In worship at MCC Newcastle, we are continuing our theme of #goodnewsgoesviral. Each week, we explore how an individual or group of people gets to hear about
the life and ministry of Jesus. It is a fascinating journey, full of different characters. If you have missed any of the services, remember you can listen to the sermons online.
 
I wonder how I would react if someone told me the story of Jesus today – if the events of 2000 years ago happened instead in the past month in England and I was hearing it all for the first time. Would I be curious, cynical, too busy to even
care? What is it about the story of Jesus that is so compelling? The answer to this question will be different for each of us. For me, the way Jesus engaged with people was new and refreshing. He often challenged their behaviour or tried to make them think in a new way. This was often tempered with gentleness and care. He reached out to those who were seen as “unclean” or marginalised. 
 
All of these things would challenge me, but they would intrigue me too. I don’t know what my logical and slightly scientific view of the world would make of the miracles he performed or the seemingly random way he told stories. What I think I would be attracted to, would be the truth of what he was saying. Sometimes we read or hear something, and it resonates with us deep down. It speaks truth to us in a way that we can’t necessarily articulate. This is why music and poetry can be so powerful. They touch us in a profound way.

The Good News is the same. It touches us in a way that we can’t necessarily explain, but we know to be true. Most of us are not necessarily comfortable with chatting about our faith, especially not to complete strangers. However, the way we behave and the values that we live up to speak for us. When people are able to observe us, and then they hear about our faith, they can see a connection and that it is intriguing or inviting to them.

We are spreading the Good News in many different ways, through our website, Facebook and Twitter. Most importantly, we spread it by how we are in the world. 

What does the Good News mean to you?

 God bless,

Cecilia

We are in the middle of Holy Week, the week when everything changed for Jesus and his followers. Tomorrow is Maundy Thursday, when many Christians will gather to
remember how Jesus gathered with his friends and followers in the upper room for a meal. Some will re-enact the way Jesus washed the feet of his disciples. Others will share a meal to remember how Jesus made the simple basics of a meal – bread and wine – into a sacred act of remembrance, which has been passed down over the centuries.

At MCC Newcastle, we come from many different  Christian traditions and some of us do not have a Christian background at all. It is interesting to see how different people travel through Lent and Holy Week. Some of us try and have an active discipline during Lent – giving up or taking up something. For some, Lent passes us by unnoticed.

Similarly, there are a variety of attitudes towards Good Friday. Someone commented to me recently that she doesn’t come to the Good Friday service, because it is like Jesus’ funeral and she focuses on the joy of the resurrection and a living Christ. For someone else, it is vital that she attends the service, so that she can feel the depth of the pain of the suffering of Jesus and all that his death means to her in her faith journey.

For me, Jesus’ death remains a mystery. Did Jesus need to be murdered, or would he have been resurrected, whatever he died from? 

Why did he need to die for his message to get through – wasn’t his life powerful enough?

What is the meaning of his death, now, in the 21st century?

What does it mean to say “Jesus died for my sins?” I remember hearing this phrase as a small child and wondering what I could have done already that was so bad that Jesus had to die such a terrible death.

The rituals of any church season, including Lent, Holy Week and Easter, take on the personal meaning that we give them. Attending the Good Friday service gives me the opportunity to reflect on the ability of humans, including me, to be cruel, unjust and arbitrary. It offers a chance to think and pray about those areas of my life that I am not at ease with. It always enables me to tap into the fear and  desolation that the disciples must have felt and hold that feeling until the miracle of the resurrection.

What does Holy Week mean to you?

God bless,

Cecilia

Welcome to Advent – a  time of waiting and preparation. It is hard to focus on the still, small voice  inside ourselves, when there is so much rushing around and general busyness  going on around us.

This week I have been trying to buy a nativity set  for the church. As I have left this mission rather late, the choice available  has been somewhat limited. The sets that I have seen have been too small for our  needs, or aimed at children – all a bit too cutesy, or all a bit white. It is  curious that although our society has become more and more
diverse, Mary,  Joseph, Jesus and even the shepherds are still mainly portrayed as Caucasian  Europeans!

When I was a child, I used to go to a Saturday art class at  the local art gallery. One exhibition was a set of Japanese
prints, some of  which had a religious theme. To my complete shock, in these pictures Jesus and  his disciples were all clearly Japanese. As the girl chosen to play Mary because  of my long blonde hair and blue eyes, this was all just plain wrong. Jesus  looked English, didn’t everybody know that?

I once saw a life size  sculpture portraying Mary, Joseph and Jesus as they fled from Bethlehem to Egypt  (Matthew 2:13-14). The statue is full of interesting detail – the donkey  carrying Mary is chewing the corner of Joseph’s cloak, as he is leading the  donkey along. Jesus is sitting in his mother’s arms. Mary and Joseph have olive  skin and dark hair. Jesus’ face however is made a completely reflective  material. The sculptor wanted to show that Jesus belongs to every country and  race – Jesus is like all of us and is also unique.If we are made in the  image of God, then that is what we see when we look into this particular face of  Jesus. We see ourselves reflected back.

So many of the depictions we  will see of the birth of Jesus over the next few weeks will be stylised and  airbrushed. It is hard to really get a sense of the earthiness of the birth  pains, the baby’s first cry, and then the amazing visit of the
shepherds and  their story. Try and find an image that speaks to you, that helps you to focus  in on the true miracle of Christmas – Immanuel ,“God with us”.


God  bless,

Cecilia

As many  of you know, I am passionate about giftedness. I believe that the Holy Spirit  works through every single person and every person has particular spiritual  gifts. These are often the things that we do so easily and intuitively that we  don’t even consider them to be gifts, or even to be
particularly special. They  are so normal for us, we assume everyone else must be able to do the same things  we do and respond to the world in the same way.
  
The vote  at the Anglican Synod which narrowly rejected the proposal to allow women to  become bishops has angered and dismayed folk both inside and outside the Church  of England. It also plays to the notion that God calls by gender, rather than by  giftedness. In the same way, some of us have been told that God saves by  sexuality, rather than by grace. We know that the God we serve is beyond human  ways of dividing up people into “worthy” and “unworthy”. Jesus chose the most  unlikely group of people to share in his ministry and went out of his way to  spend time with individuals that society had placed on the margins.
  
Whenever we meet prejudice and ignorance, we need to challenge it. This might be by specific actions, such as signing the petition against the proposed anti LGBT legislation in Uganda (click here to sign). It may  be by how we promote other ways of doing and being. I wear a red ribbon every  day, as a gentle reminder to anyone who notices it that AIDS has not gone away.  
  
World AIDS Day is on Saturday 1st December. More than 90,000 people are currently living with HIV in the UK and globally an estimated 33.3 million people have HIV. More than 25 million people between 1981 and 2007 have died from the virus,  making it one of the most destructive pandemics in history.
  
At MCC  Newcastle, we join in the WAD events each year and also have our own WAD service. Having a vibrant Christian presence at these events reminds people that  God does not punish people through illness, any more than God saves by sexuality  or calls by gender.

 Wear your red ribbon this week – it makes a difference.

 God bless,
  
Cecilia

Here I am, back at my desk, my tan fading by the minute. My trip to Australia was filled with laughter, good food, the occasional cold beer and lots of storytelling.  Happy and sad family memories, funny childhood stories, tales of wilful teenage behaviour and romantic reminiscences were all covered over the three weeks.

Storytelling stimulates the brain in a very particular way. We can feel the emotions of the moment, recapture the sensations – taste, smell, touch. Scientists can track this brain activity as people are reading a book with a gripping
plot.

Stories stay with us. That is why Jesus used so many in his teachings. He used fictitious situations to help people to memorise important truths. He chose themes that were familiar to his audience. As he was talking, they could imagine what he was describing.

One famous example is the story of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10: 25 – 37). Take time to read it if you can. The people listening to Jesus would have known how dangerous that
journey to Jericho was, and some would have known people who had been robbed and left to die, just as the man in the story had been. As Jesus started to mention the Samaritan, many in the crowd would initially be feeling hostile and would be ready to see him as the villain of the piece.

Jesus’ story had a surprise ending. It was the Samaritan, the outcast, who helped the injured man. This would have been so confusing to the listening crowd, and I expect some
of them reacted quite angrily to this turn of events.How many of those listening though would have remembered that story and kept mulling it over in their minds or discussed it with friends?

Our challenge, as a faith community today, is to find ways of telling the same truths that Jesus gave us in ways that stimulate and engage people today. If we were to write the Good Samaritan story today, who would be the outsider that
would challenge our prejudices?

God bless,

Cecilia

This week will be the last of our The Gospel According to Hollywood worship series (click here to catch up if you have missed it!). This Sunday’s film will be Some Like it Hot starring Tony Curtis, Jack Lemmon and Marilyn Monroe.
 
It is 50 years since Marilyn Monroe died and yet people are
still fascinated by her.

What is it about some people that we are captivated by them? Beauty, charm, mystique, charisma – all these words spring to mind, before we even perhaps start on talent or virtues such as kindness or generosity. Think about the famous people that you admire  – what is about them
that you value?

One of the Bible stories that always intrigues me is the
story of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a tax collector and was also rather short in stature. When Jesus came through his area of Jericho, the crowds gathered around him. Zacchaeus was too short to see Jesus amidst all the people, so he climbed a tree to get a better view. Jesus spotted him up the tree and invited himself to Zacchaeus’ house for the day. The crowd was very disapproving of Jesus’ choice of company. As a tax collector, Zacchaeus would have been viewed as siding with the enemy, the Romans, and had probably made himself quite rich by pocketing some of the taxes that he collected!

What was it about Jesus that made Zacchaeus want to climb the tree that day? What had Zacchaeus heard? Was he hoping to see a miracle happen or see someone be healed? Was he just curious? It must have been quite some motivation to get him to climb high up into a tree.

Perhaps the answer comes in the dialogue between Jesus and Zacchaeus once he is down from the tree. Zacchaeus says Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.  (Luke 19:8)

We might still be talking about Marilyn 50 years on, but we are still following Jesus over 2000 years after his death. Zacchaeus was certainly onto something! Being recognised,
accepted and forgiven are all great gifts.

Who would you climb up a tree to see and why?

God bless,

Cecilia

21 people took part in the church day retreat “A Date with God” last Saturday. It was an opportunity to just get away
from our everyday lives and to intentionally rest in God’s presence. It was a time to remember that we are human “be-ings” not human “do-ings”. People took fantastic photos of the gardens and enjoyed experiencing God through their
imaginations, through art and in writing.

In marked contrast, on the following day 6 of us headed off to Sports Central to take part in a touch rugby tournament, to raise funds for Northern Pride. Instead of rest and relaxation,
it was serious physical activity and cheerful noise. We had our flag flying in the main hall and our display boards and publicity material available in the community area. We were out and proud as LGBT Christians. People were intrigued
to see a church group having fun and a pastor running around the sports hall like a mad thing!

A life of faith contains these two aspects – time away from the world and full engagement in it. The challenge always to get the right balance between the two. Too much time on retreat and we lose contact with the world that we are called to serve and may become self absorbed.  Too much time running around and we can find it hard to actually hear God’s voice, guiding, challenging, loving us.

Jesus was active and fully present in the world. Yet he also knew that he had to spend time alone in prayer, or with a small group of his disciples, so that he could recharge his spiritual, emotional and physical batteries.

In our worship at the moment, we are “Learning from
Jesus”. Perhaps this is one of the lessons that we need to learn.

This week, just try and notice the balance in your own life. Do you need to make some adjustments? Take the chance to change a little.

God bless,

Cecilia