Weeks 28 & 29: Thompsett, We are Theologians

Present:  SC, JK, BL, LL, SR, SS, ST.  Absent:  JM 

Scott brought dinner.  Lynne's worship, from a song lyric, became important to our collect; her question concerned our legacy.

We all contributed comments to the board covering each of the chapters in Thompsett's We Are Theologians.  

Our TR was a story from Jeff that led us to a provocative word, "cronyism."

Collect for Community with a Hierarchy
Dear God, generous and just, You made us part of Your Kingdom not based on our merits.  We pray that our choices will be made with You in mind, so that, putting ourselves aside, we may be examples for those who come behind us, for the sake of Your kingdom.  Amen.  

Next:
We won't meet during Holy Week.  For the next week, we'll be reading the essay for Week Thirty (pp. 130-136) and the readings assigned for Week Thirty-one.  Susan will prepare the meal; Bill will provide the TR; Scharme will provide worship.    

Week 27: Psalms, James, Sacraments, and Cows

Present:   SC, JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS.  Absent:  ST

Scharme brought pizza, Jeff, worship, and a challenge to use the initials in our names to come up with words to describe our weeks.

We all enjoyed remembering favorite Psalms, savored outstanding passages from James, and considered from Sedgwick how practices of piety even beyond Eucharist can be sacramental.

TR:  Bill brought us a line from Powell's comment about James and "the rich":  "No one wants to be the plumpest calf in the stall when the butcher arrives." (457)  Our collect includes a quotation from James, along with the idea of sacramental "hospitality" found in Sedgwick.

Collect for the Privileged
God, who blessed the poor and brought Lazarus to paradise, and who loved and challenged the rich young man; bring us humility and wisdom.  Make us doers of your word, not hearers only, who practice the discipline of healing and serving without partiality.  Amen.

Next week:  
We're going to skip next week, in order that we may be free to attend the harp concert at church.  Our homework is to read Thompsett, We Are Theologians in its entirety for March 15.  Dinner that night will be Scott; TR, Jeff; Worship, Lynne.

Week 26:

Your blogger/ co-mentor was absent. I missed the discussion, but I have the collect composed by the group:

Collect for Waiting (relating to Psalm 62)
Caring and merciful God,  You hold us in Your hands.  Give us patience to confront life's uncertainties and strength to trust in you, so that we can see the promise in the world that is waiting and yet unknown, so that we may fulfill your plan.  Amen.

Side Note:  This week, EfM central asked for a group status report with this question:

What would your group like to share with us about their work with this year's theme of becoming spiritually mature Christians?

I wrote:

My co-mentor and I are heartened by the enthusiasm of this year’s group for the ways that study, theological reflections, and our own worship practices have dovetailed.  Our worship now typically continues into “check – in” through a related question.  Study materials keep reminding us that “belief” means more than “opinion,” and that habits of worship and study knit belief (“beloving”) into our daily lives. 

 

Week 25: 1,2 Timothy and Timothy Sedgwick

Present: JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST. Absent; SC

Dinner was provided by Jeff, worship by Bill, connected to a reflection on how any good funeral service should also be like any good service.

Theological reflection brought us the anecdote of a rival who's found to be doing something shady.

Week 24: Shrove Tuesday

Present: JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST.   Away:  SC

As some of us ate pancakes from the Shrove Tuesday meal, Jane reminded us that "shrove" and "shriving" concern confession and absolution.  She asked us when we first experienced the Ash Wednesday service.  The imposition of ashes was surprisingly important to us.

Answering questions drawn at random from a deck of cards, we found that "shriving" was a theme in all the readings.  

Surprises? That Phillippians is the earliest source we have to express the doctrine of the Incarnation, that Christ was "present from the beginning."   Bill found the theme of "striving" (rather than arriving) in Phillippians and in what he heard from us about Diogenes Allen's chapter on Sin.

We discussed Allen's idea that "original sin" is a matter of orientation away from God, gradually turned through education, liturgy, and experience.  We discussed how the doctrine of original sin is not universally accepted, a point of difference with the Eastern Orthodox Church.  

TR
Everyone could identify with Scott's experience, and we arrived at an image derived from an anecdote by storyteller Carmen Deedy, whose father was the first Hispanic man to join a factory in Decatur.  Men black and white were all friendly to him, but both sides watched to see which restroom he'd use, the one marked "White" or the one marked "Colored?"   Cultural examples seem to laud the courage to choose a single right choice.  But the prayer book seems to give equivalent choices.  Jesus often refused to accept false choices offered him by challengers, such as the crowd ready to stone the woman found in adultery.  His answers seem to transcend the choices in ways that create "a third" thing, bonding opposites and God.

Collect for Choice Making
God who made us all, who refused the false choice of justice and mercy when facing the woman caught in adultery:  Give us the vision to discern wise and creative choices beyond the doors we see before us, so that we may grow into a more mature understanding of Your ways.  Amen.

Next week:  Jeff brings food, Bill does worship, and Lynne will bring the TR. 

Week 22-23: Systematic Theology, Ezekiel, Sacraments

Present: SC, JK, JM, SR, SS, ST.   Away:  BL, LL. 

Susan provided sandwich fixings and cookies.  Scharme brought a Psalm for worship, and a related question:  When have you had to think to yourself, "This, too, is a child of God"?    

For our discussion of readings. we brought out the index cards with questions such as, "What raised discomfort or doubt in you?"  "What issue of today was raised in your reading?" and "What did you feel was the main point?" Many comments converged on the effect that communion has on us.  Susan made a summing-up statement, that EFM makes us all more comfortable with ambiguity.

Our TR took off from the last chapter of John, where Jesus asks Peter three times, "Do ye love me?" We used three different translations.  We found many resonances, starting with liturgical repetitions, and including the observation that Jesus asked Peter this question once for each denial of Jesus.  

We took as our final worship the collect for the martyrdom of Peter and Paul, prefigured in the gospel reading. 

Next Week
We'll buy pancake suppers for dinner and meet upstairs by 7 pm. Scott will bring the TR.  Jane will bring worship, along with butter and syrup!  Scott will bring coffee. 



 

Week 21: Lamentations, Apocalypse, and "Grace"

Present: SC, JK, BL, LL, JM, SR, SS, ST.

Bill and Lynne brought dinner; Jane initiated worship with Psalm 19 and a question about our responses to "let the meditations of my heart..."

Reports on this week's readings emphasized "maturity" in Jeremiah, "a new intimacy"; "how the church should live" in the letters 1 and 2 Peter ("not just an apocalypse for prudes"); and how revelation involves a kind of reason beyond the materialstic, scientific, "Enlightenment" kind -- dovetailing well with Fr. Daron's sermon on Psalm 19.

TR: "Grace"
Our provocative word, brought by Scharme, caused us to examine what we think of this word.  It's something desirable, something given, something shared.  Instead of creating a collect, we recollected the use of the word in "Give us grace to do Thy will and walk in Your ways...."

Next week:  We combine readings from Week 22 and 23.  Susan will bring dinner; Scharme, the worship; and Lynne the TR.