Two videos from my band, rails, witnesses

Intercessions for tomorrow

Creator God,

This day we pray to you for the world you made,

For the places and peoples forgotten and hurt,

For the places and peoples left in the lurch,

We pray for the war ravaged, the savaged and pillaged,

We pray for the places torn apart by disaster and disease,

We pray the constant crisis found in the middle-east,

We call down your mercy and call down your grace

On the places we know needing your embrace,

We pause in the silence to hold before you,

The lands that are suffering and the lands without hope.

SILENCE

Lord we ask that you would bring your peace,

Lord we ask that you would bring your release.

Instigator God,

This day we pray for your Church in this world,

Your voice to the voiceless

And your hand of service for the poor

We ask Lord that you would raise up your Church,

To be a sign of your Kingdom

And a sign of your love

That from your Church would flow streams of living water

Riddled with good news

Help us stand as your people, to stand up from our pews

To embody your love Jesus and bring forth your good news.

We pause in the silence to hold before you,

Your Church at this time and all it could do.

SILENCE

Lord we ask that you would move your Church by your Spirit

Lord we ask that your Church would go to the people and draw the people to it.

Saviour God,

We thank you Lord for your work in our lives,

We thank you for the way you see past our pride,

We delight in you as you delight in us,

Help us Lord to do what we must,

And help us to live-out lives shaped by the cross

Help us to walk with the lonely and lost

We pause in the silence to hold before you,

The pains of those needing your grace and the pains on the hearts of those gathered in this place.

SILENCE (+ PARTICULAR PRAYERS)

Lord we lay all these prayers at your feet,

Lord we know you can meet every need.

Help us to unburden ourselves at the cross

And give us your heart for the broken and lost

Show us a vision of your kingdom to be built

And help us to flourish by your Spirit, freed from past guilts.

We pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

And we are grateful that when we pray you hear it. AMEN.

rails, witnesses

This summer, I recorded an album for a project/band I'm part of (there are only two of us). It's called rails, witnesses and we have an album coming out sometime. I decided to create some images using tiny phrases from the song lyrics. They can all be seen below.

The New Parish - A Poem

Here's an image created, from the New Parish Conference I was at last weekend, as poet in residence. It's a poem I shared at the end of the conference. Written using words, images, phrases, repeated thoughts, encountered over about 12 hours. The writing process was swift and a "one take" piece with a few minor edits, I wanted to capture the flow of the conference.

Who do you really say I am - a poem (probably for all age or a youth group)

“But what about you?”

“Who do you say I am?”

Well, that’s a very good question,

The kind I expect from you

It’s the sort of question that makes me feel uncomfortable

And puts me ill at ease

Because I think I know the answer

In fact I think I think I know several answers

There are answers from the Good Book

And there are answers from my prayers

There are words and phrases handed down from medieval sages

And friends on the phone

There are images on the gallery wall

And stained glass to help me with the answers

There are thousands and millions of songs

Hymns and chants that tell me different names

And different answers to the question,

“Who do you say I am?”

I could give any of those answers

Any phrase or any “I am” saying

I could give a thousand answers

And probably find a thousand more

But there are two troubling elements to your question

The first is that you didn’t ask me who the Bible says you are

And you didn’t ask me who the painter says you are

And you didn’t ask me for the opinion of the poet

The playwright

Or the priest

You didn’t ask me for the answer of my mother-in-law

Or the evangelist on the telly

You didn’t ask me what any of those people or artefacts had to say

You asked me

You asked me what I had to say

“Who do you say I am?”

And that’s a bit more personal, because that’s about my opinion

And my belief

And the way that I think about you

And feel about you

And dream about you

Well that’s a bit more awkward

But as noted before, there’s a second troubling element to the question

And it’s even more troubling than the first

Because from the question you ask

And as the person that you are

I get the feeling that you want to hear something more

I get the feeling that the way I see you

And the way I describe you

Should somehow make an impact

Not just on my view of you

That’s obvious

But that it should make an impact on how I see the world

And how I see its other inhabitants

That maybe how I see you

Should impact how I interact with the world

And how I respond to the world

I have a gut feeling that your question

“Who do you say I am?”

Will, if I allow it, take me on a journey

A journey to somewhere deep

And challenging

The kind of place where suddenly it’s hard to deny

That my reaction to the news needs to change

That I need to step beyond where I feel at home and take a bigger risk

That I need to hold up my hands open palmed, ready to receive

I’m frightened by your question because it challenges me

It challenges every part of me

It challenges everything I do and see

It challenges everything I believe

“Who do you say I am?”

You ask, not quite innocently but wanting me to think

And I have thought

And I have fought within myself to say aloud the things that I believe

And I have fought within myself to lay down the ways that lead to death

The ways that lead to nowhere good

The ways that lead to me being lost

Instead I’m unsettled, unfettered and regretting

Regretful and remorseful

For the failures in my past

And for my future failings just around the corner

“Who do you say I am?”

And “who do I say you are?”

You’re Jesus

And at the moment

With all the implications

And the challenges that this will lead me to face

You’re Jesus

And that’s just about all I can say

Here is the text for - Who do you say I am? Fifteenth Sunday after trinity Mark 8:27-38

Who do you say I am? Fifteenth Sunday after trinity Mark 8:27-38

“But what about you?”

“Who do you say I am?”

Asked the saviour to the disciples

Asked the saviour to the thieves

Asked the saviour to the tax collector

Asked the saviour to the refugees

Asked the saviour to the House of Lords

Asked the saviour to the surgeons

Asked the saviour to the saviour to the journalists

Asked the saviour to the lobbyists

Asked the saviour to the CEO’s

Asked the saviour to the workers

Asked the saviour to the slaves

Asked the saviour to the addicted

Asked the saviour to the deluded

Asked the saviour to the church goers

Asked the saviour to the arms dealers

Asked the saviour to the transgendered

Asked the saviour to the shepherds

Asked the saviour to the scared

Asked the saviour to the violent

Asked the saviour to the victims

Asked the saviour to the perpetrators

Asked the saviour to tourists

Asked the saviour to the priests

Asked the saviour to the artists

Asked the saviour to the dictators

Asked the saviour to the world

Asked the saviour to us all

Lectionary Image for Fifteenth Sunday after trinity Mark 8:27-38. The image is called, "who do you say I am?"

Here is a thought for the Lectionary reading for next Sunday morning, Mark 8:27-38