Mt 13, Ps 139 and Out of the Box!

Hello, this week I have some lovely stuff for you. Of course, you have your lectionary-linked liturgy (try saying that without your teeth in!) at the end, plus other linked resources. And there’s the text of the latest ‘Thought for the Day’ (see below).

In addition, I’d lake to share a little with you about Out of the Box, a superb story-telling method which is great for exploring faith in a non-didactic way. I went on a training event earlier this week (Oh, how lovely to be back in Cambridge) and I’m super-excited! Out of the Box is similar to Catechesis of the Good Shepherd / Montessori / Deep Talk / Godly Play, but I think combines the best parts of all without the drawbacks of some.

Don’t get me wrong, Godly Play is beautiful, but I do have problems with the narrowness of interpretation, and the HUGE expense of materials, and you can only use official products etc. Not so Out of the Box! While there are ‘official’ materials, you are encouraged to use whatever is to hand. You don’t have to buy their ‘stuff’. The stories are much broader and more open-ended, meaning you can help people to explore Life’s Big Questions without them having to toe any specific line.

I hope to be recording videos over the next weeks and months and posting them here, but to give you an idea, here’s one from the Out of the Box website. You may recognise it as Matt 13:31–32, which is (oddly) the bit missed out from this week’s gospel reading. Don’t ask me why.

Links to Resources

Reflections on Psalm 139 and the ‘Know-o-Matic’
Together Apart, printable all-age PDF (note that ‘All Age’ does NOT mean ‘for kids’)
Look See Pray Psalm 139
Matthew 13 resources
Stairway to Heaven – Gen 28 and the Growing Ladder

‘Thought for the Day’ on Mt 12:12

Hello, today’s verse is Matthew 12:12 How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath. To put that in context, the bit before is, “If your sheep falls into a pit on the sabbath, will you not haul it out?” It’s something Jesus said when he was getting an earwigging for letting his disciples pick grain on the sabbath. Technically, it was against the law, and we should obey the law, right? Let me tell you a story.

Some years ago, I was woken at two am by a knock on the door. To a mum of three young ‘uns, that probably means one has had a nightmare or been sick on their pillow – ah the joys of parenting. But not this time.

Instead, I stumbled blearily out of bed to find the knocking coming from the front door. Outside was a neighbour looking ill. He’d had a heart attack recently, so a 999 call and 300mg of aspirin later I was driving him to A&E at flank speed. He was OK as it turned out, but it was the journey there that’s significant.

I committed several traffic violations on that trip. I almost certainly exceeded the speed limit, I went through three red lights, I turned down a road that said Emergency Ambulances Only, and I parked on double yellows. And if it happened again tomorrow, I’d do exactly the same.

Technically speaking, that should have cost me at least 12 points on my license and several hundred pounds of fines. But I like to think that if I’d met the police on the way, they’d have given me a blue-lights-flashing top speed escort to the hospital. I’m sure they would.

Now that’s not to say that traffic laws can be flouted willy-nilly. They’re there for the good and safety of all. And I certainly wouldn’t have driven like that had there been other cars around. BUT

Sometimes you need to haul your sheep out of a pit on the sabbath. God is more interested in us acting justly and loving mercy and walking humbly, than how many holiness points we’ve racked up on our personal piety star chart.

So the next time there’s a tap on my study door and one of my kids wants running to a friend’s house but I’m trying to read to my Bible, perhaps I could remember this instead of getting grouchy.

Liturgy Resources for Proper 11

Genesis 28:10-19a, Psalm 139:1-12, 23-24

Confession and Absolution

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.

You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.

You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.

Even before a word is on my tongue, O Lord, you know it completely.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.

For all in our hearts that is not as it should be, we ask your forgiveness.
For all in our hearts that broken or bruised, we ask your healing.
For all in our hearts that is weary or frightened, we ask your strength.
Search me, O God, and know my heart.
and lead me in the way everlasting.
Amen.

May God, who freely forgives,
pardon and deliver us
and renew us in his image,
to his praise and glory.
Amen.