Yr. C, Wk. 20: God Reaching to Us, Our Reaching to Others

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Worship and Gathering
As a last-minute substitute for Donfred, Scott's liturgy allotted lines from recent collects by Nuno and Jessica for the start and end of our meeting. For a gathering question, he asked what sport or game would make a good analogy for your recent week? Jessica said Jeopardy, because answers have led her to more questions, both at work and at home. We had several games of ping-pong being played by Marilyn, Joyce, and Susan. After a tough week with little sleep, Pete said he's playing chess, moving slowly, considering lots of options. Nuno is trying to get back to a simple game of checkers after the big-world fast-paced game of Risk he's been playing. Tom's life has been like track meets of his youth: long periods of waiting for a few seconds of frenetic activity. Scott is playing Scrabble each week, finding new combinations for the same tiles.

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: Donfred.

Discussion of the Readings
Scott kicked off the discussion with Collins's chicken-and-egg question about Amos and Hosea: is the humane, just, international God they describe a recovery of the original covenant, or did the prophets add a dimension of morality to those books through editors who compiled the early sources into the scripture we now know? Nuno sees how editing can be divinely inspired as well as the original texts. Susan gave examples from Y3 of revisions to long-accepted histories of the Churches East and West.

Aside from the editing question, Tom and Joyce both spoke strongly about the emotion and love in those prophets. “They reveal the heart of God,” Tom said. Joyce was touched by the hope at the ends of the books.

Jessica continued the theme of looking beyond what was written to how scripture was written. She begins to appreciate the difficulties Paul had in communicating to the Corinthians, as he urged them to enter into "the mind in Christ."

In an aside, Jessica feels the Spirit working in our study, as the readings seem to be giving her texts that she needed to read just now. For Marilyn, what Jessica said about the “mind in Christ” relates to McIntosh – it's human “disintegration” and our self-preservation that keeps us separated, our unwillingness to risk vulnerability. Marilyn added, “The hardest times in my life were when I saw myself as alone…” Scott recommended poet / essayist Christian Wiman, whose return to faith occurred just before he was diagnosed with a rare bone cancer. Central to Wiman's faith is that vulnerability of the Lord, who called out from the cross, “My God why have you forsaken me?"

Theological Reflection

Susan brought a cartoon depicting a young man's dog responding joyously to the attention of a young woman on the sidewalk, who is evidently a stranger facing the opposite direction. The artist is Ali Solomon. Her work appears in The New Yorker. (See an interview with her at BoredPanda.com)

The group's interest lay in the young man's evident disaffection, even discomfort. As we got further away from the source, we got into a metaphor -- someone out in the water, seeing lively activity among people on shore.

More than usual, we found applications to our own churches, especially with regard to newcomers and members who feel excluded or timid about getting involved. "Being friendly" is not a simple answer. From our reflection, Tom wrote this collect:

Collect regarding OutsidersAlmighty and all-knowing God, having created us, You know all of your people, Your sons and daughters, better than we know ourselves, what gives us joy and what gives us devastating agony, where we are healthy and where we are in debilitating pain, when we are competent and when we are absolutely helpless, when we feel loved and when we feel it is hopeless that anyone will ever love us, even You, Merciful Father; since we ourselves are in such desperate need of your restoration and redemption, and we ourselves are unable to help ourselves in any good and meaningful way, give us such sensitivity to the needs of each member of Your family around us, especially of the newcomers in our midst, so that we may be to Your sons and daughters Your heart, Your shoulders, Your arms, and Your hands to guide them to that which You know they need, to that which brings them Your restoration and redemption, and to that which gives them greater knowledge and life-giving connection with You, Who with our Great Kinsman-Redeemer, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever, Amen.

For Next Week
We do the readings for Week 21. Donfred will lead worship and bring a question to gather us in our community. Joyce will bring a source for the TR.

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