Echoing the Sacred: December 2006

renovations

the place has changed a little, i decided to redecorate, and play around with the blogger settings. there's something about gradual progress, that turns potential frustration into determination!

i feel its a little more 'me' now...

5 things

5 things...

i’ve just been tagged by cheryl… So, 5 things you probably don’t know about me:

1. I have a 'tongue tie', which means the point joining the tongue and the bottom of the mouth is way close to the the tip of the tongue... (its cut now, which means i can almost poke my tongue out!)

2. i lost my wedding ring in the surf, and i was more pissed off than sarah!

3. i have played cricket at the SCG

4. when i was about 2yrs old i smashed my dad over the head (alledgedly - i can't remember it!) with a plate while he was bending over to put something in the cupboard .

5. i have a life long ambition to run a marathon - & i'm 1/2 way to fulfilling it!

i tag jools, jonno, darren, & rhax

Sat morning at retreat

Over the retreat we reflected on different snippets of the Jeremiah 33:14-16 lectionary text.
Saturday's text was:
In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up from David;

the space was quite simple. 2 differently coloured layers of green cloth under a large old tree stump/branch that i'd picked up years ago from a firends property.

the space on saturday was without the images and newspaper clipings here, which is from sunday. 4 voices of participants led the liturgy below, with the added bonus of Steph leading the most amazingly relevant taize type chant written i believe by Trish Watts:

let your roots sink deep
anchor in abiding love...

[Voices from around the room leading the liturgy speak then place a candle on the trunk saying: ‘come righteous branch' with the respose: 'spring up & shed light on our world.’]

Voice one:

A life that is born, comes to us...

It comes not in the form of might or power, not in lights or bedazzlement, but through the vulnerability of a teenage girl. A mother, younger than you & I, faced with abandonment, isolation, and disapproval. A young woman gives birth, brings life – life to God.

‘come righteous branch: spring up & shed light on our world.’

[Silence]

let your roots sink deep, anchor in abiding love

Voice two:

A hope that is born, comes to us...

It comes not through fear or demands, without prestige or privilege but in the fulfilment of a promise. Hope, the oxygen of the soul, speaks into the stillness, the darkness, the abandonment. Like a glimpse of ever present light, hope is the breaking of dawn.

‘come righteous branch: spring up & shed light on our world.’

[Silence]

let your roots sink deep, anchor in abiding love

Voice three:

A love that is born, comes to us...

It comes not through condemnation or bribe, without condition or demand, but through the humility of a child. A child born like us, in need of nurture, of care, of love. A child who grows, risks, learns, and responds. A child who evokes love, a child who ultimately embodies love.

‘come righteous branch: spring up & shed light on our world.’

[Silence]

let your roots sink deep, anchor in abiding love

Voice four:

A peace that is born, comes to us...

It comes not in a commodity to own or possess, without price or value, but in a movement of the sacred. As a whisper of life, peace weaves her graciousness heartbeat by heartbeat, creating a rhythm for life itself

‘come righteous branch: spring up & shed light on our world.’

[Silence]

let your roots sink deep, anchor in abiding love

World Aids Day

Friday was World Aids Day. The 1st of December has never meant a great deal to me until I spent the 1st of December 2005 in Chiang Mai, Thailand. For the first time i was faced with HIV/Aids as a cultural and social reality. Many, many lives, families & relationships have sucumbed, been altered, hindered or redirected because of the spread of virus that i confess to subconsciously (and probably with prejudice) believed to be mostly a lifestyle affliction. How niave i was, and in many respects still am.

its estimated that friday also brought with it the 45 000 000 person living with HIV/Aids - a counter can be found here [at the bottom of the page].

I walked the streets of Chiang Mai in 2005 with a banner saying - 'although we have aids, we're still human'. it would rate as one of the most evocative and empathetic actions i have taken. Although a lie, it reorientated me - it gave me the opportunity to take a glimpse into the humanity behind such suffering. As did the words of a cartoon caricature hanging on the wall of the Church of Christ, Thailand, Aids ministry unit, of a small child. it read:

I have Aids, please hug me i can't make you sick.

So...

12 months on:

at the Uniting Church Tertiary Students Advent Retreat, we took some time out to stop, reflect & meditate..

we prayed, annoited, empathised, grieved, and celebrated...

we hoped that through the immanant coming of a child we would glimpse something of the humanity that unites us all to a common story. whether we live with hiv/aids or not, are a refugee, or blinded by our affluence - there is no longer an 'other'.

the gathering:

Tonight we await a promise, a glimpse of certainty, a sign of hope…

Around this globe 45 million lives await a promise, a glimpse of certainty, a sign of hope…

The days are surely coming, says the Lord, when I will fulfil the promise I made to the house of Israel, the house of Judah

Indiscriminate of race, culture or creed, among the infant and the elderly, the faithful and the faithless… a virus spreads

Indiscriminate of race, culture or creed, among the infant & the elderly, the faithful and the faithless… a promise is born

We await the child: a glimpse of certainty, a sign of hope…