08.04.07 Steve Easter Morning - Morning Glory, what's the story
(What's the Story) Morning Glory? is the second album by the English rock band Oasis, released in October 1995. It sold over 22 million copies worldwide, including over 4.3 million copies in the UK, 14x platinum, and is currently the third biggest-selling album in UK chart history.
The
title came into my head as I mused on another Easter morning - but
the other way round - Morning Glory - what's the story? Couple of
years ago as I (almost literally) wrestled with my academic studies
about the nature of spaces for worship, Michael in his supervisorly
role came up with a very helpful summary - that I was toiling with
the fact that the Christian church has a tendency to be a
'building-formed community', rather than a 'story-formed community' -
and that was extremely clarifying for me.... - for all the vast
panoply of history and influence, postive and negative, of the
institution we call the church, the thing that matters is the story
of Jesus, and how the stories of those who would follow in the way of
Jesus are transformed. We all have a story to tell about how our Lord
has touched and shaped our lives, and how we find ourselves caught
up, however humbly, in the great human story of responding to the
love of God. Young Toby find himself caught up in the story this
morning - and we wonder, with hope and with the most sincere prayers
about how his story will pan out - baptism isn't a completion (a
qualification, a passport) but a beginning, a birth.
We've made it
through another Lent... the Radio 4 poet proclaimed, yesterday
I
wonder where Lent went
and what Lent meant
and whether the way
that I spent Lent
will make even a tiny dent
in where I'm
ultimately sent
hereafter
For the benefit of folk who are visiting us, we've been following a theme through some 6 weeks of Lent - 'Priceless - new values for renewed people' - using the gospel stories set for Lent, to see if we can feel for ways in which we can value the world differently - in the belief that Jesus so often seemed to turn the world on it's head, and give ultimate value to the very folk the world finds worthless - turning the world upside down, in giving ultimate value to acts of love, and humility and compassion, in ways that the world finds weak, over-generous or unambitious. As signs of revaluing that which to others might seem worthless, some of us brought ordinary pictures and objects to share that, though ordinary, are important to us. Some of us brought books about people whose lives have caused us to value the world in a new way - biographies - stories - some well-known, some not
Karen Armstrong, Eric Liddell, Lionel Blue, Naomi Mitcheson, Anne Frank, Mary Jones (and her bible), Derek Jarman, Jung Chan, Matisse, Anna (Mr God, this is...), Dorothy Norman, Kahlil Gibron, Alastair Reid, Maya Angelou, Rosa Parks, Johanna Ruth Dobschiner, George McLeod, Ted Luscombe, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Peter Brook, William Blake, Cyril Axelrod, Sheldon Vanauken, Meister Eckhart. A story-formed community - they are part of our community today. People whose stories have transformed our stories.
One of these stories made me think of an object that is really important to me - Sheldon Vanauken (August 4, 1914–October 18, 1996) is an American author, best known for his autobiographical book A Severe Mercy (1977), which recounts his and his wife's friendship with C.S. Lewis, their conversion to Christianity and dealing with tragedy. Their story, in a sense, is as real now as in it's happening. For me, 25 years on, I think of it in some way, every other day - not so much about the events, as about seeing beauty in the ordinary things of the world.
Morning Glory - what's the story? The story is that we've heard about resurrection - this is the morning glory that our stories with all of their heights and depths, and beginnings and endings, and arrivals and leavings, the euphoria and the wretchedness...... that all of this is purposeful - that ultimately we are ultimately valued by God who loves us, and whose gift to us is transformation, and always, always being made new.
Let's
offer some short prayers and respond to them with a ten-word version
of the story of the faith - Christ has died, Christ has risen,
Christ will come again.
For being ultimately valued.....
- with the people of the Way throughout the centuries and across the
world we pray for God's blessing and say
Christ has died,
Christ has risen, Christ will come again.
That
we would be made new in our valuing of those around us.....
For
any in our thoughts who need to be valued and loved today.....
For
people and places today who we long for, that they would know
transformation and being made new.....
For Toby... and everyone
else who has been baptised this Easter Day....