Yr. B, Wk. 27: Moravian Piety and the Light in Spring

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Worship and GatheringThough Pete was suffering from oral surgery, he led us in a worship service. Naturally, he asked about others' most unpleasant experience of the day and heard acid reflux, the service man both overdue and dilatory, going to work, and an incident we dubbed Robopoop. No more to be said. We took some time to review the norms for this class, to be sure we're keeping to our best practices.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, Unit 4, Integrating Belief, Behavior, and Doctrine in a Multicultural World:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

[PHOTO: Moravian Worship Space, Moravian Museum, Bethlehem, PA.]

Discussion of the Readings
Year 3 participants were all taken with the Moravians in a chapter about "Protestant Awakenings." Their music, their valuing the Heart with the Book, their craftwork, and their emphasis on lay ministry appealed to us. Susan offered a current story about Moravians and slavery, from NPR.

Jessica attested to the validity of the observation that the Psalms break into four categories. Then she found two more in Collins. When we all asked ourselves why a book that doesn't mention God is included in the Bible, we had a range of answers: Ancient Rabbi called it the Holy of Holies, an allegory. The passion of it strikes a chord with lots of saints in the mystical traditions. Our word for a shady commodity, erotica, is different from the root word eros that crops up in theology books (year 4 and elsewhere) celebration of human desire (including desire for, say, the future, or home) and love.

Theological ReflectionAfter the break, we took a minute to write out answers to the RRG's question, How are you seeing differently because of your study in theology? Then we read a poem by Emily Dickinson that begins "A light Exists in Spring...." Kathy's comment helped us to see that the poet feels her own "encroachment" on the "Sacrament" of the light. We chose to focus on the line "it passes and we stay" where "it" is a light, a feeling, a time. (Kathy offers this link to a Christmas anthem that related to the feeling.)

We had already found personal connections to the image, expressing thoughts and feelings. We explored the "world" of the image further with perspective questions:

• Creation: What is the world like, whole? spiritual high bigger than ourselves and they pass away, leaving us to discern how we’re going to apply that to our lives… Even if God is silent now, I believe … Our mortal life and living into our eternal life… (Fear and uncertainty can pass and we stay, too)…
• Sin: How can this world become broken? Time is passing, but we can stay entrenched in our own thoughts … faith may pass leaving doubt … failure to pay attention … imposing your own judgement on what you see rather than letting it be… The parent who wants the child to stay as they are, not grow…
• Redemption: How might wholeness be restored? The Covenant with God stays even after the sins pass away… doubts may pass, leaving faith…

When we looked back over the entire discussion, including the source, we had these insights:

• In Black and White photography with film, Darkness is where the light passes through. Think of the “inversion” that happens to us when we’re exposed to the life of Christ…. What used to bring joy to us can feel less important.
• Tornado passes, but the communities are still there, struggling… picking up the pieces, and there may be grace in those situations too -- the inversion that Nuno was talking about.
• Compare “inversion” to religious “conversion”
• “It passes; we stay” but this is cyclical.
• Love – passes through us, goes beyond us, and we stay, but don’t stay the same…

(Typing this, I'm interested to notice that all the insights built more on each other than on the content of our source or reflection.)

We had one collect from Kathy, Jessica, and Marilyn, and another from Pete and Nuno, in that order:

Dear Giver of Light, Your love shines to bring us out of darkness. We pray that your perpetual light envelopes us in your likeness so that we can share divine love with you and one another. Amen

Dear Eternal Heavenly Father You promised that you will be with us until the end of the age. Help us not to hold to the things that are passing away Through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen

For Next Week
When we meet again on April 18,

• Kathy will lead us in worship and a gathering question.
• We will have read and journaled about the entire book Healing our Broken Humanity by Kim and Hill. We will also have read the four pages in the RRG for week 30. Email me your thoughts on Kim and Hill chapter by chapter, and I'll post them to this blog. Wk. 28 will be about the intro and first four chapters; Wk. 29 will be about the rest.
• Our TR on the 18th will be the development of an "elevator pitch" for EfM that we can distribute on video.

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