Long Journey

Clean Comedy Tour II

Coming Soon to the South East

The line up is looking good, and as ever these events need support to make them worthwhile. The tour has a simple site, at www.cleancomedy.org.uk. So if you are in the area on the night, and in the area then drop in.

Leopard beats MS in Japan

It had to happen sometime, and at last it did. Leopard outsells MS, just in Japan. At least the turn has started!

see: http://www.macrumors.com/2007/11/14/leopard-overtakes-windows-os-sales-in-japan-for-october/

Apple, Apple, Apple.

PS, I do like my iPhone.

Sanctum Poster for Advent Service

The service looks like it is shaping up to get a true start of a service, so why not drop by?

Grace photos 2

Grace Photos

Grace Hospitality Communion Round up

So Grace was very interesting last night. The service started with all the people being sorted and made to state if they belonged to Grace or were a visitor. People were not allowed into the church and had to wait in the side hall. Everything was formal and kind of like a waiting room.

We were allowed in to the church, but made to sit on the side lines, and then the "service" started. The visitors were kept out of the start of the service, and the members used private language to keep things close. Then a welcome prayer came from the slide lines and opened things up, bean bags were dropped from the gallery and the real open Grace came out.

The service asked some challenging questions about our hospitality and what is a member, finishing up with communion and food in the "cafe".

There are a few photo's on flickr, and as you can see from earlier posts the iphone can be used to blog on site as it were.

not very welcoming

So sitting here waiting for Grace to start. They have seperared out the members from the visitors, and are doing everything possible to make all feel unwelcome. Stuck out in a side hall, made to sign in. It is very strange to feel so unwelcome where normally I feel so welcome.

Hospitality is not on the cards so far.

Grace tonight

Off to grace tonight, they are doing a service on hospitality. I will see how posting from the iPhone works as the service progresses

War Machine

HT to Asbo Jesus

When Christ rode into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey, he had a statement to make.

You see the Jews had this tradition, the one reserved for their leaders. The one that said what was really going on. Before newspapers, and television, before mobile phones and the internet, there wasn’t an easy way to communicate what was going on. So parades and ritual acts helped send a clear message to the mob. It stopped the rumors and let the people know what was really going on.

So when Jesus rode into the city on the back of a young donkey, what message did he send out loud and clear?

The people laying down the palm leaves, well they were celebrating the arrival of a great general. One to lead the people in war, to bring victory, to push the occupying Roman soldiers out of their land. For these people, Jesus should be riding a stallion, not a small poor man’s donkey.

But Jesus WAS on that donkey, he told the people that he was a peaceful man, and a man of peace. The crowd still went wild, but over the next week perhaps that message sank in. Jesus was not the warrior, he was not there to free Jerusalem and Israel from Roman rule.

On the Sunday the people rejoiced, a few days later they bayed for his blood.

Jesus came to do what needed to be done, but not how the people wanted it to be done. He came to bring peace; peace to a conflict that spanned all of time. He didn’t conform his message to the will of the people, or wrap it up to make it popular. He simply did what needed to be done. It wasn’t easy, it wasn’t painless, and in the end it wasn’t popular.

Today, we know the truth, we know the message of Jesus. Today that message is not popular, the people don’t hear what they want to hear in the message of Christ, and no longer line the streets to cheer him on.

Will be like Christ, and keep the message simple and clear? Or will we try to make it more acceptable to the people that hear it, try to meet the will of people? What did Jesus do?