Linking you into last night's journey

Last night we had our first bread for your journey gathering at the Crowne Plaza, and I'm determined to see if I can bring those who weren't there, into what we did and felt and experienced. You'll have to let me know how I do...

Ok, so you’re walking into a decent-looking conference room with a couple of semi-circle rows of chairs surrounding a small table graced with unlit candles and some not-yet-blooming forsythia branches. You take a seat after talking a bit with others who have come.

The conversations going on around you quiet down as the central candles are lit and the leader offers some words of prayer, acknowledging that we’ve come from many different directions and are now asking God to focus us on the present moment.

Someone stands to read a poem by Wendell Berry called I go among trees and sit still. Go ahead and read it, if you like: http://www.herbcraft.org/berry.html (or see post below)
The reader lights one of the candles on the central table and these words of prayer follow: Living God, you stay with us, faithful like trees. Fill us with your quiet, your stillness, that we might hear you speak, that we might hear our own songs. In your holy name we pray… amen.

The next reading is a quote from South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?created&&suggest&note_id=75972206408&id=
A candle is lit and these words guide us: Creating God, you’ve gifted each one of us with a unique voice, to speak and to choose silence for hearing others. Help us see the beauty of being one among many, of finding you and finding ourselves in the interconnectedness of our world. Strengthen us to step out and be your people in a world full of those who are hurting. In your holy name we pray… amen.

And a third reading, from the first chapter of Jeremiah: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Jeremiah%201:1-12;&version=65;
Candle lit, prayer offered: God of Jeremiah, God of us all, you call each one of us into relationship with you. Calm our fears… of being not enough, of failing, of losing it, of being alone… Give us your peace and your energy to move forward, to speak out the passion inside of us. In your holy name we pray… amen.

The leader guides the group into reflecting on these readings and what they might have to do with us:
~ there are many journeys we’re on, if we can be still enough to notice
~ we look back to where we’ve been to get a sense of where we’re going
~ we need one another on our journeys to find out who God is for us and how God is leading us
~ by the way is on a journey, too… we look back into the treasures of the past and also the treasures of today, taking out of the treasure box that good stuff which will help us be real and relevant for people needing faith community today
~ Jeremiah’s journey is one of those treasures; God helps him to define himself not by what he looks like or how old he is, but by the passion that is in his heart and on his lips, the passion that is God’s gift to him

Then the group watches together this video by Nickelback: http://www.tangle.com/view_video.php?viewkey=e884c7bc54a869881878
followed by group discussion which includes:
~ amazing things can happen when people act on the passion that’s inside them.
~ tragedies (like 9/11 or deaths of those close to us) can lead people to respond in big ways, but it can be for the good or not so good; we need others to help us through those times
~ if years from now your face would be a part of such a video, what would be the passion you’d have inside that would move you to such action?
~ how it is that Jesus walks beside us, reminding us that we are more than what we look like or what we do for a living… connecting us to the passions God has given us, plugging us in to God’s life, today and in all our days to come…

The next part of our gathering is a bit hard to describe, since it's basically open time and space to notice God coming to make it all real for us. There are stations set up around the room, to encourage reflection on how God comes to meet us… in bread, in water, in words, in light…

Then the group comes back together, wraps things up with a bit of conversation about how we can take this experience out with us. The central candles are blown out, we chat and get to know each other for a while, and are on our way...

Well, that gives you a taste. I hope you’ll let me know if you have ideas on how this works for you, or could work better to bring you into the “bread for your journey” of by the way.

Peace,

Kari