Christmas across Congregations: Hope is Born

Hope is Born was the theme of my Christmas services this year.
Christmas services began on December 8th at Mudamuckla with Kid's Club followed by Mudamuckla Church Christmas Carol's Service after a shared tea.

Children presenting Nativity

Our church service

The children made pregnant Mary biscuits - thanks to Messy Church magazine and then presented the Nativity in our Church service.  It was a hectic but great night.


Then the next Saturday night the 14th it was off to Wirrulla Kid's Club Nativity. The children and parents presented a Nativity with carols outside the hotel at Wirrulla; the first presentation ever for the children of the town and the first ever homily delivered outside the pub!  Music was hopeless, but the children were endearing and presented the story so well.  "The children will know this story now," one parent commented.
Father Christmas Tree followed and then the Hotel smorgasbord - it was about value-adding to the regular secular Wirrulla Christmas.

At the same time, the Penong Christmas Carols were being held at Pt Sinclair - a combined congregation event - but as I was in Wirrulla, I couldn't be there too, so the Anglican Archdeacon did that one with my spouse.  

Finally Christmas Eve - an early service at the dominant congregation of Ceduna with 18 people at 7pm.  Lots of lay participation with the planning and execution of the service, then into the car with a voluntary musician, to Smoky Bay, which normally has 5 people max at church any Sunday and who were sure that at 9pm, the service would be far too late for anyone to come, especially children.  How wrong can you be?  37 people, including 10 children rocked up - there were not enough programs and barely enough seats, with people sitting in the very front row.  I left my service folder behind and had to wing the whole service!

Back home and into  bed at 11pm for an early start on Christmas day to Streaky Bay an hours drive away, where any Sunday has 10 faithful people - but this day we had 26 people attending - including 8 children! 

That makes 80 people at Christmas and 300Km of travel.  

Interestingly, the dominant Church who wants out of the model of resourcing ministry, hadn't the poorest attendance of any of the faith communities at Christmas .... and the smallest offering!

What might we learn about Hope from that?

Merry Christmas everyone

Dying to Self in Lent

As I look about the landscape of the far west coast of South Australia, everything is terribly dry and barren.  It has been months since we had rain.  Paddocks have no fresh feed and stock are being hand fed with grain or hay, as the stubble disappears.  Heatwaves bake the ground hard and the trees look stressed.  It is a dry and barren land; a bit like the landscape that Jesus walked when he was tempted in the desert for 40 days.

What is dry and barren in my life?
Where do I need God's refreshment?
What is God wanting to revive in me or even replant in me?

As Lent enters into autumn in the southern hemisphere, there is the promise of the opening rains for the growing season.  To me this is like the coming of Easter morning: life begins again 'like grass that springs up new', as the words of the hymn say.

My Lenten contemplation - what new grass will God spring up in me?
What will die this year?  

So they came to see the new born King...travelling from the city to west of Penong....stopping off at Ceduna to see if the local leader could point them in the right direction.  But the local leader was busy building her own kingdom, her way and was threatened by the thought of another way, another one being born and all her work counting for nothing in the scheme of things.

Who were these seekers?

Many people travel through this part of the country - some head east, others head west - looking for new beginnings, hope, life.  Trying to find the next part of the plan - the plan for the abundant life.  They stop over and find a free bed, some free food, maybe a tank of fuel if they are lucky, before negotiating with Centrelink for an advance or a loan, to see them through in their search for the dream, their dream.

But these seekers were not like that.
They weren't seeking a better life for themselves.
They weren't looking for a food voucher, or a night at A1 cabins or a tank of fuel.
They weren't just passing through.
They weren't taking a holiday.

Yet their trip was just as arduous, fraught with heat, need and discomfort.
They travelled to see and to worship 
the One born to be King...
the One from God...
the One the star guided them to.

2013: 
Can we just join this search?
Can we make God's plan, our plan too?

They went home another way...their lives were different from this encounter.
Maybe our ministry will be different from our encounter with this One this year.
Maybe we will travel a different way too.