This amazing sculpture weaving of Mariette’s offers us another image – of threads woven together to form a beautiful bird soaring high, or perhaps a harp offering a melody. Each thread is part of the whole. Take one away and the weaving is diminished. Together they are beautiful, a creative flow that offers an picture of beauty and harmony.

That is what we look like when we work together. We have a common call to work together as the body of Christ. That means, sharing a gospel, a good news of serving, speaking, shouting a message of justice and love to the ends of the earth. And it means us doing that as loudly, creatively, excitingly, authentically as we can here in Box Hill for as long as we are called to do so!

Over this next couple of weeks, you are being asked about where you might consider putting your creative energy within the context of this community. Over the years, we have danced a balancing jig around releasing people from the burden or obligation to ‘do things’. We do not expect any body to ‘have’ to do anything. And, on the other hand, we recognize that engagement and involvement, the invitation to participate and being involved, is actually a really important part of belonging – freely, without obligation. That is to respond to the call of being who we are fully in this place. So, in this little dance that we do here, I hope that you can find the space to participate, freely, playfully, seriously, intentionally, with integrity. I hope you find the space to be involved as you are able.

The image of Ruth and Naomi invites us to consider the tender relationships where we find safety and nourishment to face the journey ahead. What a blessing when such relationships come our way. Let us give thanks :

God, who is tenderly present to us, We come as those who, in Jesus Christ, are open to you in this time and place.
We are the people who heal each other,
Who grow strong together,
Who name the truth as we perceive it,
Who know what it means to grow as we journey together.
We are a community who move towards a common dream
recognizing new moments of faith experience
in each other gathered here, and in others who journey along with us.
Go as the loved children of God into the world.
Live in love with one another
that the world may believe
the Christ has come.
Amen

Community relies upon people seeing… Attending to the world as it is around us. And in the seeing we discover a resonance with who we are… and from that we can respond, as the call of God upon us.

One of the methods of discerning ‘call’ that I have found really helpful is what we call the Daily Examen. It comes out of the Jesuit tradition, and it is a way of reflecting upon our experience of each day, and discerning the resonances between ourselves and what we see around us…of placing what we see in a God context, and so responding to call. The Examen is an ancient practice in the Church that can help us see God’s hand at work in our whole experience.

This is a version of the five-step Daily Examen that St. Ignatius practiced:

1. Become aware of God’s presence.
2. Review the day with gratitude.
3. Pay attention to your emotions – being open to being aware of your response to the experiences of the day as life-giving or life-diminishing.
4. Choose one feature of the day and pray from it.
5. Look toward tomorrow.

And then watch the patterns. Everyone has ups and downs, good and bad days. But as we follow a rhythm of prayer like this, we begin to discern the patterns that tell us about the resonance of God in our lives, the things we are called to or from. We begin to discern that which we are called to be and how that is to outwork. We begin to recognize the balances and imbalances, and we can then make decisions about this.

Try it between October and Christmas, and see what happens.

“To feel the Rhythm of Life,
To feel the powerful beat!
to feel the tingle in your fingers,
to feel the tingle in your feet”

This familiar tune celebrates the rhythm of life in its vibrant energetic beat. But it’s celebration is more than just a catchy jingle. The song is more than a toe-tapping rhythm. We actually catch the tune, and tap to the beat because it finds a resonance in our heart beat… The concept of the song is about catching the stuff of life that keeps us moving, acting, engaging. It is the rhythm of creation, the cycle of the seasons, the ebb and flow, the character of life in all its complexity.

This week as we reflect specifically on the rhythm of life, we are not sitting in the glib happiness, but the significant movements of our days that take seriously the rhythms of reflection and action, of youth and age, of good and bad. The art in our gallery embraces celebration. And it also calls us to remember the larger movements of struggle and pain – the movement from -to. Indeed, are these not the movements of the psalms that acknowledge both the threat of any given circumstance alongside the constancy and closeness of God. Nathan Nettleton puts the psalm in these words :

Those who put their trust in you, O LORD,
……..are like Mount Dandenong:
…………….solid, calm and dependable.

Like the mountain watching over the city,
……..so you, LORD, watch over your people,
…………….offering protection, now and forever.

I encourage you to take the time over this next couple of weeks to listen to the stories of the artists, and sit with the art, and feel the rhythm of life in the heart beat of a God who loves you always!

PSALM 84 NRSV

How lovely is your dwelling place, O Lord of hosts!

My soul longs, indeed it faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.

Even the sparrow finds a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, at your altars, O Lord of hosts, my King and my God.

Happy are those who live in your house, ever singing your praise. Selah

Happy are those whose strength is in you, in whose heart are the highways to Zion.

As they go through the valley of Baca they make it a place of springs; the early rain also covers it with pools.

They go from strength to strength; the God of gods will be seen in Zion.

O Lord God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear, O God of Jacob! Selah

Behold our shield, O God; look on the face of your anointed.

For a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than live in the tents of wickedness.

For the Lord God is a sun and shield; he bestows favour and honour. No good thing does the Lord withhold from those who walk uprightly.

O Lord of hosts, happy is everyone who trusts in you

Bulletin Bloopers :

Next Sunday a special collection will be taken to defray the cost of the new carpet. All those wishing to do something on the carpet will come forward and do so.

The preacher will preach his farewell message, after which the choir will sing, “Break Forth With Joy.”

Today we will spend some time thinking about the little incongruities of life, that make us smile, or chuckle, or even belly laugh! The reality is that the liberating good news is too important not to embrace, and so smile and laugh and delight on the way. The experience of love that we encounter when we meet Jesus on the Way is too important not to respond with invitations of joy to others. That’s not being flippant about the Gospel, or minimizing the significance of Jesus’ story for our lives. That’s actually owning it in a way that allows us to take seriously life as we have it, and respond to what really matters.

Today, the morning tea will be held in the gallery. Stay behind and chat, perhaps pick up a bargain, and look at the art. It is good to see how the gallery works during the week.

The Bridge

There are time in life

When we are called to be bridges,

Not a great monument spanning a distance

And carrying loads of heavy traffic,

But a simple bridge to help one person from here to there over

Some difficulty

Such as pain, grief, fear, loneliness,

A bridge which opens the way

For ongoing journey.

When I become a bridge for another,

I bring upon myself a blessing,

For I escape from the small prison of self

And exist for a wider world,

Breaking out to be a larger being

Who can enter another’s pain

And rejoice in another’s triumph.

I know of only one greater blessing

In this life, and that is,

To allow someone else

To be a bridge for me.

Aotearoa Psalms– Prayers of a New People 1989

Today we celebrate the work of our church within the wider community. Through Chapel on Station Gallery, Food at The Barn, Jubilee Housing and hosting Employment and Training Focus we seek to offer a place to wonder and reflect, hospitality, a place to call home, training and employment support. May you enjoy hearing more about these ministries and services. Let us join together in the celebration of life and hope.

Fragility and Resilience.

Both seem to be true of life’s experience. That it all falls away so quickly. That it all rises up again! Recognizing the patterns of frailty and strength in the human story is that which calls us to God… to reach out to understand and commune more fully. Consider the poem by Meister Eckhart:

Led into the Desert

And where God gushes up within Himself.

We Baptists enjoy a level of congregational autonomy unknown in other mainstream denominations.  How  does it work, and how do we approach decision making?  How do we as community discern God’s will together?   In this the 400th anniversary year of Baptist beginnings, this morning we briefly explore the theology and distinctive characteristics of our Baptist way of doing things, and some guidelines for how we can ensure that the processes we employ lead us to places where we are open to being led and guided by God’s Spirit.