grace saturday night is called flip the script. i’m looking forward to it. had a fun planning meeting earlier in the week. come along – 8pm st mary’s church ealing
update: it was a wonderful evening with some great ideas that i will return to. i am adding some of the prayers, reflections and stations here. click on the links for the instructions for each station
Introduction
The theme ‘flip the script’ is inspired by the life of Jesus in whom we see so many ways in which reversed the presumed order of things. He flipped notions of who is in and out, what God is like, who may be included in the kingdom of God and so on. We will be looking at one encounter at the edge by way of example and then exploring the notion of flipping the script through notions of
Flipping God
Flipping theology
Flipping me
Flipping Society
And we have a soundtrack especially put together:
Flipping Music
Opening (flip) prayer: Call To Worship As Asylum Seekers
Taken from Liturgies From Below
We gather to seek asylum from a world that sets neighbour against neighbour.
We gather to seek asylum from the temptation to draw and enforce boundaries
that mean we can describe other people as not our problem.
We gather to seek asylum from a worldview that values us primarily as consumers, as wealth-generators, as units of production and consumption.
We gather to seek asylum from the binaries that bind and constrain us.
We gather to seek asylum from the very church(es) in whose name we gather,
in which orthodoxy and hierarchy have been tools of oppression and abuse.
We name ourselves as asylum-seekers.
We pray that in our seeking, we may create that asylum for which we yearn.
We pray that, starting here, starting now, our seeking may crack open the empires that we resist and turn away from so that the whole world maya transformed into a place of safe asylum for all.
The word – Lk 13:10-17
Reflection
Imagine the scene in a local synagogue, Jesus sat on the floor with a group around…
A woman comes in who is bent double. She has been for eighteen years. She looks at the ground and can’t physically look up. She is like a tree on a coastal cliff top that has been blown so much that it now is permanently bent over in the direction of the wind. Only in her case the wind that has blown is described as an evil spirit…
When someone is bent over they look down. When someone is bent over, very often they also look down on themselves. Over time it’s possible to lose yourself or at least your sense of self and worth this way. Self-pity, self-hatred can follow that seem to deepen a downward spiral compounded by destructive inner scripts…
Jesus looks up and sees the woman bent over and calls her over. Unlike some other instances he doesn’t ask if she wants to be healed, doesn’t require faith or anything else on her part. When we are in a place of being bent over in our spirit through lies and shame and have lost the strength or memory to seek a way out Jesus doesn’t make demands. He sees us and calls. She simply walks across the synagogue to him. He then heals her through reaching out to touch her and she is freed. She stands tall. What a moment. What does this look like? How do the crowd react? What does Jesus , the One Who Straightens Backs say to the woman at this point?…
The synagogue leader is indignant that people are coming for healing on the Sabbath. He is concerned with what he perceives to be the right thing to do under the rubrics of the law. It’s so petty, so pathetic. Religion gone awry puts burdens of guilt, shame and judgement on people who feel they can’t live up to expectations and that they are not good enough. This is so counter to the freedom and liberation found in Jesus…
Flipping Response [stations]
There are four stations to pick up ideas of flipping the script. If the story has caught your imagination feel free to stay with that too.
Flipping God
There are two areas –
Cold/harsh light – confession of ways we have imbibed God of empire – write on an envelope and let go of that notion of God. download instructions
Warm light – prayer exercise using Jesus prayer flipped, and a body prayer to stand tall. download instructions
Flipping theology
Blackout poetry
‘Clobber texts’ are scriptures described as such when they are texts used to justify oppression through patriarchy or homophobia, People have been clobbered by them. Without getting into hermeneutics this is a playful exercise. Take the printed text and using markers blackout words leaving a new message, subverting the text.
There are also some old books – feel free to take a page from one of those instead. download instructions
Flipping me
Reverse poetry
Take a script you have about yourself and try writing a reverse poem that is negative when read top to bottom but has the opposite meaning when read bottom to top. Here is one example I wrote ‘We all know the truth’
You are a piece of shit
So don’t go getting ideas
You are wonderful
Lest you forget
You deserve nothing
Don’t lie to yourself saying
You are worthy
We all know the truth
download instructions
Flipping society
Collage
There are so many messages in society that deserve to be flipped. Take the newspapers and cut and paste some new messages. download instructions
Revisit
Revisit the stations – look, invite people to share
Final Blessing (for one who is bent over inspired by the Luke 13 story above)
May you know what it is to be loved
deep at your core
your essence,
your soul,
your self.
May you lose all fear and shame
in the presence of the One whose love knows no ending,
no conditions,
and is not subject to performance
or winning approval.
May all the lies and accusations
that cause you to look down
and be down on yourself
lose their shaping power.
May poisonous words that have become your inner scripts be flipped
as you hear and receive a new word from the Word.
May your wounding ease
in the presence of the One Who Straightens Backs.
In His love may you unfurl
and risk bringing the most hidden and vulnerable parts of you into the light
and find welcome at the table where there is only love,
and fear has no place.
May you resist the temptation to go back,
to bend again,
to look down,
to be down on yourself,
And may you grow in a quiet inner confidence and strength
in the gift of who you are
the gift God made
You
are
loved.
Stand tall!
Amen