Yr. C, Wk. 31: Wisdom, Enlightenment, and That Lovin' Feelin'

For our worship, Scott screen-shared a selection from Daily Devotions, "In the Early Evening," the Book of Common Prayer p.139, including the collect for Tuesday in Holy Week, April 7, p. 220.

Scott asked that everyone from now on post responses to readings before we meet. Taking some time to do that, and time again to read everyone else's comments, will allow us  more of our hour of Zoom for worship and reflection. Henceforth, Scott will post a blank blog on Saturday for the next week's meeting for everyone to add their comments about their reading.

Yr. C theme: Living as Spiritually Mature Christians Class: Matt, Pete, first year; Christine, second year; Mariel, Gene, third year; Erica, fourth year; Scott and Susan, co - mentors. Absent: Christine.

In our discussion...

• Matt volunteered that God's character in the Book of Job is dynamic, as if God is influenced by Job's words. In Job, Matt and Pete agreed, it's as if Job puts God on trial.
• Pete was fascinated by the three so-called friends who cannot accept that Job is suffering for nothing, as they tell Job, "You must have done something wrong." In the end, when God wants to punish them for their wrong-headedness, Job asks forgiveness for them.
• Later, Pete saw the friends' simplistic view represented in Proverbs, where goodness is always rewarded and badness is always punished. Matt and Pete saw a range of views of God in the three "wisdom" books of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes.
• Mariel, reporting from MacCulloch, picked up on the motif of a trial in a section on the Enlightenment called "God in the Dock," i.e., on trial. She read from a popularly circulated manuscript "The Three Impostors" -- what we'd call today a viral meme -- that mocked religious faith.
• Gene, responding to the same chapter, ran through intellectual highlights of the Enlightenment: Spinoza and Deism (a Creator God neutral or disinterested in our lives), Rousseau (humanity born good but distorted by insitutions), the rise of Nationalism, and an attitude towards gender not so enlightened. Mariel and Susan added that a literalistic view of Scripture arose as a reaction to both the earlier allegorical interpretations and challenges of scientific materialism.
• Erica drew from the remarks that she had already posted on our blog. She wondered if the book Our Neighbor's Faith aims at a target audience from a generation older than hers, who, in her experience, harbor mistrust of Jews, and perhaps also of other faiths. Her favorite chapter so far gave her a wider introduction to Hinduism than she has had before.

Theological Reflection Matt shared a photo from Instagram that had received a lot of local "likes," a close-up of a hand-written sign seen in the Marietta Square. The anonymous sign-maker observed that the whole world is staying home to protect the weak and the needy, and concluded, "Nothing in the whole history of mankind ever felt more like love than this." Mariel suggested that we respond to this as a "position."

After negative initial responses, we did our best to enter into the sign-writer's way of looking at Creation. We intuited a view focused on finding what's good in the Here and Now (without awareness, apparently, of Elsewhere and Other Times).

When we contemplated Sin and Judgment, we intuited that the sign-maker would feel rage against the sin of not conforming to the sign-maker's idea of "sheltering in place." For this, we drew on our own recent experiences in grocery stores and on social media.

What emerged as we looked for "redemption" in this world view was an attitude shift to balance subjective feeling with objective fact, and to widen the frame of reference to include history and the Christian tradition.

Our opinion of the sign-maker seemed to soften as we found many times in our own lives when we had approached others from a doctrinaire position. For one example, a mother's doctrine about corporal punishment changed with the experience of rearing chidren and of seeing those grown children with children of their own. Judgmental thoughts were suspended at a recent visit to see parents crowding MUST Ministries to find food for their families. Another admitted, "Every time I've ever said I'll never, eventually I do."

As we looked through cultural analogs and those in our tradition, we found examples of both naive Pollyannas and courageous, self-sacrificing saints. We found that the Pharisees fit the bill for their hope that doctrinaire conformity would lead God's people out of enslavement to the Romans to restoration, as promised in scripture. (Here, they echoed the sentiments of Proverbs.)

What was so bad about the Pharisees? While the Pharisees loved the law, Jesus loved the people for whom the law was created; while the Pharisees insisted on the letter of the law, Jesus acted on the spirit of the law. The Pharisees, someone said, had "lost that lovin' feelin'." Our theological reflection brought us to a new appreciation for the ways diverse circumstances lead to diverse approaches to serving God and our community.

When Mariel read this prayer, Susan said that we'd already found the perfect collect:

In the Morning, BCP p. 461
This is another day, O Lord. I know not what it will bring forth, but make me ready, Lord, for whatever it may be. If I am to stand up, help me to stand bravely. If I am to sit still, help me to sit quietly. If I am to lie low, help me to do it patiently. And if I am to do nothing, let me do it gallantly. Make these words more than words, and give the Spirit of Jesus. Amen

Christine composed a collect based on wisdom literature and Job:

O God of wisdom, we are an imperfect people, through Your love you gave us Job as an example whose eyes you opened to your greatness. Help us to see as Job did through our own trials so that we too may see your greatness loving all those in our midst and serving You. Amen

Scott concluded with the final collect from Compline.

Next Meeting: Gene will lead worship via Zoom, and Pete will provide a source for our TR.

Yr. C, Wk. 30: Vocation and the Plague

For the second week in a row, we met via the Zoom app.

Mariel screen-shared a liturgy of readings and prayers with apposite images.

Yr. C theme: Living as Spiritually Mature Christians Class: Matt, Pete, first year; Christine, second year; Mariel, Gene, third year; Erica, fourth year; Scott and Susan, co - mentors. Absent: none.

Our text this week was "A Mature Theology of Vocation" in EfM's Reading and Reflection Guide. Pete, Erica, and Mariel all posted thoughtful comments to the blog before the meeting (see previous blog post).

• Christine started us off, telling us that her idea of vocation has opened up to include caring for the elderly, something that had not occurred to her until eldercare necessarily became a part of her life. Now she thinks that may be a ministry for her.
• Scott admitted that the questions intended for discernment --

  Desires: What do you long or yearn for?
  Imperatives: What should, ought, or must you do? (RRG 154)

  -- no longer gnaw at him as during the first half of his life. Around fifty, he found peace with the idea that what he was already doing -- writing, music, art, all in the service of church and school -- was what he had always been preparing to do. At 61, he's not so concerned with "vocation" as formerly.
• Susan agreed, and quipped, "I'm okay now with being a slacker."
• Mariel can't remember ever having a feeling of "calling" in her life or professional career, but feels that she has learned to be open to possibilities. In her comments posted before the meeting, Mariel wrote that praying the Psalter and using the Book of Common Prayer daily are two ways that she plans to keep structure in her life when retirement moves her away from the structure of a daily job.
• Christine cited the essay's expression of peoples' doubts that the "bits and pieces" of life can all fit together (RRG 152). For Christine, an artist who has worked with collage, looking retrospectively for a pattern among bits and pieces seems an intriguing challenge.
• Erica had written before our meeting about those "bits and pieces" and anxiety about seeing "the big picture." She told how a Buddhist sage was bemused when she asked about "calling" in this sense, telling her, essentially, if you want to be monk, then, okay, you're a monk. Erica also brought up her fascination with the Roman Catholic idea that one is "called" to marriage as to priesthood, an idea that resurfaced again and again during our meeting.
• Matt, too, saw his vocation clearly in retrospect. So much of his life was spent in the Church, working with youth. He found confirmation in the Book of Common Prayer, in the catechism, where "the people" are listed first as the ministers of God.
• Gene remembered back to graduation from college, when he had on his desk two stacks: applications to seminaries, and applications to law schools. Though he chose law school, the feeling of vocation has never left, and now he wonders if his calling is being realized now, "just being here" for friends with acute needs at this time.
• Pete continues to wrestle with the question he asked a few weeks ago, "Is it enough to be a good person?" As he wrote prior to this meeting, his participation in EfM is opening him up to the idea of a communal aspect integral to Christian vocation.

Theological Reflection

Erica introduced us to a poem by Mary Karr, published in 1993, "Etchings from the Plague Years." The speaker in the poem lifts her eyes from "the valley" of an art history textbook open to a medieval image of plague victims, to see a "frail" young man on her subway car apparently suffering serious illness. He becomes for her an image of "everyone [she has] ever loved." When he gets off at her stop, she thinks the imperative: "Offer him your hand. Help him climb the stair."

In our reflection on the poem, we found a great deal of energy at the nexus of Medieval plague, the poet's personal memories, and the moment present in that subway car. We shared personal stories when past or future became present in an instant: seeing the toddler son in the grown-up groom at the wedding; the young daughter dancing happily to the altar on Ash Wednesday to receive the reminder "to dust you shall return."

We found cultural analogs in the interweaving of prequels with sequels in the Star Wars series; a phrase from Raymond Chandler's The Big Sleep about the texture of men's flesh in the beautiful flower of the orchid; the mingling of past and present, life and death, in Our Town; and, in the death-haunted comedy Harold and Maude (1970), how the young man Harold learns from octogenarian Maude that love doesn't stay fixed to one object, but embraces all of life.

Perhaps cued by the poem's opening line about images of death printed "in the valley" of the open textbook, we thought of the valley of dry bones (Ezekiel 37.1-14), text assigned in the lectionary for the Sunday worship two days before our meeting. In that story, the tragedy of the past and the promise of the future are both glimpsed in the present, tied to a call for action.

We reached some insights. Susan saw the sacredness of small things. Gene observed, "She goes beyond just helping one boy to others in her past ('everyone I’ve ever loved') to every person in God’s kingdom…. A communal thing." Mariel related the TR to the evening's discussion of vocation: "Is teaching her vocation? In the end, she’s roped into doing something."

[Mariel's phrase later reminded Scott that the Greek word for "church," ekklesia, means literally, a "calling out" (same as "vocation"); or, as Mariel and the theologian Ronald Rolheiser both reimagined it, this "calling" is like "being roped into" action, as illustrated by the parable of the Good Samaritan. See "Spirituality Needs Community," Scott's blogpost about Rolheiser's book The Holy Longing.]

Collect for a Call to Action
Eternal God, when Your hand set Ezekiel in a desolate valley to proclaim hope, dry bones rose to new life; may we, like Ezekiel, look up from our personal valleys to act as Your hand and voice to those who need comfort. Amen

Mariel concluded with a prayer.

Next Meeting: Scott will lead worship via Zoom, and Matt will provide a source for our TR.

Yr. C, Wk. 30: "A Mature Theology of Vocation" - Comments

We are all reading pp. 150-156 in the Reading and Reflection Guide (RRG) and sharing our thoughts using the "leave a comment" link below. When you are ready to submit your thought, please use the "Name / URL" field.

In our comments about this short essay, let's address the questions at the end of the reading:

• describe a connection and a distinction between vocation and ministry
• identify one to three issues concerning vocation and /or ministry that concern you at this time
• reflect on one of those issues and what avenues of action are open to you at the micro-, meso-, and macro- levels (personal, work, nation/globe)

Please review the previous blogpost for a rundown on our first meeting as "ZfM" (thanks for the acronym, Matt!): Our TR was very good, and the collect we drafted picks up just about every strand.

Yr. C, Wk. 29: ZfM, the first week

We met via the Zoom app. Prior to the meeting, all years posted reactions to the Bonhoeffer book as "comments" on this blog (see previous post).

Pete led a selected a timely worship liturgy celebrating Love and Family, shared with us on the screen. We particularly remembered in our prayers Gene, bereaved of his mother, and Christine, closing down a business. Matt could not join us this time.

Still, we re-connected, shared experiences, reflected seriously on the TR, and laughed a lot.

Yr. C theme: Living as Spiritually Mature Christians Class: Matt, Pete, first year; Christine, second year; Mariel, Gene, third year; Erica, fourth year; Scott and Susan, co - mentors. Absent: Gene, Christine, Matt.

Theological Reflection

“Coming on board” with our experiences of the outbreak of Covid-19 and the necessary “social distancing,” we isolated several shared strands to our separate stories:

• "Will life ever return to normal?"
• We took so much for granted before, assuming wrongly that everything will keep going “on autopilot.”
• "I’m so used to being anxious, that having a real cause for anxiety has been a relief!"
• Small things – the closing of a favorite restaurant, down-scaling of the farmer’s market – bring home the dire global picture.
• Feeling parallels between Bonhoeffer’s time, watching Hitler’s rise with incredulity: “You have to love Bonhoeffer for his convictions.”

Our feelings coalesced into a few observations:

• The world has probably been out of control all along, but now we see it and experience it.
• There’s "no exit" – title of Jean-Paul Sartre’s play about people quarantined in hell.
• It’s like being stuck on a cruise ship, an artificial happy place loaded with luxuries and distractions; in an instant, the illusion disappears.

Exploring that last image through theological categories of creation, sin, judgment, and redemption, we found a particularly resonant analog in the story of Jonah, who prophesied against the hedonistic luxury of the city Nineveh, but the Ninevans buckled down to change their lives in time to avert destruction.

Collect for a Time of Upheaval
Almighty and merciful God, when You through Jonah warned Nineveh that the great city would fall to nothing in just forty days, the citizens repented, fasted, and averted catastrophe; May we, shocked by sudden awareness of our precarious condition, see with new clarity the beauty and value in routines we have taken for granted, and abjure the fruitless anxieties that have distracted us from You. Amen

Pete concluded with a prayer.

Next Meeting: We will again post comments to a short article that I'll post Sunday morning. Mariel will lead worship via Zoom, and Erica will bring a source for our TR.

Yr. C, Wk. 29: Bonhoeffer's LIFE TOGETHER while we Live Apart

This week, we'll use the "Post a comment" link at the end of this article to post our thoughts. To submit the comment, use the "name/URL" button, and give only your first name. If you're using a Google or Facebook sign in, you're making trouble for yourself!

Tuesday, before our virtual meeting, let's all take a look at each other's comments. I'll invite everyone to log on for a Zoom meeting at 7:00. Our agenda will be check in, prayer, and theological reflection on our current moment.

Yr. C, Wk. 28: Bonhoeffer's LIFE TOGETHER, ch.1-2

Under quarantine, we sent our thoughts for posting here. On Monday, I'll post an article for week 29; please add your thoughts about the second half of Bonhoeffer using the "comment" button. Remember to use the "name/URL" box. Your first name is all you need to write there, without any passwords or addresses needed!:

PETE
My thoughts on Mr. Bonhoeffer’s 1st 54 pages of Life Together: 1st and foremost, a few weeks back, I had posed the question: “isn’t it enough to just be a good person”. Well Mr. Bonhoeffer has certainly set me straight! “The Christian cannot simply take for granted the privilege of living among other Christians”. He believed that Christian Life had to be lived, and not just a thought or philosophy.
• AMAZED: He was entirely committed. He laid out framework in the first two chapters of how to live in the Christian Community and how to schedule your day within the Christian Community and life.Starting the day with morning prayer within the Community along with Communion Work Noon time prayer & introspection Work Evening prayer within the Community coupled with asking for & giving forgiveness.
• BOTHERED: After doing some further research, I became aware that, such an obvious man of God, Mr. Bonhoeffer lost his life for his faith and convictions. A true martyr.
• CONFUSED: Maybe this is actually how life should be lived on many levels, but it seems (to me at least) his idea of communal Christian life is almost unachievable within my typical norms of life.
• DELIGHTED: Even though I often find myself in the looking glass of the emotional community, it was refreshing & awakening to find a good working definition of the distinct differences between the spiritual and emotional communities of Christianity.

MARIEL
Here are my reflections on the first two chapters of "Life Together":
• Amazed - Bonhoeffer recommends a full chapter reading of the Old Testament every morning and evening. (Not sure I could absorb a chapter of Leviticus first thing in the morning.)
• Bothered - He strongly advocates letting other have the freedom to be who they are in Christ, and not trying to dominate or coerce them, but Bonhoeffer's tone is frequently absolute and authoritarian. Seems a bit contradictory, although he is German, so...
• Confused - As fervent as he is, it's difficult for me to understand his opposition to human emotions. He writes so passionately about Christ and the love of God, and talks about how disillusionment can be a good thing - these are all emotions that drive us to transformation. Perhaps the translation of the word "emotion" from German to English doesn't quite convey his meaning.
• Delighted - Bonhoeffer's directive on the proper structure of the Christian community's day (early worship, work activities, midday meal, more activity, some quiet time, then evening worship and meal) reminded me of the Lutheran Bible camp I attended when I was a 6th grader. I really enjoyed the daily structure of worship in the morning and evening, having some alone time, and enjoying communal meals.

GENE
Although I cannot imagine what Bonhoeffer went through in Nazi Germany, his idea that just the chance to live in a Christian community is a gift of grace from God resonates this week with the church doors being shut. While I know we will get through this I'd rather see you all face to face!
• Amazed: I was amazed by his dedication and discipline, and although he briefly mentions those lonely Christians who have little contact.with other Christians and must rely solely on their own faith, he makes a compelling argument for being within a community of other Christians.
• Bothered: Well... he is a little particular as to what he likes and what he doesn't. Perhaps a bit authoritarian.. This crops up in a few places, some of which you all have already mentioned - one of the big ones is that I think he tries too hard to make a distinction between emotional love and spiritual love. But the most absurd example was the section on the music that should be sung - in unison, of course - and that efforts should be made to weed out vanities such as "the improvised second part" (???), bass and alto voices, horrid solo voices that drown out everything, the unmusical types and those who are not joining in due to being moody or nursing hurt feelings. As an "unmusical" type myself, I would think those sitting near me would be grateful that I only mumble along, off key and often on the wrong verse and on occasion the wrong hymn. Perhaps I need more discipline - or a second cup of coffee..
• Confused: Somewhere between we have to work and work is a prayer I got lost. This does not relate to my reality. .
• Delighted: The way he describes prayer at dinner (pg. 47) and what it is we are really giving thanks for.

CHRISTINE
The depth and intensity of Bonhoeffer’s passion for communicating and leading Christians into deeper understanding of Jesus & our faith is quite intense.
• He writes of mature & immature Christians complaining scripture reading often being too long recommends reading full chapters of OT in morning and NT at night..while complete immersion is an effective way of learning, “practice makes perfect”, it seems harsh to distinguish between immature and mature, he could just say “hey, do this, it will deepen your faith, understanding, passion..”
• the instruction on “how to read scripture in community” by not inserting self and also pointing out the experienced Christian and a beginner will become evident when they read, no pressure or anything ...
• the singing in community segment was also filled with detailed instruction ...he started off with such a wonderful notion of how “spoken words are inadequate to express what we want to say, that the object of our singing reaches far beyond human words.”...then somehow things change and all of a sudden we are talking about the “unmusical” (me) and “vanity and bad taste...asserting themselves in singing...” It became confusing and I think he may not like certain instruments or voice tone/quality...”musical excesses”...
• I did especially like the section on community praying, praying freely and the idea of community member supporting those who haven’t mastered praying aloud.
• So far I like the material, but I’d run a red pen through a lot of extra words, am I allowed to say that? As you all know already I am a person of few words, but in writing I like words , just not too many. It’s a bit ironic in this case.

Scott posted his own thoughts to his personal blog in an article he calls "Bonhoeffer's Virtual Monastery in a Time of Virus"

Yr. C, Wk. 27: Psalms, Hebrews, Puritans, and Practices of Faith

Scott, away at the strings concert at school, arrived late with birthday cake and a card for Susan. For the first part of the evening, Susan took notes.

Yr. C theme: Living as Spiritually Mature Christians Class: Matt, Pete, first year; Christine, second year; Mariel, Gene, third year; Erica, fourth year; Scott and Susan, co - mentors. Absent: Matt.

What Amazed Us
How all the groups coming from Europe interacted together (Gene). He loved the irony of the list of religious insults for non-Trinitarians that couldn't be said, while they still executed them.
What Bothered Us
It's boring to read in Sedgwick about these practices of faith (Erica). MacCulluch doesn't like emotion, as he favors saner, cooler Anglican worship over extrovert religion (Mariel).
What Confused Us
Song of Solomon seems out of place in the Hebrew Scriptures, with the voice of a woman featured prominently, so much sensuous detail (Pete). Pete was actually Amazed and also Delighted. Erica remembered how Collins really likes S of S.
What Delighted Us
Mariel was both delighted and disappointed by the story of Ann Hutchinson, who taught men as well as women, who stood for those called by grace against those who preached salvation by law. Mariel wondered why MacCulloch doesn't make the connection between Ann and Jesus? Like Ann, Jesus's detractors attacked his authority as being from the devil. Erica thought Ann might like Sedgwick's conclusion that the practices of faith can become idolatry when disconnected from faith. Mariel was interested in George Whitfield, namesake of Whitfield Academy.
Theological Reflection Gene returned to the memoir for Father Wade, an influential figure in his life. In the passage that Gene presented, Wade remembers being a seminarian flummoxed by rapid-fire questions from his Uncle Fred -- a big rough-hewn tobacco-chewing profane man. We focused on the moment when Uncle Fred fixed eyes on young Wade to express an insight from scripture that shook up the nephew's life.

We could all buy in to that moment. We found examples of that same kind of moment in culture, e.g., Luke Skywalker's witnessing Yoda's power. In tradition, we found the strongest analog in Job, a passage that we read aloud: "I had heard of Thee by report only, but now I see Thee face to face." Christine volunteered to consolidate the lines we drafted for a collect.

Collect
Eternal God, ruler over all, whose son defeated death: When Peter blustered and brandished his sword to thwart Your will, a word from Jesus stopped him: So, too, when we react according to our own selfish desires, let us hear Your life-giving word and respond in Your wisdom and love. Amen

Erica concluded the evening with two prayers by the author of next week's reading, Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

Next Meeting: While Covid 19 has imposed "social distancing" on our lives, we all feel comfortable meeting as usual. Susan will provide a St. Patrick's Day repast; Pete will lead worship. Erica volunteered to bring a source for the TR.