Yr. D, Wk. 20: Change with Continuity, and a Dilemma

All were present. Scott brought Chinese dinner, as usual.  Susan's worship came from the BCP, pp. 139-140, with the question, "What challenged you this past week?"

We continued our practice of finding matches to "suit" the first "card" laid down.  This time, it was an observation from third year about the orthodox church, that it might not have held on so tightly to tradition had it not been threatened from outside by Western church and Islam.  Soon, the board was filled with observations from Hebrews, Isaiah and Micah, all giving us scripture that references more ancient scripture in a new context.

Scharme's TR began with a story about her first approach to St. James' labyrinth, and ended as a dilemma that turned out to be universal: the conflict between seeking personal growth and seeking the common good.

Collect for Discernment
Lord Jesus, You at times retreated from the crowd to the wilderness, and then You returned to Your work; let us take solace from what we find in our wilderness so that we may go out into the world to do the work Your still, small voice calls us to do.  Amen.

Next week:   Bill and Lynne will bring food; Scott will lead worship; Erica will stimulate our TR. 

Yr. D, Wk. 19: Amos, Hosea, Paul, and Tradition

Present:  Scharme, Erica, Bill, Lynne, Scott.

Scharme provided food; Erica brought worship.

We again took turns "playing" cards from our different readings, trying to "suit" one idea to another.  Bill led with Orthodox "tradition," a "continuity" that doesn't mean "changelessness."  Scharme saw Paul clarifying the Jewish tradition for Gentile Christians in Romans.  Erica picked up on the prophets' excoriating those who follow the traditions without faith, and Amos mocking the whole tradition of "prophets," who served as Kings' P.R. men.

We had some discussion of "faith" as an attitude, a feeling, an approach to life, a long-term relationship.  We wondered what part the visual aspects of our worship play in our faith: symbols? emotional cues? "proskynesis" (portals to true God)?

The TR led us to the harrowing metaphor of the failed or injured mountaineer whose dead weight threatens the whole party.  The guide has to choose whether to cut the rope. We found many cultural and Scriptural ties to this, including a movie and the parable of the 99 sheep.

Collect in time of Bad Choices:
Eternal God, you see all possibilities to the end of time; help us in our blindness to trust in Your Providence when he have no good choices; and give us the strength to live withour decisions. In the name of Him who prayed at Gethsemane to be spared his hard choice, Jesus Christ. Amen.  

Next Week:  Food, Scott;  Worship, Susan;  TR, Scharme.  

Yr. D, Wk. 18: Growing God Within Us

All present. Bill led worship from the prayer book of the Church in New Zealand; Susan provided our meal.

We reviewed the week's readings in the manner of a card game. We started with something that struck Erica from I and II Kings.  Others added something similar in "suit or number," whether the connection was by theme, topic, or some other similarity.  In this manner, we found several examples from the readings relating to cannibalism (!), and others concerning obedience to rulers who abuse their authority.

After our discussion, Lynn stimulated our theological reflection with a contemporary painting in Renaissance style of the Annunciation to Mary, by John Collier.  The detail of the open book reminded Susan of a much earlier painting by Fra Angelica.

When it came time to write a collect, Scott was reminded of a medieval prayer, "What good, Gabriel, is your message to Mary, unless we, too, can grow a God in us?"  We decided that was a good collect as it was; I've put it in more collectible form below.

Collect for Mindfulness of God in Us:
Eternal Father, You sent Your angel Gabriel to Mary with the message that her Lord and God would grow within her by the power of the Holy Spirit; Make us ever mindful how Gabriel's message resounds through the ages, so that we can nurture our Lord and God growing within each of us through the power of the same Holy Spirit.  Amen.  

Next Week:  Scharme has food, Bill brings something for a TR, and Erica leads worship.

Christopher Moore's Lamb: Thanks to Bill for loaning me this novel.  I've written a response to it, Good News about Christopher Moore's Gospel of Biff. 

Yr. D, Wk. 17: Samuel, Paul, Gregory, and Exiles

Abraham et. al. leave Haran

All were present. We brown-bagged the meal. Worship was the order for personal devotions in the evening. We came on board with stories of the recent holiday.

When we shared our assignments, Scott noted topics on the board. By the end, we'd seen a lot of overlap in the readings, concerning themes including the conflicts between religious authority and state authority.

The TR took off from the days' assigned Scripture, Hebrews 11.13-22, concerning the faith that led the Hebrew patriarchs away from their own land to sojourn as "exiles" in the land promised them.   (BTW:  On my personal blog, I use this in reflection on our discussions of November 15.  See The Power of Liturgy: I've Heard it all Before.)

Next Week: Susan brings food; Bill leads worship; Lynn will bring something to spark theological reflection.

Collect for Exiles (responding to Hebrews 11.13-22)
O God, You challenged Abraham and Sarah to leave their comfortable home to live as exiles in a strange land, while Your promise was yet to be fulfilled; be with us as we walk a road that, like theirs, requires us to strive, fall, and rise again, that we may ultimately see the heavenly country, and dwell in the city You have prepared for us. Amen.

Yr. D, Wk. 16: Dust in the Tides

We all met on a foggy night at the home of Bill and Lynne for our festive meal. At Lynne's table, we lit three Advent candles while we recited a liturgy for those candles, emphasis on joy -- echoing Fr. Roger's sermon last Sunday.

Our discussion of the reading brought out these thoughts:

• dust, tides, and roads: too many metaphors muddy the ideas
• Hughes's gender-balanced language for the Trinity struck us as interesting, not necessary.  "Fount" for "Father"; "Sophia" for "Word" ; "she" with "Spirit".
• In any case, we agreed that our experience of the Trinity is more important and more palpable than the metaphors
• While Scott appreciated the author's contrast of how ancients (right up to the last century) saw a universe in stasis, God up and Hell down with how we see the cosmos in constant flux today, Erica questioned whether this new science would itself be replaced by another view in another decade or two, because that seems to happen a lot.
• We discussed the way communion puts us in touch with previous generations and distant Christians
• We noted cycles again, from wholeness to brokenness to judgement and new wholeness - creation / sin / judgment / redemption of the TRs.  We considered how cycles in our theology compare to the cycles presented in Buddhism.  
• The author's recommendations of centering prayer and the Jesus prayer brought discussion of how the cycles built into our liturgy can affect us: Scharme recommended centering prayer; Scott spoke of singing the Jesus prayer 

Our next meeting will be January 3.  We'll "brown bag" the meal; Scharme will bring worship; the mentors will bring something to start a Theological Reflection. 

Yr. D, Wk. 15: Atonement and White Lies

Scharme provided our meal; Susan brought Advent prayers from Derek Olsen's Augustine's Prayer Book; Erica brought a TR.  All were present.

Crysdale's Transformed Lives evoked a lot of reaction.  "We liked arguing with her," we agreed.  While some of us felt that she lost focus in these last chapters, others felt that she finally made sense in this second part.  We all found common ground around pp. 120-130.

Jacob (with Mom) fools Isaac

Our TR took off from a story about a white lie.   We followed the "dilemma" method of TR. We found many lies in our tradition and culture; our exploration of beliefs included the observation that kind lies are counterparts to malicious truths. 

Collect for the Honest Faithful
God of truth and justice, You worked grace through Abraham, Jacob, and Peter, despite the lies they told; Prevent us from telling self-serving lies and malicious truths, so that we may live in authentic relationships and be credible witnesses for You; in Jesus' s name.  Amen. 

Next week:  Meet at 5664 Harbormist for dinner and discussion of the reading in the RRG, Wk. 16.
 

Yr. D, Wk. 14: Transformed Lives by Cynthia Crysdale

Everyone was present.  Scott brought Chinese food; for our first meeting in Advent, Bill brought prayers and a meditation about waiting.  Coming on board, we thought about how what we'd been waiting for during the last week.

Lynne opened our discussion of Crysdale's book by admitting that she's never thought of the "substitutionary punishment" theory of atonement as a problem.  Others agreed.  We reviewed Crysdale's history of that idea, and her inventory of Scriptural metaphors for the effect of Jesus's death.  We noted how the emphasis on Jesus's death does discount His life and resurrection, too. We look forward to finishing the book for next week.

The late Luis, age 13, left, and Mia, age two, near Rock Mart

Susan brought the provocative word "to bind" for the TR. Our exploration of the word brought us eventually to the personal image of walking a dog on a leash, and to the Biblical story of a Jonah, a prophet who slipped his leash.

We wrote this:

Collect for a Closer Walk with God
God, You guide us on the secure path: We, like Jonah, have run from Your charge and our obligations; Bring us gently to heel, that we might be reconciled to You and each other, bound in mutual love.  

 Next week:  Read Week Fifteen in RRG. Scharme - food. Susan - Worship.  TR - Erica.