Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.
We listened to the collect from our TR last week that Mason made with help from his AI assistant. Susan assured him that the result was good and that the ideas and the creativity were clearly Mason's. (See Wk. 13)
Joyce chose beautiful prayers and passages for us on the theme of light.
Her GQ ("Gathering Question") was about our parents: do we see more of our moms or of our dads in ourselves? Our answers revealed a lot about us. Joyce, thank you for helping us to know each other better. (I have to wonder how Jessica and Rita would have handled that question!)
Yr. D, 1st yr: Michael, Mason; 2nd yr: Lanie; 3rd yr: Joyce, Susan; 4th yr, Jessica, Rita; 5th yr "Wide Angle," Kaye. Mentor: Scott. Absent: Jessica and Rita.
Questions for week 14, chosen by Jessica:
- Who or what provided new knowledge this week? In what ways was your knowledge of something confirmed or challenged?
- When a community or people have been exiled, disenfranchised, or sidelined and are given a chance to return, what becomes essential for survival? How do you decide whether to stay or return? When have you felt that way? What was vital for your survival, and who offered support?
Michael and Mason reminded us that those returning from Babylon were contemptuous and even cruel to those who had been too low-class to have ever left the land. Kaye also pointed out that the Christian Jews and Christian Gentiles were doubly disenfranchised by the established authorities of Judaism and Roman Empire -- Paul tried to bridge all of these groups.
About question 1, we volunteered a wide range of things that were new to us. Lanie loved how "The Bible Project" made scripture clear to her in a new way. Mason was startled when the commentary alerted him to humor in Esther: the bumbling king so easily manipulated, stereotyped characters, layers of irony. Mike was struck by how foreign kings Darius and Artaxerxes do God's bidding more faithfully than God's people had done. Joyce was interested in the creation of the confessional box, and how it made the village churches and parish priests central to the lives of common folk. Kaye admitted that Paul is always a challenge for her, but Evans has softened her stance, as she can see Paul trying (successfully!) to create a larger community from groups in opposition. Like Mason, Kaye has learned to see some of Paul's writing as humor. (What the hand says to the eye, for example.)
Susan brought the TR, a portion of the day's lectionary reading from Isaiah 40. We were drawn to the line about how God sees us: we're grasshoppers. It's clearly meant to be a disparaging comparison, accompanied by lines about the nations being dust and all the kingdoms "a drop in the bucket."
Our discussion really seemed to pick up when Joyce consulted Google to point out that grasshoppers can't see where they're going when they leap forward -- true "leaps of faith."
We connected that image to our own experiences (the "action" source of knowledge) of moving for a new job, putting ourselves out for a new relationship, improvising on stage. Culture brought to mind some big leaps of faith made by Indiana Jones (Raiders III) when he steps out into a dark chasm, Marty Supreme out in theatres now, about a young man with massive faith in himself. Tradition gives us a cocky young David who refuses armor and conventional weaponry, his self-assurance mixed with God assurance. Noah, Mary and Joseph, all the apostles, and Abraham all give up expectations and homes for dreams, visions, or just the call of Jesus.
Esther came to mind again, when she says, "If I perish, I perish."
Kaye and Susan explored the idea that Americans have leapers of faith in their ancestry: the ones who risked everything to come here, and those who were brought here against their will and built lives and families against all odds in a place and time where their personhood was denied.
We applied this "leap of faith" idea to our churches as well. St. James took a leap of faith on our new rector, and so did the rector! Kaye's church took a leap by overruling the frugal businessmen on the vestry and springing for new construction. 20 years later, the risk has paid off.
I think the grasshopper will join Lanie's jeweled frog as images that will inspire us when we're doubting. Looking back on the whole evening, I'm noticing that our talk about exiles was also about communities taking leaps, whether they were going back or deciding to settle in a foreign land.
[Note from later in the week: Thursday's commentary in Forward Day by Day focuses on "leaps of faith" made by apostles Philip and Nathaniel (Jn 1:43), who follow Jesus, no questions asked. The author wonders, would he follow Jesus, or stick to his own schedule? He finds reassurance in Thomas Merton, who wrote: "I believe the desire to please [God] does, in fact, please [God]. And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing." The author concludes, "Would I go with Jesus? I don't know. But I want to. And that, in itself, is a leap of faith."]
The grasshopper reminded Kaye of poet Mary Oliver's greatest hit, "A Summer Day," in which the poet's awe and awareness of life's passing are prompted by close observation of a grasshopper eating sugar from her palm. This blog contains that poem in the context of a worship service I made from Oliver's poetry. See Liturgy adapted from poetry.
Joyce prayed for Jessica and Rita before concluding with a collect from the prayer book.
No comments:
Post a Comment