| Renewal Candle |
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Our Renewal Candle - Facing the Future together
To Weavers Everywhere (M. Rienstra)
God sits weeping The beautiful creation tapestry She wove with such joy Is mutilated, torn into shreds, Reduced to rags, Its beauty fragmented by force. God sits weeping. But look! She is gathering up the shreds To weave something new. She gathers The rags of hard work Attempts at advocacy, Initiatives for peace, Protests against injustice, All the seemingly little and weak Words and deeds offered Sacrificially In hope, in faith, in love. And look! She is weaving them all With golden threads of Jubilation Into a new tapestry, A creation richer, more beautiful Than the old one was! God sits weaving Patiently, persistently, With a smile that Radiates like a rainbow On her tear-streaked face. And She invites us Not only to keep offering her the Shreds and rags of our suffering And our work, But even more - To take our place beside Her At the Jubilee Loom, And weave with her The tapestry of the New Creation. Liam Lawton prayer
Lord I stand here on a distant shore Alone And hope has left her nest And flown Somehow Sometime Somewhere I lost the sense of who I am I know the lonely heart Not my own But of those who stand watching From separate shores Who wanted more For me and now Ive gone too far Is it too late To believe that You are still there? Despite my fall Despite my all I am the woman at the well I am the man who once fell At Your feet And begged If You wast to,Lord You can heal me Restore to me All that time has lost All that pain has cost All moments past All that I have wasted Turn my loss to gain That life might flower again Untie the knots of my tangled life All that is delusion All the hearts confusion May I stand humbly To seek forgiveness From hurting hearts That once held me In loving care Should I dare ? And in my ruptured life May I see the light Reaching through the chasms of despair May love now settle there Into that space Once filled by painful pride May You now hide Restoring hope Opening doors To life anew May I hear Your words Once spoken with Your tears To Lazarus Your friend of years Unbind him and let him go free Would that You speak those words to me Renewal Candle Lighting
We’re going to light a candle. It’s just a candle. It’s not even a very big candle. It is a token. We talk about ‘token’ presents. One kind is small, often thoughtless. The other kind is small but has been chosen with care, affection and respect. It gives us a glimpse of the regard in which we are held. Our candle is this kind of token. We want to look to the future. We want to do things differently. We don’t want to ‘live in the past’. We want to live in hope, in Christ. But we cannot forget. This candle was chosen to last. Careful thought was given as to where it would be put, where it would best be seen. We cannot forget. Massive damage has been done. We have all been hurt. We do not recognise the church our parents and grandparents honoured in the awful revelations of recent times. The Good Samaritan cared for an innocent victim of violence and greed. Many innocent victims are still scarred by their stolen childhood. It would be beyond arrogant to think anything we could do alone could take those scars away. But we cannot forget. We must not forget. We’re here to continue the process of renewing our church, our Holy Redeemer parish, ourselves. These have been, and are, difficult times, times of change. We are called to pray, to heal our divisions. More than ever we need to remember that WE are the body of Christ: We the people; We the clergy; We the wonderful choirs here today; We the many parish groups who contribute so generously to the life of our parish; We the people of God who are not here today, the ones too weighed down to come. It’s only a candle. It is only a token, a gesture of respect, sorrow. But it is also a light. Perhaps for someone it might be a source of a little warmth. Let us remember – better to light a single candle than to curse the dark.
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