Holy Week

As I was preparing for this week, I couldn't get this song out of my head. So instead of writing a prayer, I encourage you to listen to this video, "Holy, Holy, Holy" sung by Sufjan Stevens.

                                         

My last shawl is dedicated to my dear friend Kim.

Lent Week 5, The Labor of the Cross

A Woman Pours Perfume on Jesus

Mark14 

1The Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away. The chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for a clever way to arrest Jesus. They wanted to kill him. ² “But not during the Feast,” they said. “The people may stir up trouble.”

³ Jesus was in Bethany. He was at the table in the home of a man named Simon, who had a skin disease. A woman came with a special sealed jar of very expensive perfume. It was made out of pure nard. She broke the jar open and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head.
⁴ Some of the people there became angry. They said to one another, “Why waste this perfume? ⁵ It could have been sold for more than a year’s pay. The money could have been given to poor people.” So they found fault with the woman.
⁶ “Leave her alone,” Jesus said. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me. ⁷ You will always have poor people with you. You can help them any time you want to. But you will not always have me. ⁸ She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body to prepare me to be buried. ⁹ What I’m about to tell you is true. What she has done will be told anywhere the good news is preached all over the world. It will be told in memory of her.”

¹⁰ Judas Iscariot was one of the Twelve. He went to the chief priests to hand Jesus over to them. ¹¹ They were delighted to hear that he would do this. They promised to give Judas money. So he watched for the right time to hand Jesus over to them.

Notes and quotes from Jessi Marcus' Sermon, Pouring Out a Life of Love

May we have this image in our heads as we head towards Passion Week.
"We carry the scent of Christ with us and it marks our interactions with others. And not only that but we also have our eyes open for the beauty that calls us beyond and further the broken pieces of ourselves." What a beautiful thing.

Prayer
Thank you God that you stand up on behave of your people that are broken.  And God we are broken people but may we still come to you with an offering. God grant us the grace to be more beautiful and that we would carry your scent with us and that we would be marked by you. That we would be people that are anointed by your death, your life, your resurrection, your  promise of new hope and new life.  God would you cover us and may we live beautifully and sacrificially before you. 

We pray these things in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Notes from DebSue (that's me)

Well, this week I am getting really excited about the end of this journey making this piece. I am finished with #5 and just got #6 tied on to my loom. #6 is black and gray for Passion Week and specifically for Good Friday. I am especially excited for Saturday before Easter. I am bring my loom into the chapel and weaving my last all white shawl for the cross during the whole day. There will be a Saturday Vigil Service from 7-12 open to the public. Each hour I will be taking one shawl off and at midnight I will be done weaving the Easter shawl and place it on the cross. I have never done something like this. Really looking forward to it. 

Lent Week 4, The Labor of the Cross

The Christian Struggle 

Can you imagine sailing against a head wind on a stormy sea? Tension is high. You've got to be alert, concentrated, steadfast, and energetic in setting yourself against the ongoing challenge. 

It's tough, but it's also exhilarating, exciting, and deeply satisfying to know you're on course despite the elements' efforts to upturn you!

Lent invites us to re-engage with the Christian struggle, to face the enemy within (our tendency to sin) and without (elements of our culture that are unloving, un-Christian), and boldly fix our eyes on the goal, the prize of true freedom.

The struggle can be tough and demanding, but it brings with it a wonderful sense of well-being and fulfillment. God confirms our efforts and encourages us along the way-His Way, the way of the truth.

Let us be attentive to the voice of our Captain this Lent. Let us listen to His Word, His advice, His instruction. It will surely bring wisdom, courage, consolation, and great joy into our lives.

2 Corinthians 5:17Anyone who believes in Christ is a new creation. The old is gone! The new has come!

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, 

and to the Holy Spirit,

As it was in the beginning, is now and ever

shall be,

World without end, Amen.

(words from Sacred Space Lent 2013)

Jacob's Well Church Week 4 Lent reading,  Mark 14:3-9.

The Privilege of Suffering

Inspired to make this video while working on my Lent piece when I was at Jacob's Well Church last Sunday when I heard Isaac Anderson preach. His message was called "The Privilege of Suffering" and it was extremely encouraging especially during this time of working on my 6 week/ 12 weaving installation piece for the Sacred Space in the Prayer Chapel.

Pretty hilarious trying to set up my iPhone on my tripod. I wove almost my entire shawl going through many tries to get the right light. Still not perfect but the point was I wanted to make a video with Isaac's last five minutes of his sermon. Thanks to Time Bridgham for helping me put it together. 

Sermon by Isaac Anderson "The Privilege of Suffering"
http://www.jacobswellchurch.org/sermo...

Music by Helios "The Red Truth"

and weaving by Debbie Barrett-Jones
www.debbiebarrettjones.com


Mark 8:34
The Message
34-37 Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, "Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You're not in the driver's seat; I am. Don't run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I'll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?


Questions to reflect on from Isaac Anderson's message, The Privilege of Suffering

A) Who might God be inviting you to labor for as in the pains of childbirth?


B) Given your unique personality / talents / life-stage, what is the cross God is asking you to carry, in the hope that new life will emerge?


C) Because the cruciform life is a team sport, from whom are you drawing strength during this season? To whom are you imparting strength in this season?

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Lent Week 3, The Labor of the Cross, The Privilege of Suffering

Mark 8:34The Message

^34-37 Calling the crowd to join his disciples, he said, “Anyone who intends to come with me has to let me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat; I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow me and I’ll show you how. Self-help is no help at all. Self-sacrifice is the way, my way, to saving yourself, your true self. What good would it do to get everything you want and lose you, the real you? What could you ever trade your soul for?

 Questions to reflect on from Isaac Anderson’s message, The Privilege of Suffering

A) Who might God be inviting you to labor for as in the pains of childbirth? 

B) Given your unique personality / talents / life-stage, what is the cross God is asking you to carry, in the hope that new life will emerge? 

C) Because the cruciform life is a team sport, from whom are you drawing strength during this season? To whom are you imparting strength in this season? 

Notes;
Last Sunday Isaac Anderson gave the message at Jacob's Well called "The Previlege of Suffering." It has been a very long time since I heard a message that I felt was spoken to me directly. This piece has been so much harder to create and complete than I thought. I had the idea and have been excited about the outcome in my mind but it has exhausted me not only physically but surprisingly emotionally. I made a commitment to make this piece and I will continue on but I know that it takes so much from me, has and will continue to. Throughout the process I have had moments when my hands are cramping up, my back aches and I am frustrated with complications with the yarn or my loom. During those times I remind myself the reason why I am making this piece and am encouraged that it is a prilivege that I get to make it.