Liturgy In A Dangerous Time - WordPress

Liturgy in aDangerous Time( Mark Kensett)#2Would you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.

Sunday 26 April 2020( Mark Kensett/Amos Trust)This is the second liturgy in a series of free resources for you to use on yourown, with those at home, or perhaps in an online group. However you chooseto use this, we would suggest that as you go, you remember the green crosscode: stop, look, listen and think. We’ve deliberately tried to include voicesfrom across the church, so we hope you’ll find some familiarity and somenewness here.This edition has some themes of light and shade, which seems familiar. Ourreading is the road to Emmaus – which is full of dusty texture and gives plentyof pause for thought. Once again lots of generous people have contributed, allfrom different backgrounds, and with divergent perspectives and ideas, whichseems familiar too.Oh, and in case you’re new here and you’re wondering why ‘Liturgy in aDangerous Time’, this refers to a brilliant song by Bruce Cockburn, ‘Lovers in aDangerous Time’ which has the wonderful line: “we’re going to kick at thedarkness ‘til it bleeds daylight.”Right now there’s a nasty bruise developing.Would you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.

An openingWe are travelling together to a newplace –separated not by stones on a path,but by electrons flying through theether.And, like those journeying toEmmaus all those years ago,we talk about everything that hashappened,trying to comprehend things takenfrom us,and new things yet to be given.(Tim Watson)We welcome the Christ, as he walksA thoughtwith us,even as we fail to recognise hisHave a listen to this thought frompresence.(Andy Campbell)Lorraine Cavanagh.Questions:A soundListen to this beautiful setting ofWhat do we fear the most?What resources do we have to drawPsalm 18 in Punjabi.How does it make you feel?What comes to mind as you listen toon?(Lorraine Cavanagh)it?(Nabeel Masih)Would you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.

Were you there when they laid him inA songthe tomb?Were you there?Click here to hear it.Were you there when the God raisedhim from his grave?Were you there when they crucifiedWere you there when the God raisedmy Lord?him from his grave?Were you there when they crucifiedO sometimes it causes me to tremble!my Lord?tremble! tremble!O sometimes it causes me to tremble!Were you there when the God raisedtremble! tremble!him from his grave?Were you there when they crucifiedTrad arr: (Lee Bains III)my Lord?Were you there when they nail'd himto the tree?Were you there when they nail'd himto the tree?O sometimes it causes me to tremble!Oh to tremble!Were you there when they nail'd himto the tree?Were you there when they laid him inthe tomb?Were you there when they laid him inthe tomb?(Tim Watson)O sometimes it causes me to tremble!tremble! tremble!Would you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.

An activitySometimes in a patch of busyness-Tie a piece of string into a loop.take a while for you to notice specificsThrow it down at random onto yourin amongst the muddle. The patch offloor, or a patch of your balcony oryellow on the grass stalk. The trappedgarden. Now, in my house, this task isdandelion seed. The little bit of whiteeasy- your house is probably keptfluff. The tiny lego brick. In a patchcleaner and tidier than mine, but rollof peaceful serenity, where at firstwith it. Get down close and personalglance there is nothing of note, youto your loop. What can you see? Bestill find things to surprise you- thestill. Look closer. What do you see?way the light and shade move, theClose your eyes. Breathe. Open yourtexture of the lino, the way the carpeteyes and really notice. What do youfuzzes.grass or a really messy carpet- it cansee now? If you’re with others, youcan take it in turns to name what youThese places of our refuge at thisnotice. If you’re alone, phonetime, we are learning to know closersomeone who won’t think you’reand deeper than our own hands. Incrazy and tell them what you’ve seenthe years to come, we will be able toin your loop.dredge them up from our memoriesin intricate detail. But as witheverything and everyone we know,how much do we really see them?Not just the extraordinary in theordinary, but the familiar in thestrange. As the disciples found,finally noticing Jesus in the breakingof the bread, the extraordinary in the(Herbert Goetsche on Unsplash)ordinary, the familiar in the strange.(Rachel Summers)Would you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.

In these days when inequalitiesunleash their deadly effects,A prayerIn these days when ‘all shall be well’feels at odds with grievous reality,God be with us.help us to know that God lovesjustice, and it will prevail.In these days when activity is frenetic,uncomfortable or unavailableIn these days when enormity becomesa distraction, and small things claimour focus,help us to know that the God whodwells in us does the work.(Alison Webster)God be with usIn these days when our inner solitudeis too loud, and outside is unnervinglyquiet,God be with us.In these days when our fear contractsus, and stretches our hope,God be with us.In these days when routines aresnatched from us, and we drift fromour groove,help us to know how shallow wasthe groove of habit, and how the driftis toward centre.In these days when we extend ourdistance from others,help us to know how tensile are theinvisible ties that bind(Casey Horner on Unsplash)Would you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.

A poemBut you my friend,Ivanka Trump Studies GreekMythologyknow better than this.You think you are getting a bit of rainYou hear the songs of immortal godsyour wayand goddessesand then a thunderstorm appears outplaying from balconies.of nowhere.You transcend your anxietyAnd everythingthroughstops.collective applause.Imaginative,Homer employs deus ex machina,the unexpected intervention of a godsymbolic creationssave you from Polyphemus’s jaws.to save a seemingly hopeless situation.Ivanka Trump reads his work with theintentYour mind searches for answers,for retribution, for stability.of escape.But your heart is strong.Others cryptically embed TheYou will endure.OdysseyEmploy, as Homer did,and the ancient stories that followthe unexpected.into religious wallsRemould the tales of oldand claim, God has brought thisand journey safely home.storm upon us.(Sapphira Olson)Would you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.

A quoteA readingLife without love is like a tree withoutLuke 24: 13-35blossoms or fruit.(click here to see a version)(Khalil Gibran)A prayerLet love seep out of me like sap froma tree.A reflectionIt's interesting to speculate what thoseLet love flow through me like windtwo disciples might have said exactly,through branches.as they accompanied each other deepLet love nourish me like anin thought about such huge, life-underground spring.mangling events. It may not have hadmuch in common with the things thatAmenrattle round my head as I walkmetaphorically from Jerusalem, thesite of crucifixion and resurrection, tomy own personal Emmaus. But I'mcertainly aware that as I ponder thesethings, I too have gone 'on a bit of ajourney' with regards to these things,whether or not I've remembered, letalone recognised, those strangers enroute who have helped to open my eyes.After growing up without reallyconsidering(Middlewick on Morguefile)thequestionswhichresurrection might generate, I thenWould you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.

became defiantly pro-Good Friday,conflict to its resolution; it's not theinsistent that the resurrection is moreovercoming of the Good Friday world;like icing on the cake, at risk of beingit's not 'the fix' but is a crack in thetoo easily triumphalist in a world ofglass, the earthquake underneath ourpain, while the true nourishment isfoundations, the stranger who startlesfound in God's 'Good Friday-shaped'us, the thief breaking in.solidarity with the suffering ones of theearth. That's where our faith should beIt's not a resolution but an invitation torooted.live in two worlds: the Good Fridayworld which remains, undefeated, asBut then voices from the Majoritywe know too well while we endure thisWorld helped me to see how much thepandemic crisis, a world that lingersresurrection matters, for the sake ofinconveniently and painfully, and athose very same suffering ones. Itworldexpresses God's victory over systemsfunctions according to strange rules,of violence and injustice. It representslike the last being first and the firstthe overcoming of Good Friday, thebeing last.ofnewcreation,which'insurrection' against the very powerswhich belittle and scapegoat swathesResurrection is the crack betweenof our fellow humans. That's wherethese worlds, like an intruderour faith derives its energy.breaking in – into the world weBut more recently, I've walked a littlefurther along this Emmaus Road ofinterpretationanddiscoveredsomething slightly different, perhaps away of reintegrating the two realities:now, for me, resurrection isn't avictory in the sense of bringing atook for granted.This is precisely why it's hard torecognise. We might have generallythought that God kept them fromrecognising the risen Jesus, perhaps soJesus would have the opportunity tointerpret events for them, unhinderedby their dumbfoundedness, but what ifWould you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.

it was not God who prevented them –I certainly don’t find it easy tocomprehend that God preventedcomprehension – but rather, simply,theweightpreventedofthempast( Mark Kensett/ Amos Trust)as well as amazement, because it wasnot part of their normal mental orsocial landscape:experiencefromseeingsomething in front of them?Resurrection wasn’t a feature ofhow people saw the world orconstructed it, but was a newThis crisis today has helped me see thatrevelation; an apocalypse.more clearly: it takes time to orientateourselves to a strange new world. It’sThis is, for me, very much how it feels:disorienting and destabilising. Theboth this pandemic crisis and myexperiencedisturbing,Easter faith, not that they both shareunsettling, like an earthquake; and so itthe same source at all, but they bothwas for those first witnesses: theyrepresent a strange revelation, a crackexperienced fear as well as joy, terrorin the system, a crisis, an apocalypse,canbeWould you like to contribute to future editions of this liturgy? Word, pictures, sounds, videos email mail@simonjcross.com to let us know what you have to offer.