Home Brewed Worship

Home Brewed Worship – June 28, 2020

June 27, 2020 by Darren Wright

This week’s Home Brewed Worship invites you to reflect on this week’s Psalm and the reading from the Hebrew Scriptures, the story of the binding of Isaac.

This week’s readings

Psalm 13
Genesis 22:1-14
Romans 6:12-23
Matthew 10:40-42

Singing The Scripture

Here’s a playlist selected to invite you to enter into this week’s readings in song. Perhaps this can be a daily playlist in the morning as you prepare for the day, or in the evening as you settle in for rest.

This week’s Singing The Scripture playlist

Psalm 13

Our resources for reflecting on Psalm 13 include a musical playlist that invites you to reflect on the psalm in song. We’ve also included an audio reflection by Richard Bruxvoort-Colligan reflect on the role of Lament and a personal meditation. You’re also invited to use this week to rewrite the psalm and share it with others.

You can access the Psalm 13 material here

The Binding of Isaac

There is a Yiddish folk tale that goes something like this: Why did God not send an angel to tell Abraham to sacrifice Isaac?
Because God knew that no angel would take on such a task. Instead, the angels said, “If you want to command death, do it yourself.”

The binding of Isaac is an incredibly difficult story, I know it’s often told as a kids story, but it really isn’t, it’s about a father who would willingly sacrifice his own child…

Richard Rohr wrote – Jesus didn’t come to change Gods mind about us (ie to die in our place, release us from Gods trap) but to change our mind about God (God is not violent, vengeful, demanding obedience and testing us- instead looks like Jesus.)

These resources invite you to reflect on the reading in a number of ways, perhaps it’ll allow you to change your mind about God.

Video Reflection – Darren Wright

Darren tries to reflect on how this story might be best explored as we wrestle with it, discuss it, argue with it. Will you spend this week wrestling with the story? Access the reflection here.

Growing in God’s Love – A Hard Story

The Growing in God’s Love storybook invites us to hear the story of the binding of Isaac and reflect on the hard story, and as we do ask what we might think God is asking us to do today.

Thankyou to the people at FlyAway Books for letting us share this story with you today.

Access: The Hardest Thing

Prayer & Reflection

Prayers For Others & Ourselves by Pauline Loughhead

A Reflection on The Binding of Isaac in 3 voices

Reflection on the Binding of Isaac

All-Age Prayer for the Binding of Isaac

Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen

Go Deeper

A Test that Abraham Failed – A reflection on this week’s Genesis reading by Rev Dr Avril Hannah Jones

Rev Elizabeth Raine reflects on the story of Isaac and Abraham and domestic violence in the scripture, and in our lives.

What do we do with this text? A reflection on this week’s Genesis reading from Amanda Benckhuysen

The Binding of Isaac – A podcast reflection by The Working Preacher

Why did God not send an angel to tell Abraham to sacrifice Isaac? A reflection on this week’s Genesis reading by Kathryn M. Schifferdecker

The Binding of Isaac – Another podcast reflection by The Working Preacher

Parable of the Old Man and the Young by Wilfred Owen

June 26, 2020 by Darren Wright

Source

So Abram rose, and clave the wood, and went,
And took the fire with him, and a knife.
And as they sojourned both of them together,
Isaac the first-born spake and said, My Father,
Behold the preparations, fire and iron,
But where the lamb for this burnt-offering?

Then Abram bound the youth with belts and straps,
and builded parapets and trenches there,
And stretchèd forth the knife to slay his son.
When lo! an angel called him out of heaven,
Saying, Lay not thy hand upon the lad,
Neither do anything to him. Behold,
A ram, caught in a thicket by its horns;
Offer the Ram of Pride instead of him.

But the old man would not so, but slew his son,
And half the seed of Europe, one by one.

All-Age Prayer for the Binding of Isaac

June 26, 2020 by Darren Wright

Source: Spill The Beans Issue 24

God, you made us, and you love us.

Why did you ask Abraham to kill his son?
Why did Abraham not argue with you?
Why did Isaac not resist?
What are you teaching us in this story?

Lord, the world is a complicated place,
there is so much to discover,
so much to learn about,
we worry sometimes that our minds won’t hold it all.

Lord, we are glad to have stories in the bible,
big stories and little stories
to help us know you and understand
more about the universe.

We are sorry that we do not always pay attention,
that we ignore the difficult stories sometimes,
that we prefer to stay with the easy ones,
like loving our neighbour;

though sometimes that one can seem impossible too!

Lord God,
help us to explore the hard stories,
the ones that sometimes make little sense to us,
help us to see you in them and
to learn from them.

Amen.

Reflection on the Binding of Isaac

June 26, 2020 by Darren Wright

Source: Spill The Beans Issue 24

Reflection

What was God thinking?

What was Abraham thinking?

What was Isaac thinking?

What was Sarah thinking?

So many hearts breaking at once.

A story of unfathomable pain.
A test greater than any test.

Unimaginable tension.

Life and death held in suspension

Moments apart.

God steps in.
Abraham passes the test.

Isaac lives.
A mother’s heart heals.

What was God doing that day?
A question without an answer, perhaps?

God was in the midst of it all.
In all things God is there.
In our tests and trials
God is there.
Trust in God.

Psalm 13

June 26, 2020 by Darren Wright

Long enough, God—
    you’ve ignored me long enough.
I’ve looked at the back of your head
    long enough. Long enough
I’ve carried this ton of trouble,
    lived with a stomach full of pain.
Long enough my arrogant enemies
    have looked down their noses at me.

Take a good look at me, God, my God;
I want to look life in the eye,
So no enemy can get the best of me
or laugh when I fall on my face.

I’ve thrown myself headlong into your arms—
I’m celebrating your rescue.
I’m singing at the top of my lungs,
I’m so full of answered prayers.

PsalmImmersion

Richard Bruxvoort Colligan reflects on Psalm 13 as a Psalm of Lament, you can access his great reflection on the Pulpit Fiction Podcast, Episode 384, Time: 36:37: Reflection on Psalm 13 by Richard Bruxvoort-Colligan

Psalm 13 in Song

Here are a number of musical reflections on the words of this week’s Psalm.

Action:

Rewrite the words to Psalm 13, if you’d like to share them send them to us at minister@gungahlinuniting.org and we’ll share them with the community.

A Personal Meditation

Pentecost 3A [Ordinary 13A] or [Proper 8A] 2014

Source: The Timeless Psalms

Psalm 13

I find waiting for something or someone a very difficult challenge, as I like
to know where I am going, and what I need to do next.

If I am challenged by an issue or a problem, after prayer and very careful thought about what I believe is needed to achieve an agreed outcome, I like to act as quickly as possible to bring that project to fulfilment.

Yet, however carefully I pray and plan; however diligently I research issues and community challenges – that does not mean I am right! I have discovered this painful lesson several times, and waiting for the “dust to settle” is especially hard, and can be very isolating.

I think the Psalmist felt something of this pain as he sang: “…How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand…?” Whilst “enemy” may a strong word in my personal experiences, active negativity can wear away patience, and even any hope for a better outcome! So, I need to learn the
secret of faithful waiting, of trusting waiting to allow the opportunity for growth of new insights and discernment, as I wait on God for guidance and blessing.

Creative pause: Learning the secret of faithful waiting, of trusting waiting…

In the silence and isolation of my waiting, it has been very easy to forget that I do not wait alone. Because I initially received no answers to my prayers or my meditations, it was very easy to imagine that God was not there beside me in my waiting. After waiting with all the patience I could muster, with an active hope that my waiting will not be in vain, it was amazing how many new blessings awaited me just around the next corner of my life! At my age, you would think I had learned a lesson or two about waiting and leaving God to open doors for me!

And what amazing doors they have been, which led into most unexpected and unexplored horizons. The words of the Taizè chorus have been a blessing to me: “Wait for the Lord: keep watch, take heart!”1 So I am learning to patiently wait…

Creative pause: “Wait for the Lord: keep watch, take heart!”1

The tone of the Psalm changed after the anguish of isolation and waiting, and the pain of apparent separation from God, and yet it proved to be the best long-term result for the author. With a renewal of confidence in God and in his own abilities, and a change of direction, he could sing: “… But I trust… I will rejoice… I will sing…. because….”

That was both the Psalmist’s and my own experiences!

I could again trust and accept the guidance I had been given; I could hope in the new direction in my life; and I could finally leave the past behind, having learned a lesson from it, because God had been so very good to me again, and yet again.

Creative pause: The joys of confidently trusting in God’s unfailing love.

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