October 2020: Firstfruits
Please bring something of what you do in life to offer to God at Grace:firstfruits. It can relate to your work, your garden, your home, a sideline, your art, your kitchen, your music making, your volunteering, your child rearing, your caring... We are all makers, creators. Please don’t be shy - we’d love to pile a virtual table high with offerings of the firstfruits of our making to God. (And if they are not the first fruits that doesn’t matter!)
We’re not quite sure how this will work - it might be you have a story to tell, a basket of vegetables to show, a song to perform. But have a think about what you would like to bring. A photograph on the computer can be shared for example but we’d love contributions that could be performed too if you have any. It might be for some you, want to bring grief because there is an absence of making - that too can go on the table.
There will also be a space to think about how we might give out of what we have been given. You might like to ponder that ahead of time too. We won’t be overly prescriptive about that - i.e. there won’t be a joint project but an opportunity to reflect on what you might share with others.
Welcome/intro
Opening prayer
'Come holy spirit' with firelog video
Bible reading
Ecclesiastes 3:1-8
Part 1 Gifts
The idea for this section is simply a piling up of first fruits out of what we have grown, made, created whether art or jam or music or our work. We hope to have a huge sense of thankfulness and of offering ourselves, and our lives to God.
Grace In The Making (a reflection from Grace pocket liturgies)
Creativity and imagination are divine gifts that get to the heart of what it is to be human, God's image bearers.
It is of course possible to deny the gift
or grow out of the habit
or recite the mantras 'i'm not creative', 'i haven't got the gift' or 'i haven't got time'
But such denial won't wash -
it's the road to numbness
Cook a meal
Plan a pilgrimage
Make some music
Form a garden
Pull off a skateboard trick
Tell a story
Take a picture
Design a web page
Write a prayer
Grace is in the making.
We have got used to passivity
to consuming what others have made
to sitting and watching
to processed and pre-packed
to fast food
to reality tv
Consuming isn't bad
It's what you do with it and who can get in the shops that's the problem
Even shopping can be creative
Create
Make something
Surprise yourself
Play
Wake up
Encounter grace
Richard to explain his and Sue’s table image as used on the flyer
Jamboard tables
We put people into breakout groups to chat about what they were making, and everyone could add to a Google Jamboard - pdf of the results here. They could also go off and gather things to create a montage like Richard’s flyer, or just write words or post it notes.
Regroup and have a look at the offerings
Poem - Harry
Music track - Matt?
Photo/quote sequence from Imagining Mission - Jonny
Prayer of thanks
Part 2 Giving
Reflect on how we might give out of what we have been given. Write down an action that you can take.
Blessing
Music track - 'The Blessing', dnb remix