Sharing Friendship 30
minutes
As people arrive light refreshments are served. The refreshments include Hot Cross
Buns. Make sure one Hot Cross Bun is
left over ... it might be best to keep one in reserve. It will be helpful to have a low table in
the middle of the room, or at some appropriate focal point, where a plate with
a Hot Cross Bun can be placed as the second part of the session begins.
Once the group is settled and everyone has arrived
gather the group together and begin to focus the conversation a little more.
·
go round the circle and invite each person to recall
some of the things that they have been doing over the last week, and share
anything special that has happened.
·
go round the circle a second time and invite people to
recall anything they have done in the last week in response to the thoughts and
prayers that were shared last week.
Sharing Reflections on the Bible 30
minutes
Take the plate with a Hot Cross bun and hold it in
your hands.
A Hot Cross Bun. It looks a little like a loaf of bread. And there, as on each Hot Cross Bun, a Cross
- an age-old symbol of the Church. We
have enjoyed sharing Hot Cross buns together this evening. Jesus broke all sorts of barriers down by
eating together with all sorts of unexpected people. Ever since the very beginning eating together has always been
part of the life of the Church. Sharing
a meal together - a sign of fellowship, a sign of the love that binds us
together. For many parts of the church
one particular time of sharing, of fellowship, of koinonia, of communion has
become a sign of division.
Place the plate with the Hot Cross bun on the table in
the centre of the circle.
Conflict
arises within the Church, within
local Churches, between different parts of the Church and between different
local Churches. Conflict can arise
within the hearts of those who belong to the Church as they become all too
aware of failing to live out the faith they profess. Inner conflict can lead to
inner turmoil and a crisis of faith.
Often the most fierce
conflict arises over religious practice, ritual, liturgy, the institutions of
the church, and the detail of dogma and doctrine. The heart of the Christian
faith is all too often overlooked.
Read Matthew 12:1-8 and Matthew
21:12-17
What do you make of these two
stories? What are they saying that can
feed into our time of prayer for a Church often torn apart by conflict?
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 Matthew 12:1-8
and Matthew 21:12-17
·
the Pharisees adhered to
the letter of the ritual law (12:1-2): Jesus stood in a respected line of those
who did not (12:3-5). Has the Church
been true to Jesus, or continued the obsession of the Pharisees with their
adherence to the letter of a ritual law?
·
for many there was nothing
greater than the Temple - its purity had to be maintained at all costs: for
Jesus there was something greater (12:6).
Has the Church put doctrines, dogmas, the institutions of the Church,
its liturgy and ritual in the place of the Temple, and regarded these to be of
paramount importance?
·
for Jesus mercy took
precedence over sacrifice, the needs of people over the Sabbath (12:7-8) - he was quoting Hosea 6:6, and might well
have had in mind Amos 5:21-24 and Micah 6:8.
Has the church too often lost sight of mercy, justice and righteousness
and exaggerated the importance of liturgy, ritual and institution?
·
changing currency [from
the Roman to the Temple Currency and selling doves was a key part of the life
of the Temple and its sacrifices.
Jesus’ actions in 21:12 made the same statement as he had made in 12:6-7
... but it is made much more graphically.
Should the church have a clear-out from time to time of the things that
get in the way of what really matters?
·
notice how 21:13 leads
into verses 14-16. When Jesus longs for
the Temple to be a house of prayer he does not want it simply to be a place of
religious ritual. He wants it to be the
place where the blind see and the lame walk, where hurting people find healing
and where the voice of children is heard and valued. This is what it means to put mercy in place of sacrifice, to put
people over the Sabbath.
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 Matthew 12:1-8, and 21:12-17, where should the
focus be for our prayers for the church?
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 Hot Cross bun is on the
plate on the table in the centre of the circle, or in some appropriate place.
We hear again the prayer of
Jesus.
Read John 17:20-26
Take the plate with the hot cross bun and hold it for
a moment.
As you receive this plate
hold it for a moment. Look at the Hot
Cross Bun with its cross - age-old symbol of the Church. Don’t touch the bun. Simply look at it, round and whole. And take the opportunity, if you wish, to
put into words a prayer giving thanks for the good things there are in the
Church at large or in your own experience of life as part of a Church family.
Pass the plate round the circle - as each person receives
it, they are to hold it for a moment, and take that opportunity, if they wish
to share a prayer of thanksgiving for the good things there are in the life of
the church..
When the plate has completed the circle it is placed
back on the in the middle of the circle.
Pause for a moment.
Someone reads Colossians 3:12-17
After another pause the leader then takes the Hot
Cross Bun and breaks it into two, leaving the two parts on the plate.
Sadly, the wholeness of the
Church has too often been broken. Conflict
arises within a local church, between local churches, within a denomination
between denominations - and that conflict not only diminishes the church and
all who are part of it, but it diminishes Christ and his witness in the world.
Think of your own local
church, of the churches in your locality, of your own denomination and the part
it plays in the life of the whole Church.
In a moment we shall pass the plate round our circle once more.
As you receive the plate hold
it for a moment. Look at the Hot Cross
Bun, broken in two. Don’t touch the
bun. Simply look at it, damaged and
broken. And take the opportunity, if
you wish, to put into words a prayer for the healing and the wholeness, for the
unity and the renewal of the Church .... it may be you want to think of your own
church, the churches of your locality,
your own denomination, or the life of the whole church.
Pass the plate round the circle - as each person
receives it, they are to hold it for a moment, and take that opportunity, if
they wish to share a prayer for the church.
When the plate has completed the circle it is placed
back on the table in the middle of the circle.
Pause for a moment.
Someone reads John 13:34-35.
We give thanks for the
church. We pray for the church. But we are the church. Are we true to the words of our worship and
of our praying? Or do our words go up
while our thoughts remain below?
We pray for the victims of
natural disasters, for those who hunger, for those who have no home ... but our
minds are absorbed with trivialities.
We pray for churches to work together, we rejoice in the diversity of
our worship, we give thanks that we are all God’s children, yet we cling to our
own tradition. We pray for those who
have not heard the message ... but sometimes it feels as if we have not heard
the message ourselves.
Our words go up ... our
thoughts remain below.
Words without thoughts never
to heaven go.
Play the second prayer meditation, Conflict, from Jesus forever the same
Pause for a moment.
The leader then picks up the plate once more. It may be helpful to place a card with these words on the plate
as it is passed round.
In a moment I am going to
pass the plate round once more. When
you receive the plate say, Lord, live in
my heart, Jesus forever the same.
Then break off a piece of the Hot Cross Bun and eat it.
When the plate has been passed around the circle place
it on the table once more.
Let us turn in prayer to the
Father
from whom every family in
heaven and on earth takes its name.
Let us pray.
According to the riches of
your glory,
grant that each one of us may
be strengthened in our inner being
with power through your
Spirit.
May Christ dwell in our
hearts through faith.
May each of us be rooted and
grounded in love..
May each of us have the power
to comprehend, with all God’s people,
the breadth and length and
height and depth
of the love of God in Christ
Jesus our Lord.
May each one of us be filled
with all the fullness of God.
Let’s join in saying together
the prayer which binds us together with all God’s people as one family in his
love ...
Our Father ...
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?
Is the Church truly committed
to the poor?
We are the Church.
When we see this badge let’s
think again about the Church’s priorities.
Think again about our
priorities.
Now to him who by the power
at work within us
is able to accomplish
abundantly
far more than all we can ask
or imagine,
to him be glory
in the church
and in Christ Jesus
to all generations,
forever and ever, Amen.
After a short pause, play some quiet music once
more. Have copies of the prayer
meditation Conflict ready for
people to take home.
Friendship
– Conflict – Betrayal – Death - Resurrection