Seeds of Peace

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April 18, 2017

Our community group this year is listening to various podcasts and focusing on the meditation and reflection sparked by those podcasts.  If you’d like to follow along with us, you can check out my notes here on the blog each week.

This was our week to pause from our podcasts and spend some time in other forms of meditation and reflection.  Last night we started by listening to this Easter reflection by Rob Bell, made for the Liturgists in 2015.

More than Detours

This is perhaps my favorite section from the piece…

And so what happens is those good, beautiful, true,
moving, inspiring moments
the lump in the throat
the tear in the eye
that sense when you embrace somebody
and it feels like you’re holding the Universe in your hands

Those moments start to feel like they’re just little detours
and escapes from how it really is
Which is cold, dark, lonely, and pointless

Resurrection is the opposite

Resurrection says oh, no, no, no, no, no.
Those glimpses, those are actually the real thing
They’re the thing that undergird the whole thing
Just that moment when that person said that kind word
and it ignited a whole new world in your heart
That wasn’t just an aberration from how things are
That was a sign, a symbol, a glimpse, a glance of how it actually is

We paused after listening to consider the spaces and places where we’ve gotten such glimpses recently.  Folks shared things like:

• The views after a hike to a waterfall
• Getting lost in a good book
• Standing on a beautiful beach
• Holding a much-beloved dog
• Seeing a sea otter raft (yes, that’s apparently a thing!) for the first time
• A particularly sweet interaction with a daughter
• Hearing the story of the first woman to run the Boston Marathon (and how she ran it again this year, 50 years later — and only 24 minutes slower than her first go!)

All is Not Lost

Next we listened to this song by The Brilliance

Following the song, we had a moment of silence and we each held space for the places in our lives and/or in the world where the seeds of peace need to be scattered (part of the lyrics of the song) and brought those things before God.  And then we closed the evening out with this prayer from the Celtic Book of Daily Prayer.

Leap and spin, you powers of heaven.
Burst into explosive songs of joy,
all you companies of angels,
Let the throne of God be surrounded
with the praises of all that has life.

Rivers stream through thirsty soil,
bringing news of gladness–
the Redeemer is risen.  God’s glory fills the earth.
The trees thunder their praises,
and loudly clap their hands.

Sound a trumpet through all the earth.
Our Morning Star is alive!
Risen in splendour, God is among us;
the darkness is driven back.
We, God’s people, join in the dance of all creation.