After prayers, Susan asked us to look back on the week and tell what was wonderful. Singing the Sanctus in a full church for the first time in over a year brought tears to my eyes... Happy birthday Sunday... playing "Jesus Loves Me" with bell-ringers at church... the Pentecost service and picnic... working with volunteers to make Italian food for shut-ins at the nursing home... another "circle of life" experience.
Yr. D theme: Living into the Journey with God Class: Marilyn, Nuno, first year; Christine, third year; Mariel, Gene, fourth year; Scott and Susan, co - mentors. Absent: None.
We discussed the reflection guide's question, "How do this week's readings speak to the theme of maturing in one's journey with God?" Marilyn volunteered that line from the Paul, "When I was a child, I thought like a child; but now...." Christine pounced on the idea that the world itself is maturing, as described in the massive church history book -- an echo of MLK's favorite quotation about the arc of history bending towards justice over a long time. Gene and Mariel both were struck by the anecdote of the staggeringly poor woman with little son who set aside 1/12 of their day's earnings "for the poor."
The scope of our reflection broadened to the whole year. Mariel and Gene both cited Rabbi Heschel's Sabbath book as life-changing and observed that his name comes up a lot in My Neighbor's Faith. About reading scripture, Mariel commented, "You're never sated" with Old and New Testaments. Christine got a sense of how the world and Christianity grew up together -- and Mariel plugged a shorter book by Robert Wilkin about the Church's first 1000 years. Nuno felt that the first year readings "catch people where they are," and he appreciated illumination of women's roles in the Old Testament and apocryphal wisdom literature, how norms were broken.
We watched a video of testimonials by the Tuesday morning EfM group and recorded our own reflections on what we expected from EfM, and what we got from it.
We decided to meet in person on Tuesday, 6:30 PM June 8, in the small parking lot of St. James. After prayers there, we will walk or drive to WR Social House (formerly "Willie Rae's") on the Square for dinner.
After a virtual toast, Mariel shared a video she created, "Remembering the Ride."
6 comments:
Year 4 read 6 stories in Part VII “Repairing Our Shared World” from “My Neighbor’s Faith.” These essays reveal how multicultural, interfaith dialogue and action can prevail against social injustice and brokenness.
48. The Heroes I Was Looking For - Eboo Patel, an American Muslim born to Indian parents, struggled to find a religious tradition that produced real-life transformation. Through volunteer service at Catholic Worker houses, he discovered Dorothy Day and the “pure love of elsewhere” that sustained her commitment. In his search for his own faith home, Patel returned to India and found a Muslim doing Day’s work - Patel’s grandmother, who had been sheltering abused women for 40 years. He immersed himself in Islam, finding courage, beauty, and truth, but continued to acknowledge his first hero was Dorothy Day.
49. A Community, Not Simply a Coalition - Jonah Pesner with Hurmon Hamilton, explains that community is an ongoing relationship and coalition is a project or task-based effort. Pesner recalled the coalition he worked on with Hamilton to bring affordable health care to Massachusetts. But it was actually their disagreement over marriage equality laws that strengthened the bonds of brotherhood in their interfaith community through mutual respect and defense of the other’s perspective and that helped turn vitriolic attacks into respectful conversation.
50. Dwelling Together in the Tent of Abraham, Hagar, and Sarah - Phyllis Berman and Arthur Waskow discovered the surprising power of G!D’s love in the enthusiastic embrace of Imam Talib when he hugged them in a long-awaited reunion. Although prohibited by his faith from touching a woman outside his family, Talib had come to know Phyllis as a dear friend, and in the end, as a beloved sister in the family of faithful believers.
51. Practicing in the “Temple of Human Experience” - Ji Hyang Padma, a Zen Buddhist nun in Korea, was inspired by her mentor Maha Ghosananda, the Gandhi of Cambodia, to participate in a peaceful protest march (Dhammayietta) to bring about peace during Cambodia’s first democratic election. She writes, “Ghosananda’s meditation practice of ‘metta’ (loving-kindness) gave him the capacity to extend compassionate awareness to whoever was around him.”
52. The Value of a Peso - Miguel A De La Torre, theology professor, often took his students to Cuernavaca, Mexico, on missionary trips, not to save but be saved by the poor. On one occasion an indigenous woman received them into her hovel, offered up stale crackers with jam, and expounded on her (theologically confused) beliefs. When her 9-year-old son returned with 15 pesos from selling gum on a street corner, she put all except one peso in her pocket. “What is that for?” De La Torre asked. “Oh, that’s for the poor,” she replied. The professor confessed that this woman knew more about God than he did.
53. A Test of Character - Jim Wallis, author and CEO of Sojourners, wrote about the rise in religious intolerance in 2010. Three questions came to mind: Does judgment of our neighbors arise from religious labels or the content of their character? Do we believe in freedom of my religion or freedom of religion? In the face of global terrorism, who wins when we restrict religious freedom? He answered these questions with a story of a Christian pastor in Tennessee putting up a sign when he learned that an Islamic group was going to erect a building on land next to his church. The sign read: “Heartsong Church Welcomes Memphis Islamic Center to the Neighborhood.” Word of this kindness reached a small town in Kashmir where residents vowed to take care of the little Christian church in their neighborhood for the rest of their lives.
My sense of God's call in these readings is that it is often conflict and discomfort in this world that shake us out of complacency in order to discover a world of what could be and should be the promised kingdom of heaven.
My Neighbor’s Faith
In the final chapter of this book, there was one story that really moved me, # 52, The Value of a Peso by Miguel A. De La Torre. Many of the stories in this book seem to be about academics meeting at conferences, becoming friends and becoming influenced by another from a different faith.
This one is different from many of the others as it involves an academic and his students on a mission trip to Cuernavaca, Mexico. He describes his mission trips as not to preach to others but to listen to the poor and disenfranchised. It is his students who go to “get saved”.
Their host, a poor Mexican woman, offered the students what little she had – stale crackers with jam, and soon they began discussing faith. As the host began to talk about her faith, the author was “struck by how illogical, uninformed, superstitious, and syncretistic is her faith.”
About that time her 9 year son, looking dirty and poorly fed, came home from a day of selling Chiclets on the streets and gave his mother the 15 pesos he’d earned. His mother pocked 14 of the pesos and placed the last peso on the table. When asked about the one peso, she explained that one peso was to give to the poor.
The author then explains that in that moment he learned more about God than all his studies. When someone so poor “do their faith” by providing for those who have even less, the rest of us should feel humbled and he realized this woman knew more about God than he.
MacCulloch Chapter 25; Culture Wars (1960-Present)
This chapter covers great change politically and within the Church during this “Modern” era. One of the main threads seems to be the shift from the Catholic ideal of the “Catholic Family.” The latter half of the century opened the doors for controlled birth, and new technology for contraception without “sex.” Husbands and wives bearing fewer children, found themselves with more time for things other than the Church. Sunday Schools in Britain and the United States saw the attendance statistics drop significantly within just a little more that a decade.
In the early 1960’s Pope John XXII had called a new council to the Vatican. As he was already aged and diagnosed with cancer he did not live to lead the council but Pope Paul VI presided. It was here that the determination to uphold the traditions renouncing birth control. Further, on the topic of artificial contraception, seeing the near possibility of the decision flipping to accept this, he enlarged the voting group and changed the criteria for those entitled to vote. His statement “ artificial contraception has no place in the Catholic Family.” Also, the council upheld celibacy practices for priests/clergy which caused declining numbers of men joining the priesthood.
Other topics covered in MacCulloch’s final chapter were racism (globally & nationally) with discussions on Martin Luther King Jr and his “peaceful protests” methods learned from Mahatma Ghandi; Apartheid in Africa.; Min-Jung Theology from South Korea and its justification in showing honor to the “Korean ideal” of self-sufficiency which lay behind North Korea’s cruelty and inhumanity; Latin America and its fight against poverty; ordination of Women; Evangelicals and their influence on elections and policy in American politics. These are just a few...
The general global and national tug-of-war between church leadership and secular leadership affects the masses in giant waves of “good” and “bad” all in the name of “power” it seems. An idea begins with a good moral base and then disintegrates into some form of chaos or destruction, physically in terms of war and/or emotionally in terms of faith.
The RRG asks: How does MacCulloch’s understanding of history, being an Oxford-trained British citizen, compare with yours and the context out of which you read history?
I would say Mr MacCulloch has a deep love and interest in history. He is quite matter of fact and brings together so very much information to the book, often in just a paragraph. It is a study that requires a “study guide” of its own but also keeps the mind on its toes and/or on the ground. What a great life he has had traveling, interviewing and writing. I don’t think he needs to go to the movies for excitement and intrigue. I feel like he is inspiring others to research and unpack these stories on a deeper level, histories, and happenings in the intertwined world of the Church and secular leaders.
British Citizen; I guess it could be easy to “discount” opinions that leak through or points of view affecting the way a story is laid out, but we are all who we were born to be, from different countries, eras, and experiences. This question has me primed to read and equally compact historical account of the history of Christianity from an author of a different country/background.
Christine, I'm reading "The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity," by Robert Louis Wilken, (c) 2012 Yale University. It's less than 400 pages in length and written in a style that is easy for me to understand. I'm really enjoying this book.
Wonderful Mariel! Thank you. I’ll get one for my summer reading list!
We were asked this week to post a positive portrayal of maturing spirituality from the Hebrew Bible. I am sorry that I have not posted to the blog in the last couple weeks, but my eyes have gotten very tired and I believe they are looking forward to the summer break. I typed this answer completely and then it disappeared into space. So I am attempting it again.
Positive portrayals for me appear in 1 Sam 2:26 Which says - and the boy Samuel continued to grow in stature and in favor with the Lord and with people.
Next there was Jeremiah 12.
You are always righteous, Lord, when I bring a case before you. Yet I would speak with you about your justice: Why does the way of the Wicked Prosper? Why do all the faithless live at ease? You have planted them and they have taken root. They grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips, but far from their hearts.
And finally, 1 Corinthians 13: 10 -12.
When completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we only see a reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face period. Now I know in part then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. I love that one., really and truly do.
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