Yr. C, Wk. 16: "Prayer and Worship" Essay

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Discussion of the Readings
This week, we started with discussion of the reading, saving for last the gathering and worship as we close out the calendar year.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 3 Developing a Sustaining Spirituality: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred, Scott; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Susan, Pete, and Nuno all had comments about the form of the essay. The essay starts slowly, telling how anxieties of modern life with technology are many, but can also provide opportunities for spiritual growth to take us outside the walls of the church. The author quotes relevant writers (among them our friends Coakley, Ford, Bishops Schori and Griswald). Pete said "it steamrolls." By the end, noted Nuno, the author has drawn on some of the early church authorities, Benedict among them.

Several shared quotations that delighted us. Jessica: Loved the quote from Sarah Coakley – how we are being trained with time… and a way of connecting to others and to the Risen Christ (which is also, others). Joyce – p. 95 “Adoration – one breathes in God as one fills one’s lungs with air…” Stood out to me because I like to pray. Exhaling equals prayer, concerns. Jessica - Drama of the Liturgy a great way to describe it. Scott – a drama that happens in church and in our lives, again and again and again… "Continuous conversion." Marilyn - Maturity may be found in this contemplative approach – leading to loving more deeply; maturity is a matter of expanding your awareness of the world – from self to others to cosmos.

Bishop Schori's definition of violence as "anything that diminishes life" excited many observations from experience. It can be words; it can be hunger, Tom said --

My life has been about the survival of others and myself... I’ve been places where people are looking for food, shelter, security…People who lose their jobs because they don’t speak the correct language, and then they have to move where there’s a civil war, where there are corrupt regimes that our own government supports.

How do we counteract violence by developing a spirituality? We had answers:

• Pete – implied that one who has this contemplative life will also take this inner strength out into public spaces (as the essay says, “outside the walls of the church”). We’ve all been inspired by people who are just living that good proper life, and the way they act among us… (my inlaws) inspire me to be like them…
• Tom – “When someone’s starving, words are meaningless. What they see in you [habitus] is what gives them hope.”
• Nuno: Commitment to place is the physical place but also time.

After we'd shared what stood out to us in the reading, Nuno posed the question from the end of the chapter, what spiritual discipline do you want to work on in the six weeks of this unit? We answered:

• Open the Bible, just a minute here and a minute there
• Finding stillness (turn off my brain)
• Want to be more deliberate about setting time aside instead of just filling in the cracks.
• Reading poetry, writing poetry, writing a prayer - like writing a collect - all involve the same kind of thinking, imagination, openness to examining experience / faith tradition / received beliefs
• Donfred: Prayer and read more over the next six weeks, involve myself more through church
• Joyce: trusting the lord with the hard stuff (in EFM)

Gathering, then Worship
After a break, during which we found candles or lights for the worship at the end, we gathered into breakout rooms, each group tasked to find appropriate gifts for our friends in the other group. Donfred got tickets to the Final Four tournament... Tom got a trip to the Maldives (lots of water, no desert)... Joyce gets a Mercedes... Susan can spend eight days in Greece... Nuno, father of three young children, gets an authentic Santa Suit... Marilyn got a gas gift card for her cross-country treks... Pete got a concrete garden statue of the Cowardly Lion... Jessica got a big green Ford truck. The groups gave Scott bike-riding opportunities at the Tour de France and the island(s) of Bali.

For worship, we recited some verses Scott wrote 30 years ago for a concert musical about Advent (Link to Four Candles), we read the Genesis story of the Fall, and we shared a prayer for the second week of Advent. With our lights, we took a class photo.

For January 2
We do the readings assigned for week 17, listed on pp. 98-99 of the RRG. Follow up with the suggestions there on pp. 99-101. Susan and Scott will provide worship and a TR.

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Yr. C, Wk. 15: A Concrete Metaphor

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Worship and Gathering
Susan led us in Prayers of the People, Form VI. She asked about any creative things we'd done in the past week. Painting... cooking stuffed bell pepper, crockpot stew, and loaded nachos for the Big Game... making decorations out of the dog's reach, helping with the Christmas tree... making arty photos of Advent I for display at church.

For the rest of the session, we were thinking of experience and faith through metaphor. So that was creative, too.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, First Interlude Beyond a Binary God: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred, Scott; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Nuno. Tom came for TR.

Discussion of Beyond a Binary God, part two
Our discussion seemed to branch in three related categories.

Fatherhood, as experience
Susan: The book is anchored in the personal story and coming back to it at the end. Most heartfelt and persuasive part of all. Pete could identify, as his two daughters came from same parents, and they are so different from each other! He said, “Ultimately, [the author’s] trying to come to grips with what happened with her child [and] using theology to do this in a religious sense.” Jessica, responding to Pete, says we approach God from our own life experience and are partial to our picture of God from that way – How can we deepen our image to grasp the whole picture?

Fatherhood, as metaphor with “Son” for Trinity:
Joyce our heavenly father doesn’t think like we do, but our earthly fathers are like us, and so different. Marilyn: Difficulty in the metaphor in imagining the relationships – hierarchical and patriarchal – Marilyn imagines parental – qualities that we can agree on without pinning to “father” -- the “father” metaphor gives us an ideal. Jessica is challenged by search for a metaphor outside of father/son/holy spirit. Jessica read the different sides to the argument, and wonders, do we need a new metaphor, or just a deeper understanding of the father/son metaphor that we have? Donfred highlighted the joke about “the bird,” which made the point that the Father-Son image leaves out the Spirit; Scott observed that the Spirit had been left out of our discussion entirely aside from Donfred's question. Marilyn suggested that the spirit might be like the music produced by a duet – it’s a third thing that emerges from the first two.

Opening up to an experience alien to us
Pete responded to the fable of five blind men and the elephant: we do all experience something different from our own perspective -- you feed your soul based on your needs, and some may take things differently than I would. Marilyn said that this book "has helped me through my uneasiness about this subject." She has experienced the kindness of a family whose child is transitioning.

Susan appreciated the author’s downplaying of binaries in general: not everything has an opposite! Soughers says to get beyond binary … but that’s not the only way to see Father and Son… tension isn’t always opposition

Theological Reflection
Marilyn brought us a photo she took of a green plant emerging from a crack in a concrete wall. [Not the photo presented here.] For her, the wall was a metaphor for conformity, the plant a bold and creative force. She gracefully surrendered that notion as the currents of our discussion took the image in a different direction.

We had a lot of buy-in to the image. Joyce has felt like the plant… you grow most through a harsh situation that requires you to grow. So has Donfred: no matter how hard a thing is, if you have faith, good will come out of it. Susan told how FLoridians made a beautiful (and amusing) Christmas tree out of an isolated pine that grew out of concrete at a junction of highways.

Insights and applications were varied:

• “Dare to be different: stand out from the wall of sameness… safeness” (Marilyn, relating also to the non-binary book)
• Round up. End of story.
• Surprising – stay open for what comes.
• Weed is just a plant growing where you don’t want one – You can find beauty in a weed, too, beauty in imperfection.
• You can make an allowance for the cracking – allow for growth and shifting – build in give and take – God makes us with our edges, knows we’re brittle… we have strength in certain dimensions… Control joints are like his forgiveness…
• TRINITY? Water, the tree, the soil? Concrete, the control joint, the water – plant is us? (Funny that the control joint [built into concrete structures to allow for expansion and contraction] brings in uncontrol)

We drafted a collect and left it to Scott to finish:

Collect for the Flower in the Crack of the WallAlmighty God, solid rock of our salvation, you opened yourself to give a tiny shoot of Jesse’s stem the experiences of joy and love, hunger and rejection, death and resurrection: help us, where we are hard-edged and defensive, to make space for others' growth, so that we ourselves may grow into your image more and more each day. Amen.

For Next Week
We're shaking up the usual routine for our last meeting before the secular new year. We'll first discuss the essay "Developing a Sustaining Spirituality" in the RRG, ch. 16, pp. 88ff. After a break, Scott and Susan will spring a gathering question, and then we'll conclude with worship.

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Yr. C, Wk. 14: Beyond a Binary God, part one

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Worship and Gathering
Nuno led us in worship from a book that he recommended to us all, St. Augustine's Prayer Book. We began with an examination of conscience, and moved through praise and petitions. (I personally thought the prayers for people who work at night were especially rich -- naming fire fighters, sailors, and "those engaged on the stage.")

Nuno asked us for ways that prayer "feeds" us. Answers included songs in church that are also prayers, emotions reinforced and deepened by the music... the BCP... praying the scriptures, esp. Psalms, "every emotion is there"... morning meditation and closing devotion each day... writing prayers each day... silence.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, First Interlude Beyond a Binary God: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred, Scott; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Donfred, Marilyn, Tom. (Tom logged on in the same minute that the rest of us logged off early!)

Discussion of the Readings
Jessica generally enjoyed book, especially appreciating HOW the author Tara Soughers wrote it as a response to her own child’s experience: “Everyone is created in God’s Image” and trying to see this from her child’s experience. Susan appreciated the exploration of the phrase "in God's image, male and female" in its context of other opposites that have in-betweens (dark and light, night and day, seas and dry land -- Soughers asks why male and female should be different?) The author admits that she was confused, and is learning. Pete said it was enlightening that there’s "a substantial group out there that needs to be thought of beyond the boxes we put people in." Joyce appreciated this mom and how she had to fill a void left because no one else has written a theology; Joyce was also moved by the plight of homeless children kicked out by parents and communities.

While Nuno also appreciated the author's intention to open minds that are deadset against trans people, he pointed out the author's misleading use of statistics and her reliance on non-canonical scripture. Others expressed how they were disturbed by the author's use of The DaVinci Code, tainted by its derivation from detestable conspiracy theory of the 19th century, and the author's dubious argument concerning plastic surgery for teens.

Jessica expressed gratitude for Nuno’s reading and openness. Jessica offered a quote from Soughers, “I can only speak from the place of being the mother of a trans child.” There seemed to be a consensus on being open to what the author says about that experience.

Because Marilyn was unable to bring her TR to us, and we were missing three, we logged off early -- in the same minute that Tom logged on!

For Next Week
We'll read the second half of Beyond a Binary God by Kara T. Soughers. The RRG suggests that we look for three recent news reports and articles concerning sexuality and gender and ask ourselves what intercessory prayers the Spirit might be calling us to make, and what thanksgivings? (see p. 83) Marilyn will bring the source for the TR; Susan will lead worship. Nuno will be away at a board meeting.

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Yr. C, Wk. 13: Leadership, Clarity, and Tunnel Vision

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Worship and Gathering
Marilyn brought prayers of gratitude and a rhyming sermon from her ancestor's book. They related to the readings about the Trinity, and to us as individuals (Nuno had a line about bees, for example). For a gathering question, Marilyn asked us to name a location where we feel gratitude. Chicago on the shore of Lake Michigan... mountaintop... front seat of the van (where Daddy, too busy to talk, can just listen)... at the antique roll-top desk where I read the Bible surrounded by antique photos of family... the back porch for chilling or painting.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 2 Theological Reflection as a Life Skill: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred, Scott; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Pete, Joyce.

Discussion of the Readings
A lot of the discussion see-sawed on the fulcrum of "leadership," first raised by Donfred. Third and fourth year readings said a lot about saints and delegates to ancient councils: they struggled to put their experience of the spirit into words creeds and rules. This contrasted First Year's readings in which Joshua and some of the judges were models of leaders with "clarity," sure of themselves and victorious through obedience to God. Susan related the whole discussion to last week's TR, where we looked at the danger that the commands you hear may not be coming from the right voice.

Another theme was identity. Collins reports that scholars of the Old Testament see in Joshua and Judges a struggle to bring disparate tribal groups (including, perhaps, Canaanites) to find a new unifying identity. Susan reported on the councils doing the same for the Church, influenced by the political struggles among peoples of different backgrounds -- the renewal brought about by the Celtic church being a prime example.

Comments about the Trinity blurred the sense of clarity. Jessica could agree somewhat with Powell who writes that the synoptic gospels represent the man Jesus, while John represents the spirit of Christ. But, she said, we DO see the “man” in John – as, in the signs section, he's angry in the temple. "Jesus wept" is another example. Nuno observed that in studying the triune nature of God, some of those more “feminine” attributes like patience and kindness are part of a full picture that we’re not seeing in one place.

Two films about Thai soccer players trapped in a cave: a cultural reference for our metaphor.

Theological Reflection
Scott brought a story from his own experience, a friend from middle school who developed mental illness and, in adulthood, a hostility towards Scott. We chose to focus on Scott's phoning the young man's father to ask for guidance.

As we looked at the thoughts and feelings, we formulated the image of a dark tunnel, too far from the entrance to turn back, with no apparent way forward. In that tunnel, by its created nature, you find darkness, echoes… you step in puddles and stuff … no bearings… unsteadiness… fear of unseen danger… feel foolish…Lost. Sin (break? Go wrong?) in that world would be Hastiness, you crash into the wall or a stalagtite… Cave bears. If you discover a dead end – way out is blocked. Redemption seems to depend on factors outside of your control (except perhaps the first one): You remember that your phone has a flashlight… you find a light source (switch? Gasoline?) … Somehow the sun (or an angel) breaks through… Echoes …get out like a bat… follow bats? Emergency phone?

Insights came quickly, especially when Scott suggested that what we learned in the "tunnel" metaphor could be retro-fitted to the personal story. Here's what we said:

.
• The friend's whole life is in a cave – the dark, endless… his dad’s life was taken over… and the friend sent others into caves... His dad’s life was sacrificed for his son's sake...One person’s suffering can put others in tunnels, too.
• We want others to change and cannot change them.
• Think of the darkness as a learning process – think of it as a transition It’s all a transition in the greater story of your life in God. (Donfred)
• God doesn’t ask us to run marathons: He asks us to stand still, and / or to take the next STEP. (Tom)
• In the end, your friend gave you what you needed in his offer never to make another contact. (Marilyn)
• "Know when to walk away, know when to run." Sometimes it’s hard to know which one! (Susan and Kenny Rogers)
• It’s interesting that we don’t always know how big a role we play in others’ stories.
• “Grace of hiddenness” from the Year 4 reading in the mind of the friend as he perceives God
• We are clueless.

Collect in a Dark Tunnel (by Marilyn)Dear God, You shine light perpetual on our pathways and in our lives. We pray that you will grant us patience and grace during times of darkness, fear, and anxiety, allowing time and faith to help still our minds and calm our hearts, so that we may get a glimpse of the Big Picture, gaining perspective, understanding, and wisdom…knowing that all happens according to your will for the good of all. Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever. Amen

For Next Week
For an interlude in our lessons, we read the first half of Beyond a Binary God by Kara T. Soughers. (Her essay about why EfM assigns books like this is excerpted in the previous posting on this blog.) Marilyn boldly volunteered both to write the collect for our TR (above) and to bring a new source for next week's TR. Nuno will lead worship. Tom will be out of town, caring for his daughter's children while she has surgery -- we'll keep his family in our prayers, and hope he can Zoom in with us.

Scott in 2014 at Brushy Mountain Tunnel, 1000+ yards long. A whispered phrase at one end can be heard clearly at the other end.

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"Why do we read this kind of book in EfM?"

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This next week, we begin to read Beyond a Binary God. The author Tara K. Soughers wrote an article for EfM that I've excerpted below. Soughers also offers a light-hearted video put together with young adults, Trans 101 (about eight minutes long). - Scott

...If our faith has nothing to say about difficult issues, then it really isn’t very important, is it?

...In EfM, we work hard to develop close and trusting communities where we can safely talk about things that are really important to us. That environment should also be one where we can talk about controversial topics, remembering that the point of our discussion is not to change each other’s mind or to win an argument, but to share our understandings in a way that allows each of us to decide the implications of our faith for ourselves. If we can’t talk about controversial topics in EfM, where can we do so? Where else do we have the opportunity to talk with people who may have a different opinion in an environment that provides a level of safety and security for the participants? This is a gift that I think EfM brings to the Church and the wider community....

...Finally, EfM does not attempt to indoctrinate you into believing certain things. This is true of social issues as well as theology; instead, it shares the best scholarship that it can find, and asks the students to engage with that scholarship, in dialogue with the tradition, our culture, our own beliefs, and our experiences...

...[Theological reflection is a resource for dealing with diversity of experience, positions] Our structured process of discussion moves us out of our ordinary responses and asks us to consider things from different points of view: our shared tradition, our culture, our own beliefs, and our own experiences of how God is at work in the world...

[Hear Yee, Hear Yee is my own essay about another "difficult" book from EfM, the feminist theology presented by Gale Yee.]

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Yr. C, Wk. 12: Apples, Ahab, and LUKE:The Musical!

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Worship and Gathering
Joyce led worship with Psalms as prayers, and a poem by Quinonez, with a theme of drawing strength from Our Lord.

In answer to Joyce's gathering question, "What are you thankful for?" we had a range of answers. My grandson's 2nd birthday... my daughter is paying her own tuition...family, friends, art teachers, and a cat... the election by the Parish of a full freshman class to the Vestry... food on the table and a roof overhead... a wave of gratitude that you feel driving through the mountains of California (this one seconded)... sunrise over the Publix where my dog takes me from trash to trash for her to smell and me to collect... a family visit out of town, and just family taking care of family.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 2 Theological Reflection as a Life Skill: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred, Scott; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Donfred.

Discussion of the Readings
We paired up for discussions of the readings: Scott with Tom, Joyce with Susan, Pete with Nuno, Jessica with Marilyn. We highlighted bits of our discussions when we came back together:

• Nuno cited Ford’s description of an apple and how we "know" it. After all the different ways of thinking of just an apple, imagine how we can engage with GOD those ways! (But Pete said, "Just give me equations and answers.")
• Joyce sees Rahab as a smart businesswoman who saved herself and her family by choosing to disobey the authorities.
• Marilyn appreciated Ford's distinction between wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom “in the midst of so many overwhelmings” -- like in a TR you draw back to see the big picture
• Jessica took DELIGHT in LUKE – beautiful gospel – how Powell says think of Luke is a MUSICAL!!!
• Tom observed that anthropologists don't criticize the cultures they're studying, but look for how its features function for that society. Scott saw in a Yee's book a criticism of the culture that produced the Hebrew Scriptures, but for hermeneutical purposes focused on us today: how can women and others in the margins of scripture relate those scriptures to the lives they lead in our own time?

Theological Reflection
Jessica brought us Captain Ahab's sermon from Moby Dick. Naturally, he chooses the text about Jonah and the "big fish." Our attention was drawn to a line in the sermon about being in this world and striving to be in God's, and chose to focus on the image of being in two worlds at once.

We explored this image through theological perspective questions. The world is challenging – but bad? We saw “sin” in not being sure whose voice you’re hearing, and in not adhering to your own principles, and in the danger that rejecting this world means rejecting the people in it.

Something unexpected came up when we asked about what might bring redemption or health. You need to be able to forgive yourself too! We looked at striving, and the phrase “no pain, no gain.” But someone offered that, to cease striving could be a good thing – as when a struggling swimmer stops resisting a rip tide and is thus returned to shore.

In insights, Joyce pushed beyond the struggle between being in God's world and being in our world. She found resolution of that tension when she observed that engaging with this world is how we live into Christ’s world.

Over the next couple of days following class, Joyce prepared our collect, "collecting" the threads of our discussion into one whole cloth:

Ever present Lord, you are there wherever we go, whatever world we're in; Without you we cannot choose to be Thine. So fill us with Your Spirit, that we may cease toiling in our own strength, in order to discern your perfect will rather than our own. We pray that the words we read in scripture will bring us your perfect peace, joy, hope and love through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Joyce even related it to the theme of "strength" in her selections for worship!

For Next Week
Marilyn will bring worship and a "gathering" question to get us talking about our weeks. Scott and Susan will find a source for a TR.

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Yr. C, Wk. 11: A Family Shrine

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Worship and Gathering
Donfred led us in prayers of confession and praise. For a gathering question, he asked what Jesus means to us. Answers were surprisingly wide-ranging. He's an historical and literary figure not so close as the Father and Spirit... he's everything, like me, very close... I love all three... the answer is something they fought and died over... different perspectives are showing themselves as we read the gospels one by one... "He is a judge who also served a sentence."

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 2 Theological Reflection as a Life Skill: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred, Scott; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings
We met in breakout rooms then came back for discussion. Nuno's comment about hermeneutics -- that we are to consider ourselves as we read a text -- fits right in with my short message about Yee in the previous blogpost. I'm in a hurry to get to the Parish Meeting, so I'll leave it at that.

Theological Reflection
Nuno brought us his photo of a home shrine where his children have added objects sacred to them. We focused on our recognition that a family is a kind of shrine or altar. Here are comments from our "exploration" of that idea, as we looked for the nature of CREATION, BROKENNESS, and RESTORATION:

• Family – so many opposites reconciled
• Spirit is over all of it from the past -- Memories
• What Nuno CREATED has become an invitation to broken things to show up (family placing broken things on the altar) If it’s there, it’s important
• Beauty in the brokenness --redemption from sin (or brokenness)
• What’s ordinary is lifted to sacredness
• Disjointed, with unity at the same time -- CREATION so much variety yet with unity

At the end of our discussion, Scott asked everyone to contribute something they plan to think or do differently in the light of our discussion:

I pray that I may be of assistance to help repair any brokenness in my family, and restore it to a special place within our hopes and dreams.
I will think of the mess that someone makes in the house to be sacred, a sign of their presence, and not something to be cleaned up...at least for a few minutes.
I will be more aware of acknowledging the thin places throughout my home that bring peace, understanding, and heal brokenness just by their existence.
My mother in her dementia needs to be told what all the keepsakes in her room are, but the effect is healing every time. I like thinking of that as a kind of altar.
Once upon a time I thought a lot of objects as dust collectors. Now all my things are connected to my memories. [I'll try to]set down the little broken things and my concerns over them, trusting the Father.
Remember that the pain of divorce and single parenting was in the past but affects us still to this day. And continue to work towards a closer, more connected relationship with my boys. Praying for a greater sense of peace.

For Next Week
Joyce will lead worship and bring a "gathering question" that will let us all tell some aspect of how we've been in the past several days. Jessica will bring a source for a TR.

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Hear Yee, Hear Yee: Note from Scott

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"Ruth and Naomi" by He Qi, from the cover of Yee's book

EfM invites us to look for ourselves in the scriptures, and also to reflect on our own reactions to what we read. Remember how we responded to the story of Na'aman the Leper from our own perspectives? A soldier among us saw the consequence of disobedience; a soft-spoken woman saw how the action was precipitated by a modest serving girl. A retired drama teacher saw how the prophet staged the comeuppance of an arrogant officer as a comedy for an audience of foreign soldiers and Hebrew servants.

A young woman reading the first five books of Hebrew scripture could be forgiven if she thought that there's nothing in them for her. In Year One's reading for this week, "Character, Conflict, and Convenant in Israel's Original Traditions" (in Yee's book), the author Carolyn J. Sharp points out that men wrote the books and compiled them for instruction in male-only schools. I know from experience that 13-year-old boys resist reading about females except as objects of fun or danger.

So a young woman would see herself only rarely in the first five books. When women are mentioned, from Eve onward, they are presented as tempters, problems, or property whose value depends on childbearing. In stories and in laws, women are set apart as unclean, and a father or husband decides her fate.

Carolyn Sharp is writing for that young woman who looks for herself in scripture, telling her what other theologians have found between the lines. So, when Sharp writes about the portrayal of God as "Him," she tells us that theologians have long noted the feminine word for the "spirit" over the waters before Creation, and what theologians have sometimes seen in the phrase about God creating humankind in his own image, "male and female."

And so on through each of the first five books, Sharp points to clues in the text that the God of the Hebrew Bible can be seen as valuing women. For that hypothetical young woman reader, Sharp writes again and again what a feminist might see. Opening at random to pages 56-57, I see that Sharp tells us what a text offers, how we are invited to see a different perspective, how we may find a model for "resilience" and liberation in the story of Moses, what backstory we might reconstruct from the few references to Miriam as a leader.

While Sharp is at it, she also finds angles for others disturbed by what they find or can't find in Scripture. Disturbed by the slaughter of animals, and even more by the slaughter of whole families by Moses and the Levites at God's command? Unable to square the vengeful warrior God with our image of Jesus as a good shepherd? Not heterosexual male and seeing nothing about yourself except for two lines that condemn you? Sharp offers comfort, though it's sometimes just the balance from other scriptures "in dialogue" with the ones that bother you.

So let's read Sharp and the rest of Yee's book in the spirit that it's written. It offers ways for all of us to see ourselves in Scripture, and to see our neighbors in scripture, too.

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Yr. C, Wk. 10: Legacy - Writing Ourselves in the Story

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Worship and Gathering
Scott led worship for Halloween, including a dramatization of Saul's visit to the Witch of Endor (see picture). The gathering question was about experiences we've had of ghosts, witches, or monsters. Scott as a child was fascinated by the Endor picture in his family's Bible; others told of reading ghost stories and Harry Potter; a presence felt during sleep paralysis; a school field trip to "The Devil's Stomping Ground"; elders' stories and darkness in Haiti. Tom regaled us with a true ghost story from his family's time in Japan -- the creaking of floorboards where no one was walking, and the approach of the ghost as he was alone in the house packing to leave. We were spooked!

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 2 Theological Reflection as a Life Skill: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred, Scott; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Jessica, Marilyn.

Discussion of the Readings

Y1s responded to the RRG’s question, “How do Leviticus and Numbers demonstrate the maturing of God’s People?” Joyce said that sacrifices that had once been thought of as a way to feed the gods or to appease Yahweh’s anger grew into being an expression of gratitude. Tom pointed up two conflicting strains in these books – exclusion of foreigners, and concern for both foreigners and the poor, including the fact that Moses himself married a Midianite woman. Donfred pointed out the command for the landowners to leave whatever drops during harvest for the poor to “glean.” Tom saw the Hebrews becoming more obedient and faithful from one generation to the next. Scott laughed at how scared the Israelite spies were when they saw “men of great stature” in the Promised Land; Tom added a personal anecdote about 12 Spies Winery.

Another thread of the discussion concerned a question that bothered Nuno when he was younger, who’s saved and who’s not? It used to be as simple as checking the right boxes on a questionnaire, he said, but no more. Pete found a process of maturing in Church history, as the Church has thought about salvation in multiple different ways over the centuries, each way being what Ford calls an “intensification” (a personalization, an imaginative way to express an abstraction in a way that affects the emotions and the will). Susan said that Bishops’ debates at the Council of Chalcedon were more than “fussing over theological details” but finding solutions that effectively expanded salvation and re-connected to Judaism.

Scott highlighted what Collins discussed in his chapter regarding the nature of the Deuteronomic editor/writer. The book Deuteronomy (second giving of the law) is itself is a more mature, developed, centralized interpretation of the law given in Exodus. For example, the Deuteronomic Author softens the "holiness code's" harsh purity with concern for ethics. Donfred wondered about those dietary laws, and so do scholars. Collins gives several theories for the reasons behind different restrictions, but concludes that no theory explains them all.

Theological Reflection
Pete brought us images from a Bible passed down in his family from the 1870s, the ornate engraved wood cover, the gold lining the pages, etchings of Bible scenes, numerous extras described in an advertisement early in the book, and page after page where generations of parents and children can record their births, marriages, and deaths. We had a wide range of reactions before we chose to focus on a couple of ideas from Donfred and Nuno: Legacy -- writing ourselves into the story.

We explored the "world of the book" through some Old Testament categories: Creation, Sin, Judgment, Redemption. Beautiful at its printing, it has become cracked and smudged from usage -- and that's a good thing, we decided. Its pages are a repository of keepsakes (petals, peacock plume, death certificate).

We connected variously through sources of Tradition, Culture, Action, and Position. What's more depressing than an estate sale or antique shop, we wondered, where all those precious photos are suddenly lumped together as trash, and other heirlooms are commercialized? The geneologies in the Bible and the mania for online geneology today -- why? "Let us now praise" with the famous those whose names are not remembered, says Ecclesiasticus: their contributions are still felt. Example of the niece in her 30s who has asked her family to make their Christmas gifts everyday objects that connect to their collective past.

We listed these insights:

• The book is a metaphor for this strong feeling, urge to preserve and continue forward the legacies of those before us.
• Seeking to maintain or rediscover the connection…
• Objects that belonged to someone are somehow connected to them… breaking or losing the objects is like losing them again
• Immortality / salvation? The names in the book – could be tracing the family separate from the rest of the community, but if we go further back, we see historical association and connection. Adding the names to the front of the book makes them part of this story… living in this story.

We used "chat" to collect lines of gratititude or petition for God, which made a prayer. Seeing these, Tom improvised a collect to "collect" all these thoughts:

PrayerThanking God my name was added, resolving that more be added, my prayer is to make more effort to make our children, nieces and nephews part of the continuing narrative, and that I may follow Jesus and his teachings, in the same manner of dignity and faith as my ancestors did before me.

Collect Almighty and everliving God, you are the source of all lasting connections, so connect us to you that we may also be connected to one another and those who have gone before and will come after, You who are eternally connected to Your Son our savior and to your Holy Spirit. Amen.

For Next Week
We're reading the assignments for Wk. 11 in the RRG. Donfred brings worship and a question to gather us at the start; Nuno will bring a source for the TR.

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Yr. C, Wks. 8 & 9: Naaman, Elisha, and a Little Serving Girl

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Worship and Gathering
Joyce led us in worship, with Psalm 121 as a lead-in to Prayers of the People, Form IV. Her gathering question was to share our go-to scripture or Bible story for times "when life goes crazy?" We cited the Song of Simeon, Ps. 121, Ps. 23, the dark scriptures in Job and Ecclesiastes, daily meditations (shoutout to Forward Day by Day), Exodus 14, and a gospel tune, "Sing to the Mountain."

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 2 Theological Reflection as a Life Skill: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred, Scott; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Nuno.

Discussion of the Readings

Pete set a theme of leadership that emerged from his breakout discussion with Donfred and Tom. “Moses was frustrated to tears!” So was God, Joyce reminded us, until Moses talked the Lord down from a reboot. Scott hopped in with the theory relayed by Collins that a strain of anti-priestly text mixes in Exodus with pro-priestly text, refecting the centuries-long conflict for leadership between local Levite priests and what became Temple priests when worship was centralized. Tom spoke of leadership “in the details” of constructing the ark, the tabernacle – God involved in the details of our lives, not far off. Pete spoke up for the long view – seeing God in the overarching narratives of our lives. Susan was amused to realize that Emperor Constantine constructed the Hagia Sophia to house remains of all 12 apostles with himself, to make his capital a world-wide tourist attraction.

Jessica challenged us to guess which one of the miracles of Jesus appears in all four gospels? We got it in two guesses: feeding the 5000. She enjoyed using the charts that Collins provides for synoptic comparisons. Marilyn enjoyed a quote from Y4, the crucifixion “tied the knot between the mission of Jesus and his person.”

Theological Reflection
Scott brought a source from our Tradition, II Kings 5.1-19, which we read together in English and in French, with some phrases in Russian. What stood out for us were, variously, Na'aman's self-importance, his expectations of what a miracle should look like, the "little serving girl" whose remark about the God of Israel sets off the whole story, and the contrast between her and the officers, two kings, and the great prophet in the rest of the story. We also enjoyed how Na'aman thinks it necessary to worship the God of Israel on the soil of Israel - so he loads two donkeys up with dirt.

We found ways to connect to the story. Jessica found in the Culture source an Oz connection, that what Dorothy needed was within reach throughout all her travels and brave deeds. From the sources of Tradition and Action (personal experience), Tradition: Jesus and the crucifixion not the Kingship that the Apostles expected… then it’s a sweet surprise ... I’ve been that little girl. Growing up, (Joyce) a lot was asked of me. “I want a percentage.” ... Our expectations of college: what I came away with was something more personal than what I got in class... Military school, like Na'aman's experience, was about being broken down and humbled. Expectations so inappropriate!

Among our insights and applications: People still fight over bits of earth... Obedience: when God says it, you do it... “Wait” – We build it up and we have an expectation – and in the end it doesn’t make sense... When it comes to a decision, think first… be patient … things don’t work right away, you have to listen to others... So important to acknowledge that we have to get over ourselves – pets help us to do that.

We postponed writing a collect, as we were maxed out on time. UPDATE Here's what I came up with, working with these elements of our discussion: leprosy, the voice of servants, from armor to the skin of little child, obedience to the unexpected order, waiting, not my will but thy will be done, carrying the soil of Israel back home with him to worship the true Lord…

Collect for ListeningLord of all nations, you speak to Na’aman through Kings and Prophets, but also through a young maid: We pray that we, too, may set aside the armor of our pride and listen with patience to your voice so that, being cleansed of anger and disdain, we may carry on our worship of you wherever we go. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For Next Week
We do the readings assigned in the RRG for week 10. Scott will bring a Halloween-themed worship; Pete will bring a source for the TR.

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Yr. C, Wk. 7: Tensions and Journeys

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Worship and Gathering
Tom brought us prayers from the 1927 BCP, familiar to him from childhood. His question concerned a character or story of the Bible that we each identify with? Joseph and Elijah because they went down a hole and came up again; Peter who at first sought the easy way out; Paul who learned to be content with all circumstances; Sarah and the many women in Scripture who were described as barren; the story of feeding 5000; the stories of Jacob and of Abraham and Isaac; Joseph; Nehemiah a normal guy putting together a big production with help from friends and God.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 1 Spiritual Biography and Listening: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings
A theme that emerged from our discussion was tension – between different perspectives on Biblical stories even among the writers of Scripture; between being a spectator and a participant; between approaches to the problem of evil, and between acknowledging the good that God can make from evil while retaining repugnance for the evil itself. Collins used a wonderful image for the many different ways that scholars, believers, and theologians have for approaching any passage of Scripture: different keys open different doors, so collect as many keys as you can.

Pete highlighted “idolatry” in Ford as the root of human evil, i.e. putting something besides God at the center of one’s life or society. Tom said that the Exodus is to the Old Testament what the Resurrection is to the New. (But what was manna? Donfred wants to know!)

Theological Reflection
Reflecting on the stories we've told about ourselves over the last several weeks, we each presented an image for our spiritual journey. Before any of us made any comments about our images, the rest of us explored those images (as we will do in Theological Reflections!). Here's a collage of the ones I have on file.

I'm sorry it did not occur to me to take screen shots of the other wonderful images. If you send me yours, I can add it to the collage.

For Next Week
Nuno will be out: thanks for the heads up! Homework: Skim the essay in the RRG Week 8 (first four pages at least) and then do the readings assigned for week 9. Joyce will lead worship and bring a gathering question for us. Scott will bring a source for our first TR.

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Yr. C, Wk. 6: Imperatives and Narratives

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Jacob wrestling: "relationship with God is not transactional or distant but as close to us as our own bodies"

Worship and Gathering
Susan brought "Compline for Tuesday 10/11/2023" from the Northumbrian Community. The gathering question required a little creative thinking: how something small had a big impact on our week? There were tiny horses, a microscopic virus, a little surgical snip to redirect a puppy's life, the little Brady Bunch pitcher that's a big reminder of growing up, a little rest that went a long way after a hectic work week, little seeds on a big lawn, a little child on a big horse (and he tried to eat it), and just a little visit to an aunt where two cousins filled in the gap of many years since they last saw each other.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 1 Spiritual Biography and Listening: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings

After small groups of two or three met 20 minutes in breakout rooms, our discussion started a theme that carried throughout the rest of the discussion: relationship with God is not transactional or distant, but as close to us as our own bodies.

The relationship requires alertness to God, responsibility, and risk. These three elements showed up in the stories of the patriarchs read in Year One – think of Abraham’s leaving his home, or taking young Isaac for a sacrifice, or Jacob’s returning to face Esau. They also showed up in the Hebrew conception of economics and the world at the time of Jesus. MacCulloch shows how theology set boundaries in the context of historical human experience,.

Pete said of Christian ethics that so much hinged on the desire to do the right thing, knowing that what is desirable is not always responsible, and vice versa. Through all the angles on ethics, Marilyn saw the unavoidability of taking personal action. Tom saw the taking of personal action repeated in the lives of the Patriarchs, “so human, so struggling, so usable” (he cited poor Joseph in that dungeon, forgotten for years)… so alert to God and ready to take the consequence” … “Patriarchs aren’t exactly up on law”… morality based on their situation.

Near the end of the discussion, Nuno opened another angle. We typically hear that the Gnostics believed they had “secret knowledge,” but that was not what constitutes their heresy. (We discussed how we know what they believed, since so much of it was expunged from our sacred texts). The heresy was in their denial of this physical world and our physical bodies, a view that persists today. Christ in his humanity runs counter to that view.

Our discussion had brought us back to the beginning. Our relationship with God is both spiritual and physical. Episcopalians are especially willing to celebrate the physical world's delights that Gnostics deny. Tom paraphrased Psalms, “we are wondrously made.” Desire to use body and its abilities is GOOD, especially when used in response to GOD.

Theological Reflection
After the break, before Scott even had a chance to read out the question from the RRG p. 46 about any image we have for anxiety, Joyce provided that image in her takeaway from the stories of the patriarchs: they "walked in their fear" (and that's what we, too, have to do.)

Our stories about the roles of imperatives in our spiritual growth remain private; but the imperatives themselves are worth noting here: "Thou shalt not...!" Consistent worship. Pray for others (especially in times of illness). Wait (because, over time, what's essential seems to come in waves, or "snowballs"). Leave room for God to act. Stay part of a community. Always go to the funeral.

For Next Week
Tom will bring worship and a gathering question. We will follow instructions directed to our years and those "to all years" in week seven of the RRG (pp.48ff).

Instead of a new story, we're reflecting on the ones we've already told, to find an expression of our spiritual growth as an image -- in words, in paint, or in pixels. Pete led the way when he described his life as a succession of "waves" of growth. I'll ask that we each share our image and explain how it expresses our spiritual journey.

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Yr. C, Wk. 5: Questions that Spurred our Spiritual Growth

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Animals who bless us: Jessica's camel and Nuno's poodle Louis

Worship and Gathering
Jessica led us in worship, an olio of sources that hit the main targets for any worship service in our BCP --praise, confession, purpose, petitions, Trinity, benediction.

For a gathering question, Jessica asked about any blessing we experienced in the past week. Nothing fragile broke during the cross-country move...coordinating baptism and a wedding...family time at Calloway Gardens...just waking up each morning and coming home each evening...a normal week -- "Normal is good"...Father/daughter time with oysters...girls' weekend at a football game with Dad...little Tomas at the evening eucharist.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 1 Spiritual Biography and Listening: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings
To be sure that everyone gets to share some of their reactions and questions, we met in breakout rooms for 20 minutes. Five minutes were for quiet review of markings in our texts for things that we most want to talk about. For fifteen minutes, we listened to each other's responses and questions.

When we returned to the plenary session, these were some of the ideas that stood out to us: How apocalyptic thinking can stifle the work for social justice, as true 1000 CE as 2000 and beyond. How odd that Paul says little about what Jesus taught, and that the resurrection itself isn’t described the way other key moments are. Tom grew up with the Deist “clockmaker” God, while Pete is learning to accept that “God is great, God is good” beyond what we can imagine. Marilyn expounded, “God as Trinity – identified through the people who worship – known for compassionate suffering. There’s always more, always springing surprises in history.” Donfred and Joyce were both struck by God’s softening of harsh punishments for Adam, Eve, and Cain – modeling for us. Nuno had assumed that Augustine's Confessions were about a bad boy, but they're mostly about his theological errors, Manicheanism (duality) chief among them. Nuno marveled that theological conclusions are worked out by worshipers in engagements with each other and culture… and how the Bible is a model for this!

I see a couple of common themes here: God’s engagement with us, and His intention that we engage with each other.

Theological Reflection
We shared stories about questions that opened our minds to spiritual growth. Without supporting details, questions included Does God care? How would I know? Why do such painful things happen? A couple of us gave answers: Learn to be comfortable with unanswered questions. Whatever God asks, say 'yes.'

For Next Week
Susan will lead worship. We're reading what's assigned to our year for Week Six in the RRG (pp.44ff). I recommend the exercise for all years on page 46, to come up with an image that, for you, speaks to the anxieties many of us feel. Let's take time to share your image on screen when we meet.

Nuno asked for our prayers during the next several days while he drives cross-country with two daughters.

Our personal stories this week will be 3-5 minutes about an imperative (commandment? rule? ritual? goal?) in our lives that we relate to our spiritual growth.

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Yr. C, Wk. 4: People and Events in our Spiritual Growth

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PHOTO:  Our EfM class made up half of the worshipers who attended the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels Friday at St. James: Tom, Susan, Nuno (with Elizabeth Gray and little Tomas), Scott behind the camera, with graduates Mariel and Jane. Seated right is Sue, mentor for the morning EfM class.

Worship and Gathering
Marilyn started worship with silence. Then we each read prayers she collected from sources ancient and contemporary. She asked when we had felt closer to someone in the past week? Several cited experiences from church at an evening eucharist, at an outreach meeting, and on the job as verger or usher. We heard of a car accidentally locked, a painting class, season seats for football, long-distance relationships maintained through communication and prayers, and a chance meeting of two families at a museum out of town.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 1 Spiritual Biography and Listening: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings
Scott started with kudos from discussion last week for those who invited another who hadn't spoken, who said just one thing per turn, who related to another year's reading, who got beyond "I liked it," and who said, "It was hard, but I'll do better."

Jessica started us off by saying she was shocked to learn that homosexuality was considered to be a mental illness until quite recently. Marilyn picked up on the theme of past and present, movements passing like "waves" (Yee). Joyce had an "ah-HA" moment when she connected her own personal development to what the organization N.O.W. was doing during her childhood.

Susan brought up something from MacCulloch that informs all the other years' study: The scriptures that tell of the earliest times were probably written late, when elite Jews in the Babylonian captivity were trying to maintain their identity. The prophets probably were among the earliest texts.

Pete and Nuno commented how different sorts of institutions have different purposes for studying theology. Scholarly theology and worship SHOULD go hand in hand, Pete said, "as we do in EfM." Nuno was struck by Ford's putting religious "conservatives" and "liberals" together on a spectrum that ranges from a practical/social approach where they're relatively unconcerned with the religious tradition, to a very individual approach where they see their tradition as the whole unchanging truth. "Conservatives" and "liberals" are at both extremes rigid. Between the extremes, there's a variety of other approaches that both conservatives and liberals take.

Theological Reflection
After the break, we spent a few minutes on the "respond" question on page 40 of the Reading and Reflection Guide (RRG). We reflected on themes that emerged from listing our own favorite books and movies. Some of us responded to stories about "hidden" things, whether those were fantastic beings or the unsuspected evil beneath the surface events in noir films. Good characters vs. evil was preferred theme, so long as the characters are real, not just types. John Wayne was an examplar of good guy, complicated. We liked to see the pursuit of justice. One romantic comedy made our list: the story of a prince who comes to America to find a woman who won't know who he is.

We shared our stories of people and events who contributed to our spiritual growth.

For Next Week
Jessica will lead worship. We're reading what's assigned to our year for Week Five in the RRG (pp.41ff). Our personal stories this week will be 3-5 minutes about questions or a question that have contributed to our spiritual growth.

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Yr. C, Wk. 3: Sanctuary and our Relationships with God

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Worship and Gathering
Before the meeting, Nuno sent us this:

For Worship tonight I thought we might try something different. Below is a simple song I often sing on repeat to lul my kids to sleep. I invite us to each take a turn reading, singing, praying, or expressing these words as we feel called.

Lord, prepare me
To be a sanctuary,
Pure and Holy,
Tried and true.
With Thanksgiving,
I'll be a living
Sanctuary
For you.

Nuno then asked where we find sanctuary outside of church? Outside on the bike trail, the playing field, the wilderness, the back porch (with screens "so I don't have to crush God's little creatures," Susan said), but also inside the home, with some preference for the basement, and anywhere near water.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 1 Spiritual Autobiography and Listening: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings
Marilyn led with an observation about the importance between past and present. It's not only the contents of ancient texts, but the ways later communities fit them together, and the ways later communities used/interpreted/fought over those texts. Readings in different years highlighted the choices that translators through the millennia have had to make.

First year may be overwhelming at first, Jessica said, but she remembered how she gained perspective when our friend Kathy said, “My 8-year-old heart broke when I learned that Jesus didn’t invent the golden rule.” The theories about sources were already familiar to some of us from college, though there was some interest in what's been updated since the 70s -- including a critical look at scripture from the perspectives of marginalized people (as in the other text edited by Yee) and cultures that have been colonized. Tom remarked on the new theory that Abraham's story has new meaning if we allow that it might have been written/edited after the Babylonian exile instead of centuries before.

Pete led another thread of conversation as he reflected on this, his fourth year (fourth-and-a-half, actually) in EfM. “It’s finally coming together for me." He recommended the essay in the RRG on being theologically literate (pp. 182-190). That literacy makes a solid background / springboard for theology – something we take with us the rest of our lives. “We’ve got to stay with the times without losing tradition.” Nuno joined in: we 'DO theology,' it's not just a briefcase of information. Literacy gives a sense of belonging, security in yourself and in your beliefs: “I’m amazed how much I’ve learned and how natural the cumulative process has become.”

Theological Reflection
Given 3-5 minutes each, we shared our stories of desires for relationship with God -- desires we have, or have had. I hope that we all practiced good listening habits that we identified last week: some note-making, eye contact, attention to places where the emotion or energy increased. We certainly had a wide emotional range in our stories. Because these stories are confidential, that's all I'm writing about them here now.

For Next Week
Marilyn will lead worship and bring a gathering question. We're all doing the readings assigned for our years in the RRG, week four. The RRG gives each year some things to focus on, so do take the moment to read what the RRG says. I've asked that we all "respond" to the questions for all years on page 40 regarding movies and books. There's a good reason to do this at this point in the year!

I like the last paragraph on p 40, too: "Listen to the stories around you during the week.... What concerns are expressed? What hopes do you hear? How do you discern truth in what you hear?"

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Yr. C, Wk. 2: Green Light

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Worship and Gathering
Pete could not be with us, but he prepared a worship consisting of thanksgivings. For a gathering question, Scott gave everyone two minutes to find an object of gratitude for show and tell. These included Bella the big dog, Nora the one-eyed cat, a mosaic cross (that brought to Marilyn's mind her gratitude for what this group has meant), a trophy from the game where Donfred scored the winning points in double-overtime, the Book of Common Prayer (along with the Bible, Tom's "owner's manual"), and the resin knob from a shifter -- Nuno told a miraculous story from his grandfather's earlier years.

We were sorry to hear that Kathy needs to sit out this year.

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit One Listening and Spiritual Autobiographies: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Pete, Joyce.

Discussion of the Readings
The most interesting piece of the RRG's essay seems to have been the micro-meso-macro levels to our lives, our consciousness, and theology itself.

Theological Reflection
After a break, we met in breakout rooms to imagine norms for our cohort with the color scheme of a traffic light. (see image) To those strictures, admonitions, and recommendations, Sewanee would add these:

• Speak in "I" statements, not "you" or "we"
• Respect privacy and confidentiality.

Before we practice theological reflection, we'll be sharing five-minute episodes from our spiritual autobiographies, one per week for the next five weeks.

Scott explained how the autobiographies "feed four birds with one scone" - building community, exploring the process of spiritual growth over the years of our lives, and listening. This year's autobiography prompts derive from the premise that theology, too, is about listening to our own lives -- our desires, discomforts, and fears -- and to the culture of our generation. So, as the RRG said, theology is not just pages of information or a list of settled "imperatives"; every generation must find how Jesus speaks to the world of their time.

In breakout rooms, we paired up to pitch our ideas for stories we'll share over the next five weeks.

For Next Week
Nuno will lead worship and ask a gathering question. We all will be reading assignments for our own years. During the second part of class, we'll each have five minutes to tell about a desire for relationship with God that we have, or have had.

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Yr. C, Wk. 1: Our Works, Our Names

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Worship and Gathering
Scott led worship through Evening Prayer, edited so that everyone spoke in turn.

The worship leader will typically ask a "gathering" question to give us all a chance to share what's in our lives each week. This week's question covered a broader swath of life: When we pray that "our works may find favor in [God's] sight," what "works" are you thinking of? Several of us shared photos (see collage).

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 1 Listening and Spiritual Autobiography:
1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Kathy.

Discussion of the Readings
We looked at the opening materials, especially pp. 8-10. In discussion, we noted that EfM goes beyond a knowledge base to teach us habits of applying theology to our experience and to involve us in community; that the mentors are not expected to be experts, but guides or facilitators.

We then anticipated next week's reading by listening to each other in small groups. While each of us told about our name -- its origin and its influence in our lives -- others listened intently so that they could relate the story to the whole group.

Theological Reflection
After a break, we heard those name stories and then reflected on the experience.

• What thoughts or feelings did you have as you heard the stories? Confusion, a theme of kinship, discovery that two very different names (Nuñez and Jagusch) derive from the same Biblical hero, Joshua, son of Nun.
• What do we read about names in our Bible and tradition? Lots of re-namings to show re-orientations towards God, geneologies that show the passing on of tradition and that validate a person's authority, God's going unnamed, and the question "Who do you say that I am?"
• What did we learn about listening? Lots of smiles: delighted to learn; we were attuned to emotions while we listened to facts; we felt the responsibility to get the story right; it was funny to hear what others picked up in our own stories.

When Scott read aloud some guidance for listening from p. 272 in the Reading and Reflection Guide, our own ideas were affirmed. One was added: don't be thinking about what you want to say next while the other person is speaking.

For Next Week
Pete volunteered to lead worship and to bring a gathering question for us.

All are reading chapter 2 in the Reading and Reflection Guide (RRG). We now have two links for that material:

• Opening chapters
• The entire book for download. Hard copies have already been shipped to us.

In week 3, we will begin the sharing of our spiritual autobiographies according to the RRG's alternative plan, each sharing about 3-5 minutes each week:

• Desire for God: Share a story about a desire you have or have had for your relationship with God.
• Person or Event: Share a story about how a person or event contributed to your maturing in faith.
• Questions: Share a story about questions that have had an impact on your maturing in faith.
• An Imperative: Share a story about an imperative you have experienced as you work toward maturing in your relationship with God.
• Image for your journey: Email a picture of a work of art that represents your journey of maturing faith. We will share on Zoom. Notice and give thanks for the rich variety of individual journeys in your group.

The guide suggests that we associate each chapter with a color. "Any color(s) can be assigned to any question. Your association of color and experience is what is important. In each case you may wish to share the color you assigned to the story and reason(s) for doing so."

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Yr. C: Preparations for our first meeting

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(Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.)

I'm Scott Smoot, Keeper of the Blog, pictured here with co-mentor Dr. Susan Rouse.

At our first meeting Tuesday at 7pm (E.S.T.), we'll make introductions to each other and reacquaint ourselves with Zoom. Then, we'll follow the agenda outlined below. Please do read it all the way through, because there are a couple of homework assignments embedded in the text.

Worship and Gathering

Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Unit 1, Spiritual Autobiography and Listening: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

I will lead us in Evening Prayer II, adapted for Zoom. All of us will have lines to read.

The lectionary assigns for Tuesday some readings that share a theme of "works". Workmen complete the temple. James asks about the value of faith absent works. Peter illustrates James: he has faith about Jesus, but not the heart to stand up for those beliefs in public. We ourselves will pray in Form III "that our works may find favor in God’s sight."

Homework: Before Tuesday afternoon, please email me a photo or other image that represents something you’ve been working on in the past few months. I’ll put them all into a slide show, and, after the readings, we’ll each have the opportunity to explain what the group is seeing. Please send the image to me in the JPG (or JPEG) format. My email address is smootws@yahoo.com

Discussion of the Readings
We usually have readings to do before we show up on Tuesday. This week, it's introductory material in EfM's Reading and Reflection Guide (RRG). A hard copy of the book is already on its way to everyone who completed their registration. You should receive tracking information by email. Email me any questions about the delivery of your RRG; EfM wants to mitigate a flood of emails by filtering questions through the mentors.

You can read the material on a PDF with this link: RRG, Intro and Unit 1. We can all use this until our RRGs show up at our doorsteps.

Frankly, the introduction is too full of information and terms that we'll use later. I do recommend that everyone read (or re-read) pp. 8,9, and 10 about expectations for participants and mentors. I recommend skimming the rest. The table of contents is interesting, mapping out the year by weeks. In the intro, p. xi lists books we'll be reading, and p. xv gives some useful online links. Bring to the session any questions you have.

Theological Reflection
For this unit on "Spiritual Autobiography and Listening," we won't be practicing formal theological reflection; that's for the next unit.

We will, however, practice listening.

For Next Week
Summary: Send a photo of work in progress (or all finished!) to smootws@yahoo.com and read selectively in RRG, Intro and Unit 1.

The link for our Zoom meeting is in the email I sent out Saturday morning.

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