Yr. A, Wk. 4: Context Matters

Worship and Check-in Christine led worship this week with a service from Scotland. She drew on this year's garden metaphor to ask us about plant life that has drawn our notice. For some of us, our favorite plant is anything low-maintenance. Others spoke of gratitude for "Mother's daisies," getting to know trees by working with them, azaleas and other perennials for coming back even though we haven't tended them.

Living Faithfully in Your World:
1st yr: Scott 2nd yr: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Discussion of the Readings

We took a minute to look at the RRG's list of habits that get in the way of listening and that kill discussion, p. 38.

Our discussion started with a lesson learned again and again from Collins's book on Biblical values, that context matters. That means the context of the time and culture in which a piece of Scripture was written as well as the literal context. Pete gets the impression that Collins offers many different answers to questions of value in order to make us uncomfortable about any definitive statement. From Collins we learn why it can be overreaching to state "the Bible says" just one thing about an issue.

Another theme emerged, how God can be a unifying force while tension remains--whether that's tribal rivalries or doctrines.

The RRG had asked us to think of differences among words that are often used interchangeably, faith, trust, and confidence. That came up when Scott told how he was learning to trust in the process of scholarship that Yee describes, as critique follows critique, finding holes in each theory or interpretation. It looks like squabbling, but it's widening areas of agreement and opening new areas of inquiry. Christine (I think!) said that there are "checks and balances" in the scholarly process, so the nit-picking and contradictions are not a bad thing.

Nuno posed a question about the faith of Jesus: If he knew who he was in the same way that we know a fact, can he be truly said to have demonstrated faith? We pondered that awhile. Pete pointed out that Jesus's faith seems to come under stress when he feels God has abandoned him on the cross. Marilyn spoke of faith as "knowing that she knows." Scott was reminded of another EfM reading from Diana Butler Bass in which she looked to the German root of "belief" to find belieben, "beloving." Faith may not be a thing you hold to be true, but action performed with trust in your relationship to God.

Theological Reflection We shared our second round of "worlds" or "contexts" from our spiritual autobiographies.

For Next Week Pete will bring worship.

We'll do the readings for week 5. Our spiritual autobiographies move on to the question, "How was your faith challenged?"

Special concerns as we keep each other in our prayers:

• Christine and her friend Laura, mourning the death of Laura's mother
• Pete's neighbors, especially the wife
• Nuno's family while he's away
• We remember Cynthia, passed away at 78

Yr. A, Wk. 3: Shelter and Impact, Past and Present

Worship and Check-in Susan prepared a service from the Northumbria Community. We checked in with a question from the psalm: had we experienced the sheltering of God's wings -- or needed to? Needs were great this week, with friends and loved ones struck by illness, death, quarantine. Some good news, mixed -- it's great to quit smoking, but the disruption to routine is an unintended side effect.

We took a moment to review advice that everyone contributed last week for this year's metaphor of "turning the soil" in our "world." Christine said that the blooms in her photo are a mix of plants of different ages, an observation that turned up again when we discussed this week's readings.

Discussion of the Readings Christine led off our discussion with an observation from her 4th year reading about "connectedness between history/tradition/past and the present." Each year connected to that:

• Right to Life – abortion, death penalty – there’s not one singular message in Scripture, and inferences can go different ways… associations with laws and sorcery: when we try to decide how to live now – it’s complicated!
• Collins on where we’ve been, where we’re going, important even when communities disagree on specifics – creation, revelation – “talk about extremes to get to the middle”
• We have to think of the rule as it was then, not imposing our views on them. Example of slavery.
• The double love commandment: God, neighbor. This will be Collins’ key to determine what Biblical values are.
  We went deeper:
• Collins about Biblical values: times, traditions, norms of distant past: how do they translate to now?
• Greek and Roman world – their values are context for the development of Christianity, including the words we use – author laying groundwork for what’s to come
• Theological literacy gives us a sense of belonging – we are a member of the house of God – a society going back – past and present – (cloud of witnesses, all the saints)
• Goes with the overall theme of the year: contexts matter; there are layers; there’s a mix of “worlds”
• Collins – creation is not just about beginnings, but about CONTINGENCY and DEPENDING on the higher power

Scott observed that those hydrangeas from our "garden" metaphor last week are an image of this week's lesson, as Christine had pointed out that the different colors and blooms represent plants from different years present in her photograph.

We liked the way that our outloud discussion made connections that we could see when our contributions were notated on a grid. We will continue this way at least until we decide otherwise.

Living Faithfully in Your World:
1st yr: Scott 2nd yr: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; 3rd yr, Susan; 4th yr, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

Theological Reflection We each used our allotted time to share a story from a certain five-to-ten year period of our lives about some context or "world" when something impacted our faith. These are confidential, so we're keeping any notes to ourselves.

For Next Week Christine will lead worship.

Books will arrive at Scott's patio on Friday 9/24.

We'll read chapter 4 in the Reading and Reflection Guide (RRG), (PDF) and do the readings assigned.

1. Yee, preface and introduction
2. Collins 3,4,5 &6
3. MacCullough 2 ("Israel")
4. Ford, ch. 2

We're asked to think about how faith, trust, and confidence are interrelated in our past stories, our present life, and in the readings for this week.

We continue the spiritual autobiography with the 2nd story. Tell about how your faith...

• 2nd story: ... sustained you in one of your contexts in the period on which you are focusing.

  Coming up next:

• 3rd story: ... was challenged in one of your contexts in the period on which you are focusing.
• 4th story: ... revealed an experience of the presence of God in one of your contexts in the period on which you are focusing.
• 5th story: ... revealed grace in one of your contexts in the period on which your are focusing.

Yr. A, Wk. 2: Tending the Garden

For worship, we read the liturgy that Scott composed for 2:30 am, Prayer for a Restless Night. The check-in question was about how we're sleeping these days.

We took turns answering questions about the reading that appealed to us in a list provided by Scott. We were drawn to the questions about listening, whether to take notes when we listen, and about different applications to the analogy of water's being shaped by the cup: We speak differently in different "worlds"; do we experience God differently in different contexts?

Living Faithfully in Your World:
Year Two: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; Year Four, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: None.

We used "chat" to gather class norms in terms of this year's "world" metaphor, thinking of "earth" and "turning soil" in a garden. [Photo from Christine; gracias.]

• Let the sunshine in
• Joe Dirt: “Life’s a garden, man. Can you dig it?”
• Don't criticize other peoples' gardens
• Plant a seed and watch it grow. Love Blooms
• Gardening and our spiritual lives require daily rituals
• Be prepared to dig deep.
• Let others tell you about their plants and garden design.
• Plant multiple seeds so they will vary.
• Nurture the tender little ones and they will grow strong
• Dig below the surface to dig up the truth
• Tend to the garden weekly; don't neglect what we're doing.
• Share your tools in your toolbox
• Don't over-prune the discussion. Let it keep going if it's going somewhere.
• Sometimes things will grow all on their own given time
• Many hands make light work: share thoughts on the blog, and respond to others' thoughts.
• Open-ended questions are like water and fertilizer; leading questions are like choking weeds. Don't choke the dialogue.
• Some insects are helpful and beautiful; don't reject something just because it's alien.
• All things in the garden aim towards Heaven. Who can say what is prettier, a rose or a daisy? Each is its own creation.

Next Week Susan will prepare worship.

We hope to have books before next class. Pete is ready to copy the first two chapters of Collins's Values book for fellow 2nd years; Scott may be able to do the same for Christine for Ford, ch. 1. Christine: One of your readings is an essay by Ballard that's printed in last year's RRG, pp. 192-200.

Preparation for the Spiritual Autobiography: For your eyes only, look back over standout people, places, events, books, and then select a 5-10 year period of focus. Think of one of the different "worlds" you lived in during that time, and prepare to tell us how your faith was impacted by that world. (In later weeks, we'll explore other worlds from that time in our lives and tell how faith was sustained or challenged, how we felt God's presence, and how we felt grace.)

P.S. Here's a link to an article about the Hamilton bassist whom Scott met on the Silver Comet Bike Trail.

Yr. A, Wk. 1: Catching Up

Scott led worship with the Lord's Prayer and a General Thanksgiving from p. 836.

To check in, we used the 3-2-1 method: 3 places we spent time this summer; 2 ways we felt blessed; 1 blessing we saw bestowed on another. We also sent a photo from a category of choice.

About the reading, we volunteered what we understand differently now than we did when we read the same chapter last year. The role of the mentors and the importance of the TRs came up. Marilyn learned by doing, and we came to the conclusion that EfM is training us to see the eternal in every day things.

Living Faithfully in Your World:
Year Two: Marilyn, Pete, Nuno; Year Four, Christine. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Christine.

For next week, we'll read chapter 2 in the Reading and Reflection Guide (RRG), p.18-32 pages (PDF).

For a closing prayer, we used the "chat" function to list our concerns, then recited the responsive prayer on p. 122 and the collect on p. 124.

Yr. D, Wk. 36: Closure

We met face to face for the first time, gathering under the porte-cauchere of the St. James courtyard. Susan offered everyone their choice of water-color-and-salt cover for a collection of the year's original collects, 4th year first. Scott sang "O Gracious Light" and continued with the rest of the early evening devotion from the BCP. Students offered a reading of their favorite collects, interrupted briefly by the St. James train. Scott and Susan, having presented our graduates with diplomas during the Sunday service, gave Mariel and Gene bound color copies of the blog posts from their four years in EfM.

Yr. D theme: Living into the Journey with God Class: Marilyn, Nuno, first year; Christine, third year; Mariel, Gene, fourth year; Scott and Susan, co - mentors. Absent: None.

Afterward, Mariel and Gene treated everyone to dinner at Wei on the Loop. We left in rain, to love and serve the Lord.

Yr. D, Wk. 35: Looking Back

Before Susan led worship, we took a look back at images that Scott selected from the trove that we all contributed to last week's TR challenge, i.e., to find wordless expressions of prayers to God. We saw "circle of life," connection and reaching to God -- sometimes through others -- in the images of outstretched hands. "It's all God's handy - work!"

After prayers, Susan asked us to look back on the week and tell what was wonderful. Singing the Sanctus in a full church for the first time in over a year brought tears to my eyes... Happy birthday Sunday... playing "Jesus Loves Me" with bell-ringers at church... the Pentecost service and picnic... working with volunteers to make Italian food for shut-ins at the nursing home... another "circle of life" experience.

Yr. D theme: Living into the Journey with God Class: Marilyn, Nuno, first year; Christine, third year; Mariel, Gene, fourth year; Scott and Susan, co - mentors. Absent: None.

We discussed the reflection guide's question, "How do this week's readings speak to the theme of maturing in one's journey with God?" Marilyn volunteered that line from the Paul, "When I was a child, I thought like a child; but now...." Christine pounced on the idea that the world itself is maturing, as described in the massive church history book -- an echo of MLK's favorite quotation about the arc of history bending towards justice over a long time. Gene and Mariel both were struck by the anecdote of the staggeringly poor woman with little son who set aside 1/12 of their day's earnings "for the poor."

The scope of our reflection broadened to the whole year. Mariel and Gene both cited Rabbi Heschel's Sabbath book as life-changing and observed that his name comes up a lot in My Neighbor's Faith. About reading scripture, Mariel commented, "You're never sated" with Old and New Testaments. Christine got a sense of how the world and Christianity grew up together -- and Mariel plugged a shorter book by Robert Wilkin about the Church's first 1000 years. Nuno felt that the first year readings "catch people where they are," and he appreciated illumination of women's roles in the Old Testament and apocryphal wisdom literature, how norms were broken.

We watched a video of testimonials by the Tuesday morning EfM group and recorded our own reflections on what we expected from EfM, and what we got from it.

We decided to meet in person on Tuesday, 6:30 PM June 8, in the small parking lot of St. James. After prayers there, we will walk or drive to WR Social House (formerly "Willie Rae's") on the Square for dinner.

After a virtual toast, Mariel shared a video she created, "Remembering the Ride."

Yr. D, Wk.34: Beyond Words

Mariel led the service for early evening. She asked us about any "rest" we had in the past week. Nuno was able to stop and enjoy the children. Scott spoke of his Friday evening ritual walk with Susan to the Square to get dinner. Mariel told of looking down from her window on birds attracted to her feeder, and how her eyes are drawn by their flight up into the trees. Susan had finished grading. Christine told of sitting in the car after a visit to the nursing home, always taking a few minutes to watch nature and, sometimes, happy kids arriving on the school bus. Gene said that this group grounds him.

We discussed wisdom literature from the Apocrypha, and also how our church relates to the Apocryphal books. Christine's reading led to some discussion of the genocide of Armenian Christians and some family ties to that time and region. Mariel told us that her favorite story in this batch of chapters in My Neighbor's Faith concerned a quote from Merton about how the deepest level of communication is beyond words in communion (with God, with each other).

Yr. D theme: Living into the Journey with God Class: Marilyn, Nuno, first year; Christine, third year; Mariel, Gene, fourth year; Scott and Susan, co - mentors. Absent: Marilyn.

Theological Reflection (TR)

"Beyond Words" became the theme of the evening, further explored through an anecdote from Bishop Curry's recent book Love is the Way that Gene brought to us for a TR. Curry recalls the glimpse of a tattooed prison camp number on an elderly Jewish woman's arm as a searing moment of understanding that cut through all the words in his head.

We found many, many instances of meaningful, emotional gestures and images in our Tradition and in our Experience. Mariel coined a phrase "wordless Logos" to describe a wordless expression of deep meaning in a gesture or image. Instead of writing a prayer with words, we agreed to contribute images that express what we might pray for. Here's our wordless prayer: