Kōriporipo ana I te Tika

Workshop

We are called to act as we worship

Mark Richards

A simple starting point

The idea I want to explore this afternoon is that the very structure of our liturgy, or our public prayer and worship, holds a pattern for our Christian life, our actions in justice, and outreaches in love.

Where to start BELL

START AT THE DOOR OF THE CHAPEL

Why am I here?

Tap on the door? SLIDE

What do you read of the person on the other side of the door?

Shy, reticent, in need

Bash on the door

What do you read of the person on the other side of the door

Angry, in need, demanding

What would you do if such an opening?

The first lesson the church gives us is that we have only one response

OPEN the door SLIDE

We welcome you , as you are, we will love you as you are, we will serve you as you are

You come in need, or in search, or with a story of a journey, COME AS YOU ARE THAT IS HOW I WANT YOU

So it is in all Christian life, action, community, outreach,

Yours is to deal, as a community with whoever stands at the door

Knock on the door

What is our normal response to such a knock?

What is the normal response?

Who is there?

Why do we ask?

So as to be able to deny or give access

When someone knocks on the door of the church

Open the door

People stand at the door and they have one of two questions: SLIDE

Io sono qui e ho un grande bisogno

Io sono qui e ho una grande speranza per la vita

Ich stehe hier und ich habe eine große Hoffnung für das Leben

Ich stehe hier und ich habe ein großes Bedürfnis

我站在這裡，我有一個偉大的需要

我站在這裡，我有一個偉大的生命的希望

I am standing here and I have a great hope for life

Kei konei au e tū ana, ā, ka nui taku tūmanako mō te ora.

I am standing here and I have a great need

Kei konei au e tū ana, ā, ka nui taku hiahia.

I don’t understand

Is the question, Vatican 2 was quite clear, we will respond in the language, to the culture, to the place in which the person appears

Where does the welcome need to lie

In the heart of the ones welcoming the ones inside

What is the first action that the Church makes, liturgically, in the RCIA, to those who come to the door, and is the first action that we do as we come into the Church

Is to take the Cross, place their hand on the Cross and walk into the midst of the community

FIND A CROSS AND PROCESS INTO THE COMMUNITY

So we come to the second step

We have opened the door

What do we do?

We take the cross and we say BRING A PERSON FORWARD AND CROSS THEM

Open your eyes SLIDE

Open your ears SLIDE

Open your heart SLIDE

Give all of your strength

Or as we stand to listen to the Gospel GET ALL TO ACT OUT WHAT WE DO AT THE GOSPEL

May the word of God fill my mind

May the word of God be ever on my lips

May the word of God be enshrined on my heart

The starting point is stop

We are not here in our own

We need, must, challenge the prejudging of the one I am meeting, and myself

I need to open my eyes, ears, heart with the challenge of the Cross of Christ

I / we need to listen, to see, to hear to feel and respond with the heart of Christ,

And so we start

Firstly IN the name of the Father and the Son and the HOLY spirit, with a SIGN of the Cross

And then we acknowledge where the Lord is

The LORD is WITH YOU

Or the RISEN CHRIST greets us “PEACE BE WITH YOU”

But Lord my eyes have been closed, my ears dumb, my heart heavy

That is going to call for penitence

I become quickly aware that I have put a barrier, or a prejudice between myself and the one who Christ is facing me, in need, or in hope

Where?

“In my thoughts and in my words

In what I have done or in what I have failed to do”

So where do I turn to find what it is that I should have done or not done, thought or said

I need to form my conscience WALK TO THE BOOK

This is a wide exercise:

I want to offer a simple code for where we need to look

When the Lord stood in the synagogue

He was offered the scrolls that contained all the writings of Judaism

There was the Law the Torah

There was the History of the people

There were the scrolls of the Prophets, the challengers, the people of hope

We are called each Sunday to be formed by the word of God

We listen to the OT, to the Letters, to the Gospels of Good News

We also are asked to form our conscience by refereeing

The law

The history of the place and the issue

The result of hearing the prophets

The result of our prayer, especially the psalms and lectio divina

The wisdom writings of our time

We then come to a conclusion

An action

If I was to ask you who you are called to pray for in the prayer of the faithful WHAT WOULD YOU PRAY FOR, WHO DO YOU PRAY WILL HAVE THE GIFT TO DO WHAT IS REVEALED

The Church SLIDE

The society SLIDE

The local community SLIDE

Those in need and sick and dying SLIDE

How does our understanding impact, what is the deepest need

Now what?

You and I are asked to act on what has been seen as right and just

What is the image?

Bread and wine

Is it the task to take extraordinary things?

No our daily bread, the ordinary, the mundane, symbols of ourselves HAVE BREAD AND GRAPES TO HAND

Are the elements individual, is it one grain of wheat, or one grape SLIDE

No

It is communal

Yes

How are they formed?

The whole are taken, they are given, they are blessed, they are crushed and broken,

they are brought into one, they are broken in sacrifice and service and are given SLIDE

Here is a stunning image of what is involved next

SLIDE SLIDE SLIDE ( Talk to the Slides, they have the content)

Now I want to try and apply this:

I have discerned that the Lord, following on from the story of the Rich Man and Lazarus has called the people of this room to establish a soup kitchen / bread for breakfast in the local parish of

Mangere east. SLIDE

What is involved? TALK TO NEIGHBOUR

Find a place SLIDE

Find the people

Find if there is a need

Get the local leaders on board

Health and safety

Sources of food, or money to buy the ingredients

Someone to cook

Someone to serve

Someone to wash up and clean up

Social work skills for the issues that arise

Someone to pray and bless the food

Someone to coordinate and roster

Someone to advertise

Go around the group and ask for core talent, expect to find all the talents for the task in the group gathered

That was my starting point

Now

In stillness can I have you look at this and say “ I can do this, on my own” is there someone??

Now in stillness what is it that you can do,

Will it show the love of God in this place

Yes

Will it bring life and is it intended to bring life

yes

Will it be a sacrifice?

Yes

Will it be a cross?

Yes

Can you do it alone?

No, it requires the body of Christ, the church; it is an action of love and unity

No it is in Him, and Through Him and With Him

Does it require a change of heart?

Yes

Do I need to get wisdom, understanding, legal advice, pray, seek the history of the place, local understanding and stories?

Yes

Do I have to say AMEN to being taken, broken, shared and given, and

Do I have to say AMEN to being in communion with others?

Do I have to say AMEN to offering Peace to my brothers and sisters?

To all this YES

Where have we learned this : AT THE LITURGY, in OUR COMMON PRAYER

We come to a common table; we share the gifts of each other, the very being of each other, that have been taken, in bread and wine, and united with the gift of Christ on the altar, the Cross, an act of love to the father

This is the mechanism that is summarised in one call, the last of our Eucharist

ITE MISSA EST

It is complete, GO in peace to love and to serve the Lord

So our worship, our public prayer demands the action of the Christian justice, and our actions in justice, development and charity, all require the same mechanism as the Eucharist

Stop, welcome, listen, demand a challenge to our ears and eyes, heart and feet, am I open to receiving you as you are with your hope and need

Be formed, not to blind obedience

Rather, be formed as an adult follower of the Lord,

Listen, study, pray the ordinary Law, history, wisdom, but add the fruit of prayer and tradition, gospel and instruction

Ask what does this call for from the society, the church, me, the parish, for the needy

Then

Bring the little bit, the ordinary, the bread and wine of our lives

Bring and offer, but offer to give

Offer it to be taken, to be blessed, to be broken, to be given, to be shared

Offer yourself, your resources, your time, your insight, your understanding, your money, your wisdom

And say amen, to working together, and acting, doing, visiting, writing, speaking to MPs, standing for bodies

SEE, JUDGE and ACT

No one is possible

ASSEMBLE, LISTEN and be formed by the WORD, give thanks and commune, and go to serve

No one is possible without the other

No one is possible without the seeing, the understanding and the acting to respond

Where did I see you naked, hungry, homeless,

Wherever you saw … you saw me

Whenever you uplifted, served, healed, wrote on behalf of, you did it to me, come oh good and faithful servant