A diverse audience of around 150 people gathered in the packed bar - bikers, musicians, artists, believers, seekers and cynics among them . . . . for a few moments the pool table, pinball machine and the bar fell silent . . . . John Smith reflects on two stories and opens up the 'old book' in a way that only he does, in a bar.
This recording was made back in 2002 in the public bar of a city centre pub in Swansea, South Wales, at a gathering hosted by Zac's Place.
More reflections from John are available on this podcast
Showing posts with label reflection. Show all posts
Showing posts with label reflection. Show all posts
Monday, October 4, 2010
Monday, September 27, 2010
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Reflection from a life on the road ...
God's Squad International President, John Smith, reflects on Mark's Gospel Chapter 6 and the importance of a radically transformed life out on the road.
This excerpt was recorded in UK, August 2010, in a gathering of God's Squad members and guests from eight nations. When most people of his age are thinking of slowing down, John continues to stir the pot and encourage the church to action.
This excerpt was recorded in UK, August 2010, in a gathering of God's Squad members and guests from eight nations. When most people of his age are thinking of slowing down, John continues to stir the pot and encourage the church to action.
Monday, August 30, 2010
UK 15th Anniversary and International Run, 2010
GSCMC United kingdom
International Brothers
"Then they were on the road. They preached with joyful urgency that life can be radically different....." Mark's Gospel Chapter 6
Friday, April 2, 2010
Good Friday Focus
The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling,
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.
He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.
Isaiah 53:6-9 (The Message Translation of the Bible)
Written in the region of 700 years before Christ.
a scrubby plant in a parched field.
There was nothing attractive about him,
nothing to cause us to take a second look.
He was looked down on and passed over,
a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand.
One look at him and people turned away.
We looked down on him, thought he was scum.
But the fact is, it was our pains he carried—
our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us.
We thought he brought it on himself,
that God was punishing him for his own failures.
But it was our sins that did that to him,
that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins!
He took the punishment, and that made us whole.
Through his bruises we get healed.
We're all like sheep who've wandered off and gotten lost.
We've all done our own thing, gone our own way.
And God has piled all our sins, everything we've done wrong,
on him, on him.
He was beaten, he was tortured,
but he didn't say a word.
Like a lamb taken to be slaughtered
and like a sheep being sheared,
he took it all in silence.
Justice miscarried, and he was led off—
and did anyone really know what was happening?
He died without a thought for his own welfare,
beaten bloody for the sins of my people.
They buried him with the wicked,
threw him in a grave with a rich man,
Even though he'd never hurt a soul
or said one word that wasn't true.
Isaiah 53:6-9 (The Message Translation of the Bible)
Written in the region of 700 years before Christ.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Wired To Love, Valentine's Day
"We celebrate love today. HUMAN LOVE We are wired to love. If you're not on a faith page don't be offended. I love you and Jesus has inspired love in my heart. Sadly multitudes who profess Jesus, hate their enemies and use their friends. They sing, preach, write great books about him, but they don't follow him as the lover of all, even enemies. Faith, hope, love..three essentials, BUT THE GREATEST OF THESE IS LOVE."
From John Smith's facebook page, 14/2/10
From John Smith's facebook page, 14/2/10
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Advent
Here's some comment regarding the period of advent that John Smith has recently reminded us of from Archbishop Oscar Romero who was killed by a shot to the heart on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital called "La Divina Providencia", one day after a sermon where he had called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God's higher order and to stop carrying out the government's repression and violations of basic human rights.
..................................................................................................
"Advent should admonish us to discover in each brother or sister that we greet, in each friend whose hand we shake, in each beggar who asks for bread, in each worker who wants to use the right to join a union, in each peasant who looks for work in the coffee groves, the face of Christ. Then it would not be possible to rob them, to cheat them, to deny them their rights. They are Christ, and whatever is done to them Christ will take as done to himself. This is what Advent is: Christ living among us.
In celebrating Christmas, many Christians do exactly the opposite of what the earliest Christians did. By celebrating Christmas, they succeeded in bringing Christ into the pagan feast of the sun. Today’s Christians’ neo-paganism is managing to paganize Christmas. Jesus was not born on December 25 exactly. The Christian liturgy chose that date in order to give a Christian meaning to the Roman feast of the unvanquished sun. The pagans of the Roman Empire celebrated the sun’s rebirth during the longest night of the year. That midnight was considered as the starting point of the sun’s march, which then began to overcome the darkness. It was easy for the Christians to substitute Jesus Christ for the sun and to make the birth of Christ, Sun of Justice, coincide liturgically with the pagan celebration of the birth of the sun. The centuries that followed have proved the church’s genius, for bit by bit the meaning of Christmas pushed into oblivion the jovial pagan celebration and filled the entire world with the joy of the Redeemer’s birth. Today even unbelievers sense that something divine entered history during that night without compare. We all feel that the child born that night is a child of our family, and that the brightness of God’s glory that the angels carol makes of that night the loveliest day, when God himself offers us his peace and invites us to be men and women of good will.
What a shame that all of that Christian inspiration with which our liturgy christened a pagan festival has been betrayed by many Christians, who today surrender that spiritual conquest to paganism. To make the values of commerce and of worldly gaiety prevail over the gospel meaning of Christmas is nothing short of a cowardly surrender on the part of Christians. A return to the spirituality of a genuine Christmas will be a noble gesture of solidarity with Christianity’s spiritual victories in the world. A celebration of Christ’s birth with a sense of adoration, love, and gratitude toward the God who loved us even to the folly of giving us his own Son, will be to arrange our life so that the peace that only God can give may brighten it like a sun."
- Archbishop Oscar Romero
Romero was killed by a shot to the heart on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital called "La Divina Providencia", one day after a sermon where he had called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God's higher order and to stop carrying out the government's repression and violations of basic human rights.
..................................................................................................
"Advent should admonish us to discover in each brother or sister that we greet, in each friend whose hand we shake, in each beggar who asks for bread, in each worker who wants to use the right to join a union, in each peasant who looks for work in the coffee groves, the face of Christ. Then it would not be possible to rob them, to cheat them, to deny them their rights. They are Christ, and whatever is done to them Christ will take as done to himself. This is what Advent is: Christ living among us.
In celebrating Christmas, many Christians do exactly the opposite of what the earliest Christians did. By celebrating Christmas, they succeeded in bringing Christ into the pagan feast of the sun. Today’s Christians’ neo-paganism is managing to paganize Christmas. Jesus was not born on December 25 exactly. The Christian liturgy chose that date in order to give a Christian meaning to the Roman feast of the unvanquished sun. The pagans of the Roman Empire celebrated the sun’s rebirth during the longest night of the year. That midnight was considered as the starting point of the sun’s march, which then began to overcome the darkness. It was easy for the Christians to substitute Jesus Christ for the sun and to make the birth of Christ, Sun of Justice, coincide liturgically with the pagan celebration of the birth of the sun. The centuries that followed have proved the church’s genius, for bit by bit the meaning of Christmas pushed into oblivion the jovial pagan celebration and filled the entire world with the joy of the Redeemer’s birth. Today even unbelievers sense that something divine entered history during that night without compare. We all feel that the child born that night is a child of our family, and that the brightness of God’s glory that the angels carol makes of that night the loveliest day, when God himself offers us his peace and invites us to be men and women of good will.
What a shame that all of that Christian inspiration with which our liturgy christened a pagan festival has been betrayed by many Christians, who today surrender that spiritual conquest to paganism. To make the values of commerce and of worldly gaiety prevail over the gospel meaning of Christmas is nothing short of a cowardly surrender on the part of Christians. A return to the spirituality of a genuine Christmas will be a noble gesture of solidarity with Christianity’s spiritual victories in the world. A celebration of Christ’s birth with a sense of adoration, love, and gratitude toward the God who loved us even to the folly of giving us his own Son, will be to arrange our life so that the peace that only God can give may brighten it like a sun."
- Archbishop Oscar Romero
Romero was killed by a shot to the heart on March 24, 1980, while celebrating Mass at a small chapel located in a hospital called "La Divina Providencia", one day after a sermon where he had called on Salvadoran soldiers, as Christians, to obey God's higher order and to stop carrying out the government's repression and violations of basic human rights.
Friday, August 21, 2009
Throw Away Prayers
Having done about 400 of the 550 miles that day, I figured I was due a break of longer than it took to refuel the bike. So, I rode about 300 metres down past the pumps and parked in shady spot before launching back onto the Dutch motorway.
Short moments of still, quiet, reflection are precious on a long journey. As traffic thunders past on the other side of the trees, I quench my thirst and get some sugar intake.
As I begin the ritual of putting on my helmet, shades and gloves before firing the trusty Dyna into life, I notice a small scrap of paper on the tarmac below the bike.
On closer inspection, it’s a paper dart with the words, ..’please pray for . . ‘ visible on the upside of one of the wings. I recognised it as similar to the little prayer card things that are often in the chapel in prison.
As I stooped down and opened it, I read the scrawly pencilled words also in English; ‘..nobody, because there are no god.’
Some years ago, Tom Petty sang, ‘Even the losers get lucky sometimes’. Maybe also, even now, the throw away prayers don’t necessarily fall on deaf ears.
Short moments of still, quiet, reflection are precious on a long journey. As traffic thunders past on the other side of the trees, I quench my thirst and get some sugar intake.
As I begin the ritual of putting on my helmet, shades and gloves before firing the trusty Dyna into life, I notice a small scrap of paper on the tarmac below the bike.
On closer inspection, it’s a paper dart with the words, ..’please pray for . . ‘ visible on the upside of one of the wings. I recognised it as similar to the little prayer card things that are often in the chapel in prison.
As I stooped down and opened it, I read the scrawly pencilled words also in English; ‘..nobody, because there are no god.’
Some years ago, Tom Petty sang, ‘Even the losers get lucky sometimes’. Maybe also, even now, the throw away prayers don’t necessarily fall on deaf ears.
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