Yr. A, Wk. 28: Interlude

Discussion of the Readings
We're all reading the introduction and chapters 1-4 in The Church Cracked Open by Stephanie Spellers, the Presiding Bishop's Canon for Evangelism, Reconciliation, and Creation. You'll find a lot in her writings that you can buy into, and you may find many things that provoke you to ask questions.

We'll "meet" in the discussion board for this blog. Below these instructions, open the link "Post a Comment" and write one or two things for which you have buy-in, and one or two questions that you have. Our discussion will be more fruitful if you refer us to the page numbers for the things you write about. Remember that you do not have to sign in to post your comment. We do like it if you give your name.

Living Faithfully in Your World:
1st yr: Scott 2nd yr: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Meeting asynchronously this week.

Spellers is not the only one out there writing about how the church can respond to this critical time. Priest Adam Trambley co-edited a collection of essays that apply the story of the church's rapid growth in Acts 8 to our circumstances today. Read about it in the last third of my response to his month of meditations in Forward Day by Day. link here.

For Tuesday, April 5
We'll complete the reading in Spellers's book. Scott will provide worship and a source for the TR. Nuno kindly volunteered to write the collect for our meeting March 22, so I hope everyone will go back and check for it.

Yr. A, Wk. 27: Psalms and Windows

Worship and Check-in
Inspired by recent worships, Pete found prayers appropriate to each of our characters. Like the Psalms, some of them included prayers for the come-uppance of those who distress us.

Pete's question was about any difficulty that affected us this past week. One of us suffered frustration with a committee -- though the result seems to have been a good one. Another had to drive hundreds of miles to rescue a stranded family member and friend -- but ended up feeling good about the drive-athon. For another, there was a surprise twist to medical testing -- but it's working out. Another was relieved to report that the last weeks have been least stressful in a long time.

Discussion of the Readings
In our reading discussion, we anticipated the theme that would be central to our TR, that Scripture can be like a window into another time -- past and future. A Psalm addressed to David – “Today you are my son and I’ve begotten you” – spoke to Jesus hundreds of years later, and tells us today that we are children of God. Christine’s reading was all about ancient philosophers and saints whose practices and meditations “transcend time” and “renew” us in worship now; scriptural parables and stories help us to explore our own relations with God. By echoing the idea that ritual had become empty America's Great Awakening parallels the great Jewish prophets and, later, the New Covenant of the Gospels.

Another thread of conversation wound around a question we didn’t express outright: does the New Covenant mean that the Old Covenant has been revoked, and the Jewish faith is null and void? The word for that belief is supersessionism; see more below. We discussed how the author of Hebrews describes Jesus as a “great high priest” who serves in the heavenly Holy of Holies as our intercessor with God, but one who has experienced temptation as we have. Hebrews elevates an obscure figure from the early Hebrew writings, Melchizedek, to give early Jewish Christians a scriptural example of a king – priest who did not serve in the temple.

Supersessionism was the subject of a lecture broadcast online from Sewanee March 7. The lecturer surveyed different approaches to this thorny question before admitting, “We really have no idea.” An extreme view was Marcien’s back in the first millennium, that the God of the Old Covenant wasn’t even the same God and the Church is now God’s chosen people. In 1966, the Episcopal Church rejected that view for a softer one: the Jews are not special (in the sense of exclusive) in God’s salvation of humankind, but their story is fulfilled in Jesus – something Fr. Daron touched on in a sermon on the Gospel comment that Jesus was “called out of Egypt” like the Jews. In her personal response, she said that the triune God is implied in the Old Testament, that the law is already “Christological,” and Jews are still living out Christological lives.

Living Faithfully in Your World:
1st yr: Scott 2nd yr: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Theological Reflection
We shared these passages and explained how our chosen psalms affected us:

• 139 - You know my sitting down and my rising up; you discern my thoughts from afar.
• 122: I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD!”
  Our feet have been standing within your gates, O Jerusalem!
• 2: He said to me “You are my son; today I have begotten you.”
• 143: Let me hear of your loving-kindness in the morning, for I put my trust in you.
• 5: Braggarts cannot stand in your sight....you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness
• [Marilyn’s choice, emailed later] 19: The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork.

Our sharing of Psalms led to a couple of related observations: Psalms can really touch our emotions, and they are like a window into another time.

About windows themselves, we said, Freedom – you can go through, you can escape...Windows let things in – like a breeze, sunshine… Windows allow you to look at danger and yet feel safe --You can observe but not participate... The windows themselves can be part of the vision: stained glass, writing on windows, wavy windows .

Looking for windows in tradition and culture, we said ICONS in the tradition of Orthodoxy are “windows” into reality...Eyes are windows to the soul...Window in Noah’s Ark, Look through a glass darkly – we see only a hint but not so clear, Rahab lowered the spies out of her window to escape from, Cleft in the rock – Moses sees the tail end of God ... Are dreams visions like a window? ... Stained Glass windows in churches add artistic effect, and also alter the light and the perspective.

For Insights and Applications, we heard Even a mirror is a window: you wouldn’t see the reflection otherwise reading... In a mirror you see NOT just yourself, but what’s behind you and around you ...Narrow space can frame and intensify a view (or enlarge – telescope, microscope)... FRAMES (said Christine, the expert!) have symbolism shapes colors – they are a derivation from furniture industry… seen as a part of the artwork – like those triptychs... Nuno added that even the matte board can change the perception...Gilded frame – defines the space. Nuno volunteered to write the collect, as follows:

Collect with WindowsDear Lord Jesus Christ, illuminator of our hearts and minds, we so often desire our own will over your plan for us. We pray that you would be the window through which we see our world and ourselves, leading us all toward repentance and reconciliation. Amen.

For Next Week
See instructions in the blogpost here posted a few minutes after this one. Link Wk 28 Interlude.

Yr. A, Wk. 26: Titus, Timothy, and a Parable of Arrows

Worship and Check-in
We opened with expressions of concern for Christine.

Nuno led us in worship from the Rosary, taking his cue from an upcoming service dedicated by Pope Francis to the cause of bringing peace to Ukraine and Russia. When Scott asked what Nuno thought of repeating the "Hail Mary" three times, Nuno responded that this was less effective than repeating it 50 times! "You want to reach a point where the words disappear," he said.

Because the upcoming papal service involves a prophetic vision that describes the world right now, Nuno asked us, "Where do you look to see what's coming?" Some of us mentioned news sources, but all of those who did said they have pulled back on getting too preoccupied by news. "I avoid what-ifs." "I'm focusing on being kind to others, and to myself." After all these weighty replies, Nuno said he relies on the weather report and the usher schedule.

Discussion of the Readings
Susan started us off from 3rd year with a dark episode from Church history, when Fr. Bartoleme de las Casas decried enslavement of indigenous people of New Spain but then proposed enslavement of hardier Africans instead. Second year readers discussed passages from Paul that slaveowners used to justify themselves, and also many passages where Paul opposes slavery, or ill-treatment of a slave. Nuno pointed out slave-traders are listed by Paul with murderers, fornicators, and the other notorious sinners. Pete noted that Paul was less interested in reforming the prevalent culture than in building the church.

We discussed how Paul's recommendations about women are also more nuanced than they are popularly presumed to be. In one passage, Nuno said, the word "women" is an incomplete translation of "deaconness," and we discussed how Paul also thanks by name some women who were leaders in the church.

Marilyn found personal connections in Paul's letters. “Tune out the godless chatter, fight the urge to be earthly” -- don’t go down that path. We discussed the implications of Paul's word translated as "entrust," as in, “Guard what has been entrusted to you.” These are not qualities you own, but qualities to preserved for the sake of others; to be taken seriously; it’s an honor to be entrusted with something.

Living Faithfully in Your World:
1st yr: Scott 2nd yr: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Christine.

Theological Reflection
The RRG this week taught that study is one way to God. Another way is found in the story of Jacob's wrestling with that being in the night. He responded in wonder, and changed. St. Gregory warned that ideas can create idols; wonder is a surer way to God. So the TR this week comes from the RRG's suggestion that we reflect on an impactful experience during worship -- whether it was wonder or some other emotion that made an impression.

From Marilyn's story of a good experience at church, with buy-in from others, we derived a parable: The word of God is like a slew of arrows that hit different targets at their core. We explored that parable for connections to Scripture, Culture, and our own experiences and beliefs.

We highlighted these pieces of our discussion to be used in a collect: Aim means "intention" in the archer; the target must be receptive, readied. When the arrow hits the target, it may seem like a miracle -- a meaningful coincidence that makes you receptive. Or hitting the target of your heart can be a painful piercing – but healing on the long run. Jesus as target – “by his wounds, we are healed.” You should share your surprising experience with others.

By meaningful coincidence, the reading in Mark assigned for the next day was the parable of the sower, another image for God's word going multiple places and sometimes landing just where it was needed.

Collect for ReceptivityGiver of all good things, by the wounds of your suffering servant, we are healed: give us a spirit of wonder in worship and study, that your word may pierce our own hearts and make us more perfect carriers of your gifts to others. Amen.

For Next Week
Pete volunteered to lead worship. Our TR will derive from this assignment:

Search the Psalms until one strikes you in a new way, positive or negative. We will select the focus for our TR from the psalms we share. You may draw your psalm from one of those assigned in the BCP for this week; you may get help finding a psalm from this Table of Psalms Grouped by Theme such as "God the Creator," "Morning," and "Transitoriness of Life," and several Christian themes. See also Psalms Chart by Book/Dates

Yr. A, Wk. 25: Catechism and Collage

A Collage - Thanks to Zoom

 Worship and Check-in
Marilyn's worship, with "peace" as its theme, was a collage of prayers and meditations from diverse sources -- which dovetailed nicely with the TR. She asked what brings us peace. Our answers included our animals, painting, morning meditation, long bike rides, the sound of water (creek, ocean, rainfall), and just sitting in the car in quiet to prepare for the next thing.

Discussion of the Readings
Marilyn started us with her observation that Thessalonians was a "cook book" of Paul's different flavors: Pleasant memories create longing for more ... To wait is not to be idle... Pay attention to your own work: Be busy, not a busybody!...Tears can flow from happiness and love.

We picked up on the theme of waiting for the end times. Paul had to address concerns of Thessalonians who worried that they wouldn't live to experience it, or that they'd already missed it. Scott volunteered that the monastic movement at the end of the first millennium was to provide believers a community focused on waiting. Not so the Jesuits, said Susan, "soldiers for Christ" who went out into the world. They were effective, but the Counter-Reformation was mostly a story of missed opportunities.

Sedgwick's chapter "Incarnate Love," focused on procreation and family life, made Christine think of unmarried people in our tradition. She observed, "In Luke, Jesus talked about those who didn’t marry or have children … those make themselves more available in hospitality." The monasteries and convents made celibacy a calling. In Yee's book, Scott learned that Jeremiah's "gender non-conformity" is a thing: Jeremiah's father wept that "he is not a son," but a prophet, who never married or had children the way a Jewish man was expected to do. Also, post-exile, there was a softening in understanding men who, because of Persians' punishments, were unable to have children.

Living Faithfully in Your World:
1st yr: Scott 2nd yr: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Theological Reflection
We responded to images called to mind by the catechism. Nuno observed that the order of slides followed a logical progression, though Scott had merely placed the slides in the order that they'd arrived. See also Nuno's slide.

The energy level spiked while Christine explained how choosing the images for her collage of church activities was liberating and made her feel good. Pete also had juxtaposed three photos from different sources that combined to make a meaningful statement without words. "Collage" itself became the subject of our theological reflection. We could all buy in.

In the world of collage-making, sin might be not participating, excluding things that don’t fit a preconceived idea, focusing on one part and missing the whole. Redemption is an openness to finding the connections between things that are distinct.

We found that "collage" is woven throughout our tradition, especially when we noted that a good collage creates something greater than the sum of its parts: Two or three are gathered in my name…. 12 disciples and 12 tribes so different from each other but brought together to create a whole... a collage of languages in Pentecost and the different parts of the body both make images of the Church... Books of the Old Testament, the Catechism, and the Book of Common Prayer itself are all scrapbook collages with pieces new and pieces thousands of years old... one ancient idea of Trinity is that the Spirit emerges from the relationship of Father and Son. The BCP brings together believers all over the world whose prayers unite: "Prayer of God's people upholds the world." Nuno observes that one form of collage dominates our lives now -- the mix of pixels that create digital images.

We collected these insights:

• Greater than the sum of its parts: The dialogue of just two objects – creates a third energy that illuminates both
• This would be equally true of words or metaphors in any text: so collage is itself a metaphor for any kind of creative act – And that would include conversation, literal dialogue
• Once you put it out, it’s no longer yours

Scott proposed that our slide presentation we made from the Catechism is a visual prayer; making a collect would be redundant.

Marilyn concluded with a meditation by Teresa of Avila that made a fitting cap to the evening:

Christ has no body but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which He looks
Compassion on this world...

I think you'll be amused, amazed, and maybe touched by the photos I posted with an article, Collage Education: Vik Muniz and Eric Carle, about an exhibit at the High Museum that Susan and I saw. Also, you might enjoy my blogpost on one of the themes in our reading discussion, Church was Made for Waiting.

For Next Week (Wk. 26)
As per the RRG, everyone think of a story you might share about a strong experience during liturgy or worship, whether it was a positive experience or a negative one. Marilyn will share hers for our TR. Nuno will lead worship.

Catechism Addition

After our meeting last night, Nuno contributed this slide and comment:

Q: How do we recognize the Holy Spirit in our own lives?

A: We recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit when we confess Jesus Christ as Lord and are brought into love and harmony with God, with ourselves, with our neighbors, and all creation.

Nuno's comments: Paul talks about the Spirit coming in power, revealing gifts, callings, wisdom, and truth. Tradition speaks of the seven-fold spirit. My childhood church, some would even teach you weren’t really saved unless the Spirit descended, which was made evident through speaking in tongues, specifically. In my experience you can move a mountain with a shovel, but God healing our broken places, our broken relationships, is a far bigger miracle than any show you can put on.

Yr. A, Wk. 24: Word-and-Deed, Work-and-Life

Worship and Check-in
Christine led worship. (Thanks for including the Benediction! I sang it on my bike the next day. - Scott) She asked us what in nature has made us grateful recently? We answered with shade and cool breezes ... sunrises, sunsets ... moonlight ... spring blossoms ... the interplay of squirrels and birds. We continue to be concerned for Christine and for Nuno's father (surgery March 8).

Discussion of the Readings

The RRG urged us to look at our readings through the lens of this unit's theme of integrating beliefs and behaviors.

Christine relayed Sedgwick’s Anglican perspective on moral life revolving around small parish communities. Neighborhood, prayer, worship, and work all interconnect in his vision. Pete saw another side to that coin in Paul’s assurance to Colossians that the “bells and whistles” of ritual should not substitute for faith.

Eschatology showed up in our different readings. The OT prophets wrote of a rebirth for Israel and ignominious falls for their oppressors – not, however, foreseeing the end of the universe as we know it. Nuno picked up on the idea of “realized eschatology” v. “theology of glory” with benefits of relationship with Christ already a part of our reality – the end times can be experienced in the present. “Our relationships are gifts from God – we don’t own them.”

A related theme is the development of the idea that suffering can be redemptive, not just a punishment for wrongdoing. We found this in OT prophets seeing redemption for the whole world through the suffering of Israel and Paul on our vicarious suffering with Christ. Marilyn saw redemption in the suffering of her friend with dementia – “Where your dreams and memories meet, that’s heaven.”

Living Faithfully in Your World:
1st yr: Scott 2nd yr: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Theological Reflection
While we all had different specifics, we could all buy into Pete's dilemma on a Sunday afternoon: getting the jump on a hard work week ahead, or family time.

Our tradition says a lot on this dilemma: “Render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s”… “Let each day’s worry be sufficient for that day” … Honor the Sabbath and keep it holy … “Getting all the details” reminds us of the temple (and the ark) and temple rituals…. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things will be added to you” “What profit is it if you gain the whole world and lose your immortal soul? (or your family)”

After we shared some insights and positions, along with observations about the subject from our culture, we used "chat" to express hopes and cautions for ourselves:

• To remember that a heavenly promise outweighs earthly ease
• At the end of it all, what will be more meaningful? Work or relationships?
• Keep me/us everminddful of the gift of the relationships we have with our brothers and sisters in Christ
• In both options Pete’s motivations seem to be to serve others. He’s not working more to get more for himself, he’s not spending time with his wife thinking of his own relaxation. He considers both options with a servants heart.
• To remember to remember the importance of honoring love above all else.
• As Nuno said, "work/wife balance". Balance is the key.
• To remember to remember... Doubly remind myself. Lol

For Next Week
We do the readings assigned in the RRG for week 25. Marilyn will lead worship. Our TR will grow from the images we find to show what struck us when we studied the catechism. See explanation and sample.

Catechism Project for Wk. 25

Q: (from the Catechism in the Book of Common Prayer) What is the Old Testament?

A. The Old Testament consists of books written by the people of the Old Covenant, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to show God at work in nature and history.

Please email me your image with the Q and A in time for me to make a Power Point, so that I can share them all at once. - Scott

When I present this to our group on Tuesday, I'll explain that this Q & A strikes me because (1) as a teen evangelist, I was taught that the Old Testament is a mere preparation for Jesus, scarcely important in itself; and (2) the BCP's way of thinking about it gives O.T. a dignity and continuing value of its own, as we believe God is continuing to be "at work in nature and history."

I chose this watercolor by Susan to go with my poem about an experience of nature that had made me feel both the power and love of God. See Season Premiere.