Jose and Maria

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We read the Nativity story re-cast by Miguel De La Torres as a tale of José and Maria. Thanks to Nuno for this ingenious image!

Yr. B, Wk. 15: Hands Across Structural Divides

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Worship and Gathering
Cameras off and mics muted, we followed Marilyn's narrated meditation into our personal Advent, awaiting the rising of a star in the east, traveling into our futures, and coming back to tell our present selves what we learned. Marilyn finished with a poem she wrote.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, Interlude, Reading the Bible from the Margins:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Susan.

Discussion of the Readings
We reviewed the "RESPECT" acronym on the back page of the RRG, knowing that our responses to this week's reading might reveal sensitivities and defensiveness. Marilyn said this group really is good with that "respect" idea, and the discussion, going into overtime, confirmed her view.

We shared how portions in De La Torre's chapters resonated with stories in our own experiences -- as a teacher, a counselor, and a medical professional. Scott shared an experience that opened his eyes to structural racism (see his blogpost The Privilege is Mine. Expressing the same idea through metaphor, he wrote a poem in response to this book, On Track).

We were grateful for a personal story that brought issues into sharp focus. Police, responding to a concerned citizen's tip, never recognized how they were instruments of blatant racism. Officers were both aggressive and fearful. They believed nothing that their target replied to any of their questions. Yet officers left the incident satisfied that they had been fair, reasonable, and professional. "Welcome to Georgia," an officer said.

We looked for what we as individuals can do about the structural oppression that this book has presented to us.

• Don't make assumptions. "All of my worst mistakes have been because I assumed something about someone else." (But engineers have to assume things all the time.)
• Listen. Being aware how oppression can work many different ways is a first step.
• We see the importance now of imagining what Scripture says to people in other "locations" of society.
• Our commitment to Christ is not just personal, but public (De La Torre compares it to wearing a wedding ring)
• Jesus changed one heart at a time, healed one person at a time.
• We understand how images of Jesus can express solidarity with believers of all kinds -- in their ethnicity, gender identity, class.
• We understand how the Euroamerican English-speaking believers' Jesus can alienate people of other ethnicities, gender identities, and classes, who need to see that they are heard and valued where they are.
• Hopeful signs in the news of a change in the attitude "at the center": cities' successes with providing guaranteed income to residents, no strings attached; a breakthrough in preventing homelessness by simply providing a few hundred dollars to repair a car or pay a medical bill, saving thousands of dollars in the long run.

Theological Reflection
Jessica brought us "Shaking Hands," a poem by Padraig O'Tuama commemorating a cordial meeting between women, Ireland's President and England's Queen. Each side had centuries of reasons for resentment and mistrust, and parties on both sides attacked the handshake.

We were struck by the power of similar words juxtaposed in the poem, touch and tough; by the line "solidarity means a common hand"; and by other connections we bring to the poem of "laying on of hands" and how COVID cut us off from contact.

Exploring just the image of hands clasped, we saw how it could be the beginning or the end of a difficult encounter. It's an aspirational gesture. We saw the promise of intimacy and healing in a handshake, even while we acknowledged ways that a handshake can reveal brokenness -- as when our President shakes the hand of an oppressive world leader, or when a handshake becomes an expression of dominance.

We connected the image to our tradition and culture. Two hands together bring to mind prayer. We share the peace. Fr. Vroon's fable of the mean woman in hell and the onion that can save her -- if she draws others out, too. Jesus took the hand of a little girl on her deathbed and raised her up. In physics, two atoms never really touch except to become one -- cf. Xeno's paradox.

Late, we used the chat function to add fitting lines to a prayer. I've thrown in St. Teresa's prayer again, as it relates so strongly to the readings of the past two weeks:

Hands in Prayer Lord, grant us the opportunity to help bridge the gaps and hold more hands, touch more hearts. May we find in extending our hands to each other, that it is your hand taking ours.
  Christ has no body now but yours,
  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

We pray that those with whom we come in contact will see us as living examples of the hands of Christ in this world, reaching out, helping those in need, giving strength to the weak, and being a friend to the lonely.
  Christ has no body now but yours,
  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

Holy Spirit, be my hand reaching across the miles to bless my friends in this group. May we all have the opportunity to grasp our loved ones, neighbors, as well as our foes in love and peaceful harmony.
  Christ has no body now but yours,
  No hands, no feet on earth but yours.

For Next Meeting, January 10
We're all reading a 12-page essay in the RRG for week 16. Scott will lead worship and bring a gathering question. Susan will provide a source for a TR.

Yr. B, Wk. 14: Reading the Bible from the Margins, first half

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(Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.)

Worship and Gathering
Jessica led a worship service from the Northumbrian community. Because we lit the "joy" candle Sunday, Jessica asked us to share a joy from the past week. Our answers: delighting a relative by helping to spruce up her home... locating a substitute priest just in time for the service... a happy dog in CA ... happy Mom... classes ending... discovering a kindred spirit in a relative we didn't know that well... relief when the trees were removed.

The prayer of St. Teresa that Jessica chose for our benediction could also be a distillation of the interlude book, because both express how Jesus needs more from us than our personal devotion:

Christ has no body now but yours,
No hands, no feet on earth but yours,
Yours are the eyes with which he looks
with compassion on this world.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, First Interlude: Reading the Bible from the Margins
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr: Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr: Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Kathy.

Discussion of the Reading
We all expressed discomfort with the reading, but Pete said, "Maybe I'm just uncomfortable at the idea of change; I'm okay with being uncomfortable." We seek reassurance in Scripture that we are good people, Scott said, but De La Torre denies us that reassurance when familiar quotes are read to indict people privileged by laws and social norms. He argues that we soften those indictments by reading them "spiritually" instead of "materially." Perhaps De La Torre could have been more diplomatic? Susan proposed rephrasing the messageasked Henry Louis Gates's question, "Can you imagine racism without racists?" We could.

We related to DuBois's idea of "double consciousness." Nuno cited De La Torre's being seen as a man of color in one community and a white man in another. Marilyn observed that art is a way to see ourselves from the outside.

De La Torre's observation about Pentecost opened up a discussion of language in the reading. In the story of Pentecost, Nuno said, "one message reaches people where they are and when they are." Scott was delighted to learn that the Bible in Spanish employs the familiar form of the second-person-pronoun (tu) for exchanges between humanity and the Deity -- demonstrating God's "solidarity" with us and intimacy of the relationship.

The parable of the day laborers had always seemed to me an allegory for faith and forgiveness, but De La Torre's "material" reading (Margins pp.76ff) made (uncomfortable) sense to me. Then I ran across a clever poem that comes to the same conclusion from a secular angle: See Paper, Scissors, Stone by Tom Wayman.

Theological Reflection
We followed the procedures outlined in the RRG, p. 91, working with the provocative word estrangement. We found focus in feelings of being untethered (attenuated), hopelessness. Of the images we came up with that express those feelings, our favorite was a canyon. We explored creation, brokenness, and restoration in that image: feeling of wide open deep gap -- it used to be one piece but it has eroded, and redemption could be a bridge, or Evel Knievel's motorcycle (Snake River Canyon: see pictures), or a flood that fills the gap and creates a new kind of wholeness.

We found connections in scripture and the culture. TRADITION. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain brought low. ...Prodigal son – Jacob and Esau – Joseph and his brothers - Israelites and God, CULTURAL: San Andreas movie starring the Rock – in which a flood reconciles a separated couple. We came up with at least two more Hollywood films with the same story.

Some surprising insights emerged. Each side in a separation is missing something that makes them whole. This describes relationship with God, separated from God. Estrangement is uncomfortable but may in the long run not be a bad thing – it can be liberation. Sometimes you’ve got to let bad times happen, deal with it as you can, and hope for a flood.

Collect in EstrangementDear God, our Divine Restorer, You bind the broken-hearted. We pray that you bridge the divisions within and among us so that we may come together again in wholeness of your image. In Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen

For Next Week
Marilyn will lead worship and start us with a gathering question; Jessica will bring a source for a TR.

Yr. B, Wk. 13: War in Joshua and the Medieval Church

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(Interested in joining us? Link to our Visitor's Center.)

Worship and Gathering
We remembered Nuno visiting family in Wisconsin and Pete recovering from dental surgery. Susan led worship from "The Cuthbert Compline," dedicated to a shepherd/bishop of the 6th century. A beautiful meditation by Frederich Buechner was included. Susan let Scott ask the gathering question about the geese flying in vee formation over our state this month: Who has "pulled" for you in the past week? We answered: Students who stimulated the class discussion with good questions, a parishioner who named us on the parish prayer list, the husband who took care of us, a financial advisor who helped us deal with a relative's problems, and an assistant who shepherded the department while we worked full-time on a project.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, Unit 2, Theological Reflection as a Life Skill:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Nuno, Pete.

Discussion of the Readings

We started by thinking of Joshua and Judges. Jessica was delighted to set aside concerns for chronology, as the books were put together over centuries with other interests in mind. The books are telling how disparate groups became one nation – incorporating nomad tribes and peoples already present in the land.

Asking, “What do the Israelites get from Johsua and Judges?” we came up with these answers: Identity, Strength, Heroes… and total obedience. Our God is Greater than their Gods – if we don’t succeed, there’s a reason – God punishment. We also see a sense of corporate responsibility: the family of the soldier who kept booty for himself perished along with him.

We all contributed thoughts about the lack of human reaction to the suffering inflicted in these books, charam – total destruction in obedience to God. The same thing is happening in Year 3 – what MacCulloch calls “sanctified bullying.” It was “kill or be killed”: Fear is a subtext in the books, as, Rahab’s motivation to help the Hebrew spies. Kathy observed that our American history books are similarly silent about human reactions to the evictions of native people here. Scott recalled transcripts of American pilots in Iraq bombing with abandon the “insects” below them: warriors who see their opponents as human may open themselves to feelings of guilt that others don't feel.

Y3 contributed thoughts about St. Benedict’s rules and Gregory the Great. Monasteries took on the job of praying and performing penance on behalf of knights who killed enemies in battle. Monasteries did the work (“liturgy”) of salvation while others engaged in every life. We talked of the “Tarriff Books” that specified the costs (in penance) of different sins.

Having experienced Catholic penance in childhood, Marilyn said, “I can see a bridge between then an now, at last!”

Another thread of conversation concerned the “feminine” side of the Trinity, as “the Spirit” was called by some in ancient sources. Y4 was all about finding historical antecedents to the 21st century emphasis on Trinity as something you experience in deep prayer. Susan had read John’s Gospel, an important source of Trinitarian thinking.

Theological Reflection
We've learned that two mentors and three participants do not bring enough give and take to a TR to make the time productive. We skipped the TR this week. We will re-evaluate that decision if absences happen more frequently.

For Next Week
Scott will bring a source for a TR. Jessica will lead worship and ask a gathering question. (She may also be bringing us a "sending prayer" for our Visitor's Center.)

Yr. B, Wk. 12: Augustine, Benedict, and Women in the Background

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Worship and Check-in
Scott opened with the introductory prayer to Nine Advent Lessons and Carols. The gathering question, "Whom have you made happy this week?" elicited stories of a happy dog, the gift of Emily Dickinson's cookbook, a mother in good spirits, a co-worker surprised after surgery to receive a home-cooked Thanksgiving meal that she could eat, Thanksgiving cooking synchronized to the minute by a nerdy spreadsheet, and a patriarch who looks forward to seeing his great-granddaughter for the first time.

Living Faithfully in a Multicultural World, Unit 2: Theological Reflection as a Life Skill:
1st yr: Jessica; 2nd yr: Susan; 3rd yr, Pete, Nuno, Marilyn, Kathy ; 4th yr, Scott. Mentors: Susan and Scott. Absent: Marilyn.

Discussion of the Readings
St. Augustine's not-so-saintly life story and his contributions to our church started us off. Kathy expressed mixed feelings about him, which led to more discussion. St. Benedict's rule related to the conclusion of the Y4 book on theology: "commitment" in the way you live your life is "intrinsic" to reputable Christian theology.

Susan read about Paul as revealed to us in Acts and letters. Acts parallels Luke like a sequel, its arc following Paul to Rome the way Luke follows Jesus to Jerusalem. The puzzling question is, why does Acts fail to mention Paul's letters, and where in Acts is the theology of Paul's epistles? One theory concerns scribes who took dictation from Paul. Scribes were important to the 1st Year reading from Yee: Jessica's own experience of stories that change from generation to generation helped her to understand how the scribes of the Hebrew Scriptures filter the stories of women from their own perspectives.

Theological Reflection
With Nuno, we saw both sides of a Benedict medallion. The numerous letters are initials of prayers on a table Nuno showed to us.

We came to focus on what might distinguish an object of veneration from a magic talisman. Susan suggested that veneration is intended to align our wills with God's will, while a talisman is supposed to manipulate or bend others to our will. Some of us shared about such objects of veneration in our own lives. We remembered what we read about saints' relics.

Pete opened up a new idea with his suggestion that the ruby slippers in Oz might be a cultural example, because they are a sign "you had the power in you all along." Scott was reminded of a novel by Graham Greene in which a delirious priest goes through the motions of communion with neither bread nor wine in his hands -- and yet this imaginary eucharist changes those who receive it. Nuno reminded us that we received communion vicariously during the worst days of the pandemic, praying for "spiritual communion."

In breakout rooms, the Boys and the Girls responded to the TR in different ways with these collects:

Two Collects in the Presence of an Object of Veneration

Dear God, through whom we experience all good things: We give you thanks for the lives of the saints who have come before us. We acknowledge that you are the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, and all in between. We pray our focus is on you eternally and not of mundane things of this world. We humbly pray these things in your name. Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, the Source of all Holy inspiration: You lift our thoughts from this world to Heavenly things. We pray that you would help us discern your Spirit in all things, so that we might not rely on magic or ourselves but to rely entirely upon you. Amen.

Emailing the collect, Nuno made an observation that his letting us discover things about the medallion worked out well: "Holding back added a lot." That's good advice for future TRs.

For Next Week
We do the readings for week 13. We expect to miss Nuno, maybe Pete. Susan will lead worship; Scott will have a source for a TR. If it's two mentors with just three participants, we may postpone the TR a week.

Yr. B, Wk. 11: Text and Traffic

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Worship and Check-in
From a Jesuit website, Pete selected prayers for giving thanks that fit our different interests and personalities. For a gathering question, Pete asked which we liked better, fixing the Thanksgiving meal or cleaning up after? Only Scott and Marilyn chose the second option. We learned about tater-tot hot dish, sweet-potato casserole with half-and-half pecans and marshmallows, and how to time all your cooking projects with a spread sheet.

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

Discussion of the Readings
Jessica started the conversation with a quote from the Y1 text, that “the modern reader of Deuteronomy has to become an interpreter" in the same way that the writer(s) of Deuteronomy reinterpreted Exodus for the situation in Israel centuries later. Scott picked up on translation, which is just one of many angles on any text that a theologian has to be aware of, along with context, history, and a critical awareness of the baggage we ourselves bring to the text.

Translation and text continued in discussion of Islam's first century. Y3 learned that Mohammed's poetry, so beautiful in Arabic, doesn't translate well to English. With just one author, the Koran has a poetic cohesiveness in Koran that our Bible lacks. Pete interested in the poetry of Islam, as the Koran's “divine beauty” is said to need no images. The Koran plays the role in Islam that the Incarnation plays in Christianity. We liked the quote about Islam in the East – “apocalypse was postponed and everyday life took over.” Repeating the author's comment about how Islam spread by the sword, Nuno noted that the Imperial Church had done the same. We saw how both religions got tangled in political power. Islam filled a vacuum left by the Church, which was preoccupied with its own political conflicts.

Susan was delighted by texts, too: Powell provides Matthew's historical context and authorship, audience. Susan enjoyed seeing Matthew’s distinctive approach: loves numbers! Matthew "layers" text from Mark with different purposes and angles.

Pete was delighted by the maverick church in Ethiopia. Ethiopian church celebrates BOTH Jewish sabbath and Christian. There, Pontius Pilate is celebrated because he evidently realized the extent of his guilt and suffered for it. Remembering Jesus Christ Superstar, we went down an Andrew Lloyd Webber rabbit hole.

Houston evacuates for hurricane Rita, 2005

Theological Reflection
The story how Jesus rebukes John and James for wanting to rain fire down on the Samaritans eventually morphed into the image of a driver going "wrong way" through traffic. Our exploration of that image brought us to a more specific situation: EMTs driving towards danger through lines of cars headed for safety.

We connected to the image.

• Action Source: evacuation of New Orleans; snowpocalypse
• Movies: Day after Tomorrow, zombie movies
• Position: “tomorrow is another day” and Mister Rogers, "Look for the helpers."
• Tradition: Looking back Lot’s wife turns into salt. (James and John are lucky they didn’t!)

Our connections graded into insights: War has its own momentum, undertow – we have to work against it or it pulls us in... Go with the flow (or not: Nuno’s story of grabbing onto a sea turtle that dragged him far from shore)... From experience on the Vestry, there are situations where you’ll be challenged to buck a trend / a tide. Don’t be afraid to pause and turn to God. Our personal insights worked into this collect:

Collect for Going Against the FlowProtector and ever-loving father, You guide us even through the valley of the shadow of death. We pray that we may not be led into temptation, but that in times of trial we will run towards you. As you have bound us together in a common life, give us courage to go against the tide and to rescue our neighbors. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

For Next Week
We're taking off the week of Thanksgiving. When we return on Tuesday the 29th, Scott will lead worship and bring a gathering question; Nuno will bring a source for theological reflection.

EfM at Diocesan Council

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FridayOur own Jessica served as verger for the Diocesan worship service Friday evening, where Scott was concluding a day of reports and elections.

The event took place in the main gym of Holy Innocents Episcopal School, established in 1959 by the Episcopal church of the same name. Scott's mother taught there from the early 1970s to the early 2000s. Here's a photo of the same location, then and now.

At a presentation by The Office of Congregational Vitality (vitality@episcopal.org), Scott joined Sue and Sharon, co-mentors of the morning EfM group at St. James. The presenters advertised services offered to congregations regarding stewardship, leadership, and congregational discernment.

There we participated in an exercise based on John Westerhoff's list of Anglican characteristics. Stations were set up along the walls of the room for the "temperaments" centered on aesthetics, nature, history, moderation, intuition, comfort with ambiguity, open-mindedness, catholicity, and politics (but not "partisanship" -- one participant told us that a round-table discussion earlier in the day had turned ugly when partisanship got involved in a discussion of the phrase, "Behold, I am doing a new thing"). The other stations identified Anglican "spiritualities" described as mystical, pastoral, sacramental, communial, and liturgical.

We EfM mentors saw the four sources of a TR behind all those many categories. The presenters were using a procedure in the RRG called "TR in Motion."

The Bishop's sermon was a TR that drew on a poem about the "minutes" of our lives, and a bit of Isaiah. Before the prophet talks about "a new thing," there's a passage of remembrance of God's great deeds. Then Isaiah tells us to forget about all that -- Bishop Wright called that a "what the--?" move. The Bishop guessed that some of us might be anxious wondering what "new thing" we might have to do and reminded us that it's God who's doing something.

[See a fuller report at Scott's personal blog The Word Sanctuary.]