Walk in: Losing Your Life by Letting Go Burdens of Injustice and Oppression
Woman Un-Bent
That Sabbath day as always
she went to the synagogue
and to the place assigned her
right behind the grill where,
the elders had concurred,
she would block no one’s view,
she could lean her heavy head,
and (though this was not said)
she’d give a good example to
the ones who stood behind her.
That day, intent as always
on the Word (for eighteen years
she’d listened thus), she heard
Authority when Jesus spoke.
Though long stripped
of forwardness,
she came forward, nonetheless,
when Jesus summoned her.
“Woman, you are free
of your infirmity,” he said.
The leader of the synagogue
worked himself into a sweat
as he tried to bend the Sabbath
and the woman back in place.
But she stood up straight and let
God’s Glory touch her face.
Irene Zimmerman, Woman Un-Bent
Questions
What injustices/sufferings tend to weigh you down or lower your gaze?
Who or what is trying to keep you bent over?
What is the infirmity from which you wish to be free?
Center: Meeting the Holy One in Freedom and Power
Changing Woman
Courage finds her
honoring beloved patterns
lovingly letting them go
She sets her footsteps firmly
on the winds of change
She knows whatever happens
her core will remain the same
All her faculties become alive
She sets out to take advantage
of this turning
to create a better future.
Lela Florel, Copyright poetry and broach, 1999
Questions
What courage has found you?
What beloved patterns/traditions are burdensome? What do want to both honor and lovingly release?
What change or turning or storm in your world offers you energy for transformation and a newly discovered goodness?
Walk out: Saving Your Life by Living into Freedom
Passover Remembered
…Make maps as you go, remembering the way back from before you were born.
So long ago you fell into slavery, slipped into it unawares,
out of hunger and need.
You left your famished country
for freedom and food in a new land, but you fell unconscious and passive, and slavery overtook you as you fell asleep in the ease of your life.
You no longer told stories of home to remember who you were.
Do not let your children sleep through the journey’s hardship. Keep them awake and walking
on their own feet so that you both remain strong and on course….
Alla Renée Bozarth, From Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey, revised edition, LuraMedia and Wisdom House 1988. All rights reserved.
Questions
What would making a map of your own journey toward freedom offer you?
What might it look like to trace the patterns of your slavery with compassion, looking for the hunger and need that led you there?
Have you slipped back into slavery? Unconscious and passive? Or fallen asleep in your ease?
What stories of home do you need to tell to remember who you are?
One Response
These posts are profound, and dig deeply into a number of cultural/religious clasps. As Jesus often said, “stay awake—the Kairos is near…” …and too easily missed due to other fascinations or distraction.