We as The Practicing Church want to be a transformational community. These are not light words. These are not easy words. These are words of death and resurrection. As we celebrate Eastertide, the 50 days of the Easter season, we celebrate the miracle of life, of rebirth and of resurrection. And we remember that difficulty and loss are the seedbeds for new growth and spring. Death is not the final word. Rather, it is the precursor of resurrection. Winter never lasts forever, eventually giving way to Spring. A starkly pruned stump transforms into vibrant blossoms and new growth. This is the way of death and birth and transformation.
Which is all good and fine while it remains theoretical. But when we are faced with death and loss, when we get the wind knocked out of us, when we receive the bad news, when we are sitting in what seems like insufferably long seasons of wilderness, it is hard to remember this.
It is hard to remember that this is the stuff of transformation. This is the inception of the miracle. This is the precursor to resurrection.
I love this poem, Mother Wisdom Speaks by Christine Lore Weber [included below]. For it speaks of this sacred process in which we, like Jesus, experience Easter in our wounds and thus become a part of the Spirit's work of healing in the world.
For the Spirit of Easter, the Spirit of Resurrection, the Spirit of New Creation is very much alive and present in the world. Jesus first proclaimed, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me.” The Ruach Yahweh, the breath of God, the spirit that hovered over the surface of the waters at the beginning of time, the life energy of God—this is what had seized and animated Jesus. This spirit that was to bring “good news to the poor” and “liberty to captives.” This spirit that brings God’s love to those who are marginalized by injustice, freedom to those who are imprisoned in false ways of being, and healing to those whose very self has been broken. And after Jesus experiences the Paschal Mystery of dying and rising, he breathes on his disciples as he still does today saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
This same Spirit of Easter that brings liberty, healing and transformation is now "upon us".
We are Easter people living in a Good Friday world. We are Easter people and hallelujah is our song. We are Easter people living in communion with the Breath of God, even in the face of suffering, death, and despair.
And so as we reflect on the places of grief, loss, hardship and longing in our own lives, let us remember that these are the deep waters in which the very breath of God is hovering over to bring forth life. And as we traverse through this world full of sorrow and suffering, let us remember that the Spirit of Easter is upon us.
by Jessica Ketola
Which is all good and fine while it remains theoretical. But when we are faced with death and loss, when we get the wind knocked out of us, when we receive the bad news, when we are sitting in what seems like insufferably long seasons of wilderness, it is hard to remember this.
It is hard to remember that this is the stuff of transformation. This is the inception of the miracle. This is the precursor to resurrection.
I love this poem, Mother Wisdom Speaks by Christine Lore Weber [included below]. For it speaks of this sacred process in which we, like Jesus, experience Easter in our wounds and thus become a part of the Spirit's work of healing in the world.
For the Spirit of Easter, the Spirit of Resurrection, the Spirit of New Creation is very much alive and present in the world. Jesus first proclaimed, “The spirit of the Lord is upon me.” The Ruach Yahweh, the breath of God, the spirit that hovered over the surface of the waters at the beginning of time, the life energy of God—this is what had seized and animated Jesus. This spirit that was to bring “good news to the poor” and “liberty to captives.” This spirit that brings God’s love to those who are marginalized by injustice, freedom to those who are imprisoned in false ways of being, and healing to those whose very self has been broken. And after Jesus experiences the Paschal Mystery of dying and rising, he breathes on his disciples as he still does today saying, "Receive the Holy Spirit."
This same Spirit of Easter that brings liberty, healing and transformation is now "upon us".
We are Easter people living in a Good Friday world. We are Easter people and hallelujah is our song. We are Easter people living in communion with the Breath of God, even in the face of suffering, death, and despair.
And so as we reflect on the places of grief, loss, hardship and longing in our own lives, let us remember that these are the deep waters in which the very breath of God is hovering over to bring forth life. And as we traverse through this world full of sorrow and suffering, let us remember that the Spirit of Easter is upon us.
by Jessica Ketola
Mother Wisdom Speaks
by Christine Lore Weber
Some of you I will hollow out.
I will make you a cave.
I will carve you so deep the stars will shine in your darkness.
You will be a bowl.
You will be the cup in the rock collecting rain.
I will hollow you with knives.
I will not do this to make you clean.
I will not do this to make you pure
You are clean already.
You are pure already.
I will do this because the world needs the hollowness of you.
I will do this for the space that you will be.
I will do this because you must be large.
A passage.
People will find their way through you.
A bowl.
People will eat from you.
And their hunger will not weaken them to death.
A cup to catch the sacred rain.
My daughter, do not cry.
Do not be afraid.
Nothing you need will be lost.
I am shaping you.
I am making you ready.
Light will flow in your hollowing.
You will be filled with light.
Your bones will shine.
The round open center of you will be radiant.
I will call you brilliant one.
I will call you daughter who is wide.
I will call you transformed.
by Christine Lore Weber
Some of you I will hollow out.
I will make you a cave.
I will carve you so deep the stars will shine in your darkness.
You will be a bowl.
You will be the cup in the rock collecting rain.
I will hollow you with knives.
I will not do this to make you clean.
I will not do this to make you pure
You are clean already.
You are pure already.
I will do this because the world needs the hollowness of you.
I will do this for the space that you will be.
I will do this because you must be large.
A passage.
People will find their way through you.
A bowl.
People will eat from you.
And their hunger will not weaken them to death.
A cup to catch the sacred rain.
My daughter, do not cry.
Do not be afraid.
Nothing you need will be lost.
I am shaping you.
I am making you ready.
Light will flow in your hollowing.
You will be filled with light.
Your bones will shine.
The round open center of you will be radiant.
I will call you brilliant one.
I will call you daughter who is wide.
I will call you transformed.
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