Yr. D, Wk. 16: Dust in the Tides

We all met on a foggy night at the home of Bill and Lynne for our festive meal. At Lynne's table, we lit three Advent candles while we recited a liturgy for those candles, emphasis on joy -- echoing Fr. Roger's sermon last Sunday.

Our discussion of the reading brought out these thoughts:

• dust, tides, and roads: too many metaphors muddy the ideas
• Hughes's gender-balanced language for the Trinity struck us as interesting, not necessary.  "Fount" for "Father"; "Sophia" for "Word" ; "she" with "Spirit".
• In any case, we agreed that our experience of the Trinity is more important and more palpable than the metaphors
• While Scott appreciated the author's contrast of how ancients (right up to the last century) saw a universe in stasis, God up and Hell down with how we see the cosmos in constant flux today, Erica questioned whether this new science would itself be replaced by another view in another decade or two, because that seems to happen a lot.
• We discussed the way communion puts us in touch with previous generations and distant Christians
• We noted cycles again, from wholeness to brokenness to judgement and new wholeness - creation / sin / judgment / redemption of the TRs.  We considered how cycles in our theology compare to the cycles presented in Buddhism.  
• The author's recommendations of centering prayer and the Jesus prayer brought discussion of how the cycles built into our liturgy can affect us: Scharme recommended centering prayer; Scott spoke of singing the Jesus prayer 

Our next meeting will be January 3.  We'll "brown bag" the meal; Scharme will bring worship; the mentors will bring something to start a Theological Reflection. 

Yr. D, Wk. 15: Atonement and White Lies

Scharme provided our meal; Susan brought Advent prayers from Derek Olsen's Augustine's Prayer Book; Erica brought a TR.  All were present.

Crysdale's Transformed Lives evoked a lot of reaction.  "We liked arguing with her," we agreed.  While some of us felt that she lost focus in these last chapters, others felt that she finally made sense in this second part.  We all found common ground around pp. 120-130.

Jacob (with Mom) fools Isaac

Our TR took off from a story about a white lie.   We followed the "dilemma" method of TR. We found many lies in our tradition and culture; our exploration of beliefs included the observation that kind lies are counterparts to malicious truths. 

Collect for the Honest Faithful
God of truth and justice, You worked grace through Abraham, Jacob, and Peter, despite the lies they told; Prevent us from telling self-serving lies and malicious truths, so that we may live in authentic relationships and be credible witnesses for You; in Jesus' s name.  Amen. 

Next week:  Meet at 5664 Harbormist for dinner and discussion of the reading in the RRG, Wk. 16.
 

Yr. D, Wk. 14: Transformed Lives by Cynthia Crysdale

Everyone was present.  Scott brought Chinese food; for our first meeting in Advent, Bill brought prayers and a meditation about waiting.  Coming on board, we thought about how what we'd been waiting for during the last week.

Lynne opened our discussion of Crysdale's book by admitting that she's never thought of the "substitutionary punishment" theory of atonement as a problem.  Others agreed.  We reviewed Crysdale's history of that idea, and her inventory of Scriptural metaphors for the effect of Jesus's death.  We noted how the emphasis on Jesus's death does discount His life and resurrection, too. We look forward to finishing the book for next week.

The late Luis, age 13, left, and Mia, age two, near Rock Mart

Susan brought the provocative word "to bind" for the TR. Our exploration of the word brought us eventually to the personal image of walking a dog on a leash, and to the Biblical story of a Jonah, a prophet who slipped his leash.

We wrote this:

Collect for a Closer Walk with God
God, You guide us on the secure path: We, like Jonah, have run from Your charge and our obligations; Bring us gently to heel, that we might be reconciled to You and each other, bound in mutual love.  

 Next week:  Read Week Fifteen in RRG. Scharme - food. Susan - Worship.  TR - Erica.

Yr. D, Wk. 13: Judges, Charlemagne, and Potential Energy

Erica brought chili; Susan led us in a litany of Thanksgiving from the back of the Book of Common Prayer; Scharme was away.

Erica told us that she re-read the last chapter of Collins's book to deal with the stories of brutality, revenge, and carnality told in the book of Judges.   "It's like Game of Thrones," she said.  The mistake is to view these stories of human weakness as if they were intended for moral instruction, the way a preacher told astonished campers to regard Jephtha's executing a capricious vow to kill the first person he saw, and his daughter's mournful compliance, as wonderful models of obedience.  Collins gives the perspective that the ancient editor(s) known as the Deuteronomist arranged these stories to show how the people habitually fell into evils that required God to send "judges" to set things right; and therefore, the monarchy was a good, necessary thing.

Lynne and Bill took turns responding to extensive history of the Roman church ca. 900.  We discussed Gregory the Great, missionaries who found a fully established church in the British isles, the contrast between the Irish church's system of "tariffs" to work one's way back to essential goodness and Augustine's doctrine of innate sinfulness;  and the "humility" of Charlemagne in matters of faith and establishing the church in lands he conquered, establishing the Holy Roman Empire. 

For a TR, Bill brought us a photograph of Bernini's "David," from a view somewhat to the left rear of the one pictured here.  We saw in it an image of "potential energy" at a critical moment when all could be won or lost.  Our personal experiences of this coalesced around the image of the silence when the orchestra raises its instruments to await the downbeat.  

Collect in a moment of Potential Energy
Dear Lord, You have placed us, like David and Joshua, in a community of faith.  As you sustained them through their great challenges, sustain us by Your word and sacraments, so that we can realize the potential that You hold in store for us and for our community. Amen.

Next week:  Bill will lead worship; Scott will bring dinner; and Susan will provide the TR.  We read the first half of the book on atonement by Crysdale.  Looking further ahead, we expect a pizza week and then a final meeting for the first semester at the Lovelace's home.  

Yr. D, Wk. 11 & 12: Reading Double, and Learning from Mistakes

Scharme brought worship; food was brown bag.  We doubled up on readings, and yours truly was away at the chorus concert and missed the discussion.

Lynne started the TR with this quotation from George Bernard Shaw: "If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience!"  We all contributed what came to mind, and a position statement emerged. Our discussions ranged through Scripture, Buddhism, and cultural touchstones (including Groundhog Day).  We were led eventually to a consideration of ritual as an agent of change: even just going through the motions can change us.

All of this inspired yours truly to buy a book about the Anglican tradition of the Prayer Book,  intended to change us via ritual repetition and seasonal variation. It's Inwardly Digest by Derek Olsen.

Collect for Transformation
Lord, You struck Paul blind so that he could look inwardly.  Teach us discipline to help us let go of ourselves so that we can accept the grace offered us and reach understanding of Your will and the peace it brings.

Next week:  Erica brings dinner, Susan brings worship, and Bill brings TR.  Scharme will be away.
 

Yr. D, Wk. 10: Leviticus, Luke, and "Cuisine"

Opening worship was a prayer for All Souls Day, brought by Scott, and a question about how the lovely warm weather has affected life in the past week or two.  Lynne and Bill brought food.

Erica reported that even her sons were nonplussed by some of the bloodthirsty violence in Leviticus and Deuteronomy.  Erica liked the concept of a jubilee year, even if it never was really implemented. The taboos concerning food and cleanliness were odd, but some of ours are odd, too -- and we all contributed examples.  Erica also connected to the Hebrews' complaining, and to the evils of slavery, "because we still have slavery today."

Scharme was interested in the beauty of Luke's narrative, and the ways in which Luke appealed to his contemporaries schooled in the literature of Greece.

Bill and Lynne were both fascinated and overwhelmed by the internecine conflicts of parties promoting different explanations of relationships between the Trinity and us.

Susan brought an issue of Cuisine focused on holiday cooking.  Representing the "culture" source, the issue brought out reflections from the sources we call "tradition," "action," and "belief." We followed the procedure outlined for reflection on a "social concern," p. 262 of the Reading and Reflection Guide.

Collect for Hosts
O God, Who sent manna to the people in the wilderness and angels to be guests of Abraham and Sarah: we all are guests at your sacred table every week; keep us from the sins of self-glorification and pride in our possessions, that we may share, with genuine hospitality, the bounty You share with us.  Amen.

Next time:   We meet Tuesday, November 15.  We double up on readings 11 and 12.  We brown bag it for dinner.  Lynne will bring a picture from a five-year-old for the TR.  Scharme is going to take worship for the next two weeks, eventually leading us through lectio divina.  

yr. D, Wk. 8-9: Exodus and Empire

Scharme was absent.  Susan provided salmon loaf for dinner.  Erica brought prayer, Psalm, and a lyric by Bob Dylan with the refrain, "Ah, but I was so much older then / I'm younger than that now." Our coming on board related to that refrain, and, in a roundabout way, so did our TR.

All agreed that the article about TRs was very helpful, and should be assigned Week One, Year One, every year.  About Exodus, Erica discovered that it's better when she can listen to it.  We discussed whether the specifications for building the temple, so monotonous for us to read, might be a "guy thing," as guys still get into the specs for cars, sports equipment, and electronics.  Scott observed that Homer does the same thing, devoting hundreds of lines to descriptions of ships and shields.

About third year, we were all interested in the observation that monasteries were, by their very existence, protests against the increasing reach and inclusivity of the church.  We discussed some of the minute differences among warring factions in the church, and whether those debates are reflected in our church's life today.

The TR, presented by Scott, was the "wide-angle lens" method, starting from a printout of the day's readings in the lectionary.  From the passages that struck us, we explored one. Our considerations of life experience, tradition, and cultural messages (especially a parenting book that warns us that the day comes when the parents must give up and mourn the image of the "ideal child" to work with the one they've got) took us far afield, and brought us to this collect:

Collect in a time of Creative Destruction
O God, You created us and gave us free will to create and destroy:  give us resolve when the time comes to break the boundaries of expectation by which we may limit ourselves and others, or to destroy the idols we've created for ourselves, that we and those we love may continue to grow as You would have us grow.  Amen.

Next week:  We read Week Ten.   Bill and Lynne will bring dinner; Scott will bring worship (for All Soul's Eve); and the mentors will bring the TR.

Yr. D, Wk. 7: Wrestling with Moses, Mark, and Roman Persecutions

Susan ordered pizza. Scharme led us through a series of prayers and meditations for worship, including an anecdote about actor David Suchet, title character of the Poirot program, whose conversion to Christianity came to color the whole series to its end. Her question to us for "coming on board" was, "How have we consciously or unconsciously brought our faith into public interactions this past week?" (See Scott's blog post on "What David Suchet Saw: Christ in Christie.")

We each drew discussion cards to bring out interesting aspects of the readings.  Lynne noted how persecution of the Church repeatedly brought about growth in the church.  Erica wrestled with the Lord's hardening of Pharoah's heart.  Scharme found ways to connect the other two years' readings with Mark's gospel.

Scott chose to begin the theological reflection with Sunday's Old Testament reading from Genesis 32.22-31, in which Jacob wrestles with "a man."  After consideration of context, different translations, different theories about the nature of Jacob's opponent, different purposes of the episode, we explored the reading through theological categories of creation, sin, judgement/repentance, and redemption.  We found numerous cultural versions of the story, though these mostly seemed to lack that element of atonement for past sins that Jacob's story has. We finished by composing a collect:

Collect for those in Transition
O God, who transformed Jacob to Israel through struggle and blessing: in our dark nights, make us mindful of Your providence and Your sharing of our struggle, so that we may cross the rivers before us to reach the home You have prepared us for.  In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.  

Next week: We enter Unit Two: Theological Reflection as a Life Skill.  We'll read the essay in the RRG for Week Eight, and then do the readings for Week Nine.  Erica will provide worship; Susan will bring dinner; and Scott will bring a prompt that will elicit a "wide-angle" TR.  

Yr. D, Wk. 6: Genesis, Matthew, and "setting boundaries"

Lynne and Bill brought dinner.  Scott brought prayers for the start and end of Yom Kippur, the day of "closing the gate."  We shared "gates" that opened or closed for us recently.  (See Scott's reflection during a bike ride on Yom Kippur about those gates.)

Our discussion of the readings covered Genesis, Matthew, and MacCulloch's chapter 4.

Susan's TR about an accusation out of the blue brought to mind the metaphor of a confused actor wandering onto the stage of the wrong play.  The more we explored, the more we saw how often God makes use of people who feel unprepared for their roles.

We wrote this collect:

Collect for Improvisers
O God of Jonah, Moses, and Peter: You have always chosen actors unprepared for their roles. Grant us flexibility and endurance so that we may carry forward our dramas with others to finales satisfying and fair.  Amen.

Next week: We do readings for week 7 in the RRG.  Bring $5 cash for Susan to order out.  Bill will be absent.  Scharme will bring material for worship.  Scott will bring a text for the TR.

Yr. D, Wk. 5: Genesis, Church Beginnings, and first TR

Present:  Erica, Lynne, Bill, Susan, Scott.  Absent: Scharme

Lynne brought worship, a thoughtful set of prayers by Joyce Rupp that turn the "fruits of the spirit" into the "energies of the spirit," with emphasis on action. 

This time, we began with worship, and "came on board" with Lynne's question during the meal. 

Discussion ensued of the Priestly creation story in Genesis and MacCullough's chapters on Israel and Jesus. 

After a break, we did our first Theological Reflection (TR) from Scott's crisis of conscience relating to an incident in a parking lot.  All could relate.  Our metaphor could be a parable: the parent who breaks the kid's piggy bank to have change for the pizza delivery guy.

Collect for the Adult Who Should Have Known Better:
God, who sent Nathan to confront David and make possible his repentance, help us to face our errors and those we have wronged, so that we may ask their forgiveness, be forgiven, and restore trust and justice in our relationship.  In Jesus's name we pray.  Amen.  

For week six, Bill and Lynne will provide dinner. Susan will provide an anecdote of a "critical moment" for our TR.  Scott will provide worship. 

Year D, Wk. 4: Stories, Conversions

Darkness on the face of the deep...  DrewKadel.wordpress.com

Erica provided dinner, and Susan provided tide-related prayer for worship.

Using the "mutual invitation" method for sharing, we drew on our own lives for stories of "conversions" in affection, intellect, political orientation, and religion. 

During our discussions of the readings, Scott posted summaries on the chalkboard, allowing us to look for connections among the different years' readings on Genesis, Jesus, and the Hellenistic world.

Next week, we read the Week 5 assignments.  We're brown-bagging the food; Lynne  brings us worship; Smoot will bring a story from his own life for a TR.  Note:  Scharme will miss.  Erica will miss Nov. 8. 

Year D, Wk. 3: History isn't what it used to be

Scharme brought pizza, and Erica led us in worship.  We discussed opening essays in the Year One and Year Two books, both of them introducing many angles by which we can approach writings of a distant time and place.  The second year book gives an overview of the ways ancient peoples viewed wealth and poverty, class, purity.  Both books suggest that ancient ideas of "history" differ widely from ours.  Susan will be sending us the succinct overview of ancient history from the old EfM "red books." 

We parsed ways to approach the spiritual autobiographical questions we'll be answering next week.

Next week, we read Week Four assignments.  Erica will bring food; Susan will lead worship. 

Year D, Wk. 2: "Travel" metaphor

Scott brought Chinese food.  Bill brought a Psalm for worship, and the question, "When has intense frustration turned to peace for you in the past week?"  We all had cases to share.

We discussed the Reading and Reflection Guide, chapter one.  We were struck by Dante's use of the word comedy : we may go through hell -- our author reminded us of recent historical hells -- and still be in "comedy" so long as hope wins out in the end.  The terms anamnesis, theosis, and scotosis struck us all for different reasons.   Relating them to the travel metaphor, we thought of where we've been helping us to anticipate where we're going; and "scotosis" is the tunnel vision that hides from our view places (views, truths) in plain sight.

With Bill and Lynne away next week, we'll all do our readings, and the first and second year students will meet with the mentors to discuss their first chapters next week.  Food by Scharme, worship by Erica.

The week after, we'll do the readings, then go use the alternative "invitational" method for going through our spiritual autobiographies, focused this year on times of conversions, not just in the religious sense. 

Year D, Wk. 1: On the Right Track

Our first meeting back from summer break, we all had news to share about aging parents and summer pursuits.  Susan made garden quiche and citrus salad.  Scott led worship in the other room, from "Early Evening" with a reading from last year's Forward Day by Day about Job's longing for past days when God was his friend: the meditator urged us to think on joys of this now-time.  Doing that was our "check - in."

We introduced our newest member to the main books of the curriculum, and used the Reading and Reflecting Guide (RRG) acronym "RESPECT" as a starting place for establishing group norms.  We explored the metaphor of "journey," and settled on the image of a train, because we spend a lot of time in our own compartments, but we meet periodically in the dining car.

What will make our journey safe and good for all?  We plan the itinerary, and we stick to the schedule... We're not late... We don't get off-track...  We have the best experience when we've all prepared for the journey with reading and thought... When we come together as a community, we'll leave our baggage (political, personal problems) in the baggage car...  We will keep eyes and ears open to what passes by (in view, in conversation)... We will head to the sleeper car at 9:15... Knowing that we are all companions on this journey, we will not monopolize or hijack the conversation; politics and personal hobby-horses are left behind.  The train must be secure;  no one will blab about what we've heard when we get off at the station.

Rotation of responsibilities:  With a small group, we decided to take some of the pressure off of cooks by adding to our rota a $5 pizza night and a brown bag night.  Everyone will provide dinner once every eight weeks.

Goals:  A journey has an end in sight; we listed our personal goals.  Here's a digest of what we wrote:

Thoughtful discussions and TRs - not settling into a rut, not pushing to be right all the time... Bring depth to St. James' through EfM...  Discipline.... Open mind... Grasp evolution of church from small groups to world-wide network, from experience to dogma... Connect church to wider world, including Judaism and Islam... Bring order to the chaotic impressions I carry around... Gain self-confidence in my grasp of our faith's doctrines, traditions, genres in the Bible... Surrender to God, see God in "mundane" life....

For next week:  We read "Week Two" in the Reading and Reflecting Guide available at EfM's website at Sewanee (see link at right).  Next week, we will take time to prepare our thoughts for a spiritual autobiography, this time presented in a Q+A format.

Next Week:  Scott provides food;  Bill provides worship. 

Telling our Stories: Weeding a Garden

On my own personal blog, I've preserved some ideas from Forward Day by Day that pertain to our program, in an article I call Seeds and Weeds in the Gospel of Matthew: Images for your Inner Gardener. 

Wk. 34: Daniel, Maccabees, 1-3 John, "Travelers," and Labyrinth

Present:  SC, JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST.

The Karkulas brought dinner, Smoot brought poetry from hymns for worship, and we answered a question suggested by Thomas Merton's contention that we experience a kind of "violence" in our need to do more for more people.  Sarah suggested that "violence" and "violate" must relate in meaning.

Our discussion brought out questions about Apocrypha, Hanukkah, the sole references to afterlife in the Hebrew testament (both in Daniel), and the meaning of "God is love" in the epistles of John.  Fourth year has come to appreciate stories in My Neighbor's Faith.  

For a TR, Scharme asked us to consider Philippians 4 -9.  The image that this suggested to us was the labyrinth -- knowing that the twists and turns will lead us to the center, that others are there with us.


Collect for Walking Labyrinths
God, you set aside one day of rest for six of work.   Keep our hearts and minds on You, the center of our labyrinthine lives and work.   Let our faith not become over-verbalized and under-experienced, but grant us that peace that passes all understanding.  Keep our hearts and minds on Jesus.  Amen.




For May 3:  We skip April 26, and read lessons for Week Thirty-five. Scharme brings food; Sarah, worship; Susan, TR.

Wk.33: Ruth, Esther, Ephesians, "My Neighbors," and the Stage

Present:  SC, JK, BL, LL, JM, SR. SS, ST.

Sarah provided dinner; Jane, worship.  We answered questions from our pack of cards to cover our responses to the readings.

Sarah's TR started as the story of a birth, but, through the process of reflection, we imagined instead a director watching young performers on a stage.   Before we were finished with this image, we were wondering, "Where is God in this picture?"  We could see God as the director who presented the players a script and then watched with a mix of pleasure and anxiety to see how they act their roles.  But there was also the possibility of the reverse:  We are observers, not in control, as God "performs" our world.



Collect for Life's Rich Pageant

O Creator of all, you have created our stage and the story of our universe, allowing us the freedom to play our parts as we will; give us the grace to recover from our miscues, and teach us to trust in your direction, so that we may partake in your holy performance to the final curtain call; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, One God, now and forever. Amen.

Next week, we do lessons for week 34 (on 4/19). Jeff (and Sally) provide dinner; Scharme brings a TR, and Scott does worship.  The week after, we'll take the day off (as it's Mystery Dinner Theatre week).  Week 35 will be May 3rd.

Wk. 32: Job, Corinthians, and Boundaries

Present:  BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST.  Absent:  SC, JK

We met at the home of Bill and Lynne, enjoying the garden and a candle-lit dinner.  On the anniversary of Martin Luther King's assassination, worship by Scott took off from Dr. King's The Power to Love.   As King asserts that "only love can turn an enemy to a friend," we searched our memories for examples of such transformation in our own experiences.

Our discussion of readings started with the blurring of boundaries chronicled by writers collected in My Neighbor's Faith.  In Corinthians, Paul seems to be setting boundaries, though we came to see that some of his strong objections to false leaders has to do with their building walls where Paul would knock them down.  (Update: I blogged about My Neighbor's Faith on April 8.)

Starting late, we postponed Sarah's TR for next week.  Sarah will also provide food.  Jane will lead worship.

Note:  We are nearing the end of our program.  Week 33 is April 13, Week 34 is April 20, and Week 35 is April 27.  Our final meeting for closure will be sometime shortly after that.  Bill and Lynne have invited us back for that last meeting. 

Wk. 30-31: Proverbs, Galatians, and Our Neighbors' Faiths

Present:  SC, JK, BL, LL, SR, SS, ST.  Absent:  JM

Susan brought dinner.  Scharme read from Psalms for worship, and asked us to share what had stood out for us during Holy Week.

Our discussion, springing from the question cards, concerned readings in Proverbs, Galatians, and My Neighbor's Faith.  

For the TR, we parsed a dilemma that came to a choice between a defense of our own integrity and the preservation of a relationship. 

Our collect:
God of Wisdom, you commanded us to render unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar;  Help us to discern what will honor your will without being a stumbling block to those in relationship with us, so that we may grow closer to You and to others.  Amen.

For April 5:  We will meet at the home of Bill and Lynne Lovelace, 5664 Harbormist Dr., Powder Springs, GA 30127. 

Weeks 28 & 29: Thompsett, We are Theologians

Present:  SC, JK, BL, LL, SR, SS, ST.  Absent:  JM 

Scott brought dinner.  Lynne's worship, from a song lyric, became important to our collect; her question concerned our legacy.

We all contributed comments to the board covering each of the chapters in Thompsett's We Are Theologians.  

Our TR was a story from Jeff that led us to a provocative word, "cronyism."

Collect for Community with a Hierarchy
Dear God, generous and just, You made us part of Your Kingdom not based on our merits.  We pray that our choices will be made with You in mind, so that, putting ourselves aside, we may be examples for those who come behind us, for the sake of Your kingdom.  Amen.  

Next:
We won't meet during Holy Week.  For the next week, we'll be reading the essay for Week Thirty (pp. 130-136) and the readings assigned for Week Thirty-one.  Susan will prepare the meal; Bill will provide the TR; Scharme will provide worship.    

Week 27: Psalms, James, Sacraments, and Cows

Present:   SC, JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS.  Absent:  ST

Scharme brought pizza, Jeff, worship, and a challenge to use the initials in our names to come up with words to describe our weeks.

We all enjoyed remembering favorite Psalms, savored outstanding passages from James, and considered from Sedgwick how practices of piety even beyond Eucharist can be sacramental.

TR:  Bill brought us a line from Powell's comment about James and "the rich":  "No one wants to be the plumpest calf in the stall when the butcher arrives." (457)  Our collect includes a quotation from James, along with the idea of sacramental "hospitality" found in Sedgwick.

Collect for the Privileged
God, who blessed the poor and brought Lazarus to paradise, and who loved and challenged the rich young man; bring us humility and wisdom.  Make us doers of your word, not hearers only, who practice the discipline of healing and serving without partiality.  Amen.

Next week:  
We're going to skip next week, in order that we may be free to attend the harp concert at church.  Our homework is to read Thompsett, We Are Theologians in its entirety for March 15.  Dinner that night will be Scott; TR, Jeff; Worship, Lynne.

Week 26:

Your blogger/ co-mentor was absent. I missed the discussion, but I have the collect composed by the group:

Collect for Waiting (relating to Psalm 62)
Caring and merciful God,  You hold us in Your hands.  Give us patience to confront life's uncertainties and strength to trust in you, so that we can see the promise in the world that is waiting and yet unknown, so that we may fulfill your plan.  Amen.

Side Note:  This week, EfM central asked for a group status report with this question:

What would your group like to share with us about their work with this year's theme of becoming spiritually mature Christians?

I wrote:

My co-mentor and I are heartened by the enthusiasm of this year’s group for the ways that study, theological reflections, and our own worship practices have dovetailed.  Our worship now typically continues into “check – in” through a related question.  Study materials keep reminding us that “belief” means more than “opinion,” and that habits of worship and study knit belief (“beloving”) into our daily lives. 

 

Week 25: 1,2 Timothy and Timothy Sedgwick

Present: JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST. Absent; SC

Dinner was provided by Jeff, worship by Bill, connected to a reflection on how any good funeral service should also be like any good service.

Theological reflection brought us the anecdote of a rival who's found to be doing something shady.

Week 24: Shrove Tuesday

Present: JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST.   Away:  SC

As some of us ate pancakes from the Shrove Tuesday meal, Jane reminded us that "shrove" and "shriving" concern confession and absolution.  She asked us when we first experienced the Ash Wednesday service.  The imposition of ashes was surprisingly important to us.

Answering questions drawn at random from a deck of cards, we found that "shriving" was a theme in all the readings.  

Surprises? That Phillippians is the earliest source we have to express the doctrine of the Incarnation, that Christ was "present from the beginning."   Bill found the theme of "striving" (rather than arriving) in Phillippians and in what he heard from us about Diogenes Allen's chapter on Sin.

We discussed Allen's idea that "original sin" is a matter of orientation away from God, gradually turned through education, liturgy, and experience.  We discussed how the doctrine of original sin is not universally accepted, a point of difference with the Eastern Orthodox Church.  

TR
Everyone could identify with Scott's experience, and we arrived at an image derived from an anecdote by storyteller Carmen Deedy, whose father was the first Hispanic man to join a factory in Decatur.  Men black and white were all friendly to him, but both sides watched to see which restroom he'd use, the one marked "White" or the one marked "Colored?"   Cultural examples seem to laud the courage to choose a single right choice.  But the prayer book seems to give equivalent choices.  Jesus often refused to accept false choices offered him by challengers, such as the crowd ready to stone the woman found in adultery.  His answers seem to transcend the choices in ways that create "a third" thing, bonding opposites and God.

Collect for Choice Making
God who made us all, who refused the false choice of justice and mercy when facing the woman caught in adultery:  Give us the vision to discern wise and creative choices beyond the doors we see before us, so that we may grow into a more mature understanding of Your ways.  Amen.

Next week:  Jeff brings food, Bill does worship, and Lynne will bring the TR. 

Week 22-23: Systematic Theology, Ezekiel, Sacraments

Present: SC, JK, JM, SR, SS, ST.   Away:  BL, LL. 

Susan provided sandwich fixings and cookies.  Scharme brought a Psalm for worship, and a related question:  When have you had to think to yourself, "This, too, is a child of God"?    

For our discussion of readings. we brought out the index cards with questions such as, "What raised discomfort or doubt in you?"  "What issue of today was raised in your reading?" and "What did you feel was the main point?" Many comments converged on the effect that communion has on us.  Susan made a summing-up statement, that EFM makes us all more comfortable with ambiguity.

Our TR took off from the last chapter of John, where Jesus asks Peter three times, "Do ye love me?" We used three different translations.  We found many resonances, starting with liturgical repetitions, and including the observation that Jesus asked Peter this question once for each denial of Jesus.  

We took as our final worship the collect for the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, prefigured in the gospel reading. 

Next Week
We'll buy pancake suppers for dinner and meet upstairs by 7 pm. Scott will bring the TR.  Jane will bring worship, along with butter and syrup!  Scott will bring coffee. 



 

Week 21: Lamentations, Apocalypse, and "Grace"

Present: SC, JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST.

Bill and Lynne brought dinner; Jane initiated worship with Psalm 19 and a question about our responses to "let the meditations of my heart..."

Reports on this week's readings emphasized "maturity" in Jeremiah, "a new intimacy"; "how the church should live" in the letters 1 and 2 Peter ("not just an apocalypse for prudes"); and how revelation involves a kind of reason beyond the materialstic, scientific, "Enlightenment" kind -- dovetailing well with Fr. Daron's sermon on Psalm 19.

TR: "Grace"
Our provocative word, brought by Scharme, caused us to examine what we think of this word.  It's something desirable, something given, something shared.  Instead of creating a collect, we recollected the use of the word in "Give us grace to do Thy will and walk in Your ways...."

Next week:  We combine readings from Week 22 and 23.  Susan will bring dinner; Scharme, the worship; and Lynne the TR. 

Week 20: Lords and Servants in Isaiah, Hebrews, Allen

Present: SC, JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST.

Sarah made dinner for us.  Worship by Scott took off from Forward Day by Day's meditation on Scripture about baptism by water and by fire, which related to our question: We wrote on paper what habit or thought holds us back from growth, crumpled and threw it in a bowl of water, while all repeated, "That we may delight in Your will and walk in Your ways...."

We began discussion with Allen's chapter about Jesus as both Lord and Servant.  Allen shows how Jesus is lord without needing servants, and we are servants without losing our personalities.  Sartre's statement that one cannot believe in God and be free shows his different understanding of God.  We were struck by the comparison of Jesus' significant death to that of Socrates.  We noted how often Paul refers to himself as a slave or servant.

Discussing Hebrews, Lynne recalled how N. T. Wright summarized its theme: "The best just got better."  The author of Hebrews seems to set up a hierarchy, too.  Christians sometimes discount the Hebrew Scriptures as superseded by the New Testament; we discussed this implication in Hebrews.  We found a nuance in that idea:  the big story of God's relationship with His creation didn't start with the Hebrews, and it didn't finish with the Gospels.

Our look at Isaiah and Micah demonstrated that idea:  not just the messianic passages, but attacks on empty ritual were always a strand in Hebrew / Israeli prophecy.

TR: glass blower
Bill brought a poem that reflected on how great people of the past who live on the other side of a "glassy wall," seen, but separated from us.  "The wall is thick," and, "These bubbles known as men / When once they burst, cannot be blown again."  We focused on that image.  Susan cautioned us midway against settling for the most obvious implications.

Collect for Created Individuals
Creator God, we are in your hands as clay in the hands of the potter;  you have made us unique, with free will.  Help us to see each others' flaws as the distinguishing marks that make us beautiful, that we may see You in all.  In the name of Jesus, who modeled how to know and love the people he encountered. Amen.

Next week: Bill and Lynne bring food; Jane brings worship; Scharme brings the TR.

Week 19: Prophecies Comforting and Discomforting

Present: SC, JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST.

Dinner was provided by Scharme, and worship by Jeff, followed by the question, "What word best describes your past week?"  

Our discussion concerned the prophets Amos and Hosea, who both aimed to discomfort the Northern Kingdom of Israel during a time of complacency.  Scharme commented on how relieved she is, at last, to detect plain old narrative behind the words, and to feel a strong strain of human feeling and sympathy in the teachings, following weeks of violence, some of it arbitrary.

Readings from Powell and Allen both concerned the idea of salvation and afterlife.  Our second year fellows commented that Paul presents "models" for how we "participate" in Jesus' death and resurrection, all of them incomplete ways of understanding, none of them to be considered the actual, only, complete explanation.  Lynne was struck by the fact that Paul wrote in Romans to a church that did not know him personally -- so much of the letter may have been intended as introduction and preparation for controversy. 

About Allen, we had as much difficulty putting in words what we got from Allen as Allen seemed to have for what he intended.  We were struck by his anecdote about scientists' mockery at a forum, where the audience didn't grasp a difference between indefinite extension of life and "eternal life."  The stories of the resurrected Jesus all contain mysterious elements that suggest his friends didn't recognize him, that ordinary natural law did not apply, and that, in some way, life after death is both a a physical, tangible thing, and a transformation.  (I'm reminded of Father Roger's making this point at a blessing of animals, when he assured us that a new physical creation would certainly have animals.)

TR: "Comfortable"
Sarah brought us this provocative word.  Our thoughts and feelings about "comfortable" came at the word from opposite angles.  The word connotes fluffy pillows, but literally denotes "giving" or "having" strength (fort).  We summed these up in a collect:

Collect for Comforters
O God our strength, who brought the Israelites out of comfort into the wilderness, call us forth from empty comforts into service, so that we may strengthen others and grow into instruments of Your grace and power.  Amen. 

Next Week
Scott brings worship;  Sarah brings food; and Bill will provide the TR.

Week 18: Kings and Crucifixion

Present: SC, JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST.

After pizza, Lynne's reflection on gifts and the New Year brought her (and us!) to Psalm 118, "This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it."  Lynne asked us to  reflect on something that we have found to determine the quality of our own days?  We will all remember her own anecdote about Halloween among elderly aerobics participants: "I laughed from my toes on up."

Our discussion of the readings noted the repetitiveness and violence of Kings I and II.  We found it helpful to recall that these books are composed from different "points of view" all melded together into something that only appears to be a single text.  When we moved on to Romans and Diogenes Allen's twelfth chapter, we wrestled with a concept that would appear to be central to our faith: "Jesus died for our sins."  But, how does that work?  Is it vicarious punishment? Is he a "sacrificial lamb?" Is he a payment ("redemption") for us, as ancients would "redeem" a slave?  Has he "recapitulated" creation, becoming a new and better "Adam?"   Does he show us how it's to be done?  Paul expresses several angles on this in Romans; Allen shoots down each one.

We all saw Allen's point about "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"  Quoted from Psalm 22, this is still a cry that all of us can understand.   Was the death God's message to us that He cares, or was it creation's message to God, "this is what it's like?"

Our TR focused on a line from Philip Terman's poem "Drying the Torah," brought to us by Susan.  In it, two women must uncover the Torah and unscroll it in the sanctuary to dry.  It "smells like my horse says one, like soil says the other."  For our TR, we focused on the line about how this scroll is, for once, "free from all that worship, all that praise, all that chanting and bowing and chanting."

Collect 
Holy and heavenly God, You embrace us as we are.  Help us to see both the earthiness and transcendance of each other, and to find You in all the clamor, sights and scents of creation.  In Jesus' name, Amen.  

Next week
Scharme will bring food; Sarah will bring the TR; and Jeff will provide the worship.