‘Journeying to the Cross’ & ‘Create at the Cross’
As we can no longer go to Create at the Cross in All Saints Church we would love to invite you to take some time out with God at home and reflect on the events that took place over the first Easter and explore your own creativity, allowing God to speak to you as you reflect, worship and create!
For each day of Holy Week, from Palm Sunday through to Easter Sunday, there is a reflection from one of our readers to listen to, a reflection written by Ruth Gould and some pictures to look at. Spend some time with these, reflecting on the questions, asking God to speak to you through what you are hearing and seeing and to inspire creativity within you.
A special children’s version is also available here.
Here are some ideas for what you might like to do, so find everything you need, settle down and have a go!
- Paint with watercolours, print, draw, sketch, use pastels or whatever you have to hand!
- Write a poem or prose or a song or a piece of music
- Create a dance or a drama
- Use clay, playdough or something else to create a model
There are so many ways we can be creative and we would love to see the results of your creativity so that they may inspire and encourage others, so do please either post them on under the daily post on our Facebook page or email them to us so we can share them at create@standrewsandallsaints.org
Sunday 5th April: Palm Sunday – Laying Down our Cloaks (Mark 11:1-10)
How cold do you think it was Jerusalem?
As Jesus rode into town, the people laid down their cloaks, they literally gave the clothes off their backs to give Jesus the welcome he deserves.
How do you welcome Jesus into your life? What do you need to lay down to give him a proper welcome? Maybe you need to turn the tv off? Maybe there is a task that you feel God has been calling you to but you’re just ignoring? Maybe there is just always something else you need to do, so you never get around to welcoming God?
Today, lay something down, take off something ‘essential’ and lay it down for Jesus to use.
We’d love you to respond creatively and to post your reflections to this post on Facebook here where you can see other’s reflections. Or alternatively email them to us at create@standrewsandallsaints.org
Monday 6th April: Overturning Tables – Mark 11:15-19
“Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
What are you supposed to be called? What is the unique selling point, the identifying feature of you? Of your family? Of your vocation? Of the church? Do you live up to that? Do others live up to that? Or have we corrupted it, made it something it was never supposed to be? What culture is God asking you to change? Where is God calling you to be bold? What is it that you are supposed to be angry about? And what are going to do about it?
You can post your reflections and view the creative work of others in the comments underneath the post here on Facebook or alternatively email them to us at create@standrewsandallsaints.org
Tuesday 7th April: Pouring Perfume on his Feet – John 12:1-11
Time is precious. Maybe you’ve got a bit more of it at the moment, but for lots of us there is still a lot to do and not quite enough hours to do it in!
So, to take an hour or two to sit with Jesus. To slow down. It’s not really practical! I could use that time to do something productive! To help someone, to change the world!
But God wants us to be close to him. To sacrifice that precious time to him. “Tasks will be with you always!” That to do list is never actually getting finished! You can’t bank time, so, make a sacrifice. Mary sacrificed her perfume. She could have really impacted the world with it, but instead, for this moment, she shared it with Jesus. Share your time with Jesus. Worship him with your time. And don’t be embarrassed. Mary was shamed, she could have helped the poor with the money from that perfume, but she didn’t cower, she didn’t shy away, she worshipped him all the same.
You can post your reflections and view the creative work of others in the comments underneath the post here on Facebook or alternatively email them to us at create@standrewsandallsaints.org
Wednesday 8th April: Love That Gets its Hands Dirty – John 13:1-17
Jesus washed the disciple’s feet, he did it personally, himself. He did not gather a team, or delegate to junior disciples. He washed them himself. However, he does not ask us to step away from tasks, because he is happy and capable to do it. Instead, he says, “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” God invites us to participate in practical tasks as a sign of love to one another. Jesus died so our sins should be forgiven, surely that is enough? Surely, he didn’t have to wash the dirty feet of young men? Yet, he did. He invites us to care for the practically needs of one another, as well as the spiritual.
We’d love you to respond creatively and to post your reflections to this post on Facebook here where you can see other’s reflections. Or alternatively email them to us at create@standrewsandallsaints.org
Thursday 9th April: Praying in the Garden – Matthew 26:36-41
“My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
I pray this sort of prayer a lot, though there is usually less on the line! Yet, when I pray this prayer, I often only mean it theoretically. It’s more like; “If you can take this cup from me, which you definitely can, and probably should because I am actually praying… Yet your will, obviously!” or perhaps, “If it is possible may this cup be taken from me. Yet not my will, but yours, if the alternative is better, which if I’m going to do as you say, it really should be for fairness.”
Jesus didn’t have the privilege of ignorance when praying this prayer. He prayed with the knowledge of what was about to happen to him. He prayed three times, he was desperate for God to change the plan, but meant it, when he said, “your will.” But, more than that when he had finished praying, he said, “Look, the hour has come when the Son of Man is delivered into the hands of sinner. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!”. He moved. He saw what God’s will was and even though it was scary, he went into it, with no pushing or persuasion, he saw God’s will and went into the uncomfortable.
We’d love you to respond creatively and to post your reflections to this post on Facebook here where you can see other’s reflections. Or alternatively email them to us at create@standrewsandallsaints.org
Friday 10th April: The Curtain Torn – Luke 23:44-49
The curtain was so much more than a curtain. The curtain was the thing that separated man from God, humanity from Heaven. It acted as a barrier to true relationship. And Jesus tore it in two. The barrier was no more. God and man were reunited, connected, together.
We’d love you to respond creatively and to post your reflections to this post on Facebook here where you can see other’s reflections. Or alternatively email them to us at create@standrewsandallsaints.org
Saturday 11th April: Waiting in the Darkness – Matthew 27:57-61
There are different types of waiting. There is excited waiting, when you know the show is about to start and you can’t sit still. Then there is the nervous waiting, those test results, wanting the time to come quicker, while wanting it never to arrive. Then there is the hollow waiting. The not knowing what you’re waiting for, waiting. The what’s the point waiting. The waiting in the darkness, hoping there is a light arriving at some point, but not being sure that it will. The hopeless waiting. The heartbroken waiting. The mourning waiting.
We’d love you to respond creatively and to post your reflections to this post on Facebook here where you can see other’s reflections. Or alternatively email them to us at create@standrewsandallsaints.org
Sunday 12th April: I Have Seen The Lord! – John 20:10-18
Sometimes, when we have been waiting in the darkness for a glimmer of light, we don’t get a glimmer. We get an explosion. I imagine that is what it must have been like for Mary. To have been broken and then suddenly, everything is not simply restored, a miracle in itself, but she has seen the fulfilment of a promise. The resurrection of her Lord, and he has spoken to her that they share the same Father, the same God. That your sins, all the things that make you feel ashamed, all the things that make you feel far from God, all of that is taken from you, because Jesus died so that, those things don’t have to get in the way of you being with God. That is some light!
Do you remember the first time you saw The Lord? Perhaps it was a long time ago, really recently, or maybe, you are yet to see Jesus and know him for yourself?
Whichever category you fit in, we pray, that this Easter, you will see the light of God in your life and that you will be able to declare proudly, “I have seen The Lord!”
We’d love you to respond creatively and to post your reflections to this post on Facebook here where you can see other’s reflections. Or alternatively email them to us at create@standrewsandallsaints.org