The Morning After

3 05 2011

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

It’s the morning after. Some of us are ecstatic. Others less so. It’s the morning after the election, so now what? Light a cigarette?

It kinda reminds me of something. Of Easter. You know that whole thing about Jesus dying and rising again? Yeah, so that happened. Now what?

No matter what party you voted for, what happens now? Turn over the keys to whoever’s in power, and put it on auto-pilot for the next 4 years?

No matter how many services you showed up to during Holy Week, what happens now? Go on auto-pilot and let whatever happens happen? God’s got it covered, right? No need for anything more until next year. Read the rest of this entry »


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Resurrection Prayers

24 04 2011

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie (with special thanks to the lads in u2)

Lord Jesus Christ, we come before you this morning, in awe of your risen majesty. When all seemed bleak, when we had almost given up hope, you conquered sin and death. This morning, as we revel in disbelief, and glory in your resurrection, we pray saying

Lord, take our hearts and make them brave.

God of all, we come before you this morning with great thanks for a love that endures forever. We pray this morning for your church, that we may live as a resurrection people. As we carry the scars of Good Friday into the world, and as our church is constantly being reborn, we ask that you give us strength to minister in the midst of our ever-changing communities.

This morning we pray for your one, Holy, catholic and apostolic Church throughout the world. We pray for denominational leaders, for pastors, priests, elders, deacons and ministers, and all who witness to the good news of your life, death and resurrection with their lives.

Lord, take our hearts and make them brave. Read the rest of this entry »


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There’s Always Maybe

23 04 2011

A reflection on Matthew 27:57-66 and Job 14:1-14 for the Easter Vigil.

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

God, it was awful.

I don’t know if you were there, don’t know if you care or how you’d react if you were. As for me, let me just say it again to be clear: it’s nothing if not an awful, God-forsaken mess.

All I can feel – all any of us can feel – is the oppressive weight of death. How can you not feel it hanging? The air weighs a thousand tonnes.

A millstone around my neck. Dragging me under, crushing me, striking me down. Breathless, lungs screaming for air. Like I’m hanging on the cross next to him, fighting for breath. Fluid in my lungs, salty tears filling my eyes, I can almost feel the spear in my side. It’s nothing, if not an awful, God-damned mess.

In my anguish, in this deep, wounded pain, words come to me from across the divide, across hundreds of years, and I find myself covered in ashes of mourning, echoing Job’s lament:

Poor mortal, born of woman,
few of days and full of trouble.
Comes up like a flower, a fig tree, a mustard seed,
flees like a shadow and does not last. Read the rest of this entry »


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Between Confidence and Fear

6 04 2010

by Brian Walsh

Folk who visit this site know that much of what we write about here arises out of a shared worship experience called “Wine Before Breakfast.” This year the community began with allowing Romans to shape our liturgy and our imaginations, and then concluded with Mark’s telling of the story of Holy Week for Lent and Easter. That meant that we began with Romans 1 and ended with Mark 16. That juxtaposition gave rise to this meditation.

“Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.”

Do you remember those six words? That is how we began Wine Before Breakfast last September.
…“Paul, a slave of Jesus Christ.”

Paul, writing to the very heart of the empire,
…identifies himself with nothing less (or more)
…than a slave of Jesus Christ.

Not a citizen of the empire,
and sure as hell, not a slave of the emperor,
…but a slave of Jesus Christ.

Six words into his letter to the Romans,
…and he has already put them on notice.
…This was “in your face stuff.”

And it didn’t stop there. Read the rest of this entry »


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The Shadow of Three Crosses

23 03 2008

by Andrew Stephens-Rennie

(Preface)

We read this story in the shadow of three crosses.

There is the story in a nutshell. There are the various ways into the story. There is the story itself. There are the stories themselves. There is the question: Whose story is this?

The passion was coming. They didn’t know it yet, but it was soon to arrive. The disciples, sitting in the upper room, their leader talking, the air pungent and heavy. One week prior, he had been celebrated by the throngs as they entered the city. And now they feel unrest. Though they don’t know it, they wait for an arrest.

And in this room. In this tension. In this celebration of a victory once won, an exodus made, from a land much afraid. In this celebration, fear assails.

We read this story in the shadow of three crosses. The cross follows soon after Judas’ double-cross. Read the rest of this entry »


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