Lectionary
Perspectives
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 The Christmas Season
may be especially short for you this year,
depending on what you choose to do with Sunday 1 January. However, if
you decide to celebrate it as Christmas 1B, you will be able to extend
the season a little more, with the focus on Jesus' presentation in the
Temple. If you prefer not to do this, there are still two options
available to you. The first is simply to focus on the start of the New
Year with the Ecclesiastes reading focussing on God's view of time, and
eternity in our hearts, and the Matthew reading (a revisit from a few
weeks ago) challenging us to serve Christ in others through the parable
of the Sheep and the Goats. I suspect, though, that, unless you
celebrate Epiphany midweek on Friday 6 January, many of us will choose
to use the first Sunday of the year as the launch of the Epiphany
Season. The visit of the Magi is then the focus, and it offers a
creative way to continue the Christmas journey, while still moving
forward into the next phase of the calendar. Whichever choice you make,
though, there is the common ground of Christ's glory being revealed,
and God's Light coming into the world to heal and save all people.
From 8 January we are solidly in Epiphany, and the usual focus on
Jesus' baptism begins the journey of learning who this Jesus is, and
opening our eyes to recognise God's glory revealed in Christ. The link
this year with the creation story from Genesis 1 offers a whole range
of creative possibilities, and highlights the way God's Spirit hovers
over the waters bringing new life into being. From this beginning, the
Lectionary moves us into the start of Jesus' ministry, viewed through
two of the Gospel writers - John and Mark. Here we see both the basic
message that Jesus preached (the Reign of God) and the calling of the
first disciples, including the mysterious encounter between Jesus and
Nathaniel in which Jesus refers back to Jacob's ladder - essentially
suggesting that he is the unique mediator of God's glory to the world.
The next few weeks in the Lectionary give us wonderful readings for the
start of a New Year, and enable us to begin this new journey with a new
vision of God's glory in Christ, and a new sense of our own call to
follow Christ and touch others with God's grace and love. May you be
inspired as you prepare and facilitate worship!
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| Liturgical
Perspectives |
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 A few years ago I
read an article in which it was suggested that couples who have been
married for a long time remember things better than those who live
alone. The reason is that married couples tend to "assign" different
items to each partner and then are able to "reconstruct" the complete
memory together. It's a case of two heads really being better than one.
It also reveals that some memories are bigger than individuals and may
require relationships, or even communities, to carry them. This
certainly seems to be the case when it comes to spiritual memory.
Stories of faith extend through time and spread over the earth such
that they are far bigger than any single individual. The meaning that
these stories hold and the potential impact they have on us is also way
beyond what a single person can 'carry'. They are over-arching stories
that connect us into a reality and an experience that is far beyond our
own personal capacity. This is what makes them so deeply transforming.
The question this raises is how we are to remember and pass on these
faith stories such that their meaning and power do not get diluted.
This, I believe, is one of the most profound tasks of liturgy. We
remember better when our whole beings are involved in the task. Through
it's symbols, ritual actions and participative singing and praying,
liturgy provides all we need for maximum remembering. Also, since the
basic ingredients of liturgy have remained much the same for centuries,
liturgy connects us with the memories of our faith-ancestors, and
invites us to participate in the process of passing them on. Finally,
since performing liturgy is a communal activity, our worship invites us
into the shared memories of our community, rather than just an
individual experience of God.
If we seek worship that offers us depth, meaning and access to a life
that is far bigger than ourselves, we cannot ignore our liturgies. I
pray that we will continue to use liturgy this year to reconnect with
the awesome, God-given memories of our faith, and allow them to become
part of every detail of our lives.
That's it for this year! May your Christmas be both
disturbing and joyful, and may you enter 2012 with a new vision of
God's Reign.
And, of course, may your worship lead you deeper into
the love of God and the love of God's world!
John
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Links
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Lectionary Worship Resources:
(01
January)
(01
January)
(01 or 06 January)
(08
January)
On the
Blog:
Being
Sent
There's an old hymn that, in its day, created quite a bit of
debate in the circles in which I moved. It went like this:
"Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in his wonderful
face, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of
his glory and grace."
I know that there may be some valid reasons behind the writer's
decision to include those words in the hymn, but I have always
struggled with what that line has meant for those who sing it.
Read
more...
When
Worship Overflows
In the last few years I have had a number of conversations
with people who have either stopped attending worship gatherings or
find them deeply painful and frustrating. I can understand their
reaction, and, when they tell me about the ways they encounter God in
nature or through beautiful art, I resonate with their experiences.
Yet, I remain deeply committed to the weekly gathering of Church.
Read
more...
The
Fruit Of Worship
Author, speaker and theologian, Leonard Sweet, in an
interview once made this telling comment:
"People will come to church. They will get into their
cars and barrel down the highway 50 to 60 miles an hour. They are two
to three feet from other cars. They are two to three feet from
strangers, trusting them not to bang into them. They are ten feet away
from cars that are coming straight into them. We take huge life and
death risks trusting strangers to get there. When we get to church, we
immediately freeze up and play it safe."
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