Cape Town, South Africa
//Palm/Passion Sunday Movie (6pm 17 April)
Gran Torino (Clint Eastwood….please note this is age restricted 16LV)
Mon – Meet Pontius Pilate 7pm-8pm
Tue – Meet Mrs Pilate 7pm-8pm
Wed – Meet Joseph of Arimathea 7pm-8pm
Thu – Foot washing / Tenebrae 7pm-8pm
Fri – 10am and Three Hour Service from 12noon-3pm
Sun – 10am service of Resurrection and Baptism
//We live on the driest continent in the world. And South Africa is a “dry” land. All SA’s rivers flowing together only equal half of the Zambezi’s water or just less than 1/8th of the Mississippi river.
To show our reverence for this precious source of life we need to act with restraint in our use of water. All of us can do this starting today by reducing the amount of water we use to bath or shower. To collect rain runoff. To use “grey” water (recycling bath water into the garden etc.) this would be a life-giving Lenten commitment.
I read the other day that “most water returns to our oceans within 10 days as rainfall or run-off and is then returned to the clouds by evapourating within 3120 years. It is calculated that every drop of water on earth has been through the entire water cycle 1232 000 times. In other words we have certainly drunk water that has been through the kidneys of many dinosaurs.” Believe it or not?
//I will be in the USA from the 22nd February to the 8th March. I will be at Luther Seminary in Minnesota / Rochester Minnesota / Gulfport Mississippi. For the most part I will be facilitating the wonderfully liberating story of Manna and Mercy – check out www.danielerlander.com for more information.
These Manna and Mercy weekends do nothing less than equip us to change the world. The next one in South Africa will be in Cape Town on the 1st-3rd April 2011.
//At the beginning of every year we renew our Covenant with God:
Beloved in Christ, let us once again claim for ourselves this Covenant which God has made with God’s people, and take upon us the yoke of Christ.
To take Jesus’ yoke upon us means that we are content for him to appoint us our place and work, and himself to be our reward. Christ has many services to be done: some are easy, others are difficult; some bring honour, others bring reproach; some are suitable to our natural inclinations and material interests, others are contrary to both; in some we may please Christ and please ourselves, in others we cannot please Christ except by denying ourselves. Yet the power to do all these things is given to us in Christ, who strengthens us.
We are no longer our own but yours O God.
I am no longer my own, but yours. Put me to what you will, rank me with whom you will; put me to doing, put me to suffering; let me be employed for you or laid aside for you, exalted for you or brought low for you; let me be full, let me be empty; let me have all things, let me have nothing; I fully and freely yield all things to your pleasure and disposal.
And now, glorious and blessed God, Creator, Redeemer and Sustainer, You are mine and I am yours. So be it. And the Covenant now made on earth, let it be ratified in heaven.
Amen.
//In February every year we celebrate Harvest Festival. It is an opportunity for us to bring food that will be given to those most in need. It is also an opportunity for us to make a commitment to be generous. Our reasoning is simple: God is Generous. We are born in God’s image. Therefore we are designed to be Generous.
Just as we should always pray, “Lord make me more loving and truthful,” so we should also pray, “Lord make me more generous”.
The aim of our generosity is to partner God in mending this broken world. This may happen through CMM or any other organization or initiative or individual. Therefore the important fact is not so much where we give, but that we give. I believe every act of generosity anywhere anytime that helps realize God’s dream for the world is a holy act!
I invite you to consider CMM as a further opportunity to be generous so that we may fulfill the dream of God in and through this community. For CMM’s bank details please refer to the Contact tab above.
//Lord God we gather to worship you – creator and sustainer of all that is.
You are the one who spoke light into being – piercing the darkness with hope.
You are the one who raised dry land from the watery depths – setting boundaries for the waves.
You are the one who rooted plants and trees – producing fruit, nuts and shade for all your creatures.
You are the one who fashioned humanity in your image – breathing your breath into our being.
Yet this past week our breath has been taken away as we have witnessed the waters break their boundaries – overrun the land you raised up – dislodging everything in its path – uprooting trees as if they were toothpicks – knocking over houses and buildings as if they were dominoes – sweeping boats in-land and driving vehicles out to sea.
Lord God to watch all of it live on TV, computers or even on our phones, seemed to make it less real. It was like a science fiction movie and yet it was real people being chased by the watery serpent and not Hollywood actors – ordinary people going about ordinary things who were being swallowed up.
And here is our confession Lord – we struggled to feel their pain and hold their trauma for any meaningful length of time. What for us can be little more than a passing news item, is for them a life scaring event. Their lives will forever be marked with the trauma of these last few days.
Lord for some of us there was a relishing fascination towards the destruction we saw. Not able to tear our eyes away – wondering (even hoping?) for something bigger to fall prey to the raging seas. Still others of us had a calm ability to change channels between news broadcasts and the rugby or cricket. Oh Lord and you know that too few of us were moved to our knees in prayerful solidarity. Sometimes it is because we feel tiny in the face of it all – but sometimes it is apathy. Sometimes tragedy like this calls us out of our minute worlds of self-concern while at other times it does not….may this be a time when we are.
And Lord if we have lashed out at you with doubting and questioning tongues – know that it is because we are afraid – we are afraid when chaos seems to reign because we wonder what has happened to you – to your love and to your power. Receive our challenges to your integrity with mercy – see them as our desire to find you in all of what we experience – especially in what we do not understand and cannot control. Forgive those of us who have suggested that this tragedy is to be understood as your selected punishment and move us to see the compassion of your heart that weeps when people anywhere and everywhere weep.
Now Lord from this deathly event that you did not cause we ask that you use to bring forth life. Use it in ways to further your loving purpose in the world and in our lives.
Give to each of us an enlarged appreciation for life.
Give us an ability to hold our own struggles in comparative perspective.
Give us renewed commitments to what matters to you.
Help us to hold our possessions – our houses, cars, telephones and shoes more loosely and our money more generously.
Convict us to care for this planet and to repent of our ongoing abuse and callousness towards your creation.
Move us to pray for those who grieve and suffer and open us to find your home among the suffering that we may be set free once again to praise you. Amen
//Some of you are aware that amidst our memorabilia at CMM we have an original handwritten letter by John Wesley, dated 1772. We are looking forward to displaying this and other memorabilia as soon as the sanctuary has been painted.
As I was reflecting on Methodist history I remembered a delightful exchange of communication written by the Duchess of Buckingham to the Countess of Huntingdon. Lady Huntingdon was a supporter of the Wesleyans (Methodists).
“I thank your ladyship for the information concerning the Methodist Preachers. Their doctrines are most repulsive, and strongly tinctured with impertinence and disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavouring to level all ranks, and do away with all distinctions. It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth. This is highly offensive and insulting, and I cannot but wonder that your ladyship should relish any sentiment so much at variance with high rank and good breeding.”
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if CMM were to be accused of levelling all ranks and do away with all distinctions!
Lets be radical — meaning, let’s remember our roots! Alan
//On Monday afternoon I went to see The King’s Speech — a movie about King George VI who had a speech impediment from a very young age. His stammering made it impossible for him to make public speeches. In 1939, however, war was declared with Germany and the King was expected to bring a word of comfort and courage to the nation. The King’s Speech is one of personal triumph and how it was achieved — most notably through a transformative friendship with a speech therapist.
I will not tell you anymore about the movie except to make an observation: Lionel Logue (the speech therapist) insisted on referring to the king as Bertie (the name used only by his wife and family) and not Your Royal Highness, as royal etiquette required. Instead, Lionel demanded a relationship of equality. By using the name Bertie, he related to the king as a person first before his role as king.
To be healed of our own stuttering lives we all need relationships of equality where we are seen as people first, regardless of our role or position. O God fill our lives with Lionel-like-people as we pray to be Lionel-like-people to others.
Peace, Alan
Sunday 3 April 2011
//Today is the start of National Water Week. Now I am sure you know that nearly 97% of all the world’s water is salty, or otherwise undrinkable. Another 2% is locked in ice caps and glaciers. That leaves only 1% for all of our needs! And 70% of that is used for irrigation and 20% used by industry—so we are left with about 0.1% of the world’s water for us to actually drink. Making fresh, drinkable water a very precious resource!
We live on the driest continent on the planet that is likely to become more and more drought-stricken due to severe climate change. For example Africa’s Lake Chad, once a landmark for astronauts circling the earth, is now difficult for them to locate. The lake has shrunk 96% in 40 years. Closer to home, we only need to think back to Beaufort West that ran out of water in December.
Jesus asked a woman for a drink in Samaria and for a moment it was touch and go whether he would have his thirst met. Later on the Cross, amongst his final words he cried out was, “I thirst”. This will certainly be the cry of our century if we do not use water much more sparingly, as well as begin harvesting rainwater and the like.
Please consider making this part of our Lenten journey towards the “Cross of thirst”. Alan.
//Even though I had a great trip overseas, it is great to be back home — thank you to everyone who travelled with me in prayer, and for those who were landed with extra work as a result of me being away!
Well the week that I left it was at least 35 degrees in the city bowl, so you will understand that my system was in shock when I landed in Minnesota to sub-zero temperatures, getting to as low as -17 degrees at one point during my visit.
In fact the day after I arrived my hosts thought it would be a good idea for me to try cross-country skiing to acclimatise. I thought so too! I figured because I could down-hill ski that cross-country skiing should be a breeze. Before clicking into my skis I looked with envy at the experienced cross-country skiers gliding briskly and effortlessly across the smooth, white carpet of snow. I pictured myself soon imitating them. In short, I was confident.
My friend advised that I stick to the cross-country track (two parallel ruts in the snow that help to direct one’s skis). I admit when I heard this I thought to myself that I was being unnecessarily stifled. After ignoring the advice I soon found myself “slip sliding away” down the broad path of aimlessness — with no control to stop myself. Humbled I decided to take the advice and get into the track that I now realised was there to enable, rather than curtail my freedom. I soon became very appreciative of those who had gone before, who had carved out the track in the first place.
As we start our Lenten journey I suggest that we step into the carved-out tracks of the faithful who have gone before us, and be increasingly deliberate in our devotion to Jesus. To enter the track of prayerful silence and reading the Scriptures not just to be informed, but transformed. To hunger for justice for another human being who has been wronged, and to share mercy with someone who has wronged us. To live in reverent relationship with creation by preserving our natural resources.
This track is for our freedom! Alan
Sunday 13 March 2011