The Transgression of Easter | Holy Week pt. 7

Intentionally Pausing

A Holy Week Experiment in Creating Space

The Transgression of Easter


Written by Glenn Collins

Easter marks the beginning of Christian hope realized in the promise of transgressive actions. During Easter, the boundary lines between decent and indecent, moral and immoral, in and out, must be redressed rather than given new clothes to update the image of old boundaries. 
 
Easter as transgressive action shouldn't surprise us. Redressing social lines was the drive behind Jesus' parable of the despised Samaritan. Who is my neighbor, which carries the obligation to look out for and associate with, was expanded to focus on the people you see as immoral, heretical, and indecent. The parable called the moral and pious scribe to identify with the priest accepting hospitality from and being socially indebted to the people he hated most. To honor Jesus' call to become a neighbor is to embrace indecency in our relationships.
 
The promise of Easter is witnessed in the threat of becoming a neighbor who embraces Jesus' habit of using indecency to redress social boundaries toward a more inclusive and transgressive space.

A Prayer to Love Our Neighbours

Lord, you have said
that to truly love you
then I must also
love my neighbour,
which can be difficult
when we disagree
or lifestyles clash.
Yet in overcoming
those difficulties
it is possible to see
the miracle that you
love someone like me.
Teach us to love, Lord,
as you have loved us
that this world might be
a better neighbourhood
in which to live and share.
Amen.

Creating Space for Neighbors


Jesus tells us to love our neighbors as ourselves. We started our experiment of creating space with a. little self-love, and we should finish by loving our neighbors. Jesus' answer is expansive when asked the question who is my neighbor? Loving our neighbor goes beyond those who live next to us, but there is a good chance we don't know those who live next to us. So go, learn the name and story of a neighbor. 

Sitting in Silence | Holy Week pt. 6

Intentionally Pausing

A Holy Week Experiment in Creating Space

Sitting in Silence


The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, by Hans Holbein the Younger, 1521, Kunstmuseum, Basel.

Acquainted with Death | A Holy Saturday Prayer 

Christ, we know you are well acquainted with death. 
The death on the cross. 
The death of the middle passage. 
The death of the residential schools.
The death of a culture addicted to violence.
The death of for-profit medicine. 
The death of oppression in every form. 
We bear witness to the body of the Dead Christ in the tomb. 
Amen. 

Creating Space for Silence


Spend five minutes sitting in silence while looking at the image of The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, by Hans Holbein. What thoughts emerged as you sat with this image? 

The Meaning of Forgiveness | Holy Week pt. 5

Intentionally Pausing

A Holy Week Experiment in Creating Space

The Meaning of Forgiveness


An excerpt from Evil and the Justice of God  by N.T. Wright

We return to the point at which we began. In the new heavens and the new earth there will be no more sea, no more chaos, no more monsters coming up from the abyss. And, as with all Christian eschatology, the best news of all is that we don't have to wait for the future to start experiencing our deliverance from evil. We are invited, summoned, bidden to start living this way in the present. I suspect that the problems this poses for us the immediate problems of forgiving ourselves and our neighbors ,.. yet the more we learn the meaning of forgiveness in our own lives, the more we shall glimpse the deep theological truth that all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well, and the more we shall be enabled to anticipate that reality even in the midst of our suffering world.

A Prayer Walter Bruggemann 

Or did we get it wrong
We salute you Prince of Peace
Then we daily commit violence:
against our neighbor close at hand, by word and deed; against our neighbor far away,
by our systems that keep hurt invisible;
against creation by our heavy consuming;
... wittingly, unwittingly, greedily, without caring.
And then find much of our violence
is in the name of your righteousness,
that you have started these cycles of violence with your ethnic cleansing.
Or did we get it wrong?
Or did you get it wrong?
Prince of Peace: Purge the hungry violence among us.
Use this Lent to turn away our devouring habits,
Make us thin and lean and quiet, and led beyond your fierceness.
Prince of peace!
Amen. 

Creating Space for Enemies


The Bible calls us to love our enemies, which is probably one of the hardest things we can do. To love your enemy does not mean we give harmful people access to our lives. You can walk in forgiveness and enforce healthy boundaries needed for wholeness and healing. Who is someone you need to forgive? What could forgiveness look like in this relationship? What do you need to step into forgiveness?

Reimagining Family | Holy Week pt. 4

Intentionally Pausing

A Holy Week Experiment in Creating Space

Reimagining Family

Written by Carl Amouzou


In the Gospels, Jesus asks a provocative question, “Who is my family?” Jesus reimagines family as those traveling in the same spiritual direction. One of Jesus’ disciples, following Jesus in that spiritual direction, later wrote in 1 John 4:20-21, “For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. And [Jesus] has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.” John makes the connection between loving God and loving others intrinsic and dependent on each other. To love God is to love the family of God. 

A Prayer of Duke Ellington 

L
GOD
V
E

Amen. 

Creating Space for Family


Family is complex and challenging for many of us. For others, the mere mention of family conjures up warm feelings of gratitude and love. However family shows up for you, we can choose to intentionally create space for family, be it biological, spiritual, or something else. So what is one thing you can do to show someone in your family that they are loved? 

A Contemplation of Friendship | Holy Week pt. 3

Intentionally Pausing

A Holy Week Experiment in Creating Space

A Contemplation of Friendship

An excerpt of "It is not Good for Man to be Alone" written by Daniel Michaels


The friendship between Francis and Clare had this characteristic: it was not exclusive. It did not exclude the others, those brothers of Francis or those sisters of Clare, but rather overflowed onto them. Francis is the brother and father of all the sisters; Clare is the sister and mother of all the brothers. When a friendship … is of this quality—non-possessive but sharing—it becomes a reminder of creation; it returns us to relationships of original innocence. It is a “return to paradise” on the lines of the ascetic ideals of the Fathers of the desert. Through, or by means of, renunciation and the cross—the cross of Christ!—humanity re-enters a lost paradise.[1]


Adapted from the words, of Saint Clare of Assisi 


We place our minds before the mirror of eternity! 
We place our souls in the brilliance of glory! 
We place our hearts in the figure of the divine substance! 
And transform us, our whole selves, into the image of the Godhead itself through contemplation![2]
Amen. 

[1] Michaels, D. (n.d.). "it is not good for man to be alone": Clare and Francis: Ca:Ed, p. 10. CA. Retrieved April 5, 2023, from https://www.franciscantradition.org/clare-of-assisi-early-documents/it-is-not-good-for-man-to-be-alone-clare-and-francis/186-ca-ed-1-page-10 
[2] Claiborne, S., & Wilson-Hartgrove, J. (2012). Common prayer pocket edition: A liturgy for ordinary radicals. Zondervan. P. 281

Creating Space for Friends


In creating space for friends, what is one thing you could do to show at least one of your friends that you are thinking about them? What is one thing you could do to intentional spend time with a friend today? Some ideas are:

  • Write a friend a letter and mail it to them.

  • Phone up a friend you have not spoken to for while.

  • Ask a friend to go for a walk, or another activity that is mutually enjoyed.

  • Send a friend a reel you know will make them laugh. 

A Meditation on Joining God in the Liberation of the Poor | Holy Week pt. 2

Intentionally Pausing

A Holy Week Experiment in Creating Space

A Meditation on Joining God in the Liberation of the Poor

adapted from the writings of James H. Cone 


The Christian community, therefore, is that community that freely becomes oppressed, because they know that Jesus himself has defined humanity's liberation in the context of what happens to the little ones. Christians join the cause of the oppressed in the fight for justice not because of some philosophical principle of "the Good" or because of a religious feeling of sympathy for people in prison. Sympathy does not change the structures of injustice. The authentic identity of Christians with the poor is found in the claim which the Jesus-encounter lays upon their own life-style, a claim that connects the word "Christian" with the liberation of the poor. Christians fight not for humanity in general but for themselves and out of their love for concrete human beings. 
― James H. Cone, God of the Oppressed

We pray a long with the African American Spiritual Traditon: 

Everytime I feel the spirit 
Moving in my heart I pray. 
Everytime I feel the spirit 
Moving in my heart I will pray.
Upon the mountain my Lord spoke
Out of His mouth came fire and smoke.
In the valley on my knees
Asked my lord, Have mercy, please. 
Everytime I feel the spirit 
Moving in my heart I will pray.
I believe I will testify 
To what the Lord has done for me.
When the Lord gets ready, 
[We all agree] you’ve got to move. 
Amen.

Creating Space for the Poor


Poverty shows up in many ways in our society. What is one way that you can be present in solidarity with the poor? Often the greatest gift we have to offer is our presence, which is something that can be shared in mutuality.

  • Where do you have surplus? 

  • Where do you have need?

  • Who can you be present with today out of your surplus? 

Five Affirmations as a Way of Praying | Holy Week pt. 1

Intentionally Pausing

A Holy Week Experiment in Creating Space

Five Affirmations as a Way of Praying

by Carl Amouzou 


I was introduced to the idea of daily affirmations a while ago. Yet, it wasn't until one of my favorite rappers, Stic from dead prez, wrote a song about it that I began to pay attention. To be honest, I chalked up affirmations somewhere between pseudo-positivity and useless. But, I have been trying to grow and change the self-talk-tape—those voices that speak to you throughout the day—in my head. For some time, the self-talk-tape was stuck on negative. I would find myself saying harsh things to myself for even the slightest mistake. And I knew something needed to change. So if affirmations were good enough for Stic, they could possibly be good enough for me. The following are five affirmations from Richard Rohr that I think could help set the tone for this Holy Week. Try reciting these affirmations each day (I would recommend first thing in the morning) as a form of prayer. 

  1. It is true that life is hard, and yet my yoke is easy and my burden is light (Matthew 11:28).

  2. It is true that you are not important, and yet do you not know that your name is written in heaven? (Luke 10:20).

  3. It is true that your life is not about you, and yet I live now not my own life, but the life of Christ who lives in me(Galatians 2:20).

  4. It is true that you are not in control, and yet can any of you, for all of your worrying, add a single moment to your span of life? (Luke 12:26).

  5. It is true that you are going to die, and yet neither death nor life. . . can ever come between us and the love of God (Romans 8:38-39).

Creating Space for Yourself


Find a way to make space for yourself today. Something that reminds you that you are beloved by the most high, and meant to enjoy life and the beauty around you. Some ideas are:

  • go for a walk in your favorite place

  • by yourself (or make) a cup of your favorite hot beverage.

  • go to the gym 

  • go for a bike ride

  • sit and read a few chapters from your favorite book

  • watch an episode of that show you have been putting off