Because of illnesses, we've not had a full house in several weeks. After worship, Pete asked us to catch everyone up by describing our latest weekend. Pete celebrated his 25th wedding anniversary in Gatlinburg; from others, we heard about fluctuations in health, family and photographs long unseen, and a jazz pianist who played some sentimental favorites.
We shared some of our takeaways from readings in weeks 20 and 21.
The first year readings of Hosea, Amos, and the first Isaiah brought in the moral and ethical sense that had been largely missing from the histories of judges and kings. Speaking of Hosea as a kind of performance artist, Scott related the prophets' work to a book called Art + Faith. (His reflection is viewable here.)
The second year readings were about Paul’s letters. The Corinthians were “a pretty rough bunch” in Pete’s opinion, causing Paul to do some self-defense against the “super-apostles” who ridiculed Paul’s lack of refinement. The second letter skips around. “Was some of it not by Paul?” Marilyn was moved by beautiful passages and ideas. Her favorite may have been the idea that God doesn’t have to earn our trust: “trust comes first.” Powell’s commentary tries to be “neutral” on the disagreements out there about how and when Paul wrote these. This reminded Scott to point out that Powell's purpose is to survey the different approaches to these texts, not hermeneutics. Paul leaves it for us to draw lessons from scripture for our own lives.
For Susan, the highlight of the third year reading was an enjoyable deep dive into Byzantine architecture. She assured us that the history is a fascinating read, whatever we may have heard!
Fourth year reading in MacIntosh’s theology taught Christine that, despite our cultural orientation towards individualism, our personhood is developed within community. The trinity itself is an image of this.
Living Faithfully in Your World:
1st yr: Scott 2nd yr: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.
For our TR, we simply responded to the photograph that Christine shared with us of a thurible left behind on a chair during the church's coffee hour. The different sources that go into any theological reflection showed up in our responses: We had experiences working as an altar boy in awe of this instrument, a choir singer choking on the smoke, a parishioner who loves the aroma that makes the occasion feel important, and admiration of an acolyte who swung the heavy censer with the applomb of a baton-twirler. Our positions on incense began with the observation that the sense of smell is said to be the strongest cue for memory, able to bring back feelings from distant childhood. It's an important part of our liturgy, which aims to involve all the senses. We related incense to what our culture calls "altered states." We responded to the aesthetics of the photograph, too, how the instrument on the plain chair was an image of divinity grounded in our world; how the antiquity of the object is part of its beauty and elevated importance; how it was a gift of love to the church.
The discussion kept producing ideas. When Pete made a couple of observations about how incense marks a time and place as "different," and how the presence of God is made present, there was a consensus that he'd tied everything together. Scott volunteered to compose a collect, which incorporates a quotation from Psalm 141.2:
Collect for Presence
Eternal and omnipresent God, clouds of incense long have marked your presence for your people: let our prayer like incense rise to you and fill our senses, that we'll remember you in all we do today; through Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.
We will read the essay that begins on page 130 in the RRG. Our TR will derive from what we write in response to question 3 on page 137. To help us to manage time, please write only what fits in the space on that page.
Scott will lead worship for Week 23, basing the liturgy on the Beatitudes. Our check-in question will be to write additional beatitudes: we will use these for our closing worship. Think how someone has blessed you lately, and how you want them to be blessed. Here's an example: I've recently had good experiences with customer service reps with the SSA and a brokerage, so, "Blessed are they who work in customer assistance with humor and sympathy, for they will receive laughter and gratitude from the formerly perplexed."
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