Box Hill Baptist Church » Uncategorized

18 December 2011

nomastery — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:51:40 +0000

Today on the Fourth Sunday in Advent we celebrate with our children the possibility there is within each of us to reach our full potential.

Zechariah prophesied that his son John the Baptiser would be called the prophet of the Most High. The Spirit of God within each of us, when offered the freedom to guide our thoughts, actions and being, will help us to live Christ like lives offering light, love and compassion to others. May we as a community encourage and guide our children as they grow in love.

Earth-Maker,

our world is abundantly rich with everything we need to live a bountiful and comfortable life.

Yet there is more to life than things.

Help us to learn to love and care for each other so that we might each grow to our full potential, realising the possibilities within.

May this be particularly so for our children.

AMEN.

Richard

27 November 2011

nomastery — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 05:58:17 +0000

Today is the first Sunday of Advent where we begin in our journey in the church calendar toward Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Each week during Advent a word will be added to the black panel at the front. Traditionally the first Advent Sunday we reflect upon the themes of ‘being on the watch’, ‘expectancy’, ‘longing’ or ‘anticipation’. Today we focus upon anticipation and certainly our very pregnant Mary that the Kid’s Church children have created adds to the theme of expectancy and anticipation. But what is it that we anticipate we might receive? Health and security? Love and acceptance? Isaiah writes about the return from exile and the chasm that had developed between the disillusioned people of Judah and the One who is their source. It is only God who can restore the returning exile’s confidence. The prophet pleads with God to demonstrate ‘loyalty’ to the people and restore broken relationships with God’s people. “Restore us, Oh God: let your face shine, that we might be saved” is the poet’s plea in Psalm 80. This echoes Isaiah’s deep longing and hope for restored relationship with God and acknowledges the need for the people to work toward this restoration. And asks how long this will take. The community of Mark’s gospel is also waiting for a better world, and they wonder how long it will take. The Mark reading today is a passage taken from Jesus’ final talk with his followers before his arrest and execution. The people in Mark’s community remember the promises of God’s presence of a better world and long for clear signs that the promises are being fulfilled. Jesus reminds his followers that only God knows the timing. In the meantime, he challenges them to stay awake, be alert, and live in anticipation. May we together work toward a better world and way of living as the broken relationships within our worlds are restored.

Upcoming Unboxed Worship – 16 October

nomastery — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 11:03:07 +0000

7pm. All welcome.

11 September 2011

nomastery — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 07:46:23 +0000

This week we install the religious art prize exhibition. We have asked people to extend ways of interpreting the image of God in our midst, acknowledging the diversity of ways we experience and understand God expressed in the world. We want to honour the open ways in which we are inspired. Indeed, in the face of the struggles around us, we are wondering how we might ‘Image’ a God present, offering life and hope. And we received many entries from NSW, Qld and SA, as well as locally.

And we asked the question from a particular frame… that is, from Genesis 1, we learn that God decided to make humanity in God’s own image… male and female God created them. There is considerable scholarly debate around what it means to be formed in God’s image… And on the other hand, almost every other reference to ‘image’ in the Bible is that it is a threatening thing. There is issue with images, or idols, which seek to set in concrete the things of God. To constrain or limit or distort ways of thinking about God. Images are ‘graven’ as in they carved, or fixed in stone. They are ‘fixed’, where as there is a sense of humans becoming ‘living images’ of God. Humanity is not a static representation, but a dynamic expression unfolding image of God. So any painting, sculpture or artwork, ultimately seeks to explore that in some way – rather than concretize God. The illusion that God can be imaged, or even contained by an image, is replaced by an experience whereby God is revealed in the dynamic of the conversation, I would say, the conversation of the Trinity – Creator, Son and Spirit. God as creator, revealed in the life of Jesus and in an ongoing way expressed in the creative activity of the Spirit of God present to us. And ultimately, that we, people are made in the image of God – not just Christians or men or blacks or white – but all people are made in the image of God.

Easter Services 2011

nomastery — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 04:35:33 +0000

Maundy Thursday 7.00pm

Good Friday 9.30am

Easter Sunday 10.00am

Visit the gallery to experience the ‘breakthrough’ experience of Easter (7-21 April)

Upcoming Unboxed Worship – ‘earth, fire, air & water’ – 20 March

nomastery — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 09:22:45 +0000

Last month we postponed the reflective worship service focused on the natural disasters which had been afflicting us: fire & water (floods in Qld and Vic, and bushfires in Qld)

Since then we’ve had cyclones in Qld, earthquakes in Christchurch, and now earthquakes, tsunamis and nuclear meltdown in Japan…. It’s hard to fathom.

More reason to gather and ask God what on earth is going on here this year…

Join us.

7pm – Sunday 20 March

Babble:On Conference

nomastery — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 11:30:04 +0000

Dates: Thursday 31 March – Saturday 2 April

Venues: Toorak Uniting Church and the Swedish Church, Toorak

Babble:on is a three day conversation about art, spirituality and contemporary Australia. It’s a three way conversation between artworks, artists, and viewers. During March and April 2011, the 59th Blake Prize Touring Exhibition presented at Toorak Uniting Church, provides the impetus for these conversations.

For more information please click here

Gallery news

nomastery — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 00:07:20 +0000

At the moment we are enjoying the work of Jo Parkinson. I hope you have a moment to stop and browse. Next up, we are delighted that Ben Winspear will be returning for “A Closer look”. Ben’s Official Opening will be Thursday 24th Feb. We are trialling a new opportunity to engage with art, food and conversation, in the shape of a “Taste and See” dinner. Paul Smith and Ben Winspear will encourage a conversation about art and creativity, alongside the culinary creativity of Trudy Skilbeck. There is a cost of $20 for this event, and it will be held on Friday 25th Feb in the Gallery. There are limited numbers, so please book and pay soon if you are interested. Anne is taking the bookings.

2 May 2010

nomastery — Mon, 03 May 2010 12:28:44 +0000

Today we listen carefully to the question “who is your neighbour?” In responding to the question, we are challenged to look beyond the familiar, to those whose needs for food, shelter and education are palpable. Our focus today, is upon the work of TEAR, particularly in Africa. As we partner with a community abroad, we are seeking to work to improve the lives of the poorest and most marginalized people, and seek to offer an opportunity for the education of children who might then be empowered to learn and direct their own future. May we be open to learn so that we might find opportunities for ongoing learning for the children of Ethiopia!”

11 April 2010

nomastery — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:32:33 +0000

Preparing this cross for you after the service on Easter Friday, was a
deepening experience of an image of God that is present in suffering and
life-giving possibility. It has always struck me how difficult it is to
balance an image of a cross, an instrument of death, with the possibility of
life. And similarly, how this story of death and life is actually present to
us moment by moment, rather than bound up with an image of a God out there offering life beyond, as opposed to eternity in our hearts now.

This passage from Revelation 1, offers something extraordinary about
bridging the time-space bound world that I am in, with a God who is and was
and is to come. a permanence of the presence of God, that does not buy into
a dualistic notion of God up there and us down here. This is not an image of
God’s ransom or of ‘substitution’, or indeed of sacrifice. Rather, I think
this cross creates a God imaged as present with humanity in all the
suffering and pain and experience of life. The notion of ‘beginning and end’
and all in between is present here, as opposed to earthly and heavenly
dualism! The image of the adorned cross that we have in the front of our
church, seems to bridge that gap… calling us to embrace the
vulnerability of living as the transcendent communion we have within the
nature of God.

Anne