Origin: Cityside Baptist, 22 September 2002, designed and curated by Brenda Stone
Theme:
Reflection on the end of winter and the starting of spring.
Mood:
Hopeful, meditative, chatty/interactive.
Setup:
These Stations were used in the context of a normal Sunday morning service, taking the place of an extended ‘sermon slot’.
Gear:
TRACKS:
Vivaldi ‘Spring’ from the Four Seasons (9 mins approx)
Nina Simone ‘Here comes the Sun’ (cover of Beatles track) album unknown.
Eric Clapton ‘Let it Grow’ ex The Cream of Clapton
Equipment needed for Stations –
- Seed mix, cups, newspaper, table, jug of water, small bowl of seeds, bowl of soapy water and towel.
- Leaves in basket, wire cut into lengths, wire prayer tree,
- Sand tray, 2 coloured candles, basket of smaller candles
- Mixed Pimms with cucumber, lemon, orange, mint, lemonade, cups for drinking, melon and orange cut up on platter, table
- Vase, daffodils (x50), cloth, bulbs
- Banner with painted green man, felt pens
Running order:
Cityside Spring Equinox Stations
Verbal instructions:
Visit the stations in any order you like. Spend as long as you like at each one. Do as many or as few as you want. (A brief explanation of each Station was then given)
The written instructions below were in a handout.
#1 Planting
Think about something that you want to grow in your life this spring: a hope, a new project, a personal quality…
Fill a cup with seed mix. As you do so, think about the kind of ‘soil’ conditions you need in your life for your new thing to grow. Plant a seed (or two) as a symbol of the growth you hope towards. Water it. As you do so, consider what nurturing and care you will need for your own growth to occur. Feel free to take your seed home with you – and as you look after it, reflect on the new action or attitude you wish to encourage in yourself.
(Note: Wash your hands in the bowl provided after handling the seed mix. And, be careful how you breathe around the seed mixture if you have allergies etc. It has micro-organism spores in it. )
#2 Praying
Take a leaf from the basket. Bring to mind a person who needs some spring renewal in their lives at the moment. Pray for them as you attach the leaf to the tree.
#3 Balancing
The Spring Equinox is the day and night where the daylight hours are equal to the hours of darkness. From now on, the days will be longer than the nights.
Think of a situation in your life where two choices or aspects of yourself are in tension – either a decision that you have to make, or an internal conflict between different feelings, attitudes or ways of being. Let the two different coloured candles represent the two sides of this tension..
Spend some time acknowledging the tension, without trying to push one side away.
When you are ready, light a candle from one of the coloured candles as a symbol of your hopes or intentions for one ‘side’ of the tension to grow, while the other diminishes.
If you prefer to keep the tension alive, light a candle from both of the coloured candles.
#4 Thanksgiving
Think of something positive that came out of the winter season this year. Eat and drink a ‘toast’ of thanksgiving. If there are others around the table with you, feel free to name your toast aloud, and share in each others’ thanksgiving.
(Note: The Pimms drink is alcoholic. There is lemonade if you prefer.)
#5 Hoping
Take a bulb in your hand. As you hold it and look at it, consider something in your life that seems dead and fruitless. Put the bulb back, and take a flower. Reflect on the difference between the flower, and the dead-seeming bulb from which it grew. Bring your hope for renewal to God. Feel free to take your flower away with you. You might find the following verses helpful as you consider the possibilities of renewal:
‘What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain…So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body…Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.’ (1 Cor. 15:36-37, 42-44, 49.)
#6 Greening
In pagan times, throughout the Middle East and Europe, spring equinox rituals marked the resurrection of the god of vegetation who died in autumn. The young god, often associated with the sun or agriculture, was sacrificed and sent to the underworld at harvest time, to be miraculously reborn in the spring. Like the green upward shooting sap, the green god rose annually from the holding power of the earth.
Christianity also celebrates a god-man who died, was buried and rose again. One difference between Christianity and pagan fertility beliefs is the idea that the death and resurrection of Jesus was a once-for-all occasion, not recurring year by year according to the cycles of nature. There is also a Christian belief that we participate in the dying and rising of Christ, both now, and at the end of our days.
However, the imagery of the ‘green man’ is a useful way of reflecting on the energy, fertility, creative power and miraculous rebirth that can be part of our present experience of Christ’s resurrection.
As you look at the green man, think about times and situations in your life when you have experienced ‘resurrection energy’. What are some words/phrases/images that you associate with that energy? Feel free to write these words, or draw a symbol onto the green man banner.
#7 Meditating
Isaiah 43: 16-21
Thus says the Lord,
who makes a way in the sea,
a path in the mighty waters,
who brings out chariot and horse, army and warrior;
they lie down, they cannot rise,
they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:
Do not remember the former things,
Or consider the things of old.
I am about to do a new thing;
Now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?
I will make a way in the wilderness
and rivers in the desert.
the wild animals will honour me,
the jackals and the ostriches;
for I give water in the wilderness,
rivers in the desert,
to give drink to my chosen people whom I formed for myself
so that they might declare my praise.
Consider the images in this piece of Scripture. Think about some situations in your own life, or in the world, where there needs to be a new way, a new thing, or water in the wilderness. Bring these situations to God.
#8 Choosing
Read the following poem by Wendy Cope (ex Serious Concerns, Faber and Faber, 1992)). Ask yourself the question, in this new season – where do you want to go?
New Season
No coats today. Buds bulge on chestnut trees,
and on the doorstep of a big, old house
a young man stands and plays his flute.
I watch the silver notes fly up
and circle in the blue sky above the traffic,
travelling where they will.
And suddenly this paving-stone
midway between my front door and the bus stop
is a starting point.
From here I can go anywhere I choose.