Passover Remembered

     It’s hard to express this past week in words… But the feelings I have and the friends I’ve made are not likely to fade any time soon.

     I have been filled in a way that is unlike any time before. And I think a lot of this is attributed to the fact that friendships weren’t made through small talk or the kind of music we enjoy, but the discussion of real issues around the world and what we are called to do as followers of Christ.

     Every night, right before bed, we were left with these words: our call. Every time they were read, they found a deeper place in my heart. I invite you to read them aloud to yourself. It is my hope that hearing this will help you better understand the year to come.

Passover Remembered

By Alla Renee Bozarth

Pack nothing.

Bring only your determination to serve

and your willingness to be free.

     Don’t wait for the bread to rise.

     Take nourishment for the journey,

     but eat standing.

     Be ready to move at a moment’s notice.

Do not hesitate to leave your old ways behind--Fear, silence, submission.

     Only surrender to the need of the time:

     to love justice and walk humbly with your God.

Do not take time to explain to the neighbors,

Tell only a few trusted friends and family members.

     Then begin quickly, before you have time to sink back into the old ways.

Set out in the dark.

I will send fire to warm and encourage you.

I will be with you in the fire,

and I will be with you in the cloud.

      You will learn to eat new food and find refuge in new places.

      I will give you dreams in the desert

     to guide you safely home to that place

      you have not yet seen.

The stories you will tell one another around the fires in the dark will make you strong and wise.

Outsiders will attack you and some will follow you,

and at times you will get weary

and turn on each other

from fear fatigue and blind forgetfulness.

You have been preparing for this for hundreds of years.

I am sending you into the wilderness to make a new way

and to learn my ways more deeply.

     Some of you are so changed

     by weathers and wanderings

     that even your  closest friends

     will have to learn your features

     as though for the first time.

     Some of you are not changed at all.

     Some are abandoned by your dearest loves

     and misunderstood by those

     who have known you since birth.

     Some find new friendships

     in unlikely faces, and old friends

     as faithful and true

     as the pillar of God’s flame.

Sing songs as you go,

and hold close together.

You may at times grow confused

and lose your way.

Continue to call each other

by the names I’ve given you,

to help you remember who you are.

Touch each other and keep telling the stories.

     Make maps as you go

     remembering the way back

     from before you were born.

So you will be only the first

of many waves of deliverance on these desert seas.

It is the first of many beginnings--your Paschaltide.

Remain true to this mystery.

     Pass on the whole story.

Do not go back.

     I am with you now

     and I am waiting for you.