Last week I attended our circuit local preachers' refresher course. We have these once a year and we are expected to attend as one of our commitments as preachers. This year I organised it. Last summer, I met a new District Chaplain for the Arts, who is now the District Venture FX Pioneer Minister. Also I asked our circuit Mission Enabler to help lead the day, about creativity in worship.
This is my contribution of a piece of writing for use in worship. It is pretty much as I delivered it on the day - it would benefit from some polishing and if I get around to a second version I shall share it here. It is based on the opening verses of John's Gospel and I have written about them before (exactly 18 months ago!). It is also based upon the story that when the biologist J B S Haldane was asked about creation, he replied God must love beetles!
It all started down the pub. Look at this, said God, taking a gulp of Crudgingtons 6X. He produced his prototype - I call it an atom - I've ideas for loads of different models and I'm going into mass production soon.
And I, said the other, am going to keep an eye on things, give them a nudge now and again. It'll be brilliant what these atoms can do. What about you?
Me? I'll dance - through time and space - and watch and listen, inspire and create.
The next time they met, she said - the things I've seen! You must love beetles and stars and grains of sand; parasitic wasps and neon lighted jellyfish in the ocean's darkest depths. I've watched planets form, fish crawl from the seas, dinosaurs live and die - but not lose hope, they turned into birds!
You ain't seen nothing yet, said God, ordering another round.
Soon, she saw others who saw things as she did, who also watched and listened and danced and created; who set things in order and analysed and invented. They were brilliant in their own way - brilliant and sad, wise and dangerous, comic and tragic.
Don't you think they need help, she asked? I'm onto it, said the other, with some trepidation.
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