Bakerwoman God

by Rev. Dr. Alla Bozard Campbell

(Episcopal Church of America)

Bakerwoman God, I am your living bread.
Strong, brown, Bakerwoman God,
I am your low, soft and being-shaped loaf.

I am your rising bread,
Well-kneaded by some divine and knotty pair of knuckles,
By your warm earth-hands.

I am bread well-kneaded.
Put me in fire, Bakerwoman God,
Put me in your own bright fire.

I am warm, warm as you.

From fire, I am white and gold,
Soft and hard, brown and round.
I am so warm from fire.

Break me, Bakerwoman God.
I am broken under your caring Word.
Drop me in your special juice in pieces.

Drop me into blood.
Drunken me in the great red flood.
Self-giving chalice, swallow me.

My skin shines in the divine wine.
My face is cup-covered and I drown.
I fall up in a red pool in a gold world.

Where your warm sunskin hand is there to catch and hold me.

Bakerwoman God, remake me.

AMEN

• Light a candle to remember Christ’s presence with you.
• Sit five to fifteen minutes in silent meditation, paying attention to the breath.
• What word or phrase captures you?
• Stay with this word or phrase.
• Enter the reading again, reading aloud this time.
• What needs to be remade in you today?
• Is there something you need to let go so that this can be remade in you?
• Spend time with your breath making space for the remaking.
• Allow Bakerwoman God to remake you.
• Where do you feel the kneading?
• Where do you feel the rising?
• Is the heat from the baking warm or hot?
• Read the words one more time listening for a call to action.
• Give thanks to God for this time in prayer and for any new insights you have received.
• Share as you feel led in the reply box below.

Revised Common Lectionary Readings for Sunday, November 13, 2011, the Thirty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year A
Judges 4:1-7
Psalm 123
I Thessalonians: 5:1-11
Matthew 25:14-30
If you use these prayers in other groups, please give credit to author.
Permission to use in not-for-profit settings The Rev. Lil Smith, M.Div., DASD