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Scott opened with the collect for Tuesday in Easter Week. What were highlights of Holy Week and Easter for us? Hearing the Exsultete sung, especially the refrain, "This is the night..."; preaching for Maundy Thursday on short notice; Tom as Thurifer bowing and receiving bows; your young daughter leading the Prayers of the People on Holy Tuesday; gathering with a few others in the choir stalls for an intimate prayer service on the morning of Holy Saturday; the changing of scenery during the Easter Vigil from darkness and bareness to light and resplendence.
Yr. C, Living as Spiritually Mature Christians, Interlude: 1st yr: Tom, Joyce, Donfred, Scott; 2nd yr: Jessica; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Donfred.
We filled a Venn diagram where Christ on the cross overlapped with Black Americans on the lynching tree. Here's what emerged:
Both deaths were meant to be the most excruciating manner of death possible, intended to humiliate, to be a message to everybody else out there: “THIS” is not what you want to do – i.e. to proclaim by word or deed I AM SOMEBODY – both were in the face of oppressive power (in face of Rome and religious authority, Blacks in the face of white supremacist institutions)... Both played to worst mob instincts... The cross made of tree / hung from tree (tho’ not necessarily - e.g. Emmet Till) ... Cross: power to save … Lynching Tree: How? (The answer to that question emerged as we spoke)... Christ was sinless, and the victims of lynching were not guilty of any crime... “Don’t step outside of the imposed boundaries on you” (and the boundary line kept moving)... the antithesis of hope…
Jesus died for our sins…? Lynching … a lot of people died before we woke up. Martin Luther King … Mamie Till – the voice that said to her, “Mamie, it was ordained from the beginning of time…” EMMETT WAS BORN SO THAT HE COULD DRAW ATTENTION TO WHAT’s HAPPENING… Emmett’s mother had the open casket … inspired civil rights activism. MLK: We will wear you down by our capacity to suffer, and we will win your hearts in the process. NUNO: That quote could also be God's statement to us.
Role of WOMEN in both stories: the women who draw attention to it (Mamie, Ida B. Wells…) Blood of the martyrs is a crucible… drawing out of ourselves… Nuno: points out all the subtle stuff that happens that other people wouldn’t see (from own experience) – and these stories’ power draw it out for all. Power of sacrifice. Pete: prejudice can only be beaten by experiencing it.
After a break, Scott read from Cone's book (p.146) a 1938 poem by Langston Hughes "Let America be America again" that reinforced our discussion, especially coupled with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's mission "to redeem the soul of America." Tom reflected how American this whole discussion was, as no other country he's visited would suffer pangs of conscience for denigrating a population within. If America has grown more and more into the promise of our founding documents, the witness of Black Americans has been the inspiration.
More discussion followed, leading to Jessica's quote, "Obedience even to death on the Cross." Pete had told us about abuse of newbies at military college; Marilyn spoke of overcoming crippling fear; Nuno quoted DuBois on going forward "no matter how dark the world is." Pete contrasted Niebuhr's armchair faith to MLK's courageous stand against threats and actual violence. We found our focus: Mission as an external expression of internal conviction.
Our reflection included cultural expressions of this theme. Pete recalled how Tom Hanks's character goes reluctantly into his mission of Saving Private Ryan but comes to inner conviction as he proceeds. Scott brought up My Lai, where Lt. Calley followed unlawful orders to massacre a village of non-combatants. Susan recalled instances of academic dishonesty when the application of the rule would have undermined the purpose of the rule. Joyce remembered bringing down justice upon her brother for the way he treated his girlfriend (and he never messed with Joyce again, either!).
From tradition, we remembered from the book how Jesus "transvalued" values, showing how the received rules did not serve the underlying purposes. "I come not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it." Tom reminded us how David, refusing to take the ark into battle against his rebellious son, left himself vulnerable to God's will.
For insights and applications, Pete elaborated on Susan's comments, saying we need a balance the mission with conviction. Nuno lifted up something Tom said, that a good mission converts people to itself. The civil rights example, "We will love you no matter how you hurt us," convicted people of their previous hatred. Yeats, describing politics of his time: "The best lack all conviction; the worst are full of passionate intensity." Jessica: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God."
Added May 20: Prepping for mentor training, Scott found an apt alternative form for collects, this one based on the "moods" from the Y4 theology primer by David Ford: We affirm... we know that we must... we wonder... and we doubt... So we pray for the possibility... because our longing is...
For this Tuesday, we're reading the short essay for Week 30 in the RRG, then moving on to the readings assigned for Week 31. Nuno will lead worship and bring a gathering question; Tom will bring a source for a TR.
We are looking into the possibility of completing the year in time for a dinner together with Marilyn May 21; graduation will be at St. James June 2.
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