Like many of my friends, I receive the Moravian Daily Text email in my inbox every day (we also have bedside flip-over calendar version, thanks to the Andersons). I try to allow it to interrupt my day, to force a pause, a moment of reflection - some days I find this easier than others, I'll admit. The list of things that I feel I 'need to do' sometimes makes it hard to pause, but I do try. Pausing - stopping, looking, listening, thinking - helps me to hear the whisper of the Holy Spirit amongst the inharmonious chorus of other voices. (Some are more inharmonious than others!)
Yesterday's and today's emails included verses that caught my attention.
Yesterday's included these from Ezekiel 37; 'They say, "Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are cut off completely." Therefore prophesy, and say to them, "Thus says the Lord God: I am going to open your graves, and bring you up from your graves, O my people."' And they spoke to me of 24-7 prayer.
Most of you will know that Emma and I have been caught up in the 24-7 prayer movement since the end of 1999, shortly after it began, and that I've been working as 24-7's team leader in the UK for nearly seven years.
You will also know, I'm sure, that 24-7 prayer is deeply rooted in Ezekiel's vision of an army emerging from scattered dry bones being gathered together, becoming wrapped in flesh and muscle, and then finally breathed-in (in-spired) by the Wind of God, as a response to Ezekiel's prophecy... people coming 'alive' again, becoming who they are destined/designed to be.
Curiously, as I type these words, I'm listening to Jonsi's 'Go' cd, and he's singing; "Everytime, everyone, everything's full of life. Everyday, everywhere, people are so alive. We should all be alive! We should all be alive!" And to add to the synchronicity of this moment, I've just realised that I'm also wearing my desperately faded 24-7 t-shirt, with the Ezekiel-inspired phrase, 'U C BONES? I C AN ARMY!'
At this point in our life-journey, we find ourselves woven in with 24-7 prayer in many ways, for which we are very grateful.
Today's email included this verse from Proverbs 15; 'Better is a dinner of vegetables where love is than a fatted ox and hatred with it.' This speaks to me of hospitality.
Those of you who know Emma and I well will know that hospitality means a lot to us... we try our best to create spaces of welcome, in our home and elsewhere, wherever we are. We've been trying to learn the way of Jesus, who comes, again and again, as a homeless stranger (Mother Theresa says that every homeless person is simply Jesus in a distressing disguise!), but when received, he somehow becomes the host... and as host, Jesus demonstrates the gracious welcome of the Father, the hospitality of Heaven, and in him we find Home. With Jesus we find a simple dinner where love is - in fact, he is the dinner where love is ("take, eat, this is my body...") - and this changes everything.
We have so much to learn, and Emma and I feel that our lives are very much caught up in rediscovering hospitality, a shared life-together wrapped around prayer and food and stories. One of my goals for the coming year is to finally make space to write some of our thoughts around rediscovering hospitality at the centre of our Christian communities.
Reflecting on these verses now, I feel their resonance... I think that they remind me a little of who I am, who Emma and I are, and where we've been positioned for this season.
So... we pray the prayers from each of these Daily Text emails;
O Holy Spirit, as we look to a new year, re-energize old bones, bruised feelings, bitter hearts, and forsaken lives, and breathe on us with life anew. Amen.
As we enter a new year, we seek the renewing power of your love to transform our lives. May your love move through us, motivating us to become a rich blessing in the world. Amen.
Those moravians - how can they be so profound so often! xc
Posted by: Carla | Tuesday, 04 January 2011 at 04:08 PM