wayfarer redemption,

wayfarer: a person who travels on foot

 redemption: gaining something in exchange for

payment / paying a debt

jerusalem:

//but many of the older priests and levites and

family heads who had seen the former

temple wept aloud when they saw the

foundation of this temple being laid, while

many others shouted for joy. no one could distinguish

the sound of the shouts of joy

from the sound of weeping because

the people made so much n o i s e

– ezra 3: 12-13

i never expected to go to isreal.

mostly because i’ve been too afraid.

(why? why? why)

so when the opportunity to go came

i have no idea why i dropped a perfectly

planned and arranged trip to transylvannia

to gamble on going to jerusalem.

but God had been telling me – He wants

to go back to the place where we first m e t

and i realized He met us

on the cross

in isreal.

//ezekiel 37:12 … i will bring you back to the land of isreal,

He said.

and we’ll take a walk, walk in the places where

so many, so many, so many have gone before

step in footprints greater than my own –

the walls of jerusalem – built up & torn down over & over & over

this day, i took a w a l k with God along the mount of olives –

i ended up at the tomb of mary, lost and –

a man found me in the crowds,

older, with silver eyes and an insistence,

i’ll take you around, he said, i’ll show you everything

he grabbed me by the arm and pulled me towards the tomb

i told him i didn’t have money

 but he said he didn’t want any

 his name was samuel. he took me through the tomb

bought two candles for me to light, one for me

one for my family

 he didn’t feel… unsafe

 but he felt unsettling

like something i didn’t understand,

i thanked him and told him i’d go on my own

 from there – and then lost him in the crowd

i tried to find the garden of gesthmane

and found myself lost again

and in the crowds i hear

 jaclyn, jaclyn, aren’t you trying to get to the garden?

samuel, on the street corner.

 he took me to the garden, explained the history

 & l e f  t.

as i was leaving the garden

 i got turned around and ended up in a back alley

and in the silence i hear

jaclyn, jaclyn, where are you trying to go?

samuel, around the corner.

 i told him i was trying to get up the mountain to find

 my friends, and he pointed me in the direction

 told me where to go, but not to come back down this way –

 and he left

garden of gethsemane –

olive tree grove
tangled roots spread w i d e

(each tree stands alone)

//Abba, Father, He said, everything is possible for You – take this cup from me. yet, not what I will but what You will – mark 14:26

and i can’t help but think
how lonely you must have felt
(&how very a f r a i d )-

i was six feet underground &
now i’m on my knees in the
crowds of people, blinking
at the fresh sting of s a l t

the thing about olive trees-
wild shoots spring up
from dead stumps.

// … you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share the nourishing sap from the olive root – do not consider yourselves superior to the other branches. if you do, consider this: you do not support the root, the root supports you.

(we are buried to g r o w)

when i look up, the gardener
peers down over the gate and
asks for my n a m e.

(and even mary thought Jesus was the gardener until he said to her, m a r y – )

walking up the back alley way, up the mountain,

i paused to look at the stairs samuel told me to take down

and then went up the direction he told me –

and then i found my friends.

coming down the road and –

sometimes i wonder how many strangers we meet

are a n g e l s sent to show us the way,

(thank you, samuel).

and  together we looked out over the city –

the g a n g –
my pilgrim sisters.

not bound by blood but
we are bound by w a t e r ;
55% of blood is plasma
& 95% of plasma is water

and water slips through c l e n c h e d fists

carving out canyons always making a w a y

(we are only half made without one another).

which of the trinity do you feel closest to?
alli: God
meg: Jesus
me: Holy Spirit.

when Jesus looked out over the city-
// Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kills the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings and you were not willing. look your house is left to you desolate, for I tell you you will not see me again until you say ‘blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’
Matthew 23:27/39

when i look out over the city
i am overwhelmed
by golden calves,

idol: [noun] false g o d,

and so we [re]spond
alli reads scripture aloud
meg brings us together
and i call for prayer –

we pray over the city against idols and then for one another, against the idols in each of our lives.

//and moses took the calf the people had made and burned if in the fire; then he ground the powder, scattered it on the water and made the israelites drink it – exodus 32:20

here, we lay down our idols
we stand where Jesus stood
and we l a m e n t
(&repent)

and then we walk

a
w
a
y

and for me? i chose to leave behind f e a r –

 the idol in my life controlling every thought and every decision

 and what am i afraid of ?

God did not make us

with the spirit of f e a r

and i don’t want to live that way anymore.

in the t o m b

graves on the mount
a valley of dry bones
for over 3000 years-

waiting
waiting
waiting

we are born in slivers of curved
rib b o n e s bleached & dry
under the desert sun

//dry bones hear the word of the Lord! this is what the sovereign Lord says to these bones: I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; i will put breath in you and you will come to life- ….
ezekiel 37:5

my God, my God –
take from me this heart of stone
and give me a heart of f l e s h
(come alive, come alive
we call out and we take back
the beat in our hearts)

// I am going to open your graves and bring you up from; I will bring you back to the land of Israel
ezekiel 37:12

we took a w a l k ,

redeemed.