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Inspired by Y4's chapter about relating to people unlike us, Rita searched writings from other nations and faith traditions to select prayers and wisdom for us. We found that the selections resonated strongly with our own faith and experience.
Rita's GQ extended the theme: Tell us about someone MOST unlike yourself. We heard about the rough-and-tumble boy down the street, the reclusive neighbor in a rural community, the Italian freshman, the shy daughter's outgoing mother, the sophisticated upper classman, the self-confident guy with the gift of putting everyone at ease.
Yr. D, 1st yr: Michael, Mason; 2nd yr: Lanie; 3rd yr: Joyce, Susan; 4th yr, Jessica, Rita; 5th yr "Wide Angle," Kaye. Mentor: Scott. Absent: Kaye.
In breakout rooms, years mixed to share an image or metaphor they found while engaging with the material for this week, and tell how it influences their understanding.
- Joyce shared what Mason said about holiness codes in Leviticus: Playing the instrument, you don't become the instrument, and practicing the holiness codes does not necessarily make you holier. Mason shared Joyce's summation of early Church history in the years after Constantine: "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians."
- Jessica told us how Michael related to the strong and strange image of the community's sins poured with blood on the horns of a ram expelled to the wilderness. Michael got a kick out of Jessica's use of the comedy Trains, Planes, and Automobiles to demonstrate how we can find common ground with strangers.
Scott shared the image he took away from a photo in a Y3 chapter showing an ancient church's interior, every inch of it decorated with Biblical pictures in tile and paint. On a tangent, we discussed images and icons, and the long tradition in some Christian circles of deploring all such artwork as idolatry Susan explained that the Eastern Orthodox theology reasons that God, embodied in Jesus, has sanctified our bodies, so that making images of living beings is no longer to be considered idolatry. Some of us shared good experiences with beautiful images in church, and also a dissatisfaction in a worship space where no cross appeared.
(Note: Some churches reason that Resurrection means never having to dwell on the crucifixion -- which many consider a morbid practice of Roman Catholics, as Susan pointed out. Our prayer book keeps both the crucifixion and the resurrection before us every day, reflecting our awareness that our world continually crucifies God. Georgia's great Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor observed that many Christians only liked to hear uplifting stories about nice people doing good things, to live in what she called "a state of false innocence, which strongly suggests its opposite.")
We answered the "respond" question about any song or poem that connected to the theme of "the stranger." Billy Joel's song "The Stranger" has always moved Lanie, with this line: "We all have a face that we hide away forever." That called to mind "Eleanor Rigby" who is "wearing the face that she keeps in a jar by the door." We agreed that these are powerful images of alienation -- feeling like strangers even with the people around you. Michael recalled a hymn we often sing during communion that expresses the hope that people who kneel at the communion rail as strangers will rise as friends. Lanie remembered the folk song "I'm a Poor, Warfaring Stranger," and Rita said that traveling and being a stranger is a familiar theme in Country Western songs.
So what can we draw from these examples? While these song examples show a painful side to being a stranger, Scott looked back over our responses to the GQ and saw that those whose ways were so unlike ours stretched us and made us grow.
We all shared objects that were meaningful to us, including Dad's gift of a Kabuki figurine 500 years old, the dozen sonograms of a "little gummy bear" in the womb, a painting of the cross given as a gift, a pocket New Testament that belonged to an uncle who died by his own hand before he reached adulthood, a fancy camera that always brings to mind the thoughtful brother who gave it, a striking papier maché mask from a trip to Puerto Rico together with sister and mother, and an adage beautifully rendered on wood by a close friend: Accept what is, let go of what was, and have faith in what will be. Of all these, consensus formed around reflecting on the patch that Joyce's late husband Gene wore on his annual motorcycle treks. As he crossed the continent, he colored in the states that he visited. (See the photo.)
We explored the world of the patch, which is also the world of the man who made it:
- Looking at that world in its Creation, we surmised that the patch must have been a great way for a stranger on the road to make conversation. The spreading colors of the patch are an image of connection. Patches are earned by scouts and officers when they fulfill a mission -- and this lone traveler seems to have a mission, too. And the colors do sort of form a rooster!
- But in our theology, even a perfect world breaks down when Sin enters in. Things go wrong, too, with the vehicle or health or weather. We imagined that a traveler will see a lot of disturbing things on the road, and there may be places that wouldn't welcome such a stranger. "Shake the dust of their homes off your feet," Jesus said when he sent his disciples on missions to distant places.
- The quote from Jesus bumped us into the "connect" phase. But we came back later to ask about the theological concept of redemption in the world of the patch. We realized that a patch is a symbol of mending and restoration! And there's a lyric about the heart that beats behind the patch on the pocket of a traveler.
So we were already Connecting to Scripture and Culture. Other examples from Scripture included how Paul wrote that even strangers should recognize Christian by their love. Paul was himself a wayfaring stranger. The Hebrews wandered 40 years. Then, of course, this connects to Dorothy's making friends of strangers on the Yellow Brick Road. How often in our lives have we realized, "Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore."
Running out of time, we wondered what insights and applications we might take away from this discussion (perhaps to use in a hypothetical sermon). Through all his adventures, Gene knew that he had someone to come home to... It's okay to shake the dust off your feet... Going strange places and meeting strangers are joys worth the risks.
On the Wheel of Worship, it's time for Kaye to lead. (Is that okay, Kaye? Let me know. - S) Joyce will be looking at the four questions under the "respond" tab to choose two for us to discuss. Michael bravely accepted the charge of bringing us a source for a TR. He could default to what's in the "reflect" tab for week 8, where EfM suggests a theme from a video sermon by Barbara Brown Taylor about vocation, the call that "makes your heart sing."
