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BlogHere are the thoughts and news of the people in our community. Leave a comment as you wish. If you want to join the blogging ask Mark.
Sunday, March 23, 2008A Journey through Easter Week: Easter SundayDay 1: Palm Sunday Day 2: Great Monday Day 3: Holy Tuesday Day 4: Spy Wednesday Day 5: Maundy Thursday Day 6: Good Friday   Today in the plastic bag: a piece of linen A animated reading for today can be found here: SGM LifeWords: Dead Man Walking Labels: easter, festivals, reflective, worship Posted by: Mark | 7:44 am |
Saturday, March 22, 2008A Journey through Easter Week: Holy SaturdayDay 1: Palm Sunday Day 2: Great Monday Day 3: Holy Tuesday Day 4: Spy Wednesday Day 5: Maundy Thursday Day 6: Good Friday   Today in the plastic bag: myrrh & spices A animated reading for today can be found here: SGM LifeWords: Watch this Space See an extended Easter Saturday reflection here. Labels: easter, festivals, reflective, worship Posted by: Mark | 2:16 pm |
Friday, March 21, 2008A Journey through Easter Week: Good FridayDay 1: Palm Sunday Day 2: Great Monday Day 3: Holy Tuesday Day 4: Spy Wednesday Day 5: Maundy Thursday Also click here for Good Friday Extras: Stations of the Cross.   Today in the plastic bag: Thorn bush cutting A animated reading for today can be found here: SGM LifeWords: Finished Labels: easter, reflective, worship Posted by: Mark | 10:34 am |
Good Friday ExtrasStations of the Cross The Stations of the cross are a way of reflecting on Jesus crucifixion by contemplating each stage of Jesus final journey one at a time. This originates with the Catholic church, and they designated 14 of these 'stations'. Some of the stations are based more in Catholic traditon than the Gospel texts themselves, but I think there is some good stuff in there!
Ponder the cross with this Massive Attack song in the background: Labels: easter, festivals, reflective, worship Posted by: Mark | 10:24 am |
Thursday, March 20, 2008A Journey through Easter Week: Maundy ThursdayDay 1: Palm Sunday Day 2: Great Monday Day 3: Holy Tuesday Day 4: Spy Wednesday Day 5: Maundy Thursday Also click here for Maundy Thursday Extras: Thoughts on Passover.   Today in the plastic bag: a broken piece of MatzahA animated reading for today can be found here: SGM LifeWords: Remember Me Labels: easter, festivals, reflective, worship Posted by: Mark | 12:04 pm |
Maundy Thursday Extras
 Maundy Thursday marks Jesus' Last Supper. This last supper was a Passover feast, and had deep profound meaning for what Jesus was doing and was about to do. For the last 3 years we have had a Jewish Christian in to lead us through a "Jesus int he Passover" feast. It really has been a wonderful experience each time. Since we have not done that this year, I was wondering how to get the experiential, interactive nature of the Passover that I love so much. I figured that it could probably be done at home at multiple levels. Clearly at this point a full Jesus in the Passover event is a bit late in the day to organise. Although if you do wish to do that I have a full script that I have edited to make it accessible to the "amateur". Please to email me if you want a copy. I have also edited down a more accessible version, and all you really need it some Matzah [although any crackers would do] and some wine [no, nothing else would do there ;o)]. This includes what i consider to be the crucial elements that is acheivable for a family over an evening meal. Why not give it a try? You can download it here: Here are the steps:
A more simple thing to do thise evening is to share crackers and wine over the meal and remember Jesus' words: While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, ... "Take it; this is my body." Then he took the cup, gave thanks and ... they all drank from it. "This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many."Consider the cracker's features: "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by his stripes we are healed"(Isaiah 53:5) All credit for the "Jesus in the Passover" source material goes to my friend Andy Wertheim. Posted by: Mark | 11:22 am |
Wednesday, March 19, 2008A Journey through Easter Week: Spy WednesdayDay 1: Palm Sunday Day 2: Great Monday Day 3: Holy Tuesday Day 4: Spy Wednesday Day 5: Maundy Thursday Believe it or not, Spy Wednesday is a traditional name for today. It marks the day that Judas agreed to betray Jesus. "Spy" maybe doesn't have quite the sme connotations as it used - being a spy is now a cool thing, thanks to James Bond! However I still think that it is a great name!   Today in the plastic bag: a silver [chocolate] coin A animated reading for today can be found here: SGM LifeWords: Unchartered Territory This takes a slightly different tack thenus today, but it is still great! Labels: easter, festivals, reflective, worship Posted by: Mark | 3:38 pm |
Tuesday, March 18, 2008A Journey through Easter Week: Holy TuesdayDay 1: Palm Sunday Day 2: Great Monday Day 3: Holy Tuesday Day 4: Spy Wednesday Day 5: Maundy Thursday Right, back on track with the names!!   Today in the Plastic bag: a perfume card An animated reading for today can be found here: SGM LifeWords: Beautiful Things [This video reading thing is amazing! Really links with what we have done, even though they are only releasing it day by day!] On Sunday i also meant to hand this out: Easter in Northampton, Hope '08. There are a number of things going on in town to reflect on Easter organised by the Hope '08 team. They look cool! National Hope 08 site here. Northampton Hope 08 Site. Labels: easter, festivals, reflective, worship Posted by: Mark | 1:34 pm |
Monday, March 17, 2008A Journey through Easter Week: Great MondayDay 1: Palm Sunday Day 2: Great Monday Day 3: Holy Tuesday Day 4: Spy Wednesday Day 5: Maundy Thursday A little confession: I made up the name "Great Monday". Traditionally it is probably holy Monday, but i wanted a little variety!!   Today the plastic bag contains a seed. Can anyone get the link? An animated reading for today can be found here: SGM LifeWords: Destroy this Temple Labels: easter, festivals, reflective Posted by: Mark | 5:50 pm |
Sunday, March 16, 2008A Journey through Easter Week: Palm SundayDay 1: Palm Sunday Day 2: Great Monday Day 3: Holy Tuesday Day 4: Spy Wednesday Day 5: Maundy Thursday Today we started our journey through Easter week together. We started with a meal together, and had a [very] brief look at the triumphal entry. Our journey together is marked by an envelope for each day [or an egg for each for the kids]. I am going to share the contents here each day, and provide extra links if I have any! Feel free to comment on the topic for each day.   In addition the envelope contained: a plastic bag full of confetti! An animated reading for today can be found here: SGM LifeWords: Lay Down Your Cloak Labels: easter, festivals, reflective Posted by: Mark | 10:22 pm |
Thursday, March 06, 2008Do you really want to live within your own resources? Part 4Here is the last post on this topic!! 5)Be conscious of consumerism
6) Enjoy what you have
7) Help and pray for those caught in debt
Do you really what to live within the limits of your own resources?? Labels: discipleship, mission, money, social justice Posted by: Mark | 3:56 pm |
Wednesday, March 05, 2008Do you really want to live within your own resources? Part 3Here are some threads that I want to draw out: 1) Have an eternal perspective on wealth
2) Operate out of faith and trust, not fear and worry
3) Honour God with your money
4) Be wise with what is entrusted to you
That'll do for now!! the last four tomorrow!! Labels: discipleship, mission, money, social justice Posted by: Mark | 12:55 pm |
Tuesday, March 04, 2008Getting out of touch with reality?Another thing i mentioned on Sunday was Marks and Spencers have an 'apple template' that all apples they buy must match in order to be sold there. Others that don't match are left to rot! No doubt there are similar things going on in other supermarkets and multiple products. They are selecting those apples on the basis of what they think consumers want to buy [nice looking ones], but in the process informing the consumer what apples actually look like. We are so disconnected from the earth!! Here's the thing: Consumerism affects how we perceive reality. The apple thing though is completely trivial though when compared to this:  [Click to get bigger picture]See the post and comments at: ASBO Jesus. Everyone should look at this, it may help to get reality in-focus again?  Labels: random, reflective Posted by: Mark | 4:51 pm |
Do you really want to live within your own resources? Part 2Take a look at these passages: Luke 12:16-21 - Parable of the Rich Fool "this is how it will be for anyone who stores things for himself but is not rich towards God" Luke 12:27-34 - Do not worry "Provide for yourselves purses that will not wear out ... for where you treasure is there your heart is also" Luke 14:12-14 - Banquet hosting "Don't give in a way that you will be repaid." Luke 16:10-13 - entrusted with worldly wealth "You cannot serve both God and money" These are awkward passages, deeply challenging, which we wrestled with bravely [mostly!!]. Tomorrow I will draw some threads through them. Labels: discipleship, mission, money, social justice Posted by: Mark | 12:45 pm |
Monday, March 03, 2008Do you really want to live within your own resources? Part 1
 Money is the big issue of our day. Money worries concern UK adults more than any other social issue, over terrorism, immigration, climate change and gun crime. Why is that when we are amongst the richest people in our global village, where 53% live on $2 per day or less, and 43% live without sanitation. [See Miniature-Earth.com]. It seems that our privileged position has brought us "money worries" and ... debt!! This "rich" economy is built on consumerism - which relies on consumer spending their hard earned pound to keep the cogs turning. Hence the US plan to try to kickstart their flailing economy with a cash injection to the average John Doe to get them spending again. How warped does that sound!! We are bombarded with attempts to get us to spend our cash on things we "need", "want" and "deserve". Hence the fact that the average household debt not including mortgages is £9,052. A figure that increases to £21,051 if you take out those people who don't owe anything. Debt is a serious problem for many in our society. But does our debt stop us spending? No! 27% of people with debts have increased them in the last 3 months. Debt is a helter skelter, and many of us and our friends are on it. Our economy needs us to spend, we are driven to spend, we are marketing fodder and we oblige. The drive to "have" overrides the stress and the worry of debt. This was my starting point yesterday when I decided, bravely [I thought!] to talk about money. It may have been a little depressive? I realize now that I made things worse on hte cheeriness levels by taking us to the words of Jesus. We are looking at Luke's Gospel at the moment, and I have been struck by his references to Jesus talk of the poor and how we should view money. To start, compare Matthew 5:1-11 with Luke 6:20-22. And I'll post more tomorrow on what Jesus view of it all is [honest!]!! Note: debt figures from Credit Action UK Labels: discipleship, mission, money, social justice Posted by: Mark | 10:19 am |
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