Sharing Friendship 30 minutes
As people arrive light refreshments are served. This week’s ‘table ornament’ for reflection
is a jug of water. It needs to be placed on the table or near
where the refreshments are being served.
At the moment it is empty there are also glasses or paper cups for everyone to share later. The jug of water will later become a focus
for reflection and for prayer. It will
be helpful to have a low table in the middle of the room, or at some
appropriate focal point, where the jug can later be placed.
Once the group is settled and everyone has arrived the
leader can begin the process of helping the group to get to know each other
·
go round the circle and invite each person in turn to
say who they are and where they are from and to mention a couple of their
favourite things.
·
go round the circle a second time and invite each
person to say why they have joined this course and what they are hoping to get
from it. The leader leaves his or her
own contribution until last, taking the opportunity to describe the course and its
aims:
The Course and its Aims
Lent has traditionally been a time for prayer. Prayer is the most natural thing in the
world ... and yet at times it can be the most difficult. There are not many people who are starting
out on the journey of faith or who are a long way on the road who have not at
some point or other wanted to know how to pray.
One of the best ways of learning is by sharing. And that is exactly what we are going to do
in this course.
Our hope is that our course will help us take the next steps in the
on-going journey of faith and prayer.
Each session will be divided into three parts. The time we spend sharing friendship over
refreshments and sharing reflections on the Bible will help to shape the time
we spend sharing prayer.
We shall be making use of the five prayer meditations, Jesus forever the same which make up the final part of the Video Jesus: today, tomorrow, forever? We shall finish by showing the whole of
the first part of the Video, Jesus for
Today during Holy Week.
Through the course we shall explore five different ways of sharing
prayer:
1) Friendship - sharing
prayers of concern for a world in need
2) Conflict - sharing
prayers of longing for a church too often divided
3) Betrayal - sharing
prayers of confession for our own betrayal of Jesus
4) Death - sharing prayers
of love for those who are bereaved
5) Resurrection - sharing
prayers of praise in celebration of life
Sharing Reflections on the Bible 30 minutes
Jesus came to break down barriers and to build up friendships between people
and between people and God. He called
people from unexpected backgrounds to be his disciples, he taught the way of
love in the sermon on the mount, he met the needs of hungry people in the
feeding of the 5000 and of hurting people in the many he healed; he touched the
untouchable leprosy sufferers, and accepted the touch of the woman dismissed by
others as unclean; he reached out to the woman at the well and broke down
barriers of race, religion and gender.
No wonder he was seen to be the prophet ... and much more, the very one
the people had been waiting for, the Messiah.
Take the empty jug of water and hold it
There are many barriers in our world that call for our
concern, our action and our prayer.
It is easy to take so much for granted.
We can fill this jug with fresh water so easily from the tap: but many
cannot do that. They have no clean
water on tap; often no clean water at all.
Ask someone to go and fill the jug with fresh water. You may like to share pictures, or leaflets
from Christian Aid or CAFOD that highlight the needs of the two thirds world,
not least the need for clean water.
When the jug of water is brought back put it on the low table in the
middle of the circle or at some other prominent point.
Today our theme is Friendship - sharing prayers of
concern for a world in need. What do you think are the barriers which
most divide our world ... and which call for our prayer?
Spend some moments sharing ideas
Read John 4:1-42 - this lends
itself to a dramatised reading - you may decide to omit verses 31-38.
What do you make of this
story? What is this story saying that
can feed into our time of prayer for a
world full of barriers that need to come down?
Allow the group simply to share their responses to
these questions - as leader you might look out for some of these points ...
Points to look out for in John 4:1-42
·
the location at a well
in a dry land prompts us to think of the needs so many have of clean water
[5-6]
·
the location at Jacob’s well
near the Samaritan city of Sychar prompts us to think of the barriers there are
in Israel, Palestine and the Middle East at the moment and the conflicts that
result [5-6]
·
the barrier between
Jesus the Jew and the Samaritan prompts us to think of barriers between
different religions and between different races and ethnic groups [9]
·
the barrier between
Jesus the man and the Samaritan woman prompts us to think of barriers between
men and women [9]
·
the conversation about
the woman’s experience of marriage remind us of the way people’s experiences of
family life and marriage can result in all sorts of barriers [16-19]
·
notice the rival
territorial claims of Samaria and Jerusalem and the consequent political
tensions [20]
·
the observations about
the right place to worship and the right way to worship remind us of barriers
between different religions [20-24]
·
the reaction of the
disciples to Jesus in conversation with the woman raises issues about the place
of women and men and especially of male attitudes to the place of women [27]
·
the woman is the one who
takes the message back to her own town, though to begin with she is not
absolutely sure about Jesus [28-29]
·
Jesus prepares the
disciples to accept the role the woman unexpectedly plays in sharing news about
him with her own Samaritan people [31-38]
·
the faith response of
those she had shared the good news with confirms the woman in her initial steps
of faith [39-42]
Allow a good period of time sharing reflections on
this passage.
In the light of the experiences
we have shared together from our own lives, and in the light of the reflections
we have shared on John 4, where should the focus be for our prayers for the
world?
Finish this part of the evening by inviting people to
share thoughts that can feed into the last part of the evening, sharing prayer.
Sharing Prayer 30 minutes
Play some quiet reflective music. Make sure that the jug of water is on the
table in the centre of the circle or in some appropriate place. As the music is being played arrange glasses
or paper cups for each member of the group around the jug of water, or on a
tray beside the jug of water. On the
table place a card with the words I want to reach out and share the water
of life with ...
In a dry, barren world, Jesus
shared the water of life.
His was a world of broken
relationships, violence and abuse,
where the fear of rejection
was all too real.
Ours is too.
His was a world of barriers
and divisions,
of faith and religion, of culture
and gender, of politics and race.
Ours is too.
His was a world of hunger, a
world of need, crying out for
a healing touch, a look of
friendship, forgiveness and love.
Ours is too.
In our dry, barren world,
Jesus shares the water of life.
Pause for a moment of quiet and reflection
Think for a moment of a
barrier, a division, a hurt in our world which cries out for that healing
touch, for the water of life.
Now each of us is invited to
step forward and pour out a little water into a glass ... as you do that say
these words ...
I want to reach out and share the water of life with
...
and then name the concern you
have in the world today. As each of us
does that and shares those words, let’s all focus the prayers of our hearts on
that particular concern.
One by one, each member of the group steps forward and
pours a little water into a glass, saying those words. Make sure the card with the words is in a
prominent place beside the jug of water.
When everyone has done this pause for a moment of quiet.
God’s Spirit was on Jesus
to bring love to the poor,
to set the burdened and
battered free.
To pray for the needs of the
world
is to open ourselves to the
moving of God’s Spirit.
God’s Spirit is on us
to bring love to the poor,
to set the burdened and
battered free.
May that Spirit of friendship
so live in us
that people see in our lives
God’s friendship for them.
Pause for a moment’s reflection and then play the
prayer meditation ‘Friendship’ from
Jesus forever the same, the third part of the Video, Jesus: today, tomorrow, forever?
In a moment I am going to
invite you to step forward and take a glass of water. As you hold it in your hands think of the life-giving water Jesus
promised.
Jesus said,
Everyone who drinks of this water
will be thirsty again,
but those who drink of the
water that I will give them
will never be thirsty.
The water that I will give
will become in them a spring of water
gushing up to eternal life.
Each person of the group steps forward and takes a
glass of water and holds it in their hands.
Once each person has a glass of water in their hands pause for a moment.
Think of one practical thing
that you can do this coming week to share the water of life in some situation
where there is division, where the barriers are up, where people are crying out
for friendship, forgiveness and love.
Jesus said,
Let anyone who is thirsty
come to me,
and let the one who believes
in me drink.
As the scripture has said,
‘Out of the believer’s heart shall
flow rivers of living water.’
Let us drink this water
together as friends.
Everyone drinks their glass of water.
Take a Trade Badge and hold it in your hand.
Are they the scales of
justice, badly out of balance?
Or is it a cross?
Is it a cross weighed down by
the burdens of injustice?
For Jubilee 2000 the badge
was a broken chain.
The campaign for debt relief
goes on.
Christian Aid, CAFOD and many
others belong to the Trade Justice Movement.
They invite us to donate £2,
to wear the trade badge and to support the campaign
calling for international
trade rules to be rewritten with poverty reduction at their heart.
May it remind us of that
Friendship we are called to share.
Say The Grace together.
Play some quiet music once more. Have copies of the meditation Friendship to give to people to take home with them.
Friendship
– Conflict – Betrayal – Death - Resurrection