At the jail, we started “Journey to Resurrection” yesterday. Which was Valentine’s Day. And also Ash Wednesday. And also my youngest child’s birthday. So lots of reasons to celebrate.

This is a storyboard for “The Anointing” story from Mark 14:3-9. After I told it, one of the women mentioned a story she had heard about a woman pouring oil on Jesus’ feet. Good listening. I told them how this must have been a favorite story since all four gospels have versions of it.

Another woman asked if she had a name. Nope, not in Mark’s version. She remains nameless to history, just like all of us no doubt will. But her act of love for Jesus is still told 2,000 years later. That’s the way we can be remembered, too.

Note the gold star at the top right of the storyboard. That means this woman told the story to the whole circle. What else do you notice about this storyboard?

At the prison, we started the “Journey to Resurrection” series of stories in late January. This theme will run more or less from Epiphany through Lent and into Easter Season. All but the last story are from Mark 14-16. So the first story was “The Anointing” at Bethany, and last Friday we engaged a piece of the Last Supper story: “Bread and Wine.”

The talking piece I brought for this story was a candle my youngest daughter gave me some 15 years ago. I think she was still in high school. It was such a special candle, I could not bring myself to light it. One time several years after she gave it to me she saw it and was quite distressed that I hadn’t burned it yet. Somehow that seemed a bit sacrilegious; on the other hand, that was it’s purpose, wasn’t it?

About the third time I led Circles focused on the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus I remembered that candle. What a perfect talking piece for the story of the last supper (or any portion thereof). Now I knew its true purpose. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way one of the disciples lost his head. I have glued it back, but it just keeps falling off.

So I told the women about my daughter’s gift to me, and how she was distressed when she saw it hadn’t been burned, and how I now use it as a talking piece, and how one of the heads broke off. I pointed out the headless disciple. Then one of them said, “That’s Judas!” and we all had a very good laugh.

Funny, even silly, as that was, there actually was a serious narrative connection between my damaged candle and the story. It was an important thing to notice that Judas was among those to whom Jesus gave bread and wine. Judas was included in the “all” when Jesus gave the cup to his disciples and “they ALL drank from it.” Judas was included in the “many” when Jesus says, “This is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for MANY.”

Jesus knew Judas was going to betray him. That’s been established already in the story of the last supper. And yet, Jesus offered grace to even this most terrible enemy—a close friend and student who would betray him.

It was good to have laughter during the learning of this story. It is a hard one to internalize–not because it’s hard to remember, but because it is loaded with difficult emotional connections. And the stories of Mark 14-16 only get harder from here on out, at least for the next few sessions.

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Theme graphic for COW@Grace

I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete. John 15:11

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” John 20:19

Occasionally in my Sacred Stories class in the jail, which is what we call our Circle of the Word program there, I get asked, “Do you do this on the outside?” Until last month, the answer was a regretful, “No, but I’d like to.” In January we launched a monthly Circle on the “outside” (meaning not in a jail or prison) at Grace United Methodist Church in Dayton. Its purpose is twofold:

• To provide “aftercare” for women who has participated in a Circle of the Word in the jail or a nearby women’s prison, so that they will be able to continue engagement with biblical stories in the same way, supporting their reentry into the community;
• To make available a spiritual formation/Bible study opportunity for members of the congregation.

This year the selection of stories is inspired by a book about how to be joyful in the face of life’s troubles: The Book of Joy by his holiness the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, with Douglas Abrams (a Buddhist, a Christian, and a Jew—not a joke). Copies of “joy practices” from the book are distributed as totally voluntary homework.

For an introduction to the theme of joy in the midst of troubles, in January we spent time with the resurrection story of Jesus’ appearance to his disciples behind locked doors (John 10:19-23). In February we will pick a story that relates to the first “pillar of joy”: perspective. I haven’t figured that out yet. Your suggestions are welcome!

There were eight of us for our first COW at Grace, just the right number. And it went even better than I anticipated. It is amazing what meaningful spiritual insights people can have in a peace-filled setting when they spend quality time with a biblical story. The restorative justice practice of a “peacemaking circle” really works to create a safe, non-judgmental, egalitarian, covenant group where deep thinking and deep sharing are encouraged. All of us—those on the inside and those on the outside—can benefit from that.