MEDITATION TO HEAL PAST MEMORIES
(Revised)
Clergy Meditation (10 minutes)
In last night’s service, we gave our forgiveness lists to Christ and He took care of them as all of us witnessed. Here is a visual to help us reflect on what happened.
Have 5 team members come forward. One to face Residents and be the subject, the other four stand to the side and take their positions as directed:
In life we get entangled. This will be represented by the tea-towels. Many things can trap us, shaping who we are. Trapped by hurts done by our parents – none of whom were perfect.
Wrap a tea-towel around subject’s leg, with first person pulling tight. Take the strain being careful not to over balance the subject. Keep the mood sombre.
Trapped by hurts done to us at school, or done by us at school.
Wrap tea-towel around arm, with second person pulling tight.
As teenagers exploring our sexuality, testing out new found freedoms we may have been injured or injured others.
Wrap tea-town around neck, with third person pulling tight.
Breaking the law has caused another entrapment in our lives.
Wrap tea-towel around waist, with fourth person pulling tight.
There are many events that seek to take a hold on our lives shaping the way we live, shaping who we are. When we fight against these they shape us. When we given into them they shape us.
In Jesus we found the forgiveness to break free.
Undo each tea-towel and place them in the subjects’ hands.
Helpers withdraw quietly.
But if all I’ve known is being trapped, I don’t know how to live free. A slave only knows how to live as a slave.
Those events, people, hurts, disappointments have left their mark in our lives and developed habits that shape the way we live.
Jesus not only forgives but in the process seeks to heal so that we learn to live from his love for us.
Let us now pray to Jesus asking for healing.
I invite you to quietly reflect on the areas in your life where you need healing, where you feel you need to change.
Begin prayer after a moment of silence.
Jesus we want to leave old habits behind and develop new ones that reflect you and your love for us.
Jesus we invite you to heal our memories so that we are no longer controlled by them but by your love for us and the wonderful life you wish to live with us today and tomorrow. Our life is now in your hands. Jesus, we know that you are the person who loves us more than your own life.
Jesus we thank you for the freedom your forgiveness opens up. We thank you that you have set us free to use all of our life, the present the past and our future to be lived with you.
As we see the tea-towels being removed and placed in the hands ready for service, we ask that you empower us to use those experiences to care for people who are still trapped and hurting.
Jesus may we remember, not as slaves to these past hurts, pains and injustices, but so we might stand alongside of those in need as you stand alongside of us.
Jesus we ask you to come and heal our memories. Jesus come and change our thinking and our habits so we live from the love you have for us. So we live the future you have for us and not as slaves to the past.
Jesus come into our hearts, our minds, our experiences and heal us so that we might live life freely with you.
We thank you, Jesus, for the words spoken to us through your prophet Isaiah.
“Do not cling to events of the past or dwell on what happened long ago. Watch for the new thing I am going to do. It is happening already – you can see it now!”
Go in Jesus, living as the free men/women He has given His life for you to be.