Invitation and Framing the Service of Milk and Honey
January 10, 2010
Theme for this year: There is Healing in the Honey!
Every January Wellspring ritualizes the drinking of a cup of milk and honey as an act of openness to let go of the past year’s bitter taste and enter into a new year with freedom to see again without the constraints of bitterness. A ritual recognizes the practices of ordinary routines in life that have connections to the holy. A ritual has the potential to call us back to places we have been before so that we remember who we are and how we name ourselves on our journey. The honey and milk threads it way through several thousand years, reminding us that promised lands are ahead; to enter into promise we are invited to let go of our bitterness so that space for healing and wholeness can open up the heart again.
I was first introduced to this ceremony at the Women’s Reimagining Conference in Minneapolis MN in 1994. The woman dancing, the milk and honey being poured into a large pitcher caught my imagination. I made a note on my program booklet: “look into this for Wellspring. Something we might do at the beginning of a new year.” When I began this ritual, I wasn’t sure if it would “take.” It was new. It sounded interesting, the Wellspring community was open, but meaning was shallow as our experience was beginning. Taking an ancient ritual and placing it in current context is a conversation that reminds us of the wisdom that accompanies time. Letting go of bitterness is critical to starting over, to entering new possibilities.
We are now in our 15th year of drinking this cup. The ritual deepens in meaning. Some years are marked with shared grief in the community and world. Some years individual acts of release happen as everyone drinks together; silence being our boundary to personal space. Some years the storms of January kept many from making it to church, but still we drink in spirit in our homes. The service of Milk and Honey has become as important as lighting candles on Christmas Eve when we affirm that the darkness will not overcome the light. People prepare to come, to let go of bitterness and drink a new cup of possibility. This has become Wellspring ritual: a marker for time and a willingness to begin again for another year. As the minister I am very deliberate to put my ear to the ground, listening and honoring the stories of struggle we have shared in the past year; stories that have power to transform us and weave their way into meaning and faith in the community.
I look forward to participating together in drinking the cup of milk and honey (or milk and sugar, if you are allergic to honey). Bring your own cup if you would like.
On the journey……….Naomi