pain

wonderfulexchange5 Comments

Last week, the lay team had a conversation about humans-and-animals, and I confessed that (however severe a failing you may find it) I know that my emotional response-into-action is deeper and swifter with an animal in distress that with humans.  It’s all about their total inability to understand why it hurts.

Well, appartenly my instinct extends also to dionosaur robots.  Go watch.  The first half is lovely, and the second half sad.  Sadder still when the reality of so many children’s lives is placed before you.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, Molly needs attention.

with love shining

wonderfulexchange6 Comments

Gracious, unexpected moments…

Yesterday, the lay team (preachers) met for a usual training session.  This was the last of a set of meetings on Christology.  I always enjoy lay training.  It’s an enthusiastic and diverse group, and it’s good for me to watch their excitement as they catch new glimpses of God.  And of course it does me no harm to revisit the basic building blocks of theology, biblical studies, preaching and the like.  Our meetings are usually stimulating and often fun, but yesterday — well, yesterday was holy.

As in ‘take off your shoes’.

Insightful, deep sharing that left my arms tingling.

It began with an assignment:  delve into a theory of atonement (following up on earlier reading) or respond to the phrase ‘God is Christ-like’.  Options abounded:  ‘essay’; focused conversation; artistic response, other form of written response.   I had supposed the result would be one essay, one poem, one collage, and one conversation.  And instead, we got:

  1. an imaginary dialogue between the author and God (beautifully read aloud by two of the group) which simultaneously explored deep and honest questions and made us all laugh aloud.
  2. a passionate telling of the experience of reading a bit of Moltmann and a poem that formed the reader’s response.
  3. a simple and beautiful poem on a Christ-like God, that was read in such a way that this very chatty group was overcome by silence.

I know the member of the group who was ill also wrote a poem.  And I am fascinated by this.  What is it about Christology — about a real exploration of what salvation means, and how Christ shapes our understanding of God that led each of them into symbolic forms of expression?

It shouldn’t surprise me.  It’s what we do, after all.  But it was lovely to see, and deeply moving to be a part of.

One member of the group has posted the poem on her blog.  Another poem is beneath the fold.  The dialogue, we agreed, really needs to be heard aloud.  Fun sermon forthcoming, when the time is right.

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