Yr. D, Wk. 30: Vocation and the All-Night Store

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At 4am Tuesday, I was thinking about us and our happy memories of pre-dawn car trips to all-night establishments like convenience stores, Waffle House, and Krispy Kreme. Our TR took off from Christian Wiman's popular poem "I Don't Want to be a Spice Store." He wanted to be like a convenience store, always open, offering the necessities, receptive.

We all shared memories of the sounds, smells, and feelings of stepping into and out of such establishments. All that fluorescent light, all that activity, and the contrast when we stepped outside, with stars and the moon, sounds of birds and insects, and all the things we DON'T hear at that hour -- like leaf-blowers and traffic. Early though it may be, Daniel said, there's a special energy in gathering at such a place at such a time.

Photo of the original Waffle House, opened in Avondale, GA 1955. It's now a museum. Scott passes it during his usual Saturday bike ride.

We had imagined CREATION: the world of the 4am store is bright, maybe humming, and comforting. SIN was the intrusion of noisy teenagers, but we saw how it's also their perception of dour old people disapproving of them. When Lanie said REDEMPTION might be buying breakfast for a teenager, Scott remembered doing exactly that for a high school senior who had been a difficult 8th grader. The young man was alone at a Waffle House following a midnight mass -- his family had broken up, and only he had attended. The young man hadn't noticed that Waffle House (back then) did not accept credit cards.

During our TR discussion, the most surprising thing to me was the association of this shared early-morning experience with Jesus calling in the pre-dawn darkness to his friends, "Come eat breakfast." Every Eucharist is this.

Update: Daniel and I participated in an evening prayer service at which we recited the Third Song of Isaiah: "[Jerusalem's] doors will always be open, day or night they will never be shut... nations will stream to your light... you will not need the sun by day or the moon by night..."

We thought about maybe taking an EfM road trip to a Waffle House in South Carolina some morning soon, around 2am

Worship and Gathering
Daniel had collected prayers and blessings relating to the theme of this last unit, vocation. He said later that he wanted to emphasize the idea that vocation can be comprised of personal gifts.

Yr. D, Living Into the Journey with God, Unit 5 Vocation: 1st yr: Lanie, Daniel; 2nd yr: Donfred, Joyce, Susan; 3rd yr, Jessica; 4th yr, Scott. Mentor: Scott. Absent: Jessica, Donfred.

First, we looked back on Charleston's vision quest book. Daniel had been skeptical but ended up appreciating the different perspective. He saw how Charleston had needed to integrate his identity as Native American with his identity as Christian. Daniel, for himself, has not felt that need. Before reading Charleston, with his emphasis on the Messiah in community, Lanie had not appreciated how alone Jesus is at the end. The emotion hit her hard when she was reading the part of Jesus at the service Good Friday.

About vocation, we explored Daniel's idea about vocation as gifts or talents, like a talent for recognizing what someone else needs. These gifts stand apart from the training and proper roles that our church emphasizes. Susan pointed out that the person Daniel had cited as his example also has a long background in the church with a lot of training: "there's a structure" to the vocation, she said, and Daniel understood.

Joyce identified with the author's phrase "a vocation to love," and said that she prefers to stay in the background. Lanie, too: "I'm not Diana Ross, I'm a Supreme."

Scott appreciated the paragraph about Job's friends. They gave Job packaged answers at a time when their vocation was simply to listen and join him in questioning his condition. That's a wise approach to remember in similar situations.

Scott and Joyce both appreciated the idea that "beauty" is itself a "call" (two words related in Greek), and Simone Weil's "four loves" that draw us: nature, art, sacrament, and friendship.

For Monday:
We're doing the readings for week 31. Scott recommended that we all look carefully at the RRG's assignments, or we may read more than we have to and get bogged down. Susan reminded me to assign Worship and a TR, but I didn't listen. So I'll be contacting a couple of you to arrange for those.

LOOKING AHEAD TO NEXT YEAR: EfM New Products gives us a peek at the books and VIDEOS we'll have, all different except for Powell in 2nd year. Also, we learn that the four-year program is now "EfM Classic," with new options for one-year and six-week programs. More detail, better explanation at Episcopal News Service

Also, we have a new rector at St. James who wrote for Forward Day by Day back in 2020. Back then, I responded to her insights with particular enthusiasm. Joyce and Donfred, you'll especially appreciate what she says about James, since you're reading James this week. In our TR this week, we were all thinking of food, and so does she, often. Here's a link to the article: Comfort Food in Forward DxD Nov. 20 - Jan. 21.

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Monday of Holy Week

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Dear friends,

Holy Week came late in my first year at an Episcopal Church. Until I had experienced a service for each night of Jesus's last week of earthly life, I didn't "get" the power of our prayer book's seasons and cycles of readings. The liturgy makes us participants in the story, not hearers only.

To give us all the time to attend Holy Week services tonight, we're taking this evening off. I hope that you can join in Holy Week services tonight and all week.

When we meet on Monday April 21st, please bring your VISION QUEST book with you, along with responses and questions. We'd like to hear from those who missed the discussions, and at least a couple of us feel we have more to say about Charleston's approach to Scripture.

-Blessings, Scott

PS - Have you been aware of what the Forward Movement offers? Go to ForwardMovement.org to have the daily scriptures read aloud to you (I listen while I'm walking Brandy), to find daily meditations on the scriptures, and, during Lent, to read up about the saints and vote for the ones you like in friendly "Lent Madness" competition. (In the screenshot below, I believe that's St. Philip between MJ and Kobe)

Yr. D, Wk. 29: Native Messiah Dies for Our Blessing

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Worship and Gathering
We dove into discussion of Charleston's book even before we'd all arrived. Lanie brought a Choctaw necklace and Seminole doll for show and tell, prized objects. Susan's worship was a prayer by Charleston, and her closing was Charleston's admission that he frequently laughs when he prays. (see the end of this posting)

Susan asked what made us laugh this past week? Well, we had squishy mammogram anecdote, two dogs clowning around, and a specialty shop in NYC that was floor-to-ceiling sardines (canned, of course).

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

Discussion of the Readings
This week, we found in Charleston much more that we could buy into. Jessica liked thinking of John the Baptist as a "clown," sort of the bad cop to Jesus's good cop. Joyce agreed, and she told us of a TV series that comported well with Charleston's descriptions, including a clown figure who, as Charleston said, goes opposite to what's expected. (On the TV show, he rides a horse backwards.)

Lanie raised up the story of the Hopi Indians and how they stood to their principles no matter what. Their discovery of the interconnectedness of all things, and their conviction that they themselves were responsible for preserving that interconnectedness, were worth suffering and dying for. Scott and Susan each shared about rituals of the Aztecs and the Mayans, who believed that one misstep in the ritual dance could jeopardize the balance of the world.

Jessica and Scott both felt that the book came together for them in the part that Charleston called "The Garden" (i.e., Gethsemane) where "The Native Messiah," abandoned by his sleepy apostles, accepts that it's "a good day to die." This relates to those Hopis, and to the "Sun Dance." (Joyce saw that, too, on that TV series. She had to look away.) Scott appreciated Charleston's spin on one of the ways that Christians have explained the Cross -- as God's punishment of Jesus for the sins of Adam and Eve's descendants (a view long challenged by theologians -- see Charleston, p. 137). For Charleston, the "Native Messiah" died, not for a punishment, but for a blessing. Jesus at Gethsemane lamented the violence we did (and do), yet accepted death and came back to us, still loving: that's "good medicine" for the world.

We acknowledged the injustices inflicted upon Native Nations. We had not realized how the carvings on Mt. Rushmore insult tribes for whom the Black Hills are sacred. Scott recalled a document that he used to teach the Trail of Tears to middle school students. In an official report, an army officer tries to believe that he is doing a good thing as he describes the suffering of the people he forcibly marched hundreds of miles away from their homes. He justifies the action by saying "everyone knows" how hateful and violent the natives are, but then he admits that he saw little hatred from them. All the violence and hatred he observes is from the whites who attack the line.

How do we relate what we see in Charleston's descriptions of Native American faith to our own? Joyce: Their faith is what kept them going, same as us. Lanie: Those so-called Christians who attacked the Native American communities didn't have a grasp of what Jesus went through. Susan: Charleston's reinterpretation of Christianity through Native American eyes makes the message of Christianity universal in a way that Europeans' traditional expressions do not.

Another theme that we discussed was the importance of community to the Native American nations. The vision quest idea is about individuality within the context of community, very different from "individualism" in the tradition of Andrew Jackson.

No TR this week -- with Jessica leaving early to rest up for a demanding early morning event, we didn't have a quorum. But we did have this from Steven Charleston, thanks to Susan:

Sometimes I laugh when I pray. I hope you do too.

So often prayer is such a serious business
With so many deep needs and heartfelt petitions
But there are those moments, those rare and happy times
When the thanksgivings start to flow
Like a mountain stream rushing over rocks
Life running through sunlight.

And I cannot help but smile
Smile at the beauty of it all, smile at grace so abundant.
May the Spirit give you reason to laugh today.
May your prayers turn to delight.
May your thanks be said with a smile.
May your life run through sunlight
Prayer and laughter the same.

Joyce read this with evident delight!

We get April 14 off for Holy Monday services. Stay tuned: we may also take off April 21, as Scott is involved with another movie, lah-di-dah.

When we do return, we will be discussing RRG p. 166ff., "Discerning Vocation." One of its intriguing ideas is that "beauty" is a "call" as much as the voice of angels.

Daniel is up next on the "wheel of worship." Scott will save his TR for then.

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Yr. D, Wk. 28: Visions and other Peak Experiences

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Worship and Gathering
Donfred led worship, assigning each of us a prayer with a different focus -- gratitude, fasting, forgiveness, peace, patience, wisdom. These are things we all struggle with!

Donfred's gathering question got multiple responses from several of us: "What's something you used to do for fun, and now you can't?" As sometimes happens, each idea reminded others of something in their own lives. Play soccer... jump for hours with an ankle toy called "Skip it"... wander around in home and neighborhood... climb trees... lie around reading... jump off the swing at its highest point.

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

Discussion of the Readings
Scott posed a gathering question to open our minds to the notion of a "vision quest" : Have you ever had a vision, awake or dreaming, that seemed to be telling you something you needed to hear? Again, we started slow, but answers snowballed as we heard each other. We also saw how these visions/dreams came from thoughts and feelings that had been percolating in the backgrounds of our lives.

We also wondered why EfM chose to have us read this book? What is the purpose of viewing Christ's story through the lens of another culture? Jessica: there's beauty in the marriage of his two backgrounds. Lanie: hard to accept that Jesus would need a quest to tell him who he was. Susan: impressive analysis of true "vision quest" vs. the commercialized V.Q. appropriated by popular culture. Daniel: Mysticism, whether in Native American experience or Medieval Christianity, "is not my thing."

Still, we did come up with a list of reasons to give this book a chance.

• Perspective on how other cultures see OUR faith
• Parallels between ancient tribes of Israel and ancient tribes of America; parallels between oppression of Jews by Rome and of Natives by the US
• Reassurance for those of us who DO hear voices / have visions
• concept that both Hebrew and Native "covenants" stand in similar relationship to the Christian testament
• connection to reconciliation of races after centuries of strife (in relation to our first interlude book)

Next week, we will have read Charleston's chapters about Jesus. We will see what he finds in scripture to support his idea that Jesus, too, had things to discover about himself.

Theological Reflection
Lanie brought a photo she took of her grown son and his best friend about eight years before her son passed. The photo had popped up on Facebook recently. We remarked elements of the photo: the young man's pointing to the sky, the steepness of the drop in the dirt path ahead, the distant view where we can see the clearing of trees where the same dirt path continues over the horizon.

But the greatest energy arose in the picture's context. Jessica said that what stood out to her wasn't the picture but the memory of the feeling. Lanie, riding in the back seat of an open-air Jeep with "the boys" in front had been giggling all day. They had no way of knowing that this was a peak experience, that a series of painful ordeals and losses lay just ahead in their lives.

Lanie expressed thoughts and feelings that were in her head at the time, summed up as, "All three of us were carefree for that moment." She opened up the rest of us to recall times in our lives when we felt that way. Joyce remembered when Gene surprised her with a visit to Biltmore after 18 years of hearing her say that she wanted to see it; Donfred remembered a couple of weeks after 9/11 how he and his brother got away from NYC for a carefree visit to Canada.

(Note: These anecdotes come from the action source of our lives, as distinct form tradition, culture and position.)

We asked theological perspective questions. The world of "the peak experience" is created with beauty, as the inspiration from nature clears the mind. Joyce remarked on the closeness of God who, knowing what's ahead, gives us the gift of this one special day.

Sin or brokenness in this world would be to take it for granted, to not be thankful, to not see God in it. Another response would be to try to take control of it -- that is, to inhibit the experience because of shyness, or propriety, or concerns about expense or time wasted.

Judgment or awareness of sin would manifest in fear -- "We're going to get pulled over!" or "We might get hurt!"

Redemption or reconciliation is in the preciousness of this memory, in reflecting on it as we are doing right now, and in resolving to embrace such moments when they come to us again.

Where in our tradition do we see a moment like this? To this day, we remember (and re-enact) a peak moment of intimacy and friendship with Jesus when his disciples did not understand that it was to be their last supper with him. Moses was literally on a mountain in his encounter with God, unaware that below, trouble was brewing and the gold for an idol was boiling. The gospels were written by the glow of memory that recaptures the promise of Jesus's time on earth, always with the shadow of his death, and the glory of resurrection.

We offered a couple of cultural icons: a photo of Princess Diana touring Disneyland with her two boys, and the Titanic. doubly famous for sinking when it was thought to be unsinkable, in 1912, just two years before the Great War. "In the summer of 1914," Churchill remembered, "we thought that war could never come. By Christmas, we couldn't imagine how war would ever end."

Insights? Sometimes it's what happens after an event that gives it significance and beauty. An example was Pearl Harbor, a lovely and comfortable place to be before the attack.

Daniel offered a collect for the day's honoree, John Donne. Scott voluntold Daniel to write a collect, because "you're a boy, and you know about hiking to high places." Here it is:

Collect after the Mountaintop

Almighty Father, You stand with us at the mountaintop, protecting our joy and watching for the valleys up ahead. Guide us beyond our brokenness to these moments you have prepared for us, without fear or hesitation of the path taken to the summit. And when we have descended from the mountain, preserve in us the memory of bliss in your presence. Protect us as we walk the wearying way of lonely trails until we scale the mountain into your arms once again. All these things we ask in the name of our Great Shepherd on the Trail, your Son Jesus. Amen

For Monday:
We complete the reading of Charleston's book. ALSO read the RRG, pp. 162-164 -- we will discuss the questions the RRG asks of us. Susan leads worship, Scott brings a source for the TR.

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