THE EARTH projection

This relates to the fragility of where we live. 

The earth is 12,742 Km in diameter but there’s only about 8 km of habitable atmosphere around it.  8km is were the ‘dead zone’ starts.

To the scale of this balloon the habitable atmosphere would be around than the thickness of a human hair.

In that thin skin of air all of known life on our home planet that has ever existed, or that exists now was born, grew and died…all in the ‘thickness of a hair’

The earth orbits the sun in that is known as the “Goldilocks” zone – not too near the sun and so too hot, and not to far an hence too cold. So we have liquid water.

But the Earths orbit is also slightly eccentric.  So there are times of the year when we’re slightly closer or slightly farther away – but just enough so that we remain within the Goldilocks zone.  The planetary physics are so incredibly finely balanced.

Look at Mars and Venus… one on the cold side of the Goldilocks zone, the other on the hot side.

This is the true fragility of our existence.

But yet… Genesis tells us that God saw that it was good… and God has sent a saviour for us, a saviour for the whole world.

One of the things that I read recently and reflected on in morning prayers was the use the words from Matthew 21

“In the tender compassion of our God the dawn from on high will break upon us”

and that dawn is resurrection life, that dawn is a place of hope and a place of comfort. 

But the realisation came that we’re on a planet spinning through space, which means that “dawn” is always happening somewhere. 

So God’s dawn not just something away in the future, it’s something that’s happening now, it’s happening all the time.  The dawn from on high (Jesus as saviour) does break on us and in that is our hope of salvation.

SCRIPTURE Passages Projection

The screen is presenting passages of scripture from the New Testament.

Some from the gospels, some from the letters…

1 Tim 1vs 1 … This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, appointed by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus, who gives us hope.

Each providing insight into today's theme of Jesus as Saviour.

You are invited to spend time with this presentation to see the depth and breadth of the biblical references to Jesus Christ as Saviour.

JACOB’S LADDER installation

We live in a fragile place, in a fragile, thin sliver of atmosphere and yet here we are!

Jesus the Christ has come into this space, at a specific time, in specific location in order to provide us a connection to the Father in this fragile space. 

So you’ve got the globe which shows how fragile we are and then we have this construction to reflect the connection Jesus made between heaven and earth. 

In Genesis we have this description of Jacobs ladder connecting Heaven and Earth, the angels going back and forth, up and down –  Jacobs vision can be interpreted as a vision of Jesus the Christ… connecting Heaven and Earth…

Throughout the gospel of John, there are many stories of Jesus “going up to” one place and then “down to” somewhere else.  Quite often, it was going up to Jerusalem and it had that symbolic nature of what the Kingdom of Heaven should be – but it was also a place of total corruption.  It was also going to be the place where he died.  And yet he went down to Nazareth or Galilee – and there was also crossing the boundaries of class because he was with the outcast, the tax collector, the woman who was caught in adultery, the Samaritan, the lepers – he was down and then he went up.  But he saw the Kingdom of God through it all.  And it is this flowing process of up and down: the Kingdom of Heaven and on Earth.  It’s the Kingdom of the Cosmos at the end of the Day. 

The processes that God talks about when Jesus was saying “I and the Father are one” and “no one can know the Father but the Son” because we’re connected by the Spirit. 

It wasn’t talking about one thing OR the other, it was talking about a flow – a flow up and down.  This ladder between Heaven and Earth – it’s not you are in Heaven OR you’re on earth.  You go up – and there are times that you go up and you can experience the highs of Heaven, you can see the perfection of God in a child’s eyes, you can hear the wonder of God in the wind, you can see the rustle of the trees and see God move – it has all of that.  And there are times when we’re down, when it’s just hard and it’s not the same.  But God is in it all.  And we go up (ano) and we go down (kato) – there are times we’re up, we’re down, we’re always on that continuum, we’re always in motion. 

And so it is with us; sometimes we go up to meet with God, we rise… while at other times we withdraw, we go down.  We experience highs and lows of spiritual connection… we’re only human after all.

But always Jesus the Christ is there… he is that connection… keeping the connection open… We can feel like we’ve failed and that’s it… no more ‘do-overs’… but in Christ the way is always open.

There is hope even though we are in this very fragile space, there is always hope, there is always the hope of salvation. 

PAID IN FULL station

The station in the choir is an opportunity for you to explore that connection.

And it will take a bit of courage to try it.

I invite you to take a card or post-it note and to write something with your finger on the card. 

Write something that maybe no other person knows of, or maybe has some element of shame or and element of regret – or something of pain which you have experienced.  It might be very personal and private – whatever it may be.

Writing it with your finger means that there won’t be a visible mark on the card… so this is purely between yourself and God.

Then prayerfully take your card to the cross.

Before the cross is a table with a stamper…

Take the stamper – and as you prayerfully release what you’ve written, stamp your card… and pin it on the cross.

Through this whole action, keep in mind the process of constant resurrection,

Through this whole process of Jesus connecting heaven and earth. 

Even though we’re on this fragile planet, spinning through space, there is hope of salvation.  And we’re talking about Jesus as Saviour. 

REFLECTION Table…

On the table there are a number of flyers with passages for reflection for you to take on thinks…

From Jesus being anointed at Bethany, the Last supper, Washing the disciples, the prayer of Jesus, Gesthemene, the Gardener… please take any of these and take time to engage with them

On a second table there is a poem by Heather that you can use for reflection – called “A Better Connection’.

And I want to close with one scripture reading from… John 17… The Prayer of Jesus… where Jesus prays for you and I… that we may be one with God in Christ.

“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me.”