Jose and Maria

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We read the Nativity story re-cast by Miguel De La Torres as a tale of José and Maria. Thanks to Nuno for this ingenious image!

Yr. B, Wk. 15: Hands Across Structural Divides

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(Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.)

Worship and Gathering
Cameras off and mics muted, we followed Marilyn's narrated meditation into our personal Advent, awaiting the rising of a star in the east, traveling into our futures, and coming back to tell our present selves what we learned. Marilyn finished with a poem she wrote.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, Interlude, Reading the Bible from the Margins:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Susan.

Discussion of the Readings
We reviewed the "RESPECT" acronym on the back page of the RRG, knowing that our responses to this week's reading might reveal sensitivities and defensiveness. Marilyn said this group really is good with that "respect" idea, and the discussion, going into overtime, confirmed her view.

We shared how portions in De La Torre's chapters resonated with stories in our own experiences -- as a teacher, a counselor, and a medical professional. Scott shared an experience that opened his eyes to structural racism (see his blogpost The Privilege is Mine. Expressing the same idea through metaphor, he wrote a poem in response to this book, On Track).

We were grateful for a personal story that brought issues into sharp focus. Police, responding to a concerned citizen's tip, never recognized how they were instruments of blatant racism. Officers were both aggressive and fearful. They believed nothing that their target replied to any of their questions. Yet officers left the incident satisfied that they had been fair, reasonable, and professional. "Welcome to Georgia," an officer said.

We looked for what we as individuals can do about the structural oppression that this book has presented to us.

• Don't make assumptions. "All of my worst mistakes have been because I assumed something about someone else." (But engineers have to assume things all the time.)
• Listen. Being aware how oppression can work many different ways is a first step.
• We see the importance now of imagining what Scripture says to people in other "locations" of society.
• Our commitment to Christ is not just personal, but public (De La Torre compares it to wearing a wedding ring)
• Jesus changed one heart at a time, healed one person at a time.
• We understand how images of Jesus can express solidarity with believers of all kinds -- in their ethnicity, gender identity, class.
• We understand how the Euroamerican English-speaking believers' Jesus can alienate people of other ethnicities, gender identities, and classes, who need to see that they are heard and valued where they are.
• Hopeful signs in the news of a change in the attitude "at the center": cities' successes with providing guaranteed income to residents, no strings attached; a breakthrough in preventing homelessness by simply providing a few hundred dollars to repair a car or pay a medical bill, saving thousands of dollars in the long run.

Theological Reflection
Jessica brought us "Shaking Hands," a poem by Padraig O'Tuama commemorating a cordial meeting between women, Ireland's President and England's Queen. Each side had centuries of reasons for resentment and mistrust, and parties on both sides attacked the handshake.

We were struck by the power of similar words juxtaposed in the poem, touch and tough; by the line "solidarity means a common hand"; and by other connections we bring to the poem of "laying on of hands" and how COVID cut us off from contact.

Exploring just the image of hands clasped, we saw how it could be the beginning or the end of a difficult encounter. It's an aspirational gesture. We saw the promise of intimacy and healing in a handshake, even while we acknowledged ways that a handshake can reveal brokenness -- as when our President shakes the hand of an oppressive world leader, or when a handshake becomes an expression of dominance.

We connected the image to our tradition and culture. Two hands together bring to mind prayer. We share the peace. Fr. Vroon's fable of the mean woman in hell and the onion that can save her -- if she draws others out, too. Jesus took the hand of a little girl on her deathbed and raised her up. In physics, two atoms never really touch except to become one -- cf. Xeno's paradox.

Late, we used the chat function to add fitting lines to a prayer. I've thrown in St. Teresa's prayer again, as it relates so strongly to the readings of the past two weeks:

Hands in Prayer Lord, grant us the opportunity to help bridge the gaps and hold more hands, touch more hearts. May we find in extending our hands to each other, that it is your hand taking ours.
  Christ has no body now but yours,
  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

We pray that those with whom we come in contact will see us as living examples of the hands of Christ in this world, reaching out, helping those in need, giving strength to the weak, and being a friend to the lonely.
  Christ has no body now but yours,
  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Holy Spirit, be my hand reaching across the miles to bless my friends in this group. May we all have the opportunity to grasp our loved ones, neighbors, as well as our foes in love and peaceful harmony.
  Christ has no body now but yours,
  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

For Next Meeting, January 10
We're all reading a 12-page essay in the RRG for week 16. Scott will lead worship and bring a gathering question. Susan will provide a source for a TR.

Yr. B, Wk. 14: Reading the Bible from the Margins, first half

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(Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.)

Worship and Gathering
Jessica led a worship service from the Northumbrian community. Because we lit the "joy" candle Sunday, Jessica asked us to share a joy from the past week. Our answers: delighting a relative by helping to spruce up her home... locating a substitute priest just in time for the service... a happy dog in CA ... happy Mom... classes ending... discovering a kindred spirit in a relative we didn't know that well... relief when the trees were removed.

The prayer of St. Teresa that Jessica chose for our benediction could also be a distillation of the interlude book, because both express how Jesus needs more from us than our personal devotion:

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

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, First Interlude: Reading the Bible from the Margins
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr: Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr: Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Kathy.

Discussion of the Reading
We all expressed discomfort with the reading, but Pete said, "Maybe I'm just uncomfortable at the idea of change; I'm okay with being uncomfortable." We seek reassurance in Scripture that we are good people, Scott said, but De La Torre denies us that reassurance when familiar quotes are read to indict people privileged by laws and social norms. He argues that we soften those indictments by reading them "spiritually" instead of "materially." Perhaps De La Torre could have been more diplomatic? Susan proposed rephrasing the messageasked Henry Louis Gates's question, "Can you imagine racism without racists?" We could.

We related to DuBois's idea of "double consciousness." Nuno cited De La Torre's being seen as a man of color in one community and a white man in another. Marilyn observed that art is a way to see ourselves from the outside.

De La Torre's observation about Pentecost opened up a discussion of language in the reading. In the story of Pentecost, Nuno said, "one message reaches people where they are and when they are." Scott was delighted to learn that the Bible in Spanish employs the familiar form of the second-person-pronoun (tu) for exchanges between humanity and the Deity -- demonstrating God's "solidarity" with us and intimacy of the relationship.

The parable of the day laborers had always seemed to me an allegory for faith and forgiveness, but De La Torre's "material" reading (Margins pp.76ff) made (uncomfortable) sense to me. Then I ran across a clever poem that comes to the same conclusion from a secular angle: See Paper, Scissors, Stone by Tom Wayman.

Theological Reflection
We followed the procedures outlined in the RRG, p. 91, working with the provocative word estrangement. We found focus in feelings of being untethered (attenuated), hopelessness. Of the images we came up with that express those feelings, our favorite was a canyon. We explored creation, brokenness, and restoration in that image: feeling of wide open deep gap -- it used to be one piece but it has eroded, and redemption could be a bridge, or Evel Knievel's motorcycle (Snake River Canyon: see pictures), or a flood that fills the gap and creates a new kind of wholeness.

We found connections in scripture and the culture. TRADITION. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain brought low. ...Prodigal son – Jacob and Esau – Joseph and his brothers - Israelites and God, CULTURAL: San Andreas movie starring the Rock – in which a flood reconciles a separated couple. We came up with at least two more Hollywood films with the same story.

Some surprising insights emerged. Each side in a separation is missing something that makes them whole. This describes relationship with God, separated from God. Estrangement is uncomfortable but may in the long run not be a bad thing – it can be liberation. Sometimes you’ve got to let bad times happen, deal with it as you can, and hope for a flood.

Collect in EstrangementDear God, our Divine Restorer, You bind the broken-hearted. We pray that you bridge the divisions within and among us so that we may come together again in wholeness of your image. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen

For Next Week
Marilyn will lead worship and start us with a gathering question; Jessica will bring a source for a TR.

Yr. B, Wk. 13: War in Joshua and the Medieval Church

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(Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.)

Worship and Gathering
We remembered Nuno visiting family in Wisconsin and Pete recovering from dental surgery. Susan led worship from "The Cuthbert Compline," dedicated to a shepherd/bishop of the 6th century. A beautiful meditation by Frederich Buechner was included. Susan let Scott ask the gathering question about the geese flying in vee formation over our state this month: Who has "pulled" for you in the past week? We answered: Students who stimulated the class discussion with good questions, a parishioner who named us on the parish prayer list, the husband who took care of us, a financial advisor who helped us deal with a relative's problems, and an assistant who shepherded the department while we worked full-time on a project.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, Unit 2, Theological Reflection as a Life Skill:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Nuno, Pete.

Discussion of the Readings

We started by thinking of Joshua and Judges. Jessica was delighted to set aside concerns for chronology, as the books were put together over centuries with other interests in mind. The books are telling how disparate groups became one nation – incorporating nomad tribes and peoples already present in the land.

Asking, “What do the Israelites get from Johsua and Judges?” we came up with these answers: Identity, Strength, Heroes… and total obedience. Our God is Greater than their Gods – if we don’t succeed, there’s a reason – God punishment. We also see a sense of corporate responsibility: the family of the soldier who kept booty for himself perished along with him.

We all contributed thoughts about the lack of human reaction to the suffering inflicted in these books, charam – total destruction in obedience to God. The same thing is happening in Year 3 – what MacCulloch calls “sanctified bullying.” It was “kill or be killed”: Fear is a subtext in the books, as, Rahab’s motivation to help the Hebrew spies. Kathy observed that our American history books are similarly silent about human reactions to the evictions of native people here. Scott recalled transcripts of American pilots in Iraq bombing with abandon the “insects” below them: warriors who see their opponents as human may open themselves to feelings of guilt that others don't feel.

Y3 contributed thoughts about St. Benedict’s rules and Gregory the Great. Monasteries took on the job of praying and performing penance on behalf of knights who killed enemies in battle. Monasteries did the work (“liturgy”) of salvation while others engaged in every life. We talked of the “Tarriff Books” that specified the costs (in penance) of different sins.

Having experienced Catholic penance in childhood, Marilyn said, “I can see a bridge between then an now, at last!”

Another thread of conversation concerned the “feminine” side of the Trinity, as “the Spirit” was called by some in ancient sources. Y4 was all about finding historical antecedents to the 21st century emphasis on Trinity as something you experience in deep prayer. Susan had read John’s Gospel, an important source of Trinitarian thinking.

Theological Reflection
We've learned that two mentors and three participants do not bring enough give and take to a TR to make the time productive. We skipped the TR this week. We will re-evaluate that decision if absences happen more frequently.

For Next Week
Scott will bring a source for a TR. Jessica will lead worship and ask a gathering question. (She may also be bringing us a "sending prayer" for our Visitor's Center.)