Yr. C, Wk. 29: ZfM, the first week

We met via the Zoom app. Prior to the meeting, all years posted reactions to the Bonhoeffer book as "comments" on this blog (see previous post).

Pete led a selected a timely worship liturgy celebrating Love and Family, shared with us on the screen. We particularly remembered in our prayers Gene, bereaved of his mother, and Christine, closing down a business. Matt could not join us this time.

Still, we re-connected, shared experiences, reflected seriously on the TR, and laughed a lot.

Yr. C theme: Living as Spiritually Mature Christians Class: Matt, Pete, first year; Christine, second year; Mariel, Gene, third year; Erica, fourth year; Scott and Susan, co - mentors. Absent: Gene, Christine, Matt.

Theological Reflection

“Coming on board” with our experiences of the outbreak of Covid-19 and the necessary “social distancing,” we isolated several shared strands to our separate stories:

• "Will life ever return to normal?"
• We took so much for granted before, assuming wrongly that everything will keep going “on autopilot.”
• "I’m so used to being anxious, that having a real cause for anxiety has been a relief!"
• Small things – the closing of a favorite restaurant, down-scaling of the farmer’s market – bring home the dire global picture.
• Feeling parallels between Bonhoeffer’s time, watching Hitler’s rise with incredulity: “You have to love Bonhoeffer for his convictions.”

Our feelings coalesced into a few observations:

• The world has probably been out of control all along, but now we see it and experience it.
• There’s "no exit" – title of Jean-Paul Sartre’s play about people quarantined in hell.
• It’s like being stuck on a cruise ship, an artificial happy place loaded with luxuries and distractions; in an instant, the illusion disappears.

Exploring that last image through theological categories of creation, sin, judgment, and redemption, we found a particularly resonant analog in the story of Jonah, who prophesied against the hedonistic luxury of the city Nineveh, but the Ninevans buckled down to change their lives in time to avert destruction.

Collect for a Time of Upheaval
Almighty and merciful God, when You through Jonah warned Nineveh that the great city would fall to nothing in just forty days, the citizens repented, fasted, and averted catastrophe; May we, shocked by sudden awareness of our precarious condition, see with new clarity the beauty and value in routines we have taken for granted, and abjure the fruitless anxieties that have distracted us from You. Amen

Pete concluded with a prayer.

Next Meeting: We will again post comments to a short article that I'll post Sunday morning. Mariel will lead worship via Zoom, and Erica will bring a source for our TR.