Covenant: Our House Rules

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Our reading of the catechism on "covenant" led us to imagine a graduate leaving the family home to begin a new life, having been shaped by the rules of the household. We brainstormed what those rules might be. Here's what might be taped to the refrigerator in this house that we call our EfM seminar:

Our EfM home is constructed from time -- time for study, worship, and fellowship -- to nurture our personal growth and understanding, so that we may graduate with a sense of our personal vocation.

To these ends, we agree:

• We come to family gatherings prepared to participate because we respect and invest in the process. If we're going to be late or absent, we'll send a heads-up.
• We have household responsibilities and chores, like contributing to discussions, listening, and taking turns for leading worship and TRs.
• We pray for the needs of one another; we also honor each other's privacy. What our brothers and sisters say stays in this house!
• We walk in love when we go out -- and when we come back in, too. We may not necessarily walk in lock step but we are going for the same goals of growth, understanding, and vocation to the world.
• We will respect differences.
  We will listen to understand, not to undermine.
  We will not indulge in partisan comments or sarcasm.
  When things go sideways and we see things differently, we will acknowledge the difference, forgive, and work to recover positive relationship.
• We don't expect Daddy to know everything, even if he acts like he does. We look to him for management of our time and encouragement of individuals' growth, not doctrine, not counseling.
• We will take care of our pets. This may mean muting your microphone when their sounds are intrusive.

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Following Jesus, Wk. 1: Introductions to Us and the Bishop's Chickens

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Worship and Gathering
We were all on time. Michael connected by phone. Scott read the collect for the day, Holy Cross. We used mutual invitation to learn what everyone prefers to be called and what drew everyone to EfM this year: to finish what I started... exploring vocation... "to continue the journey"... I enjoy it... to stay in touch with this group during a time of change . We also trained our cameras on "something in the room that tells us about you."

Following Jesus, 1st yr: Rob, Tiffany; 2nd yr: Michael, Mason; 3rd yr: Lanie 4th yr, Joyce, Susan; 5th yr "Wide Angle," Phyllis. Mentor: Scott. Absent: None.

Respond
We shared our very positive takeaways from Bishop Deon Johnson's video interview. That God is aligned with OUR stories, not just watching from afar... those chickens! ... dedication to the people he photographs in his "ussies"... his genuine warmth... how his grandmother taught him prayer and hymns... that he is open about being gay but that isn't what defines him... his prayer podcast (Rob knew it well before this)... that he would like to rip the back cover off the Bible to signify that God's story with us goes on.

We paused to consider each activity we'd done so far was related to at least one of the core practices of EfM: living in community, worship, Christian tradition, vocational discernment, and theological reflection.

For ten minutes before the break, we paired our new friends with veterans to explore resources on the website, specifically for preparation of worship.

Reflect
Rob and Tiffany read aloud from the Prayer Book's catechism, the part about "the New Covenant." We took some minutes to Identify a focus of interest to us all. In the catechism, "covenant" seems to be an all-encompassing love itself, a relationship that encourages growth and living the fullness of life, modeled by Jesus. Because that still seems abstract, we sharpened the focus by imagination: it looked to us like all the stuff wrapped in a graduate's farewell to parents and the home in which the child grew from crib to college.

Note: In the essay that we're reading for next week, Bishop Johnson explores what "Identify" means in our lives, mirroring the use of "Identify" as the first step in a theological reflection (TR). In later essays, he'll deal with other movements in a TR, going next to "Explore."

Scott's sketch of the graduate's good-bye was hopeful, but things changed when he ripped the paper. In EfM, wholeness and brokenness represent Creation and Sin. When we "explore" an image, drawing it can draw out unexpected details and feelings. That's the point!

We really got into it when we moved to Explore the world of that image. Feelings came up of the passing of time, hope, dread, regrets, and "the mystery of how parents can stay so optimistic"; thoughts included questions about the child's future. We readily saw how this relationship was created to be, but we also saw the potential for brokenness (a.k.a. sin). So we naturally wondered, when parent-child relationship breaks down, what could redemption look like?

We looked for answers in other sources. Popular culture has not forgotten Harry Chapin's song "Cat's in the Cradle." We saw The Prodigal Son in our scenario, but also the flip side: the kid who has escaped a toxic family -- Joseph and his murderous brothers, for example.

So, now that we've looked at "covenant," how it goes well, how it can go sour, how it can be redeemed -- how can we Apply what we've thought and felt to a set of norms and practices for our seminar? We used chat to write our answers. These will be posted and elaborated by yours truly in a separate blog post later this week!

[See Our House Rules]

We concluded almost on time with the collect for those who work or watch or weep this night.

For Monday:

• On Pathwright's schedule of weeks, open "Week 2" and engage with the essay there, "Identify" by Bishop Johnson.
• Come prepared to tell us about a "stepping stone" in your life, a time when you gained insight into Jesus.
• Rob and Mason will prepare Worship and a gathering question for us. In the weeks following them, we'll have worship from Lanie & Phyllis, then worship in wk 4 from Joyce & Tiffany.

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