The Sending of the 72.

This was the story Heather read on Saturday at my first communion service, first time celebrating that is (we had the service then rather than on a Sunday so people could visit us from other places)....pity hardly anyone came from York though. A headcount of 20 is a bit demoralising, even if shedloads of people from Visions were on holiday. Next year we really should have July as our month off. Nobody goes away in August unless they have to, it costs too much.

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I was scared about being sent out. To be honest I didnt really want to go, but have you ever tried refusing Jesus. The look in his eyes said that “no” wasn’t really an option.

Deep inside really I just wanted to stay at the camp in the hills and watch and learn from Jesus.

Yet it was Jesus who sent us away. Inatead of asking us to go where he was going he asked us to begin doing what he was doing. And the thought of that scared us stiff!

Have you seen the stuff he does??!

A few weeks back we saw him send away the twelve. He told them to travel light. They weren’t even allowed to carry a bag of sandwhiches or a change of clothing.Yet he gave them the power fo heal people, and they came back all right. In fact they came back more than all right. They were thrilled because people had been healed. A few days later, Peter made one of the biggest announcements in history. The one that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the living God.

So, anyway, there were seventy two of us sent on this second journey. He put us in pairs, so at least we didn’t have to go alone and I found that I had been teamed up with my favourte cousin Obed. And Jesus told us how big the harvest was, and that there were so few workers to gather it in. He told us to pray that the owner of the harvest would send out workers to gather it in. And he looked poignantly at us, We knew he was trusting us with a big task. Each pair of us was sent to a different town, one he was about to visit. And he didn’t want us getting distracted and dawdling by stopping along the way to look up old friends.

And so we went out on the journey. The walk itself was Ok, although at times I wished that stopping at a fruit stall and buying a pomegrantate or two had been an option, but we had no cash! We were sent to one of the tiniest places, a little hamlet that nestled in the Judean hills. And when we got there we followed Jesus’ instructions precisely. We were to go to a house and stay there. We weren’t sure which one to pick really, so we went right into the middle of the town and chose one of the ones in the square, where an elderly lady was opening the shutters in her window and smiled at us. We gave the greeting Jesus asked us to give, wishing her house peace, Shalom.

And we stayed in her house, eating whatever she gave us. Actually we were amazed at her humble home cooking. He bread was some of the best bread we’d ever tasted. And yet she was crippled with arthritis, that made her wince when she walked. And then I knew what it was we had to do....There was a moment when I had to find the courage to say the words I knew I had to say. “can we pray with you?”
She nodded. And we prayed as Jesus had instucted us, When we mentioned the name of Jesus, something amazing happened. Her knees began to shake and suddenly she straightened up and laughed like a teenager. “I’ve been healed! The pain has gone. Thank you! Thank God! Thank Jesus” There were tears in all our eyes. And yet that was not the only healing in that town. We saw lepers cleansed (although we prayed for them from a bit of a distance. I’m not that brave yet!” )
We saw a boy who walked with a crutch ever since he had polio throw away his crutch and dance,and we went to visit a bedridden old man, who threw back his covers and ran off up the street, just to prove he could! So when we went back, we were thrilled. We met up with the othes and they told us such amazing stories.

And yet not everyone listened to what we had to say. The second village Jesus sent us to was not so nice. They spat on us and called us prophet-botherers and, well I can’t quite quote the last sentence they said to us, because its unrepeatable and one of the words began with an F. And then they starte thowing rotton meat in our direction. It brought tears to my eyes and not just cos of the stench, but cos of the hurt of rejection. We felt so low. And yet as I looked down at my dusty feet, I realised that I could not let the rejection get to me, so I said to Obed, “lets do what he said” and we took our sandals off and shook the dust out of them, and somehow that made things feel better. It was almost like the pain of rejection shook off too and we were able to step out onto the road once more, in search of another place and anohter group of hungry people.

Bartimaeus

A few weeks ago Visions visited Acomb and did a morning service. The theme was Bartimaus and we did it cafe-style. We had
some discussion questions and a number of prayer stations to visit afterwards. Anyway here was the story, which we kept short, so we would have time for the questions and prayer-stations.


My name is Bar-Timaus, the Son of Timaus, and once upon a time I could see. Before I was struck blind. Now I have to grope around Jericho, trying to beg a living by the roadside at the gate. It is so degrading, so embarrasing, I used to love my job, but now I can do nothing but beg, but I’m not even very successful at that. You see as well as being struck blind, I seem to have become invisible. Noone wants to go anywhere near me. I hear their voices, “Shh! Don’t let him know we’re near. He’ll only ask us for money.” But you see, I need money. We don’t have a welfare state or benefits to help us. I need to beg to eat.

But I still had some friends, and they told me the stories of the healer man, the one we all hoped would be the messiah, the Son of David, the rescuer. And I wanted to meet him more than anyone. I was desperate.

Then one day, I heard the commotion, and knew that my chance had finally come. I called his name. "Jesus!". Then I added the Messiah-title that I hoped was true. "Son of David!" Surely he would prick up his ears at that. But no-one listened to me. They kept telling me to shut up. They wanted me to disappear, to stop being a nuisance. But how could I possibly let slip a chance like this. "Jesus!!! Son of David, Have mercy on me!” Once more I was ignored, and pushed to one side. I couldn’t work out where he was from the voices, and noone would let me near him. I cried out all the louder. "JESUS!!!!!! SON OF DAVID, HELP MEEEEEE!"

Then finally, just as my heart had sunk, thinking I had missed my once in a lifetime chance, I heard a whisper in my ear, from a friendly voice.
"Take heart. Get up. He is calling you.”
I threw off my cloak in excitement and sprang up, but I wasn’t sure which was to turn. The owner of the voice took my hand, and gently guided me to where he was standing. And then there came the question.
“ What do you want me to do for you?”
There I was standing before him, with a stick, groping in the dark, but he didn’t make assumptions. He valued me enough to ask me what I thought, to listen to my voice. I was moved to tears with the wonder of it.
“My teacher. Let me see again,”I found myself replying.
And as he spoke the reply, telling me to go and that my faith had made me well, my vision cleared and I saw his face. The face of the Messiah who would save us all. And his face was smiling.

Webcasting

This is just a quick note to let you know about a new experiment we are trying out. Webcasting!

Yes, we are recording our Sunday evening services via a webcam, and streaming them over the internet to anyone who wants to participate remotely. The trial location is:

http://web.mac.com/malcolm.wallace/

At the moment, each week's service from St Cuthbert's Church is made available on the web on the following Monday, and will be kept alive for approximately two weeks.

The video and audio stream requires the QuickTime 7 plugin to your web browser, and a broadband internet connection (sorry, dial-up is not good enough). If you have iTunes, then you probably already have QuickTime, but if not, then it is a free download from Apple (even for Windows machines):

http://www.apple.com/uk/quicktime

Since this is an experiment, we can't guarantee it will always work just right. (Sometimes the technology breaks, and sometimes we might not have a spare person to operate the camera, etc etc)

If you do try it out, please let us know what you think, (email: visions at visions-york.org). Who knows, if we get lots of viewers, we might be able to send out "participation packs" by post, containing candles, incense, and other props you need to join in properly!

Off shoot to the Holy Land and Jordan

Jem is in the Holy Land and Jordan, again, 2 -19 April and Julian is in the region too and overlapping with Jem for a filming operation. There's a blog running relating to this which both Julian and Jem have posted on http://ysjholylandjordan06.blogspot.com

peace

Jem

Poem: Holy Land

Hidden faces, hidden lives
Open spaces, step inside.

Crushed within the ancient walls
Sand and mist, and sellers calls

Smells of bakers hot, fresh bread
Of looming white walls, not said

Hidden secrets among the tombs
twisting passages, temples loom

The holy plateau stands open, restless
A vulnerable meeting of faiths, confess

XL and XS

XL and XS were amazing. The Minster was full of young people over the weekend. The place was a maze of colour and intrigue with installations and music to entertain the whole evening.

In XS Visions was based in the Crypt of the Minster, a great space for worship and to relax in a comfortable atmosphere. The arches of the roofs were low and so helped to create an atmosphere that wasn't too grand and overwhelming.

During the break while the young people were in the main area of the Minster, I lay down on a kneeler and looked up at the sparkling lights in the darkness, breathing in the space.

I took some photos of the space. They can be seen at www.heatherjane.co.uk. Click on 'gallery' and go to the second page of albums.

I was there to help out and I realised that Sue and Malcolm had done a lot of work to make it so good! I certainly felt I got something out of the two evenings even though I wasn't a punter.

Heather's photos

You can see my photos of the trip to Palestine, Israel and Jordan at www.heatherjane.co.uk and clicking on 'gallery'.