Dreams in the Desert
APRIL 9TH, 2009 — HOLY THURSDAY
PASSOVER REMEMBERED (by Alla Renée Bozarth), 1 CORINTHIANS 11:23-26, JOHN 13:1-15
Dear Friends,
As our Jewish sisters and brothers enter into their celebration of Passover, we, also, lean into our Jewish roots and join Jesus at the Passover meal which was to be his Last Supper. And, since we know that rest of the story, we know that meal which nourishes us to this day, was a prelude to Jesus' passion, death and resurrection. As we prepare to journey with our Beloved through his time of suffering and death and into his experience of resurrection, we invite you to reflect with us on the prayer below by Alla Renée Bozarth:
Pack nothing. Bring only your determination to serve and your willingness to be free. Don't wait for the bread to rise. Take nourishment
for the journey, but eat standing, be ready to move at a moment's notice.
Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind – fear, silence, submission. Only surrender to the need of the time – to love justice and walk humbly with your God...
Begin quickly, before you have time to sink back into old slavery. Set out in the dark. I will send fire to warm and encourage you. I will be with you in the fire and I will be with you in the cloud...
I will give you dreams in the desert to guide you safely home to that place you have not yet seen...I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way and to learn my ways more deeply...
Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wanderings that even your closest friends will have to learn your features as though for the first time. Some of you will not change at all.
Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth and feel abandoned.
Sing songs as you go, and hold close together. you may at times grow confused and lose your way... Touch each other and keep by you. Some will find new friendship in unlikely faces, and old friends as faithful and true as the pillar of God's flame... telling the stories... Make maps as you go, remembering the way back from before you were born...
So you will be only the first of many waves of deliverance on these desert seas.
It is the first of many beginnings – your Paschaltide.
Remain true to this mystery.
Pass on the whole story. I spared you all by calling you forth from your chains. Do not go back. I am with you now and I am waiting for you.
Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind – fear, silence, submission. Only surrender to the need of the time – to love justice and walk humbly with your God...
Begin quickly, before you have time to sink back into old slavery. Set out in the dark. I will send fire to warm and encourage you. I will be with you in the fire and I will be with you in the cloud...
I will give you dreams in the desert to guide you safely home to that place you have not yet seen...I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way and to learn my ways more deeply...
Some of you will be so changed by weathers and wanderings that even your closest friends will have to learn your features as though for the first time. Some of you will not change at all.
Some will be abandoned by your dearest loves and misunderstood by those who have known you since birth and feel abandoned.
Sing songs as you go, and hold close together. you may at times grow confused and lose your way... Touch each other and keep by you. Some will find new friendship in unlikely faces, and old friends as faithful and true as the pillar of God's flame... telling the stories... Make maps as you go, remembering the way back from before you were born...
So you will be only the first of many waves of deliverance on these desert seas.
It is the first of many beginnings – your Paschaltide.
Remain true to this mystery.
Pass on the whole story. I spared you all by calling you forth from your chains. Do not go back. I am with you now and I am waiting for you.
(Alla Renée Bozarth)
If you are seeking community where every voice is heard, and women and men are unafraid to acknowledge the equality of women and men; and to embrace feminine as well as masculine... and beyond... images of God, we invite you to join us at Spirit of Life. As a community, we try wholeheartedly to "be Christ" to one another, to tend to the needs of one another, and to those in need in our world. Together, we celebrate our belief that we are being transformed by God's grace as we gather together in prayer. We warmly invite you to come and gather with us at our Table, and join in our experience of the "kin-dom" of God. We are an inclusive, open, affirming and interactive community, deeply committed to being a people of "justice and joy."
Wishing you "dreams in your desert" to "guide you safely home to that place you have not yet seen",
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