Last Sunday’s Playlist @ Newmarket Baptist 

29th July 2012, Ordinary Time 17B: Colour: Green

Greetings,

At this stage Sunday’s 10am gathering is central to our Rhythm of Prayer at Newmarket Baptist.  As we cant each be present every Sunday we like to share highlights from our ‘playlist’ in the hope that it may re-source you to better follow Jesus in your world…

C2W (Call to Worship):

With the Olympics Opening Ceremony having just completed we reflected upon the Olympics as a religious event.  The role of an Opening Ceremony is to express something of the best ideals and hopes of humanity.  In this instance I was impressed ( blown away!) with the contrast of a traditional Christan hymn and stunning modern choreography in the tribute to those who died in the London 7/7 terrorist bombings (video here).

Written by a man on his death bed, “Abide with Me” has a powerful cultural sporting relevance being sung regularly at FA Cup Final’s in England.

Together we thought about the hope of the gospel’s promise of life in the face of death and sung the old hymn together… not quite the production values of Danny Boyle but powerful nonetheless!

PoC (Prayer of Confession):

We reflected upon the other side of the Olympics… The difference between the narratives of the God’s of Olympus… “Higher, Faster, Stronger” and those of Jesus of Nazarteth in the Beatitudes “Lower, Slower, Meeker”!?  We had a moment to think about things we didn’t like about the Olympics which included advertising and the behaviour as well as treatment of athletes who hadn’t met ours or others expectations.

In what ways has striving for “Higher, Faster, Stronger” in our lives actually disfigured our humanity, hurting ourselves and others. What are the areas in our lives we may be avoid the call or the necessity to go “Lower, Slower, Meeker?”

Michael Leunig captured the same idea beautifully later in the week… “Slower, Deeper, Wiser” here

Much Grace
Marcus