Susan started us with worship from the daily devotions for early evening in the Book of Common Prayer. While we ate our brown bag dinners, Susan's question, "How was the last week?" evoked responses that struck Gene as unusually similar. The theological reflection (TR) would derive from this observation!
Christine found comfort in Powell's delineation of legends etymological and ethnological. The categories helped her to read the different stories of patriarchs in Genesis. Tom remembered how he was struck by the alien morality of those early tales; Erica is comforted by the way God works through flawed people in those ancient stories.
Gene loved Powell's exposition of Matthew, and he recommended the website and its videos. Reading the Gospel in one sitting was a great experience. He was struck by the structure of five sermons and by the theme of "binding and loosening." Mariel checked in by email, calling Matthew "A Converted Rabbi's Gospel" with its theme the Hebrew scripture, "the stone which the builders rejected...." Using the ABCD method, she was amazed at the tight structural cohesion of the gospel, bothered by Matthew's use of scripture out of context; confused by the vagueness of Powell's 7th theme; and delighted at all the phrases common in our culture that come from Matthew.
Tom admitted being intimidated by the command to "be perfect" as God is perfect. We discussed how "perfect" means "thoroughly made" or "solid" or "complete" or "integrated" or "whole" -- not free of errors and mistakes. Gene related this to the idea that, once Jesus ascended to heaven, the institutional church was left behind to be His eyes, hands, and feet.: we are Jesus.
Erica covered 50 - 300 A.D. from the chapter "Boundaries Defined." She noted how women clearly had leadership positions in the church until, realizing that Jesus might not be coming so soon as expected, the Church chose not to disrupt the common social structure. She quickly surveyed the ancient heresies that echo through controversies in today's church.
Erica noted the complexity of gender issues in the church then and now, noting on a personal level the importance to her of her children having their father.
TR. Scott invited members of the group to tell what struck them in others' stories of the past week that we shared during the meal. From all the answers, we derived an image of someone wading into flood waters so far, the waters so much deeper than expected, that the wader isn't sure to reach the other side, nor sure that going back is an option. Our culture tells us often to fight through to the other side; Scripture sometimes tells us to accept the situation, to "let go and let God." We wrapped up the discussion with this collect:
Collect for Crossing a Flooded Stream
O God, Who separated the waters of chaos from dry land: when the Hebrews were hopeless, You parted the Red Sea; when disciples expected to rule in a kingdom, You took them overseas to serve and die: When our own path seems to lead us into turbulent waters, remind us that we need not fear. Whether we fight the waters, or surrender to the current to be washed downstream to take up a different path, we are in Your sight and care. We may trust in your goodness. Amen.
Next week: Erica brings dinner; Gene leads worship; Scott brings a personal story for the TR.
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