were suggestions to perhaps ponder over Lent…
Suggestion one: Recovery of the Presence of God
This section emphasised that the Presence of God is a central theme to the Gospel. Picking up the OT reading on Moses, I focussed on Moses’s interaction with God (intercession for Israel) for God’s Presence to go with them or not to send them out, as Moses said ‘what will make us distinct’ (my core point)…I then spoke about the Presence as a result of the Gospel, with the Spirit indwelling our bodies, and pointed to Rev 21 as in the end we aren’t going to heaven, heaven is coming to us, ie God’s Presence will sustain us for eternity. I spoke about the role of the Presence (spirit) in our lives as enabling us a image bearers to actually be image bearers for God in the world and to through the Gospel be able to take God’s character into the world something Israel did not achieve.
So first point be aware of the primacy and importance of the Presence of God.
Suggestion two: Get to know the Presence
Here is spoke about the recovery of the contemplative way, gave a brief precis of stillness and reflective prayer scripturally, then spoke about waiting on God in prayer and meditation, I also linked this to the healing of our stressed-out world we can offer people another way….
Suggestion three: Read more poetry
Spoke about how poetry allows us to see the world through a more spacious lens, spoke about Mary Oliver’s poetry and a new poet I was discovering David Whyte, who through his time at the Galapagos Is found that the more we pay attention the freer we become.
Conclusion
I pulled it together and read Mary Olivers poem, Prayer.