Dreams

Last night I was just so tired I fell asleep between 8:30 and 9:00. This morning I got up, with spring allergy grogginess at 5:38. At 6:05 the front doorbell rang. It was a parishioner. She said,

"There's only three of us but we have to get to work!" Only three! That's a miracle on a weekday at 6:00 a.m.!

6:00 a.m. Holy Wednesday Eucharist - I had forgotten!

I hurried over to the church, grabbed a purple stole from the drawer in the sacristy, put it on over my sweatshirt and jeans and went into the church. The four of us celebrated Eucharist and it was, for me, a wonder.

After the Gospel, I gave a very brief homily on Jesus descending to the dead to find the lost sheep, and the first lost sheep he was after to raise with him, after Adam and Eve, was Judas. When I finished I wondered out loud what hearing these words this morning might work on their day ahead.

Then, as they took turns with the petitions of the prayers of the people, I heard those petitions echoing forward into their workday. And in my prayer at the end I prayed for them, aloud, and what these prayers and this Holy Communion might work on them during the day.

And after the communion, as I said the dismissal, it was different for me than on a Sunday. On Sunday I'm sending the people out into a Sunday world, which I hope is also the week to come. Compared to that dismissal, this morning's dismissal made Sunday's seem a formula. Compared to that dismissal, this morning, at 6:35, it was out into that actual weekday work day world into which they were being sent. And I wonder if today will be different for them than other days. Or if it was all a dream.