Amelia, for GoTell

Sacred Stories

Sacred Stories is a “Circle of the Word” engagement with biblical stories for women incarcerated at our local jail. Each week two of us go to facilitate the experience, leading a variety of story engagement exercises to help the women interact with the story. In December we used the “Journey to Bethlehem” Godly Play materials, which I have done several times in past years at the jail. It adds a lot to the visual space, as well as the storylearning. It occurred to me to use these Worship Woodworks materials for other stories I teach there since our church owns quite a few sets. So that’s what I’m doing this winter. Our current stories are…

• Jesus at age twelve staying behind Jerusalem after the festival of Passover ended and causing great anxiety for his parents (Luke 2:41-52)
• The Good Shepherd (Psalm 23 and John 10:11)
• The Lost Sheep (Luke 15:1-7)

“Be Transformed by the Renewing of Your Minds”

Our pastor is preaching a sermon series on the will of God and tomorrow I’m telling Romans 12:1-3 which has that great line about renewing your minds so you can discern what is the will of God. I volunteered for that “story” because it’s the very first one I learned, back in the 80’s. Not sure why I picked it then, maybe because I sensed I needed to be transformed… I still do! This time around that same verse still speaks to me, though with the emphasis on “by the renewing of your minds” which makes me think of the impact of learning. Which leads me to my next item here…

The Courage to Remember

Last Spring our church, Grace United Methodist, had a congregational study of Jemar Tisby’s book The Color of Compromise. As a follow-up, four of us took a bus trip to Montgomery, Alabama for a “Love Your Neighbor” tour of three Legacy Museum sites and the Rosa Park Museum. In September, Prof. Tisby came to preach and speak Grace. And I read his other two books. After these experiences, God put it on my heart to lead a study for adults before worship which I call “The Courage to Remember.”

We started on Epiphany Sunday with the story of the massacre of the Innocents that leads into the two biblical stories of captivity, deportation, and exile. Next we spent a couple of Sundays with the first part of the book of Exodus which tells about Egyptian enslavement of the Hebrews and their deliverance at the sea. The deliverance story was the basis for a sermon by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that we also reviewed: “The Death of Evil Upon the Seashore.” The following Sunday we told the crucifixion story from Luke, and discussed another sermon preached by Dr. King: “Love in Action.”

These biblical stories lay the basis for a nine-week series in February and March on the experience of the descendants of those Africans who were captured, deported, and exiled in the British North American colonies. We begin each week with a meditation by a preeminent 20th century theologian and civil rights leader, Howard Thurman. We conclude with a Psalm and readings from Psalms for Black Lives: Reflections for the Work of Liberation by Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes and Andrew Wilkes.

As I have studied these biblical and historical stories, I have been appalled and frightened by the human potential for cruelty, yet at the same time amazed and inspired by human resilience and capacity for creative, faithful, compassionate life.

As Jemar Tisby says, “When the struggle for racial justice is discouraging, history can give us hope.”

Monday with Jesus

You are invited to view our “Monday with Jesus” videos on YouTube. They feature a telling of the upcoming lectionary Gospel followed by Q&A commentary. We send out emails on Monday morning with a link to the video along with some brief comments, graphic, and sometimes a bonus item. No cost.

If you want to be on the elist to receive “Monday with Jesus” emails, send me a message: amelia@gotell.org. Our YouTube channel is GoTellStory. Most of the videos were produced in the last cycle. We are filling in gaps this time around the lectionary. Here is the video for February 2: