The Rumour of God · 2019-09-18 · WONDER WORKSHOPS 1 by Ian Robinson The Rumour of God Some things we sort of knew already – WW1 EXPERIMENTS 1. Stand Still 2. Epiphanies 3. Resonance

WONDER WORKSHOPS 1 by Ian Robinson

The Rumour of God Some things we sort of knew already –

WW1 EXPERIMENTS 1. Stand Still 2. Epiphanies 3. Resonance 4. The Smell of God 5. Imago

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson 2

1. STAND STILL GOAL An exercise in “coming to attention”.

PREPARATION Bring a device to play the music for “God is watching us”. Bring materials to write up responses. Meet in a location conveniently near to somewhere natural. Have a

watch to time the segments.

INTRODUCTION It is not just in the high points of life where the Great Spirit can be found. There is a lot of the Spirit about the normal everyday - if you can pay attention. City life teaches us to be distracted and to NOT pay attention, so we have much to learn. Let’s do some learning right now.

STEP ONE SILENCE Let’s begin with 30 seconds of silence. Eyes closed so we can get in touch with our hearts. Listen to your heart. Breathe. After thirty seconds say ‘well done’

STEP TWO EXERCISE If you as the leader want to REALLY unsettle people in order to bring them to attention ,”Take off your watch/turn off your phone.” Leader notes the time and carries this out. It takes 10 minutes to get people outside then back inside.

Go outside now and stand still and completely quiet for two full minutes and just look at things. I will have a question to ask when you get back. I will tell you when two minutes is up. Don’t look at your watch. No talk, no phones, please, no signals, no eyebrows, no giggles, just eyes wide open for two mintes.

KEY QUESTION WHEN THEY RETURN All ages from 3 to 103 can do this. Here is my question – standing still out there, what if anything reminded you of God, and why? Leader or scribe: Make a list to use as a prayer later.

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson

STEP THREE DISCUSSION-10’ 1. Most people are surprised at how easy it flows and how much there is. SO ask: how are you feeling about this exercise so far? 2. Re-title the list “With thanks, we come to attention and see..” Invite any who wish to to read the list as a litany and ask how they feel after saying it? This consolidates the experience so far. 3. What do you think would happen to you as a person if you stopped wit that degree of attention more often? Maybe that’s your homework during this course! Perhaps you can gradually increase the time. 4. Why is it difficult to make the time, external reasons and internal reasons? For yourself, what happens on the inside when the activity and noise on the outside stops? We will come across this “noise factor” many times on this course, in different forms. 5. Where relevant to earlier action above, why was it so hard to be asked to put the watch aside?

STEP FOUR: STORY Play the popular Deism song: “God is watching us (from a distance)” and discuss its merit, briefly. Is God in the distance or is God near?

STEP FIVE: STORY Here is an old biblical story of someone who was near to God unawares. Jacob is on the run, and stays overnight at Bethel: Genesis 28:10-17 “God is in this place and I never knew it”. Let’s repeat that, as many as wish to, together: “God is in this place and I never knew it”

CONCLUSION Throw this open for discussion:“The Presence can only be felt when we become present” SO, even though the weather and the bugs can give us diseases, (nature is not perfect), there ARE many varied and easily accessed reminders of God in nature. His spirit is NOT ““from a distance watching us”, but close in. But we switch it off. Play the POWERPOINT and SONG “For you deep stillness” by Robin Mann and Julie Perrin

HOPE DISCOVERY TOUR

S

T

A

N

D

S

T

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson 4

PARTICPANT’S PAGE STAND STILL

GOAL To learn how better to “come to attention”.

INTRODUCTION It is not just in the high points of life where the Great Spirit can be found. There is a lot of the Spirit about the normal everyday - if you can pay attention. City life teaches us to be distracted and to NOT pay attention, so we have much to learn. Let’s do some learning right now.

SILENCE TWO MINUTE EXERCISE DISCUSSION STORY God is in the distance? Genesis 28:10-17 “God is in this place and I never knew it”.?

CONCLUSION Even though the weather and the bugs can give us diseases, (nature is not perfect), there ARE many varied and easily accessed reminders of God in nature. His spirit is NOT ““from a distance watching us”, but close in. But we switch it off.

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson

2. EPIPHANIES

GOAL To show that there are higher-order events happening to many people, kept private for some reason.

PREPARATION Copies of

the stories and scripture and, Rembrandt’s ‘prodigal’ (click on this link).

STEP ONE Read Luke 15:11-32 about the Prodigal Son, showing Rembrandt’s painting of the story. Somehow or other, that prodigal son in the pig sty got a “wake up call”.

Leader shares an experience of one of their own ‘wake up calls’. We are exploring that in this experiment.

STEP TWO We don’t know how the son got it, but many people today have quite surprising encounters with God, called “epiphanies = enlightenments.” Not everyone needs to have an epiphany. But here are some who did: Distribute stories about Bruce Wilson, Patrick White, Martin Luther King, Simone Weil, and these are read aloud by different persons. Q: Do any of these experiences sound familiar in your own experience? Leader finishes by telling a personal story of an epiphany as a bridge to the next step.

STEP THREE KEY QUESTION Make a group of four.Each one is invited to answer. Question: When, if ever, have you had a life-directing “wake up call”?

Do you suspect that you may have had an epiphany?

Can you name a spiritual experience of some other kind?

What did it mean then and what does it mean now?

E

P

I

P

H

A

N

I

E

S

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson 6

STEP FOUR FEEDBACK From out of your discussion about epiphany, what do the qualities of and content within these experiences say about God (maybe)? List the Feedback on the board under.. “Maybe God is….” It is important for the leader to leave any raw or heretical language there, without comment, correction or ridicule.

DISCUSSION There may be here a variety of things, even some opposites.

This exercise is not about finding “laws for all time”, but the need to be personally attentive to the intimations of God. To learn to interpret God’s signposts, question marks, business cards, or invitations to dinner.

Let each person’s observation, even if you don’t agree with their wording, be a provocation to look at it from another angle.

The critical issue is whether or not we come to attention. If we do, and if we become open to more, the Bible is a resource that can enlarge our hearts and sharpen our discernment.

CONCLUDING MEDITATION Change the title to: “God, around here, we wonder if you are…” Invite people to re-read the feedback sheet as a litany together. Begin and end with a brief pause.

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson

PARTICIPANT’S PAGE EPIPHANIES

GOAL To show that there are higher-order events happening to many people, kept private for some reason.

STEPS Luke 15:11-32 - the Prodigal Son in the pig sty got a “wake up call”. We don’t know how the son got it, but many people today have quite surprising encounters with God, called “epiphanies = enlightenments.” Not everyone needs to have an epiphany. But here are some who did: Bruce Wilson, Patrick White, Martin Luther King, Simone Weil.

QUESTION When, if ever, have you had a life-directing “wake up call”? Do you suspect that you may have had an epiphany? Can you name a spiritual experience of some other kind? What did it mean then and what does it mean now?

DISCUSSION

E

P

I

P

H

A

N

I

E

S

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson 8

3. RESONANCE

GOAL To illustrate physically the way that the human spirit responds to God’s Spirit, through the resonance of one instrument at a distance

from another.

PREPARATION: Set up two stringed

instruments that are very well tuned to the same pitch, standing 2 metres apart from one another, and one microphone to amplify their notes. You will need to practice so that you know how to microphone and get the volume

right.

INTRODUCTION – 1’ The experiences we uncovered in the STAND STILL, MAPPING and EPIPHANIES experiements are resonances. Beliefs are not just thoughts. What we call ‘beliefs’ or ‘faith’ are the words we use to describe the resonance and responses in our hearts to what we feel is reality.. Here are two exercises as analogies for “how hearts resonate without reason.”

EXERCISE These instruments will demonstrate how one thing can resonate in sympathy with the notes from another, sounding without having to be touched. In the patterns of the universe is a divine song that finds a resonance in the human heart. Pluck the bass E string of one instrument, mike it, then after half a minute damp the string. Then turn to the next instrument very near, and mike that one. It should be faintly humming in tune as well. If not retune the instruments more exactly. Do it two or three times on different open strings within the five minutes. DISCUSS: We know from acoustic science how sound waves transmit this resonance. BY analogy, human hearts have their own ‘response waves’ that cause a resonance or response in another. See next exercise..

EXERCISES Show a clip of Laughter that is infectious . Laughter yoga or the baby-laughs link below https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7dL4U7ktbQ

OTHER SMALL EXERCISES IN RESONANCE

A torch on a luminous object then placed in the dark, begins to glow. Wind across a wire causes it to hum. Blow across a flute opening, or an open bottle with some water in it.

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson

Finger on a wet glass rim starts to whistle.. Voice breaking glass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rRZT7xO5KN4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TyovO2I4dPU

GETTING THE PICTURE - SIGHT Not even sight is a fixed resonance and response reaction. We know that light is waves of energy reflecting off different surfaces and substances in their natural frequencies then reacting with our receptors. How different animals see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hYaT4gvjNc

The most basic perception of seeing is a variant brain-function. Colour is an illusion https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=evQsOFQju08 The problem of Qualia, the “explanatory gap” in “redness”, a way of mind that cannot be mapped to objective brain. Animals don’t think in ways that ask a question. So much of our physical perception is poorly understood.

THE BIG PICTURE - WIND Strong winds can twist a bridge, not just through force, but through resonance building up larger and larger amplitude).

Tacoma Bridge, Washington 1940 Wind resonance has built up on the span until it has destroyed the bridge Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-zczJXSxnw

Resonance can have escalating effects.

BIGGER PICTURE - GRAVITY Here is a resonance that we know intimately but understood almost not at all.

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson 10

Gravity. Drop a tennis ball and watch it attract the earth and watch it bounce away. WHO CAN explain what is going on unseen here? Nobody. The wrong idea was held for 2000 years. http://science.howstuffworks.com/gravity-videos-playlist.htm But how does it work? http://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/curiosity/topics/astro-teller-how-gravity-works/

We can call it “gravitational attraction” or measure its rate at 9.8m/sec/sec – but all we are doing is describe it and we still don’t say anything about the two objects interact with each other. Scientists theorise about finding “gravity waves” but how gravity works we do not know.

EVEN BIGGER PICTURE Place on screen:

“O Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest

in you.”

St Augustine.4th century

CONCLUSION TO EXERCISE The experiences we uncovewred in the STAND STILL, MAPPING and EPIPHANIES experiements are resonances. God wants people to know Him, and does not leave them without capacity to tune in to him.

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson

PARTICPANT’s PAGE - RESONANCE

GOAL

To illustrate physically the way that the human spirit responds to God’s Spirit, through the resonance of one instrument at a distance from another.

EXPERIMENT The experiences we uncovered in the STAND STILL, MAPPING and EPIPHANIES experiments are resonances.

OTHER EXPERIMENTS in SIGHT, WIND, GRAVITY, COLOUR These instruments will demonstrate how one thing can resonate in sympathy with the notes from another, sounding without having to be touched. In the patterns of the universe is a divine song that finds a resonance in the human heart. Strong winds can twist a bridge, not just through force, but through resonance building up larger and

larger amplitude (photo). Tacoma Bridge, Washington Wind resonance has built up on the span until it has destroyed the bridge “O Lord, you have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you.” St Augustine.4th century

CONCLUSION

God wants people to know Him, and does not leave them without capacity to tune in to him.

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson 12

4 THE SMELL OF GOD

GOAL To identify, out of people’s “great moments”, of the qualities of God’s presence in their lives.

PREPARATION: Scents , powerpoint

projection, whiteboard.

INTRODUCTION Have several scents in small bottles and get three people to guess the aroma. Have you ever noticed the scent of a person who comes up behind you in a queue? I love those supermarket corners where they give you a taste of the new foods. This session is a taste and scent exercise of a different kind. It focuses on those experiences that go beyond rational words and hence into the spiritual realm. These are the scent of god.

STEP ONE: READ: The Wonder of it all Do you ever wonder, at the wonder of it all? Do you ever stand in awe of the tiniest things and how perfectly they work together? Do you ever stop to think about all the possibilities and how even though they have no limit they grow in number with every minute? Do you ever wonder when the leaves flutter down in autumn at the incomprehensible power of life that brings them back in spring? Do you watch the waves roll in and then look out far beyond them where the water seems to touch the sky and realise that the vast expanse before your eyes is only a small little corner of all there really is? And do you comprehend that all there really is, as unimaginably grand as it may seem, is only a smaller corner still of all that there can be? Do you ever wonder how love can stay alive past every pleasure and every pain and even when there can be no hope there is more than ever? Do you ever struggle to lift a heavy rock and wonder how a massive mountain can rise thousands of feet above the plain without even trying? Do you ever realise that no matter how much you may know, no matter how many wonders you may have experienced, there will always, always be more? Do you ever wonder why it is you wonder and why you know what beauty is even though you can't define it? Do you ever wonder who is doing the wondering, who is looking out through your eyes and feeling completely at home with the wonder of it all? Whatever you believe, whatever you profess, whatever you doubt or fear or hope for, there are some things your heart cannot deny when you let go and let yourself know the wonder of it all.

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson

Copyright © 2003 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. http://wonderofitall.com www.greatday.com/wonder

STEP TWO: DISCUSS: How does the way of wonder gel with scientific comprehension of these

things? Are the two ways opposite? Compare your answers with the poet and wilderness campaigner Judith Wright below.

FIVE SENSES Now my five senses gather into a meaning all acts, all presences; and as a lily gathers the elements together, in me this dark and shining, that stillness and that moving, these shapes that spring from nothing, become a rhythm that dances, a pure design. While I'm in my five senses they send me spinning all sounds and silences, all shape and colour as thread for that weaver, whose web within me growing follows beyond my knowing some pattern sprung from nothing- a rhythm that dances and is not mine.

Judith Wright 1915-2000

STEP THREE . STORY – a particular example of Wonder at Work

Download from MYW Resources Whale – 15’ Then Leader tells a story of their own - 5’ If more than eight people: In small groups of three persons, NOT with the person you woke up with this

morning. KEY QUESTION – BEYOND WORDS Tell each other the story of an experience in the natural environment or a birth/death experience, when it was so wonderful you found yourself running beyond words, either by choice (silence was the right response) or just awestruck. Don’t just describe the event, tell the story how it happened. Walk through it.

HELP FOR WALKING THROUGH A STORY when and where were you?

why were you there?

How were you feeling before this unusual event happened?

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson 14

Tell how the event unfolded.

When it was finished, how would you describe what the experience gave you? Take as much time as you can to do this.

FEEDBACK – 10’ Let’s try to understand this experience a little better. If you COULD put a word to that experience, what would that word be. It might sound cheesy or poetic, no holds barred.

Write them up. At the edge of words here, people may feel nervous, so it is important to show respect and respond to the reverence of this sharing.

CONCLUSION – 2’ These words are the sort of words used in the Bible to describe God. Remembering that God is actually more than nature, I suggest that what you have been experiencing is what it is to experience God. It’s “the smell of God” – his character “up close and personal” to you. This exercise shows that you already have a very ready spiritual sensitivity. These experiences are God’s business cards, or party invitations. Read Romans 1.19-20

CLOSING MEDITATION Burn incense (or spray perfume if noses allow) around the room. Play a song (your choice) that suits the theme, or any music with the quote below: The Holy Bible says: “O taste and see that the Lord is Good”

T

H

E

S

M

E

L

L

O

F

G

O

D

A

I

M

:

T

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson

PARICIPANT’S PAGE THE SMELL OF GOD GOAL: To identify, out of people’s “great moments”, of the qualities of God’s presence.

INTRODUCTION

Have you ever noticed the scent of a person who comes up behind you in a queue? I love those supermarket corners where they give you a taste of the new foods. This session is a scent exercise of a different kind. It focuses on those experiences that go beyond rational words and hence into the spiritual realm. These are the smell of God.

STEP ONE: READ: The Wonder of it all By 2003 Ralph S. Marston, Jr. http://wonderofitall.com www.greatday.com/wonder

STEP TWO: DISCUSS: How does wonder gel with scientific comprehension?

FIVE SENSES Now my five senses gather into a meaning all acts, all presences; and as a lily gathers the elements together, in me this dark and shining, that stillness and that moving, these shapes that spring from nothing, become a rhythm that dances, a pure design. While I'm in my five senses they send me spinning all sounds and silences, all shape and colour as thread for that weaver, whose web within me growing follows beyond my knowing some pattern sprung from nothing- a rhythm that dances and is not mine.

Judith Wright 1915-2000

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson 16

KEY QUESTION – BEYOND WORDS An experience in the natural environment or a birth/death experience, when it was so wonderful you found yourself running beyond words - tell the story.

HELP FOR WALKING THROUGH A STORY when and where were you? why were you there? How were you feeling before this unusual event happened? Tell how the event unfolded. When it was finished, how would you describe what the experience gave you?

CONCLUSION ’ These words are the sort of words used in the Bible to describe God. It’s “the smell of God” – his character “up close and personal” to you. This exercise shows that you already have a very ready spiritual sensitivity. These experiences are God’s business cards, or party invitations.

“

g

r

e

a

t

m

o

m

e

n

t

s

”

,

o

f

t

h

e

q

u

a

l

i

t

i

e

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson

5. IMAGO

GOAL To discover the conflicted nature of human beings.

PREPARATION: Select and print

news stories and/or photos in sufficient quantities for distribution to everyone. Need to keep everyone’s attention!

INTRODUCTION The news carries disasters and rescues, tragedies and triumphs, criminals and heroes. What does it mean? Some think humans are terrible, others think we are just all wonderful – In old Latin ,the word used is IMAGO – humans were made in the image of God but then the mirror was cracked. Yet, with both of these realities, the Bible still asks in wonder - “What is humanity that thou art mindful of us?” Psalm 8

STEP ONE STORY Leader uses one newspaper story (not on their sheets) of people doing inspiring stuff, describe your feelings about it, AND point out that it illustrates people at their best and at their worst.

STEP TWO EXERCISE In groups of four, look at the (distributed) print media. Find public stories which illustrate:

the best in people – say why you chose it AND the worst in people – say why you chose it.

Note: Often an example of both can be found in the same story.

Talk about your stories with one another, maybe threes or fours.

STEP THREE FEEDBACK Find one or two words only to describe people at their best and one or two words that describe people at their worst. We will make two lists and discuss them. Write up two lists as groups feed back

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson 18

STEP FOUR DISCUSSION Is it possible for us to refine these two lists even further? Can you find a summary word or two for each list? Don’t worry if it can’t be agreed upon – the effort gets us closer. Look at the ‘best’ list summary words - When you are at your best, is this you? Most can say yes. SO, your character and God’s and the best in humanity are not far apart. It is what the Bible calls “made in His image” = imago dei. Look at the ‘worst’ list summary words. When you are at your worst, have you ever been like this? Most say yes to this too. It is what the Bible calls “sin”. It looks as though the same drivers are in us that are in them. So, would you disagree with this statement: Each of us is a microcosm of all the great conflicts ‘out there’? Discuss How is this analysis news to you?

CONCLUSION We are conflicted creatures.

Quote: Alexandr Solzhynitsen (Russian Nobel Prize winner):

If only there were evil people insidiously committing evil

deeds and it were necessary to separate them from the

rest of us and destroy them, but the line dividing good

and evil cuts through the heart of every human being,

and who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

The conflicts are not all ‘out there’ in the big issues for someone else to fix. We are the conflicted nature of reality. We are the problem and we are the answer. 2. Story: A child said to his grandfather: Pop, I try to be good but sometimes I feel like there are two dogs fighting with each other in my heart. One is good and one is bad. Which one will win? Grandpa said: Which one are you feeding?

Wonder Workshops by Ian Robinson

PARTICIPANT’S PAGE IMAGO GOAL To discover the conflicted nature of human beings. INTRODUCTION “What is humanity that thou art mindful of us?” Psalm 8 EXERCISE In groups of four, look at the (distributed) print media. Find public stories which illustrate:

the best in people – say why you chose it AND the worst in people – say why you chose it.

Note: Often an example of both can be found in the same story. What are the ‘internal drivers’ of these best and worst? Have they ever driven you?

Quote: Alexandr Solzhynitsen (cold war Russian, Nobel Prize winner, a

Christian, interred for years in aGulag):

If only there were evil people insidiously committing evil deeds and it

were necessary to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them,

but the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every

human being, and who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

2. Story: A child said to his grandfather: Pop, I try to be good but sometimes I feel like there are two dogs fighting with each other in my heart. One is good and one is bad. Which one will win? Grandpa said: Which one are you feeding? So what are you feeding and how?....

Download Picture: Musee de Louvre GHIRLANDAIO, Domenico, (b.

1449, Firenze