Yr. A, Wk. 19: Eucharist of the Ordinary, "Be Not Afraid," Prophets, and Icons

Members:  Thomas, Eugene, Mariel, first year;  Erica, second year; Scharme, third year; Bill and Lynne, fourth year; Scott and Susan, mentors. Absent: none.

Gene brought worship from the New Zealand prayer book, and a question about our plans for Lent.  Scharme provided pizza and cookies.  

Our discussion of the readings covered Amos, Hosea, Romans, the Incarnation, and Iconoclasm. That's a great deal of material, but the discussion really caught fire on the idea of "desire" as a holy aspect of God the Father, a desire to share and love.  Sin is a distortion of desire; fear is an aspect of that distortion.  The resurrection of Jesus frees us from our worst fear.  The story of Hosea's marriage to Gomer -- actual, not allegory! -- related to true love and distorted desire.  Amos prophesied against the offical prophets and their king, against the fear that drove the rich and powerful of Israel to ally with foreign kings and gods, to practice empty forms of worship.  The icons that Scharme read about in Year Three were popular as objects to focus the love that people felt for God.  Susan related all of this to Fr. Roger's sermon about "this little light of mine."

For the TR, Mariel brought us a poem "The Inner History of a Day" by former priest John O'Donohue.  Drawn to verses three and four, we explored the image brought to mind by O'Donohue's lines:

We seldom notice how each day is a holy place
Where the eucharist of the ordinary happens,
Transforming our broken fragments
Into an eternal continuity that keeps us.

Somewhere in us a dignity presides
That is more gracious than the smallness
That fuels us with fear and force,
A dignity that trust the form a day takes. 

                   - John O'Donohue, from "To Bless the Space Between Us"

We imagined the world of the cathedral - as - a - day, and all the "sin" that could disrupt the reverent silence and dignity of the place.  But Erica turned our perception on its head when she suggested that all our pet peeve distractions are the very "fragments" of the "ordinary" that are integrated in "eternal continuity" by the Lord.

We resolved to be more open to "silence" in our days, away from media; and to trust more in process.  We collected our insights with bits of the metaphor and oblique references to our discussion of fear and desire with this collect:


Collect for the Day as a Holy Space
 Dear Lord, You preside over Your creation: remind us that this day is your holy place, where we may walk in sacred attentiveness and partake with our neighbors in the Eucharist of the ordinary.  In Jesus' name we pray. amen.

Bill and Lynne were also reminded of Hymn 653, Repton, "Dear Lord and Father of Mankind" by John Greenleaf Whittier.  
  Next Week:  

• Reading: We do the readings for Week 20. 
  
• Food: Bill and Lynne.
• TR: Tom.
• Worship: Erica.

I referred to a novel by Wendell Berry in which a young man makes a sacred place from an ordinary plot of a land by imagining for his young wife the home that he will build for them there, and they spend the night in their "home." I've devoted a page of my blog to Berry's novels.

Snow day: We'll continue next week, as planned

Scott's birds; cat''s eye view of Susan's street

We'll meet again Tuesday night, with no additional assignments.  Amos, Hosea, and the other readings are too good to dilute with another week's readings.

We do plan to double up when we get to the common reading, weeks 22 and 23.

So, to repeat the set up for Tuesday: 

• Reading:Week 19 in the RRG - Amos and Hosea!  Romans!  New Rome! Humanity of God -- looks great!
• Food: Scharme
• TR: Mariel. 
• Worship: Gene.

Yr. A, Wk. 18: Friends, Romans, Kings, and Mystics

Members:  Thomas, Eugene, Mariel, first year;  Erica, second year; Scharme, third year; Bill and Lynne, fourth year; Scott and Susan, mentors. Absent: none.

While we dug into our brown-bag dinners, Erika asked us what we're looking forward to in 2018.  She then led us in the Noonday service.  

First year led off our discussion with some complaints about the tediousness of I and II Kings, its predictable patterns and formulaic summaries.  Gene was interested in Solomon's reputation for wisdom, since riches and power seem to have "gone to his head."

Regarding Solomon's reputation for glory and achievements (which archaeologists have doubted), Mariel wondered what it is about David that makes him the dominant figure in our scriptures and our thinking of Israel's link to Jesus?  She got a lot of answers.  "We like Bad Boys," Erica said.  His life is "a walking lesson" in the good and bad we do in relation to God and others.

Erica considered Romans, observing "rabbit holes" everywhere she looks.  We discussed the numerous ways that the Gospels, institutional church, and our theology were worked out on the job by Paul over decades.

Scharme enjoyed her chapter on 12th century monastics and mystics.  Aquinas and other Dominicans used "analogy and metaphor" to get at incomprehensible God.  She noted a tension between riches of the church and the enforced poverty of the Dominicans and Franciscans.  Their begging put them on the street and brought the church closer to the ordinary people.  Scharme relayed a story about the effect of an edict that all should have communion, and all should be prepared for it by confession, which required education of the commoners.  University education developed through monasteries, mostly alongside cathedrals (Abelard's name came up); study of Plato and Aristotle resumed, and Aristotle became ascendant.

Bill and Lynne found much to think about and enjoy in McIntosh's book.  McIntosh discusses different aspects of how God speaks to us, how we "know" God in a sense beyond the intellectual -- connoting love and enjoyment.

Lynne was struck by a new awareness of the role of Trinity in Creation, as we are all a part of that Word ("Expression") of God.  She loved the line, "God gives us the power to be ourselves."  Lynne took comfort and delight in the idea that God, outside of time, sees us in our entirety, not just who we are now, but who we've been and what we will be.

Some of the discussion turned to Descartes and modern insistence on "certainty" through reasoned propositions, but McIntosh ("and EfM," said Susan) stress a more mystical knowing through relationship.  Hans Frie, scholar of the history of interpretations of Scripture, suggested we think of Scripture as a "sacrament."

Scharme related the discussion to another element in her reading, the anonymous "Cloud of Unkowing."

TR 

Unburdened.

Scott's TR about a moment of doubt in a relationship -- followed by relief and great joy (see pictures) -- brought us to a metaphor about how beginning hikers often pack way more than they need, more than they can carry.  Our metaphor brought to mind a movie with Reese Witherspoon as a hiker; and Scriptural references to light yoke and easy burdens; to David's casting off the heavy armor of Saul to fight Goliath; and the words in our Prayer Book from confession, "the burden of them is intolerable."

Erica read a blessing on us from the last lines of Romans.

Collect for the Hike
Father, You see us, Your children, struggling with burdens of our own devising; help us to recognize and to let go of unnecessary baggage, that we may walk freely and joyfully, parts of your creation. Amen.

Next Week:  

• Reading:Week 19 in the RRG - Amos and Hosea!  Romans!  New Rome! Humanity of God -- looks great!
• Food: Scharme
• TR: Mariel. 
• Worship: Gene.