Introduction
If you wanna see Jane Ray get her hackles up, start telling her how grief is a “process”. When our grief was most raw this was heard way too many times to count. After a while it even became part of our dark humor. For Jane, grief is anything but a process (and she will make sure you know that).
I have a similar reaction around the way many people talk about “closure” – the idea that we can get to a point where a painful experience or tragedy or heart break or just some unresolved aspect of our life can be wrapped up nice and neat, clearly categorized and filed away. Look, I’m not saying we should live our lives with every tab open, just that the concept of closure for me is not nearly as important as that of opening. Pain or trauma or loss are in and of themselves types of closure. I think what most of us really long for are openings – resurrections of sorts. One of the main ways to practice this is forgiveness, yet another loaded term. So yeah, Sunday’s text is full of landmines. Let’s go dance through it.
Grace and peace, y’all,
John Ray and the teaching team
Note: This Spring we’ll be examining a specific type of prayer practice during our Sunday afternoon gatherings. John is writing more extensively about this here. This Substack requires a paid subscription to read most posts but if you’re interested let John know and he can gift you one.
FORGIVENESS by Maria Popova
May the tide
never tire of its tender toil
how over and over
it forgives the Moon
the daily exile
and returns to turn
mountains into sand
as if to say,
you too can have
this homecoming
you too possess
this elemental power
of turning
the stone in the heart
into golden dust.
Text:
Lord’s Prayer
Christ, who taught us to pray saying:
Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who’ve sinned against us.
Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.
For yours is the kingdom, and the power,
and the glory forever. Amen.
