Special Prayer Request
October 14, 2006
This is coming from a gal I know from the metal/goth/punk church I use to attend in London called Asylum. If you could keep her in your prayers, it would be greatly appreciated:
Dear all in my beloved fellowship,
Once again my life has taken another dramatic turn. This one the biggest yet. My sister Devonnie is dying. She is in the hospital
right now in a coma and the Doctors say there is no hope. She overdosed on heroin and was without oxygen to her brain for several
hours. My father found her gasping for air in the morning. I will know the outcome later today but she is most likely going to be a
vegetable and my parents will have to make the heart wrenching decision of pulling the plug. This will be especially hard for my
mother who lost her own brother to heroin when she was about my age. I am in shock. I will have to go back to America sometime in the
next few days probably for two months or so, I guess I will come back to the UK in January. Hopefully my visa will come through all
right. I desperately need your prayers. I hope everyone can come this Sunday for the prayer meeting because I will need it. Please
pray all day today for a miracle!!! Only God doing a miracle will save her. Medically speaking she has no hope. She is only 17!!!
Thanks for loving and caring for me all these years, you guys are my family… I love you more than words could ever express.
Please Pray:
For a miracle to save Devonnie’s life and that she won’t have brain damage. For the pain of my family, they are unstable and could turn suicidal themselves For strength for me going back home, this terrifies me. For my Visa to come through OK.
Imagination
October 14, 2006
I want to live also
In the world of the imagination
Where stories keep memories alive
And things only imagined become real
I want to live in a
Land where God is alive and speaks
To us in nature, ritual, love & tribulation –
Sanctifying, blessings, dancing & creating
written after reading “Fairies” by Fanny Howe
Dudes!
October 13, 2006
So I just found out that Darron Aronofsky and Rachel Weisz were in attendance at the Yom Kippur service we put on with Storahtelling. Yes, I mean the brilliant dude behind Pi and Requiem for a Dream and the brilliant girl who starred in The Mummy Returns (I don’t know which I’m more impressed with). It’s crazy to think that not only did I play a composition of mine for them, I also preached to them. Who knew?
If only I’d had my business cards with me…
Sad, Sad Story
October 13, 2006
this is one of my favorite songs written by my bro, TJSnodgrass. I thought they were good lyrics to muse upon while thinking about house church. the arrangement reminds me of an ol’ revival grace or, perhaps, a campfire song.
From The Sundry Brothers WORK OUT
Bring your sad, sad story to the table
To lay between the salad and the steak
Spill it like the horses from the stable
You’ll find the cloth is clean ‘fore you’re awake
Bring your sad, sad story to the table
To flow between the politics and news
Bring it satire, daydream, fact or fable,
You’ll find there’s still an ending left to choose
Bring it if it’s beautiful or terrible
Bring it gospel truth or pretty parable
Save your certified learning
Don’t preach your practice sermon
Don’t try too hard to hide your cards
Just share it all
Bring your sad, sad story to the table
To lay between your set-up and your stash
You’ll know you’re getting somewhere
If it’s painful, and in the morn we’ll
Throw it in the trash, yes, in the morn
We’ll throw it in the trash
© Snodgrass 2006
Isaac Laughed
October 11, 2006
isaac comforting abraham study: 4
Originally uploaded by giveawayboy.
The Sacrifice of Isaac (or Akedah), as it came to me last night.
Isaac Laughed
by Bowie Snodgrass
First Sarah laughed –
When three angels said
She would bear a son.
Even in my old age?!
Then Isaac laughed,
Going along with his dad,
Sure, we’ll do the sacrifice,
I will journey with you.
So Abraham took him up
The hill to an altar –
When an angel appeared
From God and laughed.
Tomorrow’s Ritual
October 10, 2006
or, perhaps, yesterday’s ritual: I’ve been mulling over Bowie’s proposal for tomorrow and have been repeatedly struck by how similar it is to early church practice. The early church was pretty much a bunch of folks getting together in a home with food, telling stories about Jesus. Eventually these stories were told often enough that they became pericopes, and after that the gospel redactors took the pericopes and compiled them into Gospels. We’re kind of doing the opposite: having heard the gospels piece-meal in pericopes every week for so long, we’re turning them back into stories. Sweet.
Anyway, I came across an appropriate bit from Tom Driver’s book, “The Magic of Ritual” which is a book EVERYONE needs to read. Right now. Seriously - don’t finish reading this post until you’ve ordered a copy online…
Driver ends his book by examining how a truly liberating and liminal Eucharist might unfold, and this excerpt is especially pertaining:
14. Telling stories together. Traditionally, the story of The Last Supper is told before the bread and wine are served, during the prayer of consecration and just before the elements are distributed. I suggest here three innovations:
1) Place the story after the food is consumed. This gives it a more convincing location, because it follows our usual sequence of interpreting actions after they occur. It also follows the more likely sequence of early Christian worship, which was to let the common meal evoke stories about Jesus, not holding the meal in obedience to a specific story. Now that the meal has been taken and the people are still gathered at the table, it is story time.
2) Let the story be told by the people, using their own words, one person starting it off, telling just a part, then letting someone else pick it up, then another, and so on until the story’s end. This time-honored way of telling a familiar story expresses community and builds collective memory.
3) Let other stories be told, too. It is unrealistic, and perhaps a denial of the action of God’s spirit, to imagine that at the communion only one story is being remembered. The emergence of others should be encouraged.
15. Sharing Christ Together. As the bread is the broken (shared) body of Christ, so the sharing of Christ can be done sacramentally by the people’s sharing their experiences of Christ with each other. Before the people leave the table, let each turn to a neighbor and each ask the other, “Who is Jesus Christ for you today?” Let each in turn answer this question, speaking to the neighbor who has asked it.
Some Prayers
October 4, 2006
Coincidentally, both Bowie and I have brothers who are deploying to Iraq for the war. We also both have brothers who are brand new parents. We’re also both starting a church together.
With these things in mind, I wrote a few prayers:
God of Isaiah and Daniel, who has promised us a day when we will beat our tools of war and destruction into tools of food and abundance, we pray for our brother who is going to war. We pray that you will keep him safe from violence and we pray that you will keep him safe from having to commit violence himself. Above all, dear God, we beg for the advent of a time when your children are no longer sent away from their families so that they may spend their energy bringing about your kingdom on earth.
God of Abraham and Sarah, Zechariah and Elizabeth, we thank you for the gift of this child. Please help us love this child with the same love with which you have loved us, so that the bonds of love and kinship may be continually cemented in your community.
And finally, I have an excerpt from the Disco Episco which you might enjoy. The Episcopal Church requires us to pray for a) the church, b) the nation, c) the world, d) the community, e) those who are suffering, and f) those who have died. Since we only have thirty minutes to play with, my collaborator John penned the shorted Prayers Of The People I’ve ever seen:
Praying for the church and nation,
Keep the earth and congregation,
Those in trials and tribulations,
Those who’ve passed their expiration.
Disco Episco
October 4, 2006
ritual for first house church
October 2, 2006
Grinning Chris de Burgh, Berlin
Originally uploaded by strangebehaviour.
hey ya’ll -
here’s my plan for the worship component of the first house church next Wednesday, Oct 11th. I’ve love to hear your thoughts and input. if you’re interested in coming, please rsvp to epiphany.ny@gmail.com
life o’ Jesus
birth -
tunes - A Spaceman Came Traveling, Chris de Burgh
pass around icons of baby jesus & nativity sets
life -
participants share stories about the life of Jesus, what did Jesus do? what stories have stuck with you? an exercise in listening and teaching, plus, letting Jesus into your heart, yo.
death -
tunes - Just Another Poor Boy, Chris de Burgh
pass around crucifixes from various traditions
note on CdeB - wrote the hit song, The Lady in Red; has released about 20 albums; has written some rockin’ and epic Christian songs through the years - about everything from the birth of JC to the Crusades, from the death of Jesus from the perspective of Mary M to a trilogy about the apocalypse. weird dude, but brilliant, sincere, and fun. I was introduced to C de B by my former roommate, a Socialist Jewish Lesbian Canadian (now that lefty for you!) who loved Chris as a teenage girl growing up in Calvary!