Reminder...

No Services this Shabbat.

Change of Plans for Tomorrow...

We'll need to change plans for Tuesday - Gabriel has a fever. I *think* it's an ear infection, but on the off chance that it's not, we don't want to expose everyone.

The McDaniels have opened their home for the Feast Day @ 2:00pm.

~The Brown's

Here is a map to the McDaniels:


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1st Day of Unleavened Bread

Just so we get this straight...

Come join together to celebrate the 1st Day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Tuesday, 4/22) - Matzah Day - as our boys have named it.

1:00pm @ the Brown's - covered dish

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Three Questions.... Three Answers....

Who are you? (I am Yisrael.)

Where are you coming from? (I am coming from Mitzrayim.)

Where are you going? (I am going to Yerushalayim.)

---

Who are you?

I'm Yisrael. I'm a God-wrestler. I'm someone who wrestles with the holy, with the Source of All Being, with my understanding of ultimate reality, and I expect God to wrestle back. I dance with God. I waltz with Torah. I stay up all night grappling with angels, and even if I come away limping, I know I come away blessed. I'm a wandering Aramean, and I'm wearing my traveling shoes. I'm a child of the house of Israel, and my community and I -- and anyone else who hears freedom's call -- are walking into the wilderness together.

Where are you coming from?

I'm coming from Mitzrayim. From the narrow place. From slavery. From constriction. From the birth canal. I'm coming from hard labor. I'm coming from the surfeit of sweetness that lulls me into forgetting the world's imperfections. I've been settling for what hurts, too fearful to risk something new. I'm coming from suffering and isolation. I'm coming from addiction to my work, addiction to success, addiction to separation. I'm coming from "if I stopped working, I'm not even sure who I'd be."

Where are you going?

I'm going to Yerushalayim. I'm going to Ir Shalem, the city of wholeness. I'm going to Ir Shalom, the city of peace. I'm going where talking to God is a local call. I'm heading toward my best imaginings of community and connection. I'm clicking my ruby slippers with fervent kavanah and moving toward the meaning of home. Maybe I'm going to a place; maybe I'm going to a state of mind. Maybe it's an asymptotic progression toward something that can't be reached. Maybe it's the journey that defines me.

Run that by me again?

I am Yisrael. I am coming from Mitzrayim. And the moon is almost full: tomorrow night we're packing our bags. Grabbing the flatbread. And setting out. It's time to go.

(shamelessly plagiarized from Velveteen Rabbi)

The Four Questions

The Last Seder In The Warsaw Ghetto

Japanese Passover Tip

Seriously.... (or not)

Women & Passover

Passover - Festival of Liberation

Counting Down.... (not intended to be a theological statement)

Re-Visioning Worship II

Well, we've been in our new format for two whole weeks. How's it going?

I've tried to talk to each of you. I may have missed a couple, but I'm working on visiting with everyone before Sabbath. I have a couple of things that I'd like to present for your prayerful consideration. First, I have felt and I have heard from some of you that we are having a tendency to come together and share in such a way that maybe it feels a little more like a chat session and a little less like a worship time. And I don't really think that we would intentionally want that. I actually think this is related to the second item I'd like to bring up. And that is in our new format we all have a responsibility to bring our offering of praise. And if we leave our offering of praise at home, then our time together isn't as full as it could be.

So, let's stretch ourselves a little and try to not come empty handed. One person told me that they were spiritually dry this past Sabbath and they just didn't have anything to give. And there will be times when that is the case for each of us. At those times I hope that the thirsty can just come and drink. But for that to happen the rest of us have to be ready and willing to draw water from the well.