This year is significant. We’ve been praying for a harvest, we have sown the seed, watered the seed. Now its harvest time. Let’s come with expectation to what God is doing.

join the revolution !

Last Sunday, Reggie Nel was teaching on this theme looking also at the ‘wild women of the Bible’ You might want to download a  summary of his teaching HERE.

We were also blessed with a presentation on the ministry of women, from and within Riverlea, You might want to download the Power Point slides from HERE.

Indeed, we stand in awe, we stand amazed.

What an honor and a privilege to serve Him through dance. To God all the glory for the great times behind!!! Yet we know the latter will be even greater.

We would like to take a trip down memory lane and we would like you to recall this journey with us. We therefore would like to invite you to be part of our trip back into time. We will be hosting our 10th year celebration “BACK INTO TIME” on the weekend of 16-17 April 2011.

We would really like YOU to come and celebrate with us.

The celebration will be held at URC Riverlea (Alpha Creche) cnr Medway & Kentucky Streets. On Saturday 16 April 2011 at 5.30pm We are planning a dance celebration and we will be dancing a few of our previous songs, danced back in time and recall the good old times. This will also be a fund-raising effort towards our ministry and therefore we would like to confirm that a donation of R10 per person will be requested (children under 5 free). In line with our 10th year celebration we will also be selling refreshments @R10 per item/combo. We will also host the Sunday morning service at 10am and would like to invite you to come and join us for this event. It would be highly appreciated if you could confirm your attendance asap.

For more information please contact Charmaine on 0114748787 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0114748787 end_of_the_skype_highlighting or 0848672385 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0848672385 end_of_the_skype_highlighting /charmaine.moody7@gmail.com or Valerie on 0836519111 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 0836519111 end_of_the_skype_highlighting / fancy1@mtn.blackberry.com

Here’s the information and use it now.

Pentecost and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a reminded that all God’s people are prophets, all God’s people are in the inner circle.

The reflections can be downloaded here, and it was developed for use by congregations and christians for this year.

It was quite a shift for the disciples, because they thought that they knew God and Jesus and the things of God. One can understand that,  afterall they’ve been the ones closest to Jesus. They walked with him, saw what he did for three years. Yet, in many ways, Jesus kept on surprising them.

Let’s look at Luke 24:36 and onwards:

The fact that they were talking about  ‘these things’ gives indication that they were key commentators, key witnesses. Then Jesus, as a stranger joined their conversation and eventually their home, their space.

Our own journeys with Jesus also often follows this trajectory: walking alone seeking answers-seeking God in new situations. Talking God, talking about God, with God, journeying with a stranger who take us deeper into scripture/revelation, making a choice and discovering Jesus (from the friendly stranger to the friend). This could be the end. The defining story of our lives.

But Jesus doesn’t want it to end there. It shouldn’t end with ‘the last great experience of God’ or even that ‘testimony’ or this ‘miracle’. Because we often recycle theses experiences. These stories and myths starts to define our identity- we add little snippets here and there ( some spice to make it more spectacular) and then, very often, these definding stories myths, become an end in itself.

What happened here is that its not the dynamic real presence of God anymore, or the Spirit leading us- it’s in the story ( our story) . And this story often becomes exclusionary- at the expense of others, or at the expense of new stories, of new experiences and new stories of Gods revelation in Jesus Christ.

This is where we pick up this weeks resurrection story.

1) Whilst they were telling the stories, building stronger walls around them,  Jesus again steps into their reality- he rattles the confortzone, he shakes their cosy club; Their their reaction was fear, surprise. They were startled and also frigthened.  For them, there was a new reality opening up. They could recognise Jesus, but could not believe that this was real. Their language were inadequate to name what was happening here.

They thought him to be a ghost ( a friendly familiar ghost, but still, a ghost). We often relate God reality to the world, to us as ‘spiritual’, i.e. spiritual growth, spiritual things that many times mean ghostly things. Its there, but also…its not there (meaning its not real) Many people speak about these realities, but it remains only in the words.Is this enough ? No, not according to Jesus.

2) He shows himself to be human-his resurrection is not merely spiritual, it’s a new human being for a new world, i.e. its reality. He comes to be touched, to eat bread, to continue to share our humanity, reality. He dont simply exists in grave-yards, or in dark corners, as a tormented soul-he is real in our every circumstance. The real world becomes the arena where Jesus steps in to recreate new humans, to make a change.

3) Lets conclude, its in this world where his followers are send with ever new stories, to create new stories, crossing boundaries and en route to and new earth. These followers also becomes strangers in this quest for a new world, they encouter strangers who becomes fellow pilgrims. They are sustained by following the ever new story of Jesus, in the real world.

This reality is so powerfuly communicated through the signs of the bread and the wine. These are real symbols of life, feeding the world. Lets eat and follow the real Jesus.

Of course, it makes sense if its meant as an affirmation of how we’ve appropriated what these objects stand for, or if it expresses our sense of responsibility and stewardship towards it. It can also mean self-preservation. The fight to obtain and to maintain power, to maintain ourselves, (at all costs)

The words of Jesus came in the context of the Jewish feast of Pesach. Let’s read the story, in Joh 12:20-36. What did the Pass-over festival meant for the Jews of the time? In a recent explanation on a website called, Judaism 101, it is explained that this feast, called in Hebrew ‘Pesach’ begins on the 15th day of the Jewish month of Nissan (which is the first month of the Jewish year, beginning in March/April). These festivals had both historical and agricultural significance. Agriculturally, it represented the beginning of the harvest season in Israel (The Feast of the Harvest). The primary observances of Pesach are however related to the Exodus from Egypt after generations of slavery. This story is told in Exodus, Ch. 1-15. Many of the Pesach observances are then instituted in Chs. 12-15. The name “Pesach” comes from the Hebrew, meaning to pass through, to pass over, to exempt or to spare. It refers to the fact that God “passed over” the houses of the Jews when he was slaying the firstborn of Egypt. In English, the holiday is known as Passover, when the blood of the lamb was on the doorpost. “Pesach” is also the name of the sacrificial offering (a lamb) that was made in the Temple on this holiday. These days, during this season, the houses of Jews are cleansed from leaven products and only unleavened bread are eaten, symbolising the cleansing, but also the fact that the Israelites left Egypt in a hurry. The significance of all this, is of course, rooted in Old Testament,

And if your son asks you in the future, saying, What are the testimonies, and the statutes, and the judgments, that the LoRD our God commanded you? You will say to your son, We were slaves to Pharaoh in Egypt; and the LoRD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. The LoRD gave signs and wonders, great and harmful, against Egypt, against Pharaoh, and against all his household, before our eyes: And he brought us out of there to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised our fathers. –(Deuteronomy 6:20-23)

As history evolved, this feast however became a festival with deep nationalistic and ethnic undertones. Here, race, faith and nationalism collided. ‘Others’ were excluded, unless you are birthed in the Jewish nation. It is in this context, where some from Greek descend, also indicated that they want to be part of this story. They’ve heard of a Jew, called Jesus, who seemed to be the door to this story and rich history, this identity, where God gives hope for oppressed peoples. So, they asked to be part of this.

Their request however caused a bit of a stir. No-one wants to take responsibility and they pass the buck. The subtexts was ‘no- you cannot be part of the festival- you are not from us…’, i.e. self-preservation, this is our history, this is our liberation, this was our struggle, our songs. But this is not Jesus’ understanding. For Jesus, this is his moment. He came precisily, to open up the story, to all. God’s history with the Jews, was the seed for a great harvest, for the liberation of the whole world. This seed had to be planted in the soil, it had to be buried, it had to die, to bring out the harvest. Jesus connects with the agricultural significance of the feast. It’s the feast of Harvest, a feast of opening up to the harvest. Where did the harvest come from… it came from the seed. It came from a small insignificant little seed. But more so, seed that died. The harvest came because the seed was put to death, in the ground- the seed was buried. (Yes, we call it planting the seed, but indeed, its burying the seed-putting it to death) Indeed, their own history of liberation was a history of leaving behind Egypt, the death of the first born towards a new life, Jesus the Jew, was to be planted, buried, he had to die, to open up to the world, the significance of God’s love.

This is the significance of Gods action in the world ( as demonstrated in the cross of Jesus,) He was the seed to be buried, to die, so that Greeks, heathen, the others, the outsides could become part of Gods Liberation story, Gods good news. This is what this day is all about. The seed dying, so that it doesn’t remain a seed, but bring forth the life to the world. This morning we take up the bread-it came from seed who died; we take up the wine, from the grape that was crushed… we take up new life, to die again, to serve ourselves, for the life of the world. If you live your life in this word…you will loose it; If you loose your live, for my love, you will gain it. So, lets take up the bread and the win

Of course, we in Riverlea, often wrestle with the notion of leadership. Growing leaders, in particular. Our context is a community who are in the midst of transformation. In the Riverlea schools, former coloured, Afrikaans schools as well as the residential area we see a growth in the number of people who join the community, as native IsiZulu, Setswana or Swahili-French speaking. So whilst the Riverlea is historically understood to be a coloured Group Area, its demographic is shifting radically-with the coloured community still in the majority. I don’t think we have been able yet to grap the significance of this and how to lead in the midst of this key shift that is taking place. So, as a community, we have a diversity of membership including Sesotho speaking; we have had members joining, speaking Setwana or one speaking Swahili, but we’ve also had some of these members leaving or disappearing. It is still majority coloured and Afrikaans/English speaking. Of course, a fair ammount of Afrikaans and Dutch speaking members also left ( for various reasons).

Martoia, is well-respected amongst a great number of churches in the US and South Africa, as a speaker and consultant on leadership. He maintain close links to mega churches in SA, like Mosaik and see his role as challenging the church on the shift from modernism and postmodernism. In the context of this shift, he argues, that ‘the church’ still wrestle with a ‘domesticated imagination’, i.e. in modernity, we took what was ‘wild’ ( our imagination) and we fenched it in, we’ve domesticated our wild imagination. He then explains, why our imagination is domesticated in modernity:

1)  because of our theory of knowledge. We have reduced knowledge to what works and then is is absolute and correct.

2) we’re fixated on quick fixes, i.e. programs, tricks in the bag which should fix our problems. These are often tricks which we copy from the neighbours, from the recipe books we read and then cut and paste.

3) because of our isolation: Because we are in competition with the church across the street for market-share and measure our success in terms of teh graphs we dont collaborate with our next door neighbours ( in the area), we would rather partner with those who are far away- to get some competitive edge. However, according to Maroia, competition is killing us all.

For Martoia, we are in a new postmodern (after modern) situation, which is a shift towards a world where there is no certainties anymore-the wilderness or the wilder. For him God is the ‘wilder’ (yes, its the first time I heard of this as well). A wilder was a tourguide of sorts,  who would consiously lead his tour group into the wild to be ‘lost’. Of course, the wilder would act lost, and the group would then experience the wild in its rawness and exitement. For him then, the church dont seek the lost, the church itself is lost. The key question is: How lost is the church today ?  How lost are we ?

So, to be able to understand lost-ness he then dialogues with sociologists and psychologists who study the brainfunctions of those who are lost. What made the difference between dying and surviving. What are the secrets of deep survivial ?  In a nut: those who die, are the ones OD-ed on adrenalin. They went into overdrive, exhausted themselves and died.  The others slow down, find a quiet place and remap. Being bewildered, in a different world, they see, are aware and realise this as an opportunity to re-imagine, remap.

He then suggest a new paradigm for leadership, in dialogue with this notion of deep survival. It seems to me that he starts with seeing God as a wilder, leading his people into the wilderness, on purpose. In this sense we can say: God is bewildering. he uses examples of Israel being led our of comfort, into the desert, Noah, Job, Hosea, the disciples, etc, who were invited into bewildering situations. This invitation ( from God) was never into safety, it was out it. Away from our worn-out histories and traditions, into an imagination of God doing something new.  So, we need, as leaders, to be able to manouvre the liminal spaces; liminality, where we are not at ease, but entering new spaces, new kinds of spaces, where our (well-known) stories mash with God’s story. God is actually transforming our story through taking us deeper (Luk 5:1-11-this textual reference is significant!). He is doing creating something new (kainos, also significant!) not simply renewing the old.

Let me make a few safe comments:

I preached last Sunday on the disciples being called into the deep spaces
(where they’ve never been) from Luk 5:1-13.  For me, the call is consciously away from the crowds, towards the smaller, intimate relations.  This was not an attempt to understand the crowd or their world better, this was a choice to side with fishermen who evidently failed and had to go home literally emptyhanded.  The choice was between masses who wanted another celebrity and the loosers who simply needed fish. These guys were called into a deeper struggle, to a place where they could not contain what God does, and where they had to call in, depend on others. I agreed that we are called into the wild, into the deep end, but its a familiar place, but its a place of failure and shame. Jesus takes them back to redeem that memory, to do something which calls for the individualism to be superceded and for a joint struggle to bring in what God is doing. I also think that Simon’s confession and bending the knee is a critical moment. Our response to what God is doing is submission, but also dying. Our way is not out of the  wilderness, but deeper into the dark abyss, following Christ towards the cross, the ultimate paradox, of our time. Yet, this is nothing new:  Bonhoeffer, being executed, following Christ, against his nation’s hegemonic story stated ‘when Christ calls a man (sic) he bids him to come and die’ and Bob Marley lamented against the empire, in Redemption Songs : ‘How long shall they kill our prophets, while we stand aside and look’.  It seems that the challenge, for us in Riverlea is real, to open up and allow God’s new thing, in our country to shape us to follow his call here.

In Luke 4:14-30, which we reflected upon today, it was clear that Jesus Christ, under the direction of the Holy Spirit crossed and transgressed many borders. He understood this mission to be on par with God’s heart for the poor, the broken, the imprisoned, the oppressed. This was a journey from comfort and the inner circle towards the outsiders, discomfort.

What was the response of the religious and political elite of the time ? Not surprisingly, he was driven outside. They wanted to take him out. He was eventually crucified, outside the city, outside his people, hanging between heaven and earth.  He crossed the border between heaven and earth… between human beings.. between humanity and the divine. He cross-ed the borders.