NCYC09 CONVERGE Bible Study THREE

A recent version at the MPH Concert/see also the GetUp version by Uthboy etc

Bible Study # 03 BEAUTIFUL - NAKED [Curator: Rah]
Today's theme is about us 'emerging' from and through the NCYC experience and is a recognition at this stage of potential 'overload' or at least where punters will have experienced speakers, worhsip, submersions in community action, calls for response, as well as Bible Study.... a lot!
There was a keenness in Rah's brainstorming and curatorship that we also recognise our carbon footprint and strip back this day from electronics, screens, and complexity... to allow the participants a space to process while offering another step along the input journey!!
There were also [2] aspects of NCYC more widely which pre-empted our plans and were reflected in our Order!

1. Participants were kept outside and were addressed...
Bradon: 'This [pointing to his feet] is what I stood on when I came to NCYC"
Lenny: 'But once here, we have been saturated with information'
[Bradon doused in a bucket of water]
Bradon: 'What will you be standing on when you leave?'
[People enter the space]
2. STORMS VIDEO on the JT massive screen...
In development [and fearing us giving heaps over the stripped back plans] Rah included an edited video of STORMS from storm chasers, found all over youtube...
On the floor floodlit like last nights water tank from the alt.worship was a bluecloth surrounding a small boat made from riveted softdrink cans.
3. 'The Great Storm is Over' sung by Sam/Katie
4. BIBLE READING DRAMA [Gregor and Lenny]
Reader 1 and Jesus: [Mark 4:30-37] he also said, "With what can we compaer the Kingdom of God or what parable will we use for it? It is like a mustard seed, which when sown upon the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth: yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that birds of the air can make nests in it's shade.
With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it; he did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to the disciples.
On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let us go across to the other side."
And leaving the crowd behind, they took him in their boat, just as he was. Other boats were with him. A great windstorm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so that boat was already being swamped.

Reader 2: It will be a hard day for me to forget... A hard day for all of us to forget.
I mean, I am a fisherman, I am a man of the sea... but I have never experienced a storm like this. It made me so nervous and queasy. The waves were high, and the wind belted around my ears fiercely. I couldn't hear myself think.
Jesus! It was a storm and a half! I couldn't believe it, Jesus was asleep!

Reader 1 and Jesus: [Mark 4: 38-40] But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke him up and said to him, "Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?" He woke up and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still! Then the wind ceased, and there was a dead calm. He said to them, "Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?"

Reader 2: Crikey! [we had a throwaway line linking the pathos of the film 'Australia' in our first drama just to give it a contemporary link and Rah cleverly repeated that to link both dramas] The wind died down because he said so! I looked at the others and we were all stunned. I am sure deep down, they all felt like I did... a little gutless. Jesus was always so trustworthy. I wanted to know what he knew, be reassured by God the way he did... Maybe he was right though,... maybe I didn't have enough faith. I had no idea what storm was brewing in the bigger scheme of things... He was taking us somewhere completely foreign to Jews.

We'd all seen him do his thing before... Heal people, blind people, lame people, all of that. He was pretty good to people, you know? But, what he did... what we saw when we got to the other side was a bit of a challenge. You have to understand, that as a Jew, when you see a group of gentiles realise that God is good and doesn't want them to be opressed anymore... when a demon of death is exorcised... it is pretty amazing. That trip made me wonder? 'can it be true?, can we become like he says we can? Like Mustard? [pause] can we be free [pause] do we dare?

5. TALKY BIT
This outline was expanded on live....
'Our Team has called this the NAKED day
What happens to us now?
WE are the disciples. WE can see a storm. WE already know what the water is like, the conditions of the sea, the things to expect... WE have our own experiences already of injustice, of sadness, of forgiveness and grace, yet we still trun to Jesus and say "Teacher we're in trouble"
The Bible is an interesting book... It can also be hard to read. It's old. It's weird.
How often do you read it, AND understand it?
There's a thing called "hermeneutics"....
We backgrounded Mark... first book, 70 years, in a hurry...
Jesus had messed with people a bit and Mark wanted people to 'get it'

Mark is clever, wants people to have courage, uses the mustard seed story and others to speak into the situation with the opressive leaders at the time...
Uses the STORM as a symbol that its going to be challenging, that the disciples were challenged...
The Jews didn't believe it all included the Gentiles, but in stories like Legion Jesus included others, continued the layers of meaning and the disciples like us, take a while to realise what's going on...

Sometimes this will take time... the faith stuff, the justice stuff.

Intro to "From Little Things, Big Things Grow" and a reminder of the first day story of Roas Parks.... out of people tired and weary of the systems that keepthem hungry and unrespected.
It is part of our story, one we can and should enter....
6. "FROM LITTLE THINGS BIG THINGS GROW" sung by Sam/Katie with brief extra explanation re Vincent Lingiari...
7. STATIONS for INTERACTION
Again a stripped back appraoch although we had discussed setting up some from the previous session because we'd run out of time and had a band scheduled straight after us....
a. Used Rah's 'Discussion/Reflection Circles' with slightly different focus of A4 paper with either RAT [as in I smell a RAT] or FISHY [as in there's something fishy about this thought] to allow people to 'unpack'
b. Writing on your FEET... was pre-empted at whole convention gathering by Shane Claiborne but we left it in as a reflection/addition...
c. SEEDS were provided for people to symbolically take home
d. WRITTEN responses on newsprint with time to write
e. We planned the opprtunity for people to WRITE on their HANDS or a scan of them to take away ideas, commitments etc
8. THANKS/FEEDBACK/Q&A MAILBOX RESPONSES
9. SENDING OUT SONGS
"Flame Trees"
"True Colours"
"Beautiful" with the Audiovisual in Photostory of everyone's photos from Day One
Sung by Sam/Katie

We were down on numbers a little today [testament to the 'overloaded' call] and a little 'all over the shop' feeling like we were nearly done... so I think that flavour came across and people were a little restless BUT we got there and today was similarly well received and people stayed,participated and connected!!