Seek and You Shall Find

1. Seek and You Shall Find

2. Foot Washing • John 13 : 4-8 • ..he got up from the supper table, set aside his robe, and put on an apron. Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the feet of the disciples, drying them with his apron. When he got to Simon Peter, Peter said, “Master, you wash my feet?” • 7 Jesus answered, “You don’t understand now what I’m doing, but it will be clear enough to you later.” • 8 Peter persisted, “You’re not going to wash my feet—ever!” • Jesus said, “If I don’t wash you, you can’t be part of what I’m doing.”

3. Foot Washing • Look at the bowl of water and the poster – wash your hands or your feet and imagine Jesus doing this to you. If there are several people at the station together, you could try doing this for each other – see what it feels like to be the washer or the receiver of a foot wash. If you are washing you have to sit at someone’s feet and look up to them if you want to see their face. Maybe Jesus point was less about washing and more about our positions with respect to each other….. • If you are having your feet washed, how does it feel to have someone kneeling at your feet? Do you know the person washing your feet? How do you feel about them doing this for you? Do you feel you know then well enough to do this?... • Think about what your feet have been doing all day – they may be smelly after being encased in socks and shoes and walking around. If you were Galilean they would be very dusty as they hadn’t invented socks yet….

4. Bread and Wine • Matt 26:26-28 • While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks, broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, “Take and eat, this is my body”. Then he took the cup and offered it to them saying, “Drink from it all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins”.

5. Bread and Wine • This is a really well known Bible passage – it gets read all the time as part of our Communion Liturgy. But when Jesus did this they were eating a meal in a house. Imagine some roast lamb and bitter herbs with this bread and wine and think about the disciples having a whole meal - and then Jesus introduces this new subject into an ages old ritual that was started by Moses. • Try the wine and the bread and imagine what it might have been like to be there and have Jesus hand you this bread and this cup

6. Salt and Light • Matthew 5:13-16 • 13 “Let me tell you why you are here. You’re here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You’ve lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage. • 14-16 “Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

7. Salt and Light • Look at the candle – and then taste the salt. Two very different analogies that Jesus put together – why? • Salt is actually essential to life. Without salt, a lot of our very key body processes wouldn’t work properly. But these days it is so common and cheap we forget this as we try and reduce the amount we eat. But in a hot country where you sweat a lot it is very important. • Light is also something we take for granted these days – we have electricity. But in Jesus day, when the sun went down you were dependent on small oil lamps that didn’t light things too well. But they were better than nothing when the sun went down – ever had a power cut and had to go to bed in your house with no lights because you have no matches to light candles?

8. Pile of Stones • Matt 21: 42 – The stone the builders rejected has become the capstone. The Lord has done this and it is marvellous in our eyes. • What has the Lord done? Why this line immediately after this comment? The original scripture that Jesus is quoting is Psalm 118 :22-23. Have a look at it… • Look at the stones and decide if one is more important than the others – or do they all look the same? Maybe you need to be an expert to tell the good stones from the bad ones? What makes a good stone?

9. Anointing Oil • Matthew 26:6-9 • When Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him as he was eating dinner and anointed him with a bottle of very expensive perfume. When the disciples saw what was happening, they were furious. “That’s criminal! This could have been sold for a lot and the money handed out to the poor.”

10. Anointing Oil • Put some oil on your hands and smell it. Imagine having your hair drenched in it – Now think about if it was Chanel No 5 in concentrated form (all perfumes like this have a concentrated oil form). Then think about what it would cost to pour about a litre of this over Jesus head! • There are a lot of comments in the Bible about fragrance and God and Worship. In the Anglican church we tend not to use incense and smelly things so much – maybe our priests don’t need to be protected from the smell of the unwashed proletariat. But a lot of churches do still use smell in their worship • Smell the oil and see what it makes you think of – smell can be very evocative and make our brains think of thinks that our consciousness may not be able to bring to mind on its own….

11. Response Board • This station is for you to respond to God in any way you feel you want to. If you want to make a public statement, then please write it on the flipchart. If you want to write something that is only for God to see, then write it on paper, fold it up and place it in the bowl. These will all be destroyed later and remain private – we won’t read them, they are between you and God.

12. Prayer Posters • These are two posters designed to help you Wait on God. • Just look at the pictures and see what they make you think of.