Yr. D, Wk. 8: Halloween is SO Episcopalian!

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At least half of us were away or not healthy on Monday, so we did not meet.

Tonight is Halloween. I always knew it was short for "All Hallows Evening," somehow related to All Saints Day (when we remember those in the Christian Hall of Fame), but only this week I learned that our Anglican forebears held a vigil in church on the eve of that day followed by food, drink, and a nighttime visit to the graveyard to lay flowers where loved ones were buried.

For Monday of Next Week:
We do the readings assigned in the RRG for Week 9. Hey, remember to read the RRG itself. It has things for your own year, but also things "for all years." Their suggestions and thought-provoking questions can work well!

Scott will lead worship Monday. We will do our first theological reflection using the images and ideas we put forward after each chapter of our spiritual autobiographies. You can use the ← to review earlier posts.

We will also review the class norms from week 2.

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Yr. D, Wk. 7: Faith in a Second Language; No More Fear

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Worship and Gathering
For opening and closing prayers, we all had lines from collects on p. 833-834. Scott forgot to ask the gathering question until after the break: What picture did you take last week, or wish you had taken? We got a photo of a sassy dog... a photo op with one's oldest relative, not taken... too busy to take pictures, but beautiful... photo of flowers to be painted... cat is Dracula... with beloved sisters at Calloway Gardens in an orange cowboy hat with electric lights.

Yr. D, Living Into the Journey with God, Unit 1 Spiritual Autobiography and Listening: 1st yr: Lanie, Daniel; 2nd yr: Donfred, Joyce, Susan; 3rd yr, Jessica; 4th yr, Scott. Mentor: Scott. Absent: Lanie.

Discussion of the Readings
In separate breakout rooms, the boys and girls discussed their readings, asking each other what image or story struck them, and then, what else did they wonder at or about? Then we came together to discuss highlights.

Jessica started us off with an observation about language in the early church. Whether one spoke Greek or Latin was a dividing line. Those early Christians were seen by the civic authorities as uncooperative and exclusive, like some Hippie cult. Jessica wondered about a human tendency towards exclusivity. Donfred reported from Y2 that Hebrew children under the Roman Empire did not speak Hebrew – so their religion was in a foreign language. He himself spoke French in school and read French in the Bible, but in life spoke Creole. The language of faith for him has been a foreign language.

A related theme was what Joyce said about how letters by Paul and others were passed around to the early churches. Scott compared this to the way the Declaration of Independence was read aloud in army camps and town squares. Daniel was struck by that, and by how early Christians just listened. His own experience (and Susan agreed) is stronger when he listens without reading.

Daniel commented on Exodus up to chapter 15. Daniel sees the story as like a fish tale – every retelling new elements. Doesn’t matter if it’s all factual – but the truth is in the way if affected you. As Daniel said, after Collins, these stories unified a disparate group of hapiru (“wanderers” and also origin, maybe, of “Hebrew”) in the desert and in the Promised Land who joined together as a people of twelve “tribes.”

[Smoot has “crossed the Red Sea” on his bike tour, as well as visiting Jerusalem and the ancient ruins of Petra in Jordan. See photos and read how each location touches his life at The Red Sea, Pedaling through Petra, and Jerusalem on My Mind]

Joyce gave us a strong image: “Hands on.” Early Christians believed in the Hebrew scriptures and what God was doing in their lives through Jesus Christ. They felt the difference between touching a sacrificial animal to atone versus touching our hearts. New Testament at one time was called the new Covenant.

Scott on his bike tour reaches the Red Sea

Daniel by chance was again our winner. He got one of the world's most expensive leaf blowers. Have fun annoying your neighbors and disrupting butterfly reproduction cycles!

Theological Reflection
We heard Lanie's pre-recorded story, then shared our own stories of "conversion" with each other. While the content of these stories will be omitted here, we offered these images/ideas as common threads that came out in several stories:

• not afraid (i.e., to die, to fail)
• "wake up"
• more than knowledge: commitment
• generosity of spirit
• the tides metaphor: conversion is never settled, there's always ebb and flow

For Monday:
We are skipping over the reading for week 8 and going straight to week 9.
Scott will do worship once again (his special Halloween worship, adapted for Zoom!)
Daniel will be away, so let's remember to record the TR for him.

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Yr. D, Wk. 6: Jews, Romans, and Jacob

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Worship and Gathering
Daniel built the entire worship on Psalm 141 ("let not my heart incline to any evil thing") with Pope Benedict's meditation on the prayer, "Lead us not into temptation."

And what are we looking forward to in Fall's cool weather? Big comfy sweaters... pretty colors of leaves... paying less for air conditioning... sitting outside by the firepit... wearing 60s spy fashion (i.e., tight turtlenecks in dark colors).

Yr. D, Living Into the Journey with God, Unit 1 Spiritual Autobiography and Listening: 1st yr: Lanie, Daniel; 2nd yr: Donfred, Joyce, Susan; 3rd yr, Jessica; 4th yr, Scott. Mentor: Scott. Absent: Lanie, Donfred.

Discussion of the Readings
We tried something new this time: discussions were in breakout rooms, Jessica with Daniel, Susan with Joyce, 20 minutes to ask each other what stories or scenes struck them, and what they related to? Then we met as a group and shared highlights.

Jessica started us off: Gospels that aren’t in our Bible today (Mary M, Gospel of Thomas) and the Gnostics – how these books cover so many contradictions – Jessica used her term “evolution” to describe Paul. If we’d kept those other gospels, would we have the church we have today? Susan reports about those other writings that the church councils cut things that were not consistent with the overall picture of the Gospels. Daniel sees parallel to Y1 readings about all the various editors and writers of the writings. How those formed early beliefs and rites.

Daniel responded to two similar stories strongly - First, Jacob wrestling with God. Struck that it’s so not supernatural … made Daniel think about wrestling with his brother. Daniel could identify – there’s God, but there’s all these other human encounters. Second, he loved Sarah’s laughing – then denying it. Encounters with God that are also mundane, encountering God. He quotes Jessica: “It makes it easier to find parallels in our own lives.” Easier to connect to those kinds of stories than to some of the miraculous stories in New Testament.

(BTW - Scott wrote a poem about Jacob's ladder that foreshadows his inner struggle the night before he faced Esau again. If you're interested, see Angels Never Know.)

Joyce and Susan discussed philosophical ideas that filtered into the lands controlled by Romans. Gnostic tradition had some credibility that ran up against Jewish traditions. Resonated with 2nd 3rd 4th century Christians. Appealed as a sense of secret knowledge, and idea of material world as evil. Daniel compared to the Greek myths. Greeks with their philosophy had the stories, too. Joyce – differences between how rich and poor were treated in Roman world. Roman: A woman had to wait for a man to acknowledge her (think of Queen Esther). A man who didn’t pay his debts they took the man’s wife and children to pay the debts. But still there was tenderness and affection. That’s lacking today! Joyce identified: example of how she faced down a driver's road rage the other day!

Susan chose the secret square and won giant gates for her driveway, in honor of Yom Kippur, the closing of the gates to the temple and to the sins of the past year. There were only four squares, not shared on the screen. Speakers simply asked to "go with" another comment. Scott didn't know the winner until the break. This seemed to be a good way to get a lot more talking to each other, and everyone got to see each others' faces during the discussion -- more interesting than Scott's typing!

Theological Reflection
We heard Lanie's story, pre-recorded. Scott was so swept up in that story and the transition to Joyce's that he forgot to record the session until both Joyce and Daniel had finished.

Scott also forgot the question he has asked each time: what theme or image ties this week's stories together? Writing this blog post, he suggests a couple of patterns, at least. Experiences that were painful, scary, or just annoying prepared us to respond to needs of community. Being drawn into community had the effect of expanding our faith to encompass more people, more possibilities.

For Monday:
Scott does worship and a gathering question. This week we all read week 7. Heads up: the next week, we will skip the material for wk 9 and go straight to week 10. We prepare our fourth and final Spiritual Autobiography chapter, this time with religious conversion.

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Yr. D, Wk. 5: Genesis and Leaps of Faith

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Worship and Gathering
Susan brought us worship for the evening from the Northumbrian community, full of images from nighttime: angels, dreams, sleep, and spirit. The gathering question was, what's your super power? The EfM Universe includes Speed Reader! The Soothing Soprano! Cat Lady! (but she likes dogs, too), the Connector! Multiple Man! and The Aura!

Yr. D, Living Into the Journey with God, Unit 1 Spiritual Autobiography and Listening: 1st yr: Lanie, Daniel; 2nd yr: Donfred, Joyce, Susan; 3rd yr, Jessica; 4th yr, Scott. Mentor: Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings
Daniel was bothered by Collins’s comment that the talking serpent in Genesis 2 is a sure sign that we are in the world of a fable. Daniel read that as Collins condescending to all those who have read this story literally. Susan said that reading the Bible as an academic is different from reading it for spiritual edification.

Scott recalled a professor who was also a preacher: “Today, I’m using literary criticism to identify sources and make comparisons; but Sunday I’ll tell you how to live by it.” After the break, Scott gave an example how literary criticism can enhance our spiritual reading of Scripture. Contrasting two creation stories, very different in language, style, and content, too, we appreciate the cosmic theology of one, while the other emphasizes the human behavior and Scott's favorite detail: God makes them warm clothing from animal skins before he sends them out of Eden. (See image by Gustav Doré)

Both Susan and Scott feel it’s important to understand a difference between the popular meanings of “criticism,” “fable,” and “myth” and what scholars mean by those words. Literary criticism of passages isn’t finding flaws but only drawing distinctions between poems, historical record, and narratives intended to teach spiritual truths (as Lanie pointed out how the priests who wrote Genesis 1 emphasized that Creation is VERY GOOD and organized it in seven days to elevate the Sabbath. For scholars, “myth” isn’t a false story but one whose truth happens again and again. Here’s a link to the essay from an earlier EfM textbook that Susan and I found helpful during our own first year studies.

We had several Ah-HA moments:

• Jessica in reading “The Crucified Messiah” thought how unlikely that we are all sitting here 2000 years talking about Jesus Christ! If that humiliating death had been the end of the story… it would be obscure today. She also was amazed to learn about politics in the Roman Empire: the split of Jewish Christians from the Jewish faith because of attacks from the Roman Empire – (“Christian” was a political designation that exempted you from taxation!)
• Donfred noticed how Paul, popularly assumed to look down on women, actually thanks women for their leadership and material contributions to the growing church, as we see in some of his letters and in Acts.
• Lanie realized that she hadn’t really thought much about Genesis since she learned the stories in childhood. Now she wonders where Adam and Eve’s sons found their wives, for example, and what to take from all those genealogies. She wondered whom God was speaking to when he said “Let us create them in our own image.” Overall, she found chapters 1-11 in Genesis to be a series of disappointments for God that followed the VERY good Creation.
• Daniel, relating to what Lanie said, noted the shift of focus from God’s actions to what people are doing independent of God…. Then God floods the world and tries again.
• Joyce wondered about a passage that questions did Jesus WANT to die, or was he FORCED to? Joyce – asked to take human form because the Law couldn’t save us. If we still have injustice – then he’s looking to us as his hands and feet to take care. P. 168
• Susan's comment relates to Joyce's. Levine pokes holes in the oversimplified view that Judaism was legalistic before Jesus came along.

Daniel found the secret square. He won a trip to Chicago's Shedd Aquarium on the 8th (that's OCTO) of OCTO-ber to swim with an OCTO-pus. We hear they're friendly, intelligent, curious creatures. We look forward to hearing how that went.

Theological Reflection
The prompt this week was to tell of an intellectual conversion. While we won't put any chapters from our lives in this space, we did identify common themes: starting over, a leap of faith; and maybe a lesson, too, "think before you act." (In a few of the stories, great good came from NOT thinking, but deciding on impulse.)

For Monday
Daniel brings us worship and a gathering question. We're all reading what the RRG has for Week Six, and preparing the next chapter in our Spiritual Autobiographies, "Political" conversion (in the sense of "community," whether converting to one or away.)

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Yr. D, Wk. 4: Seeing Hebrew Scriptures again for the first time

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Worship and Gathering

Because we knew that Daniel would be a little late, Joyce started us off with a gathering question about what we like to do in our leisure time. We variously like to watch John Wayne movies, listen to music, watch sports ("Which ones?" "All of them."), and ride a bike. [Photo: Scott made a virtual bike trek to Monument Valley where the Duke filmed The Searchers. Scott has ridden about 14,000 miles since then, his virtual tour taking him now to the Holy Land, where he's cycling over the Red Sea on dry land.]

Joyce brought us a song, “I Trust in God” by Aware Worship. Except for Scott, we spoke the words. Her closing prayer was by Charles Stanley, and participants asked for the text. Here it is:

Lord, I don’t want to feel guarded, my heart closed off to Your love, Your Spirit, Your gifts. Instead, let me be open, my face turned toward Yours, my ears tuned to Your voice, my feet set in Your direction. Align my soul to better receive Your wisdom and follow where it leads– so that I may see Your beauty where it multiplies, Your grace where it flows. Amen

Yr. D, Living Into the Journey with God, Unit 1 Spiritual Autobiography and Listening: 1st yr: Lanie, Daniel; 2nd yr: Donfred, Joyce, Susan; 3rd yr, Jessica; 4th yr, Scott. Mentor: Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings
A.I. summarized our discussion of the readings:

1. Topics included
   • The difference between anti-Semitism and being anti-Jewish
   • The complexity of Jewish history and its relationship to Christianity
   • The difference between Jews and Hebrews
   • The structure of Levine's writing (simple beginning and end, complex middle)
   • The importance of asking difficult questions to foster understanding
2. Some participants expressed feeling overwhelmed by the density of the text.
3. The discussion is ongoing, with the facilitator (Scott) encouraging more participants to share their thoughts and questions.

What AI missed is some unease about the introduction to Yee's book. Lanie said she'd never thought of the Bible as male dominated, but has always accepted the Word of God. She wondered what's gained by looking at Scripture from a feminist perspective. Daniel identifies. "In trying to bring a different perspective, sometimes it feels like you’re doing what you’re criticizing." He added, "When you set out with a goal, you see only what you wanted to see." Susan said that Yee’s point is that other people were not in the room (in the presence of the story). Compare to the way we were taught History. Scott told how his 4th grade self became interested in teaching when a man joined the elementary school faculty -- comparing to a positive result when women are enabled to see more of themselves in scripture.

Jessica had some good things to say from reading the 1000 year backstory of Israel in Y3. “I wish I’d been forced to read this chapter back in Y1!!!” (Sharing that with Y1s will be your mission this year, Jessica! - Scott) She also had an Ah-HA! What we call the Apocrypha are not recognized in most Protestant churches. “I did not know that they are immensely meaningful to Judaism.” Christians should not dissociate with the word of God that Jesus knew. Jessica's comment relates to Levine's book about other things we Christians skim over.

Later in the week, Scott thought of another positive side to Yee's book: Unaware of how (and why) scriptures represent only the perspective of males, men and boys assume that they are in some way more like God. "Everyone knows God is a boy," said one seventh grade boy, irate over a poet who used the pronoun "She" for God. In the same way that women are absent from Scripture, Black men were absent from Scott's childhood, a lack that biases him even now, as he explores in poem "Behind Prejudice."

Theological Reflection
We practiced listening as each participant told a story of affective conversion.

We practiced one skill of theological reflection by looking for a memorable phrase or image to help us recall what we heard, each suggestion building on the one(s) before: transition... loss and restoration... loss and beginning to live.

After this first go-around, we also reflected on why EfM requires us to tell spiritual autobiographies every year. The stories...

• help us understand each other so we know where comments or interpretations are coming from
• make us stronger as a group and strengthens our self-confidence
• help us to appreciate how various perspectives go into the writings that we will read ("stories are window and mirror")
• build trust
• develop mindset: when we dig deeply into our own past, we build a base to work from

For Monday:
Susan leads worship. We do the readings for week 5 and we do not neglect to read what the RRG says to our year and to all years. We are preparing a story of "intellectual conversion" from the past 10-15 years. Additional instructions are in the RRG, p. 32-33.

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