Conversation

Sometimes something unexpected happens.

As a leader, you didn’t plan for it and in truth you couldn’t have imagined it but here it is.

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On Sunday morning I was leading the closing session of a women’s retreat. The focus for the session was John 15:4-17, part of Jesus’ farewell discourse that John’s gospel gives us. I shared with them the context of these words, that Jesus knew what was just ahead for him and the disciples didn’t have a clue. I told them that in my work with high school students I’ve told them to pay attention to what people say as they are approaching the end of their lives.

And then I read the text.

Except, I didn’t really read it. I talked it.

As I began, I remembered that this text was a conversation. This was a guy sitting around a table with a beloved friends, his heart full of everything he wanted to share with them while he still had the chance, his heart perhaps breaking for the way their hearts would soon break. It was his long goodbye.

Suddenly it wasn’t the cadence of reading scripture in public. It was a friend talking to beloved friends.

Only a few words in, I felt it happen. It was as if Jesus was right there with us. As words came spilling out, I felt their warmth, and in my whole body I felt how tender they were with such great love.

So much love.

I wasn’t the only one feeling it. We didn’t talk about it later but in that moment I saw it. I saw it on their faces, soft and shining in this love. Many of their eyes filled with tears.

After the session a woman approached me to ask where she could find that passage. I didn’t understand what she was asking at first, but she was insistent. “Where can I read that?”

If you’re leading in worship in this lenten season, allow a space for the love among the words. If you’re reading such words for yourself, hear the conversation in the text and listen for the love.

So much love.

For you.