Susan led the devotion for early evening from the Book of Common Prayer. During our brown bag dinners, we shared updates on what we had done during our snow day the week before.
Students had a lot to say about two weeks' worth of readings (but see detailed responses from Mariel and Gene printed in last week's "snow day" blogpost).
Naturally, considering Pauls' strong personality, first comments concerned him, branching off into discussion of his struggles to create churches and then to redirect their faith away from naysayers who insisted on circumcision and dietary laws. Those branches provided ample themes for connections to other years' readings. One offshoot was Erica's discussion of the development of the church in Russia, stemming from the monarch's conscious choice of Orthodoxy over Roman Catholicism, preferring image - and - aesthetic involvement over words and argument.
Scott chose a reading from the past week's assigned Gospel lessons to begin this week's Theological Reflection. Mark 5.24-34 concerns the woman with the flow of blood who touches the hem of Jesus's garment to be healed.
We identified different phrases of the story that struck us this time; we identified the larger context; we explored in theological terms what this one story says about the world, at least as the woman perceives it; and we found experiences in our own lives that connected to the woman's experience.
From our discussion, we gathered insights and focused on what we need to do going forward. We wondered why Jesus bothered to stop, since the healing had already been achieved; and we imagined how, in a culture that considered such a woman "unclean," her audacity to reach out to touch the teacher would strike the crowd. One of us remembered a sermon when the priest likened the woman's faith drawing power from Jesus to a ladle, an open receptacle that draws water from a well. Here's our collect:
Collect for Healers and Healing
Lord Jesus, when the crowd pressed you with their demands, you stopped to listen to the woman whose faith, drawing power from you, made her whole; may we also be sensitive to those around us, that we might be instruments of your grace to others; and may we be humble to admit our need to reach out for your healing power when we are broken.
Next week: We all read the common reading for week twenty - two (RRG, 130ff) an excerpt from a book by historian Diana Butler Bass, who will be in Atlanta March 24. Mariel brings food for us; Erica leads worship; Susan will bring a source for theological reflection.
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