Yr. B, Wk. 27: Treasuring "What is New and What is Old"

We prepared our individual responses to particular lines of the Lord's Prayer, assigned via email. We repaired to the Pilgrimage room to offer these texts and images in a short prayer service. (See the blogpost previous to this one.) When we returned to the meeting room for brown bag dinners, we shared our answers to Scott's question, "What's a good idea you had in the past week?"

(Class: Christine, Year One; Mariel and Gene, Year Two; Erica, Year Three; Susan and Scott, co - mentors, are reading Year Four. All present.

Starting from an observation about Hebrews by Mariel, we took turns offering pieces from our own readings that built on what the previous person had said. Soon, we had two main groupings of observations: "Missing, wanting tradition, ritual, comfort," balanced by breaks with tradition, fragmentation of institutions, internal conflict and "new awakenings."

Mariel capped the discussion with a piece of Scripture from Matthew 13.52, a micro - parable that the rest of us admitted to having overlooked. Jesus concludes his similes for the Kingdom with this: "Therefore every scribe who has been trained for the kingdom of heaven is like a householder who brings out of his treasure what is new and what is old."

TR: At the mentors' request, Mariel had prepared a demonstration of what she learned during St. James recent workshop on Lectio Divina.  She walked us through a "lectio" reading of three scriptures assigned for the day.

Next week: Scott brings dinner; Erica leads worship; Gene will bring a source for the TR. We are all reading Faithful Neighbors: Christian - Muslim Vision and Practice, introduction and text to page 85.

Our Lord's Prayer: Liturgy with Personalized Readings

Prepared by the evening EfM class, March 19, 2019. Prior to the worship, members of the group had time to choose a line of the prayer and to find or create a text and / or image to share that in some significant way corresponds to that line. [Photo: All the images and texts displayed in one place.]

Clockwise from upper left, images and texts corresponding to kingdom, temptation, will, bread, Father in heaven, forgive, and name.

Worship Centered on the Lord’s Prayer
Prayer Leader (Scott) from Matthew 6.7

Jesus said, “And in praying do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him. Pray then like this:

All (in unison)

Our father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer Leader from the BCP, Collect for the 2nd Sunday of Advent and Psalm 19.14

As we now repeat these words, let us pause after each clause to offer corresponding text or images taken from scripture, our culture, and experience, so that we may more fully read, mark, and inwardly digest the prayer.

All from Psalm 19.14

May the words of our mouths and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer.

Prayer Leader

Now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say…

All

Our Father, Who art in heaven…

Reader One

I offer a corresponding reading from Genesis 1.3-4, with an image from a book, The Art of God, the Heavens and the Earth. 

And God said, "Let there be light"; and there was light. And God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.

(At the conclusion, the reader says…)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.

All

Amen.
Hallowed be Thy name…

Reader Two

I offer a corresponding reading from Exodus 2.13-14, with an image of the burning bush made from Hebrew calligraphy.

Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, “What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” 

(At the conclusion, the reader says…)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.

All

Amen.
Thy kingdom come…

Reader Three

I offer a corresponding reading from Isaiah 6.6-9, with images from the Isaiah portion of the Knesset Menorah, and Edward Hicks's Peaceable Kingdom.

The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

(At the conclusion, the reader says…)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.

All

Amen.
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven…

Reader Four

I offer a corresponding image: a photograph of a Celtic "thin place" where a violinist can be imagined to be making beautiful music, doing "God's will."

(At the conclusion, the reader says…)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.

All

Amen.
Give us this day our daily bread…

Reader Five

I offer a corresponding reading from Sara Miles, Take this Bread: a Radical Conversion.

I grew inside my mother, the way Katie grew inside me. I came out of her and ate her, just as Katie ate my body, literally, to live. I became my mother in ways that still felt, sometimes, as elemental and violent as the moment when I'd been pushed out from between her legs in a great rush of blood. And it was the same with my father. He had helped make me, in ways that were wildly mysterious and absolutely powerful. Like Jesus, he had gone inside somebody else's body and then become a part of me The shape of my hands, the way I cleared my throat, the color of my eyes: My parents lived in me -- body and soul, DNA and spit. That was like the bread becoming God becoming me, in ways seen and unseen.

(At the conclusion, the reader says…)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.

All

Amen.
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us…

Reader Six

I offer a corresponding reading from Genesis 45.4-15, with an image from The Brick Bible.

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.
Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. 

(At the conclusion, the reader says…)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.

All

Amen.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil…

Reader Seven

I offer a corresponding image, a stock photo for the word "temptation."

(At the conclusion, the reader says…)

May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord.

All

Amen.
For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

(Silence, while the images and texts are placed together in full view. Then the leader continues…)

Prayer Leader

Finally, let us pray for our own needs and those of others: For the church, and this church; for those who govern and hold authority; for grace to do your will in all that we undertake; for those in any need or trouble; for the departed. We remember especially those on our prayer list, and any we remember now, silently or aloud. (pause) We give thanks for the blessings of this life. (pause) Finally, we collect all our thoughts into one prayer that the Lord taught us, saying…

All (in unison)

Our father who art in heaven
Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come;
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,
For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Prayer Leader

Let us bless the Lord.

All

Thanks be to God.

[Since we put this together, the images and readings have come to mind as I've prayed the familiar words. This fits in with the reading by Timothy Sedgwick concerning kataphetic worship -- i.e., using significant images to stimulate meditation and awareness during prayer.]

Yr. B, Wk. 26: Speaking Gospel to Different Cultures

After worship from the Prayer Book's service for early evening, we enjoyed turkey chili and tomato soup that Erica brought for us, while we shared news from our lives in the week past. Because Gene and Christine were both away, we discussed the readings and put off Mariel's TR for next week.

(Class: Christine, Year One; Mariel and Gene, Year Two; Erica, Year Three; Susan and Scott, co - mentors, are reading Year Four. Absent: Gene, Christine.)

Mariel related the first year readings to Paul's story, insofar as Ezra and Nehemiah, like Paul, are reforming and building religious institutions. The commentary by Powell has helped her to appreciate how Paul dealt with the world he lived in. In such a hierarchical society, she sees a strong counter - cultural strain in Paul's letters: "There is no Jew or Greek," and a letter to Philemon that is, in Mariel's view, a sly dig at the slaveowner's conscience  [ see image]. Some of the letters attributed to Paul, according to theories discussed by Powell, may be seen as efforts by later writers to tone down Paul's dangerous ideas by re - imposing hierarchy.

Erica picked up on the slavery theme as she told us about the Jesuits, and Fr. las Casas, and how, with some good intentions to treat native Americans humanely, they brought African slave trade to the world. Eric also enjoyed the story of Jesuits' missions in Asia, where the natives didn't take kindly to the brothers' assumption of superiority; so, Jesuits learned to adapt their preaching to the culture.

Discussing 4th year's essay by Timothy Sedgwick on Love and Justice, Scott and Susan saw how these two terms are close in meaning, "justice" being an extension of "love" to all society.

Next week: Brown Bag; Scott does worship; Mariel will save her TR for 3/19.

Yr. B, Wk. 25: Laughing at Calamity

Christine led worship from the evening service, with Psalm 36.5-9, Hebrews 2.1-4, and a Collect for Peace, copied by hand for each of us in her beautiful manuscript. [see photo]

(Class: Christine, Year One; Mariel and Gene, Year Two; Erica, Year Three; Susan and Scott, co - mentors, are reading Year Four. Absent for first hour: Scott.)

Here is a transcription of Susan's notes:
I Thes. -- Where did those versions of resurrection come from? (context from Powell - questions about the mechanics [of resurrection of believers at the end of time]? Was it really about worrying about those who died previously?) "The dead in Christ" as a concept -- praying with the saints.

1st year - book by Yee - Jewish feminist interpretations, differences between Reform and Orthodox, metaphors of marriage, Hosea and violence against women. Emphasis on styles of writing and how these matter. Negative metaphors use women as images for colonized others. Widows, orphans, resident aliens as without power. Mariel: Jewish Women in History hints at what women's lives were like as inferred from documents outside the rabbinical tradition.

2nd year discussed Paul's Powell's idea of "polemical hyperbole." Powell explained that in Roman times, pagan rituals and Roman government were joined together; thus, Jews and Christians, by refusing to participate, were viewed as irreligious and antisocial.

3rd year: Erica liked this chapter!! Counter - Reformation, Loyola, Teresa of Avila, John of the Cross. Sounds like interesting people. Erotic imagery -- John of Cross mystics. Celibacy becomes more enforced. Queen Mary -- McCullough is sympathetic to her, as she was good at organizing things. Witches - kind of paranoia, hysteria.
Theological Reflection
Susan brought us two tea cups to be the source for theological reflection. Bemused at first, everyone gradually became aware that the lovely familiar designs on the cups included images of giant alligators, marauding space ships, Aztec monsters, and a zombie poodle. Our responses teetered between delight with laughter, and solemn consideration of how horrific these images really were. As we wondered about the tradition, we thought of dry bones coming to life; violence in Joshua, Judges, Kings, and Revelation; and humor in the story of Jonah, and in the parables of Jesus. As we finished our discussion, Christine was volunteered to put all our thoughts and feelings into a collect:

Collect for Laughter
God of Love, you carried your people through hardship and fear during famine, war, and conflict but as Sarah named Isaac, laughter, she laughed because the delight of her son brought her joy. We pray that your gift of laughter strengthens us when we are fearful, bringing us peace and joy, opening our hearts, so that we may see your will and walk in your way through Christ our Lord. Amen.

Next week: Readings from the RRG, week 26. Susan leads worship; Erica brings food; Mariel will bring us a source for the TR.

Yr. B, Wk. 24: Prophets, Paul, and Protestants

After prayers for the evening, Christine asked us about our experiences of renewal in the past week. Scott and Susan spoke of their EfM training, and renewed commitment to making our group worship into times set apart -- for instance, meeting in the other room for worship before coming into the study room for dinner. Others spoke of how they felt renewed by reaching out to relatives; sunshine; making art; the presence of children (in church baptism and visiting at home). We spoke as we enjoyed pizza brought by Gene. He also brought a gummi pizza for dessert. [See photo]



[Class: Christine, first year; Mariel, Gene, second year; Erica, third year; Scott and Susan, mentors. Withdrawn to concentrate on earning his degree, Tom.]

Our discussion proceeded by each person offering a connection from the week's readings to a "mind map" that grew from a single quotation, "beware philosophers" from Paul. We saw Reformation suspicion of post - scriptural learning, but also a debate over predestination that involved Leibniz ("best of all possible worlds"), our "evolutions" from our "identities," Star Trek, what Paul might have meant by "the elect," and violent splits among protestant sects. Another offshoot concerned the "50,000 foot view" of Christianity presented in Philippians, which comported with Isaiah's view of generations' worth of misfortunes as lessons for all peoples.

After all this discussion of strife and philosophy, we looked at an offshoot in the opposite direction: where is "love" in all this? That opened up a new discussion that involved Fr. Roger's sermon on "caritas," the fourth year reading about desire and marriage as paradigms for a broader concept of "hospitality," something more than biscuits and coffee -- acts of mutual care and concern. Susan and Scott have seen an increasing emphasis on this one word in our readings in theology over the past few years.

Given the EfM central office's questions to fill out for the March Group Status Report, we gave the TR a week off, and instead put time into thoughtful reflections on the year's materials, along with hopes for the future.

We also discussed ways that we can all recruit for the program. With Tom's departure to study for his degree, we're two under the bare minimum we must have to continue. We discussed keeping EfM among options for adult education in the church bulletin, inviting alumni to stay in touch (even joining us for common readings), and sharing Sewanee's brochure with friends.

Next week: Scott will be late, following a play. Food is brown bag. Susan has a TR. Christine will lead worship.