During the second week of Advent we learned the story of “The Annunciation to Mary”—“annunciation” being just a fancy word for “announcement.” The story is recorded in Luke 1:26-38. After we got through all the administrative stuff (nametags, attendance, how-to-use-the-talking-piece, etc.) we did a Circle round to describe our familiarity with that story.

There are three options: This story is…(1) brand new to me, (2) somewhat familiar (3) a story I could tell, more or less. I had modeled the “more or less” very well, having mixed up words in a couple of places and completely leaving out Mary saying, “How can this be?”

For three of us the story was brand new. Five of us were somewhat familiar, and seven of us felt we knew it well enough to tell, more or less!

Last month I attended the American Academy of Religion – Society of Biblical Literature Annual Meeting held in Atlanta, Georgia. I bought a 2015 edition of The Social Media Gospel: Sharing the Good News in New Ways by Meredith Gould and read it as soon as I got home.

It’s not a deep read, but it got me thinking about creating an online faith community for the women who lead and attend Circle of the Word—AKA Sacred Stories class—at the jail. For community formation, Gould strongly recommends Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter over blogs.

I asked the women on Dec. 2, “How many of you use the Internet when you’re not in here?” Immediately all hands shot up. Then at the end of class I asked about Facebook. Most were on it. I told them my idea of a Facebook group for us. They were quite enthusiastic and offered suggestions. So I am continuing to mull that possibility over with a growing sense of calling.

A next step is to discuss the idea with people engaged in jail ministry and reentry work. Is there a down side? A security concern?

This is the last in my series of posts from the December 2 Circle about prophets and Isaiah 9:2-7. December 2 was my 65^th birthday. Here is a final “illustrated manuscript” from that memorable Circle. It captures the spirit our time together.

This illustrated manuscript of Isaiah 9:2-7 includes a boot, a bloody garment, a king’s crown, a child, and a yoke (the first brown figure in the left margin).

Before we illustrated our manuscripts, one of the women inquired, “What is a a yoke?” One woman suggested part of an egg. I said that was a sensible guess given how the word sounds, but that this was a different kind of yoke and actually was spelled differently. I had never really noticed the similarity or the silence of the “l” in “yolk.” We all enjoyed that detail about our language.

I passed around a picture of a pair of oxen yoked together and we discussed the concept of being yoked. Someone brought up marriage, a couple being yoked.

How rich are the associations and nuances of these stories, and how perceptive are the women who engage them at the Montgomery County Jail in our weekly Circle of the
Word.

The women had only heard the Isaiah prophecy once when they were asked to name a word or phrase that caught their attention in the “Word I Heard” activity. I was amazed at the range of responses they offered. They are printed on colored cards, pictured below with their “illustrated manuscripts.”

The skill of paying attention facilitates both prayer and storylearning. The “Word I Heard” cards and illustrated manuscripts provide evidence of how well the women in Circle paid attention, both to the prophecy and to the reading about how it would have sounded to original audiences 2700 and 2000 years ago.

For example, the first graphic below includes an illustration of God calling light into being, out of darkness, from the first creation story in Genesis. That detail was included in our reading handout “Listening to the Story” as one association for darkness/light of people listening to the story long ago (the other association being oppression/king-who-ends-oppression).

The second graphic includes the boots and bloody garments being burned “as fuel for the fire.” It as shows names for the new king, interpreted as baby Jesus. Our handout mentioned how the original audience heard this prophecy as a celebration for the coronation of a king, while early Christians heard it as being about another “anointed one”: the Christ child.

Last Wednesday when Circle was done we had to wait for what seemed like a very long time, first for someone to answer the buzzer so I could tell them class is over, and second for a C.O. (Corrections Officer) to come unlock the door and let us all leave.

While we waited we chatted about this and that, including the current shortage of jail staff which causes the kinds of waits we were experiencing. The women talked about how most C.O.’s are really okay, and don’t make things harder on them then they already are. They expressed understanding and compassion for those who aren’t so agreeable. They told us about the nightly Bible studies they hold in their cells and the Gospel stories they were discussing.

As the waiting extended beyond ten minutes I said we might as well sit down and relax. This was as much for my benefit as anyone else’s.

Then someone said, “Who has a song?” Another tried to lead us in a contemporary hymn (“Our God Is an Awesome God”) but nobody knew it well enough. Then I led us in a couple of the song-prayers we do in Children’s Worship: “Lord God We Adore You” and “Blessed Be the Name of the Lord.” I told them about learning songs in West Africa and they were interested in what I was doing there and what it was like.

As I started to do the greeting song, the C.O. came. I promised we’d do that song today and we did! Now that I think about it, the waiting last week was a most appropriate beginning of the Advent season.

In its original context—the land of Judea, 2700 years ago—those who listened to Isaiah’s prophecy as recorded in Isaiah 9:2-7 would have known that it celebrated the coronation of a king, probably Hezekiah. While other biblical prophets are suspicious of kings, Isaiah speaks well of them. He sees them as exalted on earth just like God is exalted in heaven.

Seven hundred years after Isaiah’s time, followers of Jesus listened to this prophecy and understood it as referring to Jesus. In 1741, George Handel wrote a piece of music called “The Messiah” drawing on words from this prophecy for an oratorio, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” and a chorus, “For a child has been born for us…and he is named…Prince of Peace.”

We listened to Handel’s oratorio and the chorus while responding to the prophecy through drawing. When this music was over, a young woman began singing “This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine” and the rest of us joined in. A most fitting response to Isaiah’s prophecy.

In Circle this week we encountered the prophecy from Isaiah 9:2-7. Nine women attended, but one had to leave early for a court appearance. So her friend requested an extra story paper to take for her. Then during our time of responding to the story with artwork she illustrated it so that her friend would have “some color in this place.”

Such expressions of thoughtfulness and care for one another are not uncommon in our Circle of the Word sessions. One of our Connections to the story reflected on sources of light in our darkness. Those of us from the outside can clearly see how some women in Circle function as sources of light for others there in the jail, and as bearers of God’s peace in the world.

Yesterday we began a new series for our Circle of the Word program at the Montgomery County Jail. The theme is “Journey to Bethlehem.”

Journey to Bethlehem is a six-week series for Advent-Epiphany inspired by a presentation I learned from Young Children and Worship by Sonja Stewart and Jerome Berryman. It uses materials from Worship Woodworks that include a model of Bethlehem, felt underlays, and wooden figures. I bring artificial votive candles as reminders of “who can show us the way to Bethlehem.”

During the first week of Advent we focus on the prophets, represented by Isaiah, because “prophets listen to God so they can show us the way.” We made “illustrated manuscripts” instead of storyboards. Some were drawn around the text and others on the backside of the story paper.

In addition to naming the king as “Prince of Peace” the prophet looks forward to a day when there will be “endless peace.” In these days when one mass killing follows another in the headlines we yearn for endless peace just as much now as in ancient times when Isaiah spoke the Word of God to his people.

We used peace symbol stickers to decorate our nametags. These showed up a lot in our drawings. Also, you can see how the prophets in the illustration below were inspired by the wooden figure of Isaiah. The imagery of boots of tramping warriors and garments rolled in blood was powerful in contrast to the imagery of rejoicing at the harvest and a child born who will be the Prince of Peace. The card saying, “rolled in blood” was from The Word I Heard activity.

Two women offered their completed surveys for presentation on this blog. The cards at the top are the words and phrases they recalled in the “Word I Heard” exercise. Women who came the first time filled out the top survey; women who had come before filled out the bottom one.

The positive feedback was encouraging. I think the reason the class was so good was because everybody participated. Simply engaging with the biblical story, with openness to the Holy Spirit, works wonders. They really cooperated with “listening for whatever word God has for us today.”

These storyboards have distinctive styles for portraying the three episodes of the story of Jesus cleansing a leper (Mark 1:40-45).