Journey with God, Wk. 21: Cooking and Community [BLOGPOST #400!]

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Worship and Gathering
Susan chose p. 139 ("Early Evening") for worship. The "recipe" for evening prayer leaves room for improvisation, which Joyce readily filled with prayer for Kaye in her absence and prayers of thanksgiving for improved health and our time together.

For GQ, Scott cited Kidd and her many references to Brother Lawrence, who cooked for a medieval monastery. The Brother found closeness to God in the work of his hands. What work of your hands brings you closer to God, or at least, to joy? Needle work, especially knitting for others... memories of hard work with brother and father to put up fences around a rural property... singing... serving at church (coffee, verging, altar guild)... washing and putting away dishes... petting the cat... bread-making... cooking. (This came up again, later.)

Yr. D, 1st yr: Michael, Mason; 2nd yr: Lanie; 3rd yr: Joyce, Susan; 4th yr, Jessica, Rita; 5th yr "Wide Angle," Kaye. Mentor: Scott. Absent: Kaye.

Respond
In breakout rooms, years 1&2, 3&4 gathered topics that had excited their interest or curiosity.

Isaiah's prophecy about the virgin who will bear a king isn't so straightforward as we may have thought. Discussion ensued. Scott came back later to make the point that the Virgin Birth of Jesus was not evidently of importance to Paul or the author of Acts, but it has been a creative force for 2000+ years, a moving way to understand how God's dream for humankind was fully realized in Jesus. Michael said something that covers other scriptures, too: "Isaiah's words mean more than Isaiah himself thought."

We discussed how "prophet" is not the same as "astrologer" or "prognosticator," but more like a truth teller, calling people back to the good ways. Any prophets today? It was uncomfortable to think that way of some who accuse our church of "backsliding." Michael pointed out that any group out of power calls people "back" to the other side. We remembered that the prophets in our Bible were often opposed to professional prophets whom the king paid to tell him what he wanted to hear.

Paul seems "jealous" of the "super-apostles" who appealed so much to the Corinthians. The culture honored ideals that Paul didn't measure up to -- to be beautiful, rich, smooth-talking.

Rita opened up a big discussion of those who say they're spiritual but not religious (and some who say they're religious without being spiritual). What do people seem to mean by "spiritual" these days? "In tune with nature... cosmic... rocks and crystals... seeking individual growth... rejecting institutions."

Joyce was interested in Romanticism as a reaction to rationalism. The more we spoke, the more we saw that the difference is not so great between one and the other. (Susan quoted William James: "There's more than one way to the same destination." Jessica is interested in Wm James!)

Reflect
After the break, we looked back over what we had discussed, and discovered a connection between the "spiritual individual / community" dichotomy and the joy of cooking! While cooking can be an individual's work, that work is fulfilled in sharing.

"Creative energy" in cooking is found in adjusting the recipe to taste and to the availability of ingredients... choosing the recipe in the first place... cooking for guests. Lanie reminded us of Kidd's reference to "Stone Soup," a great story for a community creating something greater than the sum of its ingredients. We all could remember kitchens where the children and other relatives were involved in the cooking. "Many hands make light work," Mason reminded us.

Brokenness comes from too much or too little of an ingredient, or some weird performative "community" such as some friends who tried to re-create the scene from The Big Chill of friends dancing around the kitchen as they cooked. "That's really a self-centered individual pretending to be community."

How can we act to "reorient" such a negative situation? Wine! Send 'em out for more ingredients.

Connecting? Position: Too many cooks spoil the soup... If you can't stand the heat.... Tradition Last supper... "Let us break bread together on our knees"... Mary and Martha... "Even the dogs get to eat the crumbs under the table"... Resurrected Jesus eats fish (beach, upper room)... Wedding at Cana, parable of the wedding feast. Culture? The Big Night, Practical Magic, Ratatouille.

Scott's note to Self for another time: I wish we had interrogated one of those scripture passages more, to put in dialogue with the kitchens depicted in our culture.

This TR started with the insight that spirituality/religion is incomplete if it's just for the individual. Other insights? Just because there's a recipe doesn't mean that the cooking is rote, stale, self-centered -- and this applies to liturgy from a book, too. (See our worship: a mix of prayers written out and prayer that Joyce improvised).

Our final prayer ended with the hope that we could find God and community in the breaking of bread. "Y'all go forth and eat!" said Susan.

For Monday:
We're responding to materials for week 22. I saw videos and some recorded music, too. Remember to read the Bible before you read the commentary! We're also progressing 20 pages a week in Kidd. Scott does worship for next week; Michael will bring "kindling" for a TR.

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Journey with God, Wk. 19 & 20: Risking Hospitality

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Worship and Gathering
We thought about friends absent because of illness or work demands. Another friend had warned us he'd be late, so we did the Gathering Question first, about plans for this series of holidays (Valentine's, Presidents' Day, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday). This morphed into memories of Mardi Gras and New Orleans, some good, some disturbing.

In choosing worship for us, Kaye picked up a theme from our recent readings, that the Anglican Church changed in the 1830s when the "Oxford Movement" opened believers to an appreciation for their heritage from the Middle Ages. They put the hyphen in Anglo - Catholic. So we read prayers from the website of Pope Leo XIV. "Our heart is restless -- only Your word can give it peace and fullness... May Your Word never be absent from our lips and hearts."

Two hours later, Kaye led us through a practice of deep breathing with a passage from 1 John 4:16: "Abide..." (breathe in) "in God's love" (breathe out). After about six of those, everything seemed right! (I practiced this again when I woke Tuesday at 3am).

Yr. D, 1st yr: Michael, Mason; 2nd yr: Lanie; 3rd yr: Joyce, Susan; 4th yr, Jessica, Rita; 5th yr "Wide Angle," Kaye. Mentor: Scott. Absent: Michael, Jessica, Lanie.

Respond

In "chat" we each wrote a sentence about whatever drew the most energy from us as we engaged with materials this week. Everyone was invited to respond.

• Susan: The Enlightenment video was funny in places but wish they had talked about less of Rousseau. (Comments: The experts summarized the popular view of the Enlightenment: "Guys in white wigs proclaiming that reason and rationality would now rule, and then they invented the guillotine." Then they opened the era up to more nuanced appreciation.)
• Kaye: In the essay, the quote from T Merton: we do not live more fully by doing more, seeing more, tasting more, and experiencing more..... On the contrary, some of us need to discover that we will not begin to live more fully until we have the courage to do and see and taste and experience much less..... That hit home this week after travels.
• Joyce: In the essay she mentioned how words from songs and or poems can bring back memories. (We shared examples. We especially enjoyed Joyce's memories of a memorial service for a youth group leader where a diverse congregation sang, and her parents' singing with records, heard through open doors and windows of the kitchen. They were "cooking," Joyce said.)
• Rita: For me, thinking about Sheldrake's summary of the 5 types of spirituality. Are they really "types" of spirituality OR five "expressions" of a singular concept? I also learned what a "novice" sister is. :)
• Kaye: Ezra Klein podcast about Attention was interesting.
• Mason: I have been thinking this week about the inclusion of the Song of Songs in the biblical canon, various theories were advanced in the material and it’s been interesting to me to ponder on that “mystery”. (Pressed for more, Mason said that these songs have been viewed as allegories for the love of God for us, but more recently as celebrations of erotic love as a gift.)

Then we considered a question posed in the EfM website "respond" section: "In the early 19th century CE... some theologians emphasized beauty, transcendence, mystery, and a yearning for the past, while others focused on the Enlightenment ideals of reason, science, and the future." Scott presented a choice of diagrams for these two emphases -- one, a line, with each emphasis at an end; one, a Venn diagram.

We tended to look for the middle. Susan said that the Oxford Movers did accuse their contemporaries of "idolizing" Science, but in fact, the scientists were quite often people of faith who were exploring the natural world as a way into the mind of God. Mason was "squarely in the middle." Kaye commented that EfM seems to be giving us a lot of nuns this year, and week 19's reading and week 20's chapter in Chittister have helped her to understand that the ancient tradition of religious communities isn't all about sustaining old traditions and staying safe within walls. From the earliest days, monasteries and convents were free to confront social ills and to work outside their walls -- and to show hospitality inside -- for the common good.

Theological ReflectionJoyce took off from the EfM phrase about "spiritual kindling" for a TR by offering a choice of scriptures that "kindled" spirits with prayer, generosity, and compassion. We were drawn especially to the story of Nabal, Abigail, and David told in 1 Samuel 25. We enjoyed Joyce's telling of the story, as Nabal comes across as an idiot, while his wife is clever and hospitable (as well as beautiful).

When we explored the world of Nabal, from his own point of view, we saw how his churlishness could be seen as shrewd, safe, courageous. He could see himself as successful, and he probably gets a lot of requests for handouts. Sin in his world is the threat posed by David and his armed rebel band. What redeems this story is Abigail's generous hospitality.

That last idea of "hospitality" really opened up the TR. We connected through the action source, a shocking memory of a woman banging on the front door pleading for refuge from pursuers who had beaten her. Told not to open the door, our friend did open the door, did call the police and an ambulance.

Kaye related that story to something else in Chittister, who writes that "hospitality" has come to mean nothing more than putting on a cocktail party, a self-serving and superficial presentation. Kaye told us that "hospitality" is risky, and also, communal. We let down our barriers, we open up our front door.

The culture source yielded an image of community hospitality in the folk tale of "Stone Soup," which Kaye recalled from a recent reading. Mason said that hospitality is both the ruination and the saving grace for Jimmy Stewart's character in It's a Wonderful Life. Scott quoted a funny bit of advice from a psychologist's book: "Invite your dragon to tea." We found examples in history, such as the suffragette whose hospitality to lawmakers broke down their resistance to women's rights.

Looking for insights and applications, we had some ah-ha moments. In our media, we see a lot of demonization of people in need; wouldn't hospitality be a better way to redeem the situation? We each gave examples of hospitality in the ministries of our different parishes. Speaking for myself, I was a bit surprised to realize how much we at St. James actually do drop barriers and come together in community to give hospitality to people who need it. And we all had stories of the risks in these ministries. We concluded with resolve to support these efforts.

It got pretty intense. I was glad that Kaye's worship (described at the top) was so good for re-centering us!

For Monday:
Susan will bring worship. We will engage with readings and videos for Week 21 -- lots of good stuff! I'm especially curious about a couple of cryptic assignments: Year 4 is to read James 2:14-26 in three different translations, but why? Year 5 is advised to read Mark 6, but why? Our TR will come from our own conversation. (You wonder how? Check out week 21's "reflect" tab).

Participants expressed concern for each other, especially for illness in the homes of people both present and absent.

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Journey with God, Wk. 18: Blockbuster Night!!! (3 Videos)

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Worship and Gathering
Rita found prayers and readings "loosely" connected to the videos. I noticed that she assigned a prayer about "art and music" to yours truly -- very thoughtful! Prayers for the church and for the hungry also strongly echoed themes that the three theologians stressed.

Rita wondered, have any of us ever considered ourselves to be theologians? For once, the answer was nearly unanimous: no. Mike admits that he never had a theological thought until recently, and now he's pretty excited.

Yours truly borrowed an idea from one of our recent readings, that all children are natural theologians, wanting to know how and why. Didn't we all wonder, if God made everything, who made God? Dad got me thinking theologically when he responded to a question from me with a guess that God's "power" is not the same thing as "magic." In a lot of ways, I've spent my life pondering the difference.

Yr. D, 1st yr: Michael, Mason; 2nd yr: Lanie; 3rd yr: Joyce, Susan; 4th yr, Jessica, Rita; 5th yr "Wide Angle," Kaye. Mentor: Scott. Absent: Joyce, Kaye.

Respond
In breakout rooms, participants chatted just about what they liked, especially if it was something that they could SEE in the video.

Boy, did we get answers! All three were depicted gardening, with dogs and a cat making memorable appearances. The Belgian man Boeve explored a sculpture from bowed strips of metal or wood that made a hollow shell of a cathedral.

This complemented his walk through a magnificent cathedral that is now primarily a museum, a shell of its former glory. He said women and men sat on different sides -- Lanie wondered if that was common? The Englishman teared up remembering his aloof father, terminally ill, weeping to hear the Country song "Daddy Teach Me How to Pray." The woman in the group wore bright red when meeting with groups of men in sober jackets, so that no man could pretend not to see her arm raised to make a point. We saw a film clip of her receiving an honor from the Queen.

We then wondered what we learned from these videos about theology and our journey with God. We saw "embodiment" of joy in creation embodied in the images of dancers. One theologian hung a painting of "the last supper" all chairs, one turned "out." We were struck by the theme of "the other," the theme of arts as another entry to faith (along with tradition) and the theme of church in decline.

All of them spoke of our tradition. One said that our scriptures are valuable without having to be "infallible." To insist on scripture's infallibility is idolatry, said one. Scriptures are always in dialogue with the rationality of the time, and so our reading of scripture is always changing. Our tradition is a "resource" for those outside the church.

Rita wondered if the videos' motif of theologians outside in their gardens and communities might be a hint at how we should get out of the church and into the world at least sometimes?

Takeaways concerned prayer. "If you draw near to God, God draws near to you... You have to expose yourself, be vulnerable... He makes himself vulnerable to us... Things will go wrong, but also right." Lanie brought a suggestion she heard in camp: When you pray, sit an empty chair beside you -- to "embody" the conversation.

Reflect
Jessica brought a TR from the "position" source, a paragraph from Dietrich Bonhoeffer's address on his first visit to America in 1930, when the Nazis were rising in popularity but not in control. We focused on his expression of scorn, or at least distaste, for the "comfortable and careless life." As we decided that, Jessica was cuddling little Liam, so we explored the world of the infant, so comfortable and careless.

Creation: the infant lives in Eden. He has no concept of right or wrong, naked or clothed. He is master of his own schedule, he has everything he needs whenever he needs it, he expects to be served whenever he whimpers. Sin in this concept didn't sound so wicked. It's only the frustration he feels as he begins to explore what his little hands can do, when he cannot reach something he wants to grasp. We did agree that a child so young doesn't know how to want something he can't have: anything he can't see does not exist for him.

Connecting to our own experiences, we said "you can't keep children in a bubble." You want to keep them safe, but you want them to explore and experience the frustrations and even hurts that may come. Lanie knew both models: a smothering mother, and the freedom she gave to her infant son.

Peter Pan came to mind when we looked for connections in our culture.

Tradition connects to Adam and Eve. They have to leave "the bubble" that is the Garden. We are told in Matthew chapter 6 not to worry for what we will eat or wear, while Paul tells the church not to give food to anyone within the church community who will not work to support the church. Still, we are not given any work requirements to be met by Lazarus and other beggars before we meet their needs.

Susan wondered if our focus on an infant might be contrasted to the image of infantile adults such as we see in The Great Gatsby. Paul tells one church that they are "still children... not ready for solid food." She reminded us that, for most of the people of the world, we Americans are all "filthy rich."

For application, we agreed to find ways to be "careless" with faith enough not to be inhibited by worry, and to seek challenges that get us out of comfortable niches.

For Monday:
Michael may miss the first half of our meeting. Kaye is bringing worship; Joyce will bring something as "kindling" for a TR.

We're responding to BOTH week 19 (it's only 9 pages) AND week 20 (everyone has a pretty short assignment).

We're reading 20 pages a week in Kidd.

Consider these questions for discussion:

• In one sentence, summarize what captured your energy this week in your Engage.
• In the early 19th century CE, conflict arose within the church. Some theologians emphasized beauty, transcendence, mystery, and a yearning for the past, while others focused on the Enlightenment ideals of reason, science, and the future. What assumptions do you hold about those ideals? Where in our culture do you notice one being emphasized more than the other? What are the costs and promises of those ideals?

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Journey with God, Wk. 17: Discipleship & Servant #2

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Worship and Gathering
Mason began worship with this collect for Joyce to read:

A Collect for the Spirit of Prayer O Almighty God, you pour out on all who desire it the spirit of grace and of supplication: Deliver us, when we draw near to you, from coldness of heart and wanderings of mind, that with steadfast thoughts and kindled affections we may worship you in spirit and in truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

and verses unfamiliar to me from Hymn 23, the first one read by Rita:

The fleeting day is nearly gone;
we harvest what the morning sowed.
Now grant us undiminished strength
to stand and do what still remains.

Mason's GQ was simple: "What good happened in January?" Improvements in power service to the neighborhood... getting organized (for moving: it's a secret)... getting caught up back at work after maternity leave... a favorable football outcome... NOT breaking a wrist... a trip to a theatre in Greenville... spending time with grandbaby and even more with daughter... return of warmer weather... Mom appearing in a dream as she was before Alzheimers. Also: Liam begins day care next week!

Yr. D, 1st yr: Michael, Mason; 2nd yr: Lanie; 3rd yr: Joyce, Susan; 4th yr, Jessica, Rita; 5th yr "Wide Angle," Kaye. Mentor: Scott. Absent: None.

Respond
We broke out into groups of four to share what related to "discipleship" in the materials that engaged us this week. There was advice for would-be disciples in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes -- one book's realism a sort of an antidote to the other's apparently excessive faith that good deeds are always rewarded. John Wesley is a great example of a disciple, and exemplar of the reaction to both the wars of religion and the Enlightenment reliance on rationality, as he elevated the individual's personal relation to God. We discussed how "salvation" is kingdom-wide for Jesus and personal for Wesley. What is it for Paul? He has lots to teach the Corinthians about discipleship. Jessica isolated two aspects of discipleship: a call to a life-time process of conversion and the following of Jesus. Kaye alluded to "touchy" subjects in Varghese's Church Meets World and imparted practical advice: Let the liturgy strengthen our resolve to "do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with our God" and then let us act as if the kingdom is already here.

We're all reading 20p/week in Kidd's book, where Rita found material that related to an essay by Sheldrake about different kinds of "spirituality." These, she noticed, correspond to different kinds of discipleship -- such as active, prophetic, mystical, and aesthetic. That led us to share in "chat" how we envision our own discipleship.

Reflect
Scott led a little acting lesson with a page from King Lear where the queen and her husband blind the old Earl of Gloucester. Servants hold the old man to a chair while their lord digs one eye out with a knife.

The acting lesson is that actors must be present, i.e., thinking and feeling in the moment. They have to react even when they have no lines to say. We looked at Servant 1, who stands up to the authorities. Servant 2 stands by. We focused on the moment when the evil queen demands a sword from Servant 2, which he gives her without a word. She uses it to kill Servant 1 and (on the page we didn't read) to dig out the old man's other eye.

We had no trouble connecting through experience, but revisiting these sometimes shameful moments was painful. Like Servant 2, it's what you don't say and what you don't do that can be so shameful. Susan observed, "Sometimes you don't know what you're going to do before you do it," whether for good or for ill -- like Servant 1 standing up to the authorities, and Servant 2 just watching.

We settled on a metaphor: a heaviness that you carry, sometimes for years.

Connecting to Scriptures, we thought first, "Come to me, all you who are heavy-laden." We looked for stories that we could relate to. Peter's shame at denying Christ three times; Paul's expressions of shame years later for his martyring early Christians; the priests who crossed the street to avoid the injured traveler; Judas (he couldn't bear the weight of what he'd done); Joseph's brothers and the example of Benjamin who mitigated their murderous plans. Another story runs the other way: the woman at the well, outcast and heavy-hearted, who feels freed after her encounter with Jesus, running to town to bring everyone to him.

As the time drew to a close, we had some insights, mostly from our own experiences. Confessing and hearing you're forgiven do not take away the heaviness. It has to be personal -- e.g., Esau's hugging of his contrite younger brother, and Jesus telling Peter three times "if you love me, feed my sheep," counterweight to Peter's three denials. "With this kind of weight, you never can believe the good things about yourself."

In Trevor Nunn's production in 2007, Gloucester's wronged son Edgar (disguised as a beggar to fool enemy agents) leads his father. The old man is placed in Edgar's care by none other than Servant 2.

During those last few minutes, I saw the shape for a collect. Here's what I came up with:

Collect for Acting on ImpulseCreator of eternity, you know how an impulsive decision in a moment can honor life or can weigh our hearts with a lifetime of shame: ground us in faith so that our impulse will always lean against injustice and cruelty, and forgive us when we are swayed to actions we regret. In the name of the resurrected Jesus, who encouraged Peter three times to make up for three denials, and the Holy Spirit who guides our wills. Amen.

Mason closed us with a moment to name our concerns for prayer in the next week: his friend Blaine and the Cook family; Jessica's father and Rita. He gave us two selections from Colossians that seemed very apt for a discussion of discipleship and a lovely closing prayer.

For Monday:

• Continue to read 20p or more per week in Kidd -- she's an easy read with a relatable story.
• We all will watch three videos laid out for us by EfM for Week 18. These are 10-12 minutes long. We'll discuss our answers to the questions provided in the "respond" tab.
• Jessica will bring us "kindling" to ignite a TR. Rita will lead worship.

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