Easter Sunday Reflections #2

   Stories are powerful. You see it anytime a group of children get wrapped up in even a half decent narrative. This image is an example where the coloured squares and artefacts help shape the telling of a week in the journey of Jesus life. I didn't really tell it as well as possible the first time around, needing to skip over a couple of parts for the sake of time. By far the most exciting thing about this story is it grabbed all of the group who sat to hear it's beginning and they stayed with the wondering until the end.

The story is a sad but hope filled story of love...
Grey for riding a donkey/colt into the city in a choreographed 'occupy' styled pice of street theatre
With coloured ribbons and a palm ranch and a card with clipart Jesus carrying a cross
Lilac for turning over tables in the Temple with coins and a clipart set of feet walking the journey
Purple for dinner at Simon's house with perfume bottle and tea light candle
Darker purple for the cursed fig tree with a dead branch
Darker again for foot washing with a bowl and cloth
Darkest with air dry clay plate and cup for 'last' supper
Red with the reminder of the cross and a paddle pop stick cross for Good Friday
Black with a tea light candle for the grief and loss and how this is a sad story
White was the square with an easter egg we cracked to talk about new life and hope
[I would change that to yellow I think, to avoid the black white stereotyping]
Orange is another way to add a conversation about the road to Emma's
A pair of shoes, bread and juice would work really well...

   The above is a small storytelling version of what I've seen happening in lots of places this weekend as people Facebook post photos of tables, stations, crosses, cloths, and artwork. All symbols, all hoping to invite people to enter into the Easter story. No doubt there's hit and miss but I'm sure some creative curators of worship have done what they can to invite people into an experience of worship, an experience of the story, a relationship with the one who calls us to 'follow.'
   So I found just the space I needed in Wednesday's 'Stations' but I felt I had to be part of a community this morning to continue my steps on the journey, my connection with the story...
   Adamstown was that 30 mins too early after getting home from Katoomba at 2am AEST and 9.30 was do-able if I rumbled there half asleep. I had seen early pics from Hamilton and knew my story would connect there... with Home Group punters and the Rev's considered reflections.
   Resisting the temptation to take my reading to Bar Beach, I knew the discipline of being in community would be important and so I trekked through the door. I immediately found my 'purple square' with a rendition of "He is Alive" with echoes of too many Easter Camp Sunday mornings to count... then the blend of traditional and symbolic, the use of artefacts and an honest reflection on the gospel accounts of whatever happened that Sunday morning were appropriately challenging and hope giving. It also allowed for the many ways in which people relate to this story and gave room for people to wonder, to be affirmed and yet also to be challenged and taught. God's story will not be contained!!
   It included building up the symbols in the space to help understand why they have become part of the familiar. It fulfilled the curator's challenge of primarily focusing on giving the story a context and the content flowed from that desire to make it an experience, not a lecture, not all music, not empty talk of things too hard to comprehend! The essence of faith...
   It's heartening to see the same invitations issued in many places across my network of colleagues and friends... locally, nationally and beyond...