Ok, so here’s your opportunity to step into Bread for your journey if you weren’t able to go last night. Come on in to explore the theme: “Walking in the mud, sensing spring”.You walk into a room at the Crowne that’s called the Board Room. There’s a lush-looking rectangular table that fills most of the room and it’s surrounded by big comfy chairs. On the table is a colorful cloth donned with unlit candles and branches. As you step closer you see that the branches are the same ones from last week, except that this time the there are buds starting to look like forsythia flowers.
After a bit of conversation with those seated at the table, the central candle is lit and you are invited to enter in with some words of prayer.
The first reading you hear is a brief quote from Frederick Buechner. It’s read once, and then once again with pauses between the phrases:
"The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet. "
These words of prayer invite you to connect with God:
God, it’s an intriguing idea: that you are calling to me… that you care about my deep gladness… that you lead me there and share that joy with me… and that you lead me as well to see and feel the deep hungers of the world. Help me to identify what is deeply important to me, as I journey closer to you and closer to my world in need.
A second reading is offered, some words from the beginning of a book of the Bible called Joshua, where God tells Joshua that he’ll be leading the people into a new land to start a brand new life. Here’s the link, and while you read it, notice what words God says three times.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%201:1-9;&version=76;
Some words of prayer to follow the reading:
God, you chose Joshua to lead the people on a journey home, to be strong and full of courage. Fill me with such courage in this moment. In your name we pray… amen.
Another section of the Bible is read, a continuation of the story begun in the last reading. God’s done prepping Josh, so now it’s his turn to prep the people.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%201:10-18;&version=76;
And words of prayer: God, your people sloshed through the mud of the Jordan river to make a new start. Help me to see what new start you may have in mind for me, and lead me through the muddiness to confidence in you. In your name we pray… amen.
Next comes a time of reflection and discussion, beginning with conversation about the season we find ourselves in (spring, aka mud season) and how impatience seems to be a big thing as we wait for the warm weather to really come.
We talk about how impatience can be nasty (griping, negative stuff), but can also be “holy impatience”: an energetic, ready-to-move-on, not-wanting-to-be-stuck kind of impatience. An impatience that seems to have been planted by God.
We take a look at the story of Joshua and his people, hearing a bit of a history behind that story of how Josh's people get un-stuck. (You can scroll down to last Tuesday’s blog post for some of this history.)
Next we talk about how our lives have similar patterns to the changing seasons and to the changing ways of life in Joshua’s story, including these points:
~ getting unstuck can be painful, growing pains, loneliness
~ our obsessions can keep us stuck: like the Red Sox fan in the movie Fever Pitch or the people we know who get lost in video game playing, etc.
~ obsessions can also be good (what fills us, what we’re passionate about), and we can test out how healthy they are by asking if anyone’s getting hurt (others or ourselves) or if they are taking us away from God or closer to God
~ sometimes we can’t tell by ourselves, need to let others in
~ we can get stuck in grief, either numbness or can’t move on
So in listening in on the story of Joshua’s people, we hear that God has ways of helping us get into new starts
~ God promises to be with us, gives us courage
~ God gives us ways to live, rules for not hurting others or ourselves
The conversation turns to talking about the real strategies we use to know God is with us… which also leads into talking about someone who’s name means the exact same thing as Joshua’s does: Jesus ("God saves" is what both names mean).
~ Jesus saves us from being stuck in ourselves, in our fears, in our lives of being estranged from God
~ Jesus saves not through demonstrating strength over others (like Joshua), but strength in serving others, in giving his life to connect us to God
~ God raised Jesus from death to be alive in and around us, so we can be connecting others to God as well, so we can know God is always with us as we journey.
As the discussion draws to a close, we share the wonderful gift of bread that Leilani baked for us (yep, that’s her bread in the picture), the gift of bread that Jesus is for us, feeding us God’s own life.
~ Kari Henkelmann Keyl
Some words of prayer to follow the reading:
God, you chose Joshua to lead the people on a journey home, to be strong and full of courage. Fill me with such courage in this moment. In your name we pray… amen.
Another section of the Bible is read, a continuation of the story begun in the last reading. God’s done prepping Josh, so now it’s his turn to prep the people.
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Joshua%201:10-18;&version=76;
And words of prayer: God, your people sloshed through the mud of the Jordan river to make a new start. Help me to see what new start you may have in mind for me, and lead me through the muddiness to confidence in you. In your name we pray… amen.
Next comes a time of reflection and discussion, beginning with conversation about the season we find ourselves in (spring, aka mud season) and how impatience seems to be a big thing as we wait for the warm weather to really come.
We talk about how impatience can be nasty (griping, negative stuff), but can also be “holy impatience”: an energetic, ready-to-move-on, not-wanting-to-be-stuck kind of impatience. An impatience that seems to have been planted by God.
We take a look at the story of Joshua and his people, hearing a bit of a history behind that story of how Josh's people get un-stuck. (You can scroll down to last Tuesday’s blog post for some of this history.)
Next we talk about how our lives have similar patterns to the changing seasons and to the changing ways of life in Joshua’s story, including these points:
~ getting unstuck can be painful, growing pains, loneliness
~ our obsessions can keep us stuck: like the Red Sox fan in the movie Fever Pitch or the people we know who get lost in video game playing, etc.
~ obsessions can also be good (what fills us, what we’re passionate about), and we can test out how healthy they are by asking if anyone’s getting hurt (others or ourselves) or if they are taking us away from God or closer to God
~ sometimes we can’t tell by ourselves, need to let others in
~ we can get stuck in grief, either numbness or can’t move on
So in listening in on the story of Joshua’s people, we hear that God has ways of helping us get into new starts
~ God promises to be with us, gives us courage
~ God gives us ways to live, rules for not hurting others or ourselves
The conversation turns to talking about the real strategies we use to know God is with us… which also leads into talking about someone who’s name means the exact same thing as Joshua’s does: Jesus ("God saves" is what both names mean).
~ Jesus saves us from being stuck in ourselves, in our fears, in our lives of being estranged from God
~ Jesus saves not through demonstrating strength over others (like Joshua), but strength in serving others, in giving his life to connect us to God
~ God raised Jesus from death to be alive in and around us, so we can be connecting others to God as well, so we can know God is always with us as we journey.
As the discussion draws to a close, we share the wonderful gift of bread that Leilani baked for us (yep, that’s her bread in the picture), the gift of bread that Jesus is for us, feeding us God’s own life.
~ Kari Henkelmann Keyl
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