Journey with God, Wk. 12: What fills an empty vessel?

← | latest | →

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

Worship and Gathering
Jessica brought Compline from the New Zealand prayer book. She asked about our favorite childhood toy. For some, it was a bike that we rode to freedom. For others, it was the swingset in the back yard. You could swing yourself into anyplace in the world. Then, there were jigsaw puzzles... the ball on a rope that spun around a ring on your ankle... a certain stuffed pillow... laser tag and the Nerf gun... the record player for a kid with a mania for things that turned. ("You were well-rounded," said someone.)

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: Susan.

Respond
Joyce had sent this message to us a few days earlier:

1. What image comes to mind that might depict your reading this week? An image could be something in your surroundings, something from your imagination, a piece of artwork, something from online, or a metaphor.
2. If the people in your Engage assignment were to design a bumper sticker, what slogan and artwork would it contain? Would you want that bumper sticker on your car?

We discussed (1) in breakout rooms and shared these images: Luther as the "unyielding oak" even when unsupported by some of those branches... the arch that represents the rise and fall of Saul... happiness (a fleeting thing, like opening a present) v. joy (a lifetime commitment, such as the grows from the birth of a child)... how an 18-month-old child testing boundaries is an image of the way we learn virtue through experience.... Scott recommended Freeman on the woman at the well. Why was she there in the heat of the day? We can imagine she wishes to avoid the censorious women who gather there early each morning.

A brief time in smaller breakout rooms brought us these bumper stickers: "Don't tread on me" from a Medieval motto, "Noli me tangere" from the risen Jesus warning Mary Magdalene "Don't touch me!"... Faith's not a flight from life, but life in love with life (Chittister, p. 214, Y5)... "Wrath is misery with nowhere to go" (Multmann, Y3).

Reflect
We observed qualities of the bowl that Rita presented, then asked questions that opened up the background story. Her father loved the challenge of wood-working at his lathe. The bowl, unvarnished, atop the fridge for many years, was a homely "junk drawer" where the family could find fasteners and other doo-dads. Acquiring the object after her parents' deaths, Rita has stained the bowl that, empty, is now more precious than ever. Joyce gathered two threads of our conversation into a single focus: what used to be full and useful is now empty and more precious than ever, full of intangible memories.

Exploring the world of the bowl, we thought of Creation. Just a piece of a tree, but now something beautiful and lasting... transformation is possible in this world... there is joy in the challenge of shaping the bowl.

Sin would be breakage, or just tossing out the old bowl.

We connected this story to the Holy Grail, to Saul (originally "full" and left empty)... the ark of the covenant... the throne in the Holy of Holies, highly decorated, was intentionally left unoccupied, to show that God's "seat" is everywhere. Kaye picked up this theme from the banter between Jesus and the woman at the well -- one of them (she? he?) said, "God is not only in Jerusalem."

What else in our lives is like this bowl? We searched our memories in the Action source (i.e., our own experience), transitioning into insights and applications:

• We attach so much value to the lives we lead, but this life is only the first stage.
• From Revelation: The first things have passed away. See, I make all things new.
• An image for rearing a child: he fills up in the first part of life; with loving care, he grows into an individual who is much more than all those little incidents and possessions.
• You can be someone else's "junk drawer," resource for life.
• There's the "happiness" of immediate gratification (think of the bowl on top of the refrigerator, holding all the incidental bits) and the joy of lasting beauty and purpose.
• We are vessels, precious -- and needing to be taken care of.

Collect for an Empty Vessel

Lord of Splendor and Fullness, well of living water, presence over the empty throne, eternal life emerged from an empty tomb: as we rummage through chores and purchases that matter only for a little time, make us mindful how your hands shape and polish us so that, when our store of days is empty, we will be sturdy and beautiful vessels of your generous spirit, by whom, with the Creator and Sustainer, we pray. Amen.

For Monday, Jan. 5:
We will "engage" with materials for week 13 before we meet again January 5th. Be sure to read scripture! Michael will lead worship (and we'll be able to see him again, I hope!). Mason will choose two questions. Kaye will bring a source for a TR.

Merry Christmas!

← | latest | →

Journey with God, Wk 11: Can one snowflake change the world?

← | latest | →

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

Worship and Gathering
First things, first: we got to see Liam when Jessica held him up to the camera.

For worship, we recited the first and last verse of "O little town of Bethlehem." One is about a village 2000+ years ago and the other is about how we ARE that village, "still" waiting in "a world of sin" for Christ to be born in us and bring the hope of the world to fruition.

What have you been doing lately? Spending a lot of time between church and home; singing with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra; babysitting in Texas; recovering from illness; getting confirmed and healed; teaching a newborn the rhythm of day and night; getting ready to go to Florida; becoming a grandparent; and sobbing at movie theatres. (Scott's recs include Knives Out, III: Wake up Dead Man, Wicked II: For Good, and Hamnet.

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: None. (Yay!)

Respond
A couple of days before we met, Scott sent out these questions from the "Respond" section of EfM Pathwright web page:

• Hesed (kheh’·sed) is a Hebrew word that conveys God’s covenantal love, mercy, and compassion toward people and all creation. Hesed often describes acts of loyalty and fidelity that go beyond what would otherwise be required or even imagined. Where is hesed in what you studied this week? How has hesed been a part of your journey with God?
• Similarly: How was God active with individuals or movements in your assigned materials? How might that apply to how God works in your life? In the world?

We opened two breakout rooms, four people in each (one had five if we count Liam, who slept through the discussion). De-briefing, participants shared what they heard from others in their groups:

• Martin Luther's insight to grace had far-reaching impact, much of it ugly, but Joyce looked at the gifts he gave us, including "grace to yourself" and his courageous stand when a panel of judges ordered him to renounce his writings.
• That related to ethics: "Christ acted first" so that we can act well.
• For Michael, Ruth (and Naomi and Boaz, too) are case-studies in hesed, each of them doing good beyond what was expected of them.
• Kaye discussed Esther, a book that does not mention God, but implies God's guidance and "providence" (Scott's word).
• Joyce related Jessica's reflection on how a mother sacrifices her body, her time, and her own wants to respond to the calling of motherhood
• Lanie had a lot to say about Luke, the songs she has sung that come from the Gospel, and how Acts is a sequel. She was fascinated by the geneology, going all the way back to Adam, and including Ruth's husband Boaz as a great-grandfather to Jesus.
• Scott has been reading at breakfast, one chapter a day from Joan Chittister's book about the Benedictine rule (year 5). He wrote "LANIE" across the top of a page that tells us that the journey with God isn't about predestination, but about how He accompanies us and teaches us from the things that happen to us by chance. Chittister gives the example of cancer, an interaction of genetics with chemistry. It's not a test, she writes, but God is with us to learn from it.

Reflect
From the "position" source, Scott drew this pithy aphorism: "No snowflake feels a sense of responsibility for an avalanche." A ready-made metaphor, this prompt allowed us to skip finding a focus straight to exploring the world of the snowflake.

We did reach a turning-point when we thought about redemption. A snowpack, destructive as it may be in an avalanche, also provides the cool clear water that the land below depends upon in spring and summer.

We drew on our own experiences (the Action source of meaning in our lives) to think when we have been like the snowflake, carried along by a crowd. The stories were sobering.

We also found many examples of crowd misbehavior in scripture, not least the folks in Jerusalem who lauded Jesus one day and taunted him another. In history, there were many examples of vile crowd behavior when ordinary citizens felt they had safe cover to do violence. We did, however, remember brave people who resisted -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer and civil rights leaders.

Jessica volunteered to complete the collect that we began. She said, "I might as well, since I'm on maternity leave." Here it is:

Dear Heavenly Creator, In Your infinite wisdom, You formed each of us in Your image, and our differences reflect the beauty of who You are. Remind us that, as individuals, we are called to be the hands and feet of Christ in this world. Help us remember the words Paul wrote to the Romans: Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect. When the world pressures us to bend to its ways, remind us that we are called to live according to Your will alone. We ask all of this in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

For Monday:
We're preparing for week 12 in "The Journey with God" at the web site. I highly recommend the Bible Project video available under the Year 1 tab, and those of you who are reading the Bible, please make that your priority over the textbook commentaries!

Jessica will lead worship. Joyce will choose questions from the "response" tab and send those to us before Monday. Rita already has "kindling" for our next TR!

← | latest | →

Journey with God, Wk. 10: Four Explore

← | latest | →

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

Worship and Gathering
Several of us had sent word that they would be late, while others faced obstacles that made them late without advance warning. Waiting, those present had a lively conversation that ranged from scriptural and historical to personal and theological.

For instance, Joyce had a lot to say about what she read of Martin Luther in chapter 10 of the history text. She had his character nailed: "He was over-scrupulous," so he was very relieved to realize that forgiveness was a gift, not something he had to earn. This undermined powerful men whose earnings depended on people literally paying for forgiveness.

We also figured out the whole pre-destination thing. (Example: A young mother who brings her little boy to our church office can't foresee exactly what kind of trouble he'll get into, but she has predestined that, while he learns how to behave, he will feel loved and safe and clean no matter what.)

Lanie came to us stressed over planning a eulogy for her beloved niece. Starting from Sister Madeleine Mary's idea that faith should be about delight and discovery, we found delight with Lanie re-discovering memories through images. In no time, Lanie was laughing about times of grace. These included a reference to the Flintstones (that I won't go into, sorry).

After close to an hour, the group decided to call it quits and meet back again next week to cover week 11.

A question that Scott had wanted to ask was Sister Madeleine Mary's notion that we all thought theologically when we were little, when we responded to the world with feelings of awe and delight and asked "Why?" She writes that we all develop a sense of "layers" to existence when we're young. Is this what you remember from your childhood? This may be our "gathering" question when we come back together next week.

Yr. D, 1st yr: Michael, Mason; 2nd yr: Lanie; 3rd yr: Joyce, Susan; 4th yr, Jessica, Rita; 5th yr "Wide Angle," Kaye. Mentor: Scott. Present: Joyce, Lanie, Scott, Susan.

For Monday:
We move on to week 11. Scott will again handle worship, GQ, the response questions, and the source for a TR.

← | latest | →

Journey with God, Wk. 9: Grace & the Jeweled Frog

← | latest | →

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

Worship and Gathering
Susan shared the worship service with Scott, then forgot about EfM until minutes after the worship time was over. It went great, Susan: Compline is a beautiful little-used service in our BCP.

Kaye emailed this to us, too: "The last time we met, y'all had asked for the book from which I chose our Worship. It is Black Liturgies: Prayers, Poems, and Meditations for Staying Human, by Cole Arthur Riley. We read the prayer 'For the Beauty in Impermanence' from her 'Mortality' chapter."

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: Joyce, Jessica.

Respond
One of Mason's chosen questions doubled as our gathering question this week: Where did you find grace in your reading, watching, and listening this week? In your own life?

Our answers took us through some personal territory -- mourning losses and rejoicing over baby grandchildren. One of us who keeps very busy most of the time took some "personal grace" to just laze around in pajamas all day. Another found grace in the boss's reaction to a serious mistake -- and the boss's approval of his employee's effort to make things right.

There were also answers linked to this week's materials.

Bretherton's chapter on "Finitude" seemed "disheartening" to Rita because he seems to see no way that we can be better. That same fatalistic attitude showed up for the Y1 guys at the end of Joshua: The Israelites promised to be faithful, and Joshua predicted, "You won't be." The OT books contain so much violence and so little morality to our way of thinking (including the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter!), but Michael and Mason saw grace in God's continuing to care for his people despite the grief they cause him. Repeated comments in Judges about the horrific consequences when "each turned to his own way" are, for Scott, a sign of the spiritual growth of God's people, as later editors commented on the ancient stories.

We took a moment to answer a question that had gone unspoken: What do we mean by "grace?" Consensus formed around forgiveness that doesn't have to be earned, nor even asked for. Lanie came at this from a different angle: "It's a kind of permission," she said. You don't have to be afraid of making mistakes, so you're free to live and grow. Scott finds "grace" wherever the Sufi Muslim poet Rumi mentions laughter -- the top branches of trees at dawn catch fire with laughter; the poet at birth crossed from emptiness into laughter.... Lanie found an element of playfulness in Matthew -- including his mania for pairs and for coded numbers, which the author likened to the way that Shakespeare [may have] encoded his name in the translation [that he might have done] for King James's Bible -- "Shake" and "Spear" occurring 46 words from both start and finish of Psalm 46. So, we got some unexpected answers to our basic question!

Another question that Mason posed was about "great love, great suffering" as twin paths to change in life.

The book of Job came up, having been covered in both Y1 and Y5. For Kaye, the presentation of Job in Y5 opened her eyes to see this grim story in a new way. She and Scott both recommended to everyone that they see the short video about Job. Also, the book Bible Women gets at the core of Job in a fresh way by focusing on Job's wife, though she gets just 11 words to say in the whole book.

Rita, ruing how "mean" she'd been to Bretherton early in the hour, atoned by telling us an idea she liked about two kinds of time in Scripture, "temporal" and "eschatological," day-to-day time v. eternity. She quoted from EfM's introduction to Bretherton's chapter: "It is in the daily that we find God." That resonated with Kaye, who described a study of how often the word "path" appears in Proverbs [Smoot: like this year's theme of a "journey with God!"], the implication being that the path keeps going, and you can keep learning. That's an echo of Lanie's idea of "grace" as "a kind of permission."

Reflect
When Lanie showed us the image of the frog included with this blog post, there was a lot of energy in just noticing all the details. The diamonds; the eyes asymmetrical, wide set, and looking up; the apparent smile; the legs flexed as if ready to leap; the textures in the gold and the green stripes. Asked if there were any story connected to this, Lanie told us that this had been a gift years ago, long forgotten until recently; and that Lanie has feared frogs from a very young age. Lanie saved a secret for us until Mason guessed it: "Does he open up?"

That became our focus, "The Secrets of the Jeweled Frog." We explored the world of the jeweled frog through a few theological categories. Creation is wondrous, and recalls the long list in Job of creatures who display God's power and love in making such diversity. Sin is the squeamishness we feel about non-mammals and creatures unlike us. Redemption is what this frog represents, in itself being redemption for our squeamishness as we come to recognize a beauty and lovability in frogs through this little work of art.

Before we got into Connections, we took a moment to talk about "low-hanging fruit." In a creative endeavor such as this, it's not fun if we just go to "the Cross" or "be a good person" for our reflection. Look for something a little off-center.

We thought of frogs in Tradition, a plague in Exodus, an unclean food in Leviticus (or so we vaguely recall). Then we recalled the serpent in Exodus hung on a pole that healed all who looked upon it. We branched out to include characters who were despised and feared, then accepted and even revered: Saul/Paul, young Moses, the prostitute Rahab, little tax collector Zachaeus: when you look at them more closely, their faults diminish in importance.

We put those in dialogue with all the cute cartoon frogs in our Culture. Frogs seem to be both good and bad -- or is it us? What are we projecting on this little creature?

For Insights, we saw a theme in "The Frog Prince," "The Ugly Duckling," and "Beauty and the Beast," all about repulsive creatures who become beautiful only after someone sees their inner beauty. This made us think of children, and those who are labeled "problems" in school. This jeweled frog redeems all frogs in our eyes in a way that calls to mind the way crosses can be made roughly or can be jeweled, too -- redeeming a horrific state-sponsored execution, drawing us all into that redemption.

We collaborated very well on this Collect on a Jeweled Image of a Frog:

Dear Lord, Creator of all things shiny and slimy, You have made the eyes of the frog far apart, able to see 360 degrees around it: help us to see beyond the surfaces of things, and to step outside of our own limited point of view , that we may find and be open to the surprise of inner beauty in all things and creatures. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen.

For Monday AFTER Thanksgiving:
Read Week 10. Scott will send questions, lead worship, and bring a TR. We pray for Joyce and her family, for Jessica, her husband, and little Liam (we saw a photo of him in a onesie that says "I am proof that God answers prayers"), and for Lanie's niece and family.

← | latest | →

Journey with God, Wk. 8: Detour ahead

← | latest | →

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

News Flash! Jessica's little boy Liam (Rita's grandson!) was born today. Mom and child are doing well. Thanks to Joyce and Susan for the news!

Worship and Gathering
Before worship, we checked in with each other about concerns and thanksgivings to keep in mind during prayer. We agreed to take next Monday off, to return Monday the 17th for week 9. We will also take off the Monday before Thanksgiving. (So we sort of "gathered" but I think we may have skipped Kaye's gathering question. Please accept my apology, Kaye! Maybe Susan will use your GQ when she does worship next time.)

For worship, Kaye brought us prayers about Autumn, change, and the beauty of impermanence, taking them from liturgies in a Y5 book. I was struck by this: "Things that decay become the dirt that sustains us."

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: None.

Respond
Joyce chose two questions, given to us in advance. How has the material "broadened... understanding of what it means to live faithfully?" What level of commitment did the people in our texts have toward "being at the table" with those who differed from them?

We joined our answers on a numbered grid shared to the screen, each comment relating to one above, beside, or beneath it. For an incentive to offer comments, a prize was promised to the person who chose "the secret square." Kaye was our winner of "shearling" slippers, $1500!!! Expect them to be delivered any day, now, Kaye.

These threads emerged:

• At a time when the Church was divided, in conflict with itself, and corrupt with power and wealth, Islam started with literally "sharing the table" with people of different sorts and hearing their stories... The church recently has recognized how our missionary work so often involved demeaning and punishing the indigenous people we "discovered," erasing their differences and coercing them to join us at our table. Jesus preached to those outside of Israel, and commanded his apostles to go even farther, to bring "all the world" into the merciful, just, blessed kingdom of God.
• The Enlightenment, seeking universalized ethics not connected to any faith, gave cover to collectivist ideologies such as Communism, Fascism, and the idolatry of "individualism." These ideologies exclude others from "the table."
• Neither collectivist nor individualistic, the Church has a long tradition of taking care for those on the outside -- or, at least that's one thread in our Scriptures and history. Deuteronomy commands landowners to leave the poor everything that falls to the ground during harvest, and commands to "love the sojourner" who takes refuge in the land. Monasteries that had been "inward looking" turned outward to take intentional care of the communities around them.
• Living faithfully… so many people left their lives for life of poverty – new orders for men and women – living a higher devotion in poverty, taking care of the poor. Like the young man in Matthew, give all you have to the poor… but these people really did that! ... From the start, believers have struggled with the twin "goods" of either devoting oneself to prayer and salvation by getting away from the sins and distractions of society, or else trying to remain faithful while engaging in that society.
• We humans seem to need something tangible to "glom onto," as the Hebrews made their golden calf when they could no longer see Moses with them.
• The harshness of some scriptures is something that many of us struggle with, including our 5th year author Evans.
• Israel's Shema (Listen!) that Jews proclaim daily is essentially the same as what Muslims proclaim daily. Are we all connecting to the same God? Jesus was a rabbi who sought to reform Judaism; Mohammed accepted Jesus as a great prophet and the Hebrew scriptures as holy books.

Reflect
For our Theological Reflection (TR), Michael told of experience / action about a prayer answered in an unexpected way. We shared similar experiences, and identified in common our feelings of need, desire, fear, insecurity, followed by a strong sense that God was behind a fortuitous resolution of our problem. Looking for a metaphor that covered what those experiences were like, we hit upon finding a path out of a wooded area.

When we explored the metaphor of the path, the focus shifted in a surprising way. Physically imagining ourselves there, we saw how the path may have been there all along. The metaphorical answer to our prayers was there beside us. Focused on our own steps over logs and leaves and brambles, we did not see it.

We further explored Creation in the world of the unseen path in the woods. It's beautiful, maybe distractingly so. Its beauty and fascination draws us on. Judgement comes when the sun is setting, the air is cooling, and you realize you haven't a clue how to get back home. Redemption happens when you stumble up the ridge to the path, and now you can enjoy your hike again.

Lanie pointed out that we had imagined an unintended detour, a long way around the path. She connected this metaphor to Steven Charleston's book that we read last year about the American Indians' "vision quest," The Four Vision Quests of Jesus. We thought of Greek mythology, too, with a decade-long detour by Odysseus.

Connecting to paths was easy; to paths that we just didn't see was a little harder. Hebrews got off the path in the wilderness, and God was patient with them (in the long run). John the Baptist went out to make paths straight. When we thought of detours in the Bible, the Prodigal Son came to mind. (Aside: Ask me or Susan about the Atlanta Ballet's recent performance of the dance based on that parable. I haven't managed to describe it without choking up!)

When we sought to apply what had come to us from our reflection on Michael's anecdote, we had these insights:

• Michael: When we're lost, God isn't. God is there, whether or not our prayers seem to be answered.
• Jessica: The popular poster about parallel sets of footprints that become just one trail: "Those were the times I carried you," said God.
• God answer our prayers but not in the way we expect. His way, we come to realize, was better.
• Rita quoted, "Thy will be done is the prayer that never fails!"

Kaye's closing worship was for All Soul's. She asked Jessica to read. We paused to think of those we love but see no longer. [Note: Friends, this is a good place for me to add that my mom died on November 6, one day after her 91st birthday. Link to Funeral Home Tribute]

For Monday November 17:
With delivery expected this week, we won't expect Jessica and her mom on the 17th. We're engaging with materials for Week 9, which include some challenging scriptures in Judges (don't assume that everything in scripture is supposed to be uplifting!), Matthew (who has a different approach from Mark, even when they share the same material), the 13th century plague (!), plague and politicking Popes in the 14th c., and wisdom.Y'all ought to watch this beautiful 3 minute overview of Job in a Video.

On the 17th, Susan leads worship. Mason chooses questions from the "respond" tab in Wk 9 at the EfM Pathwright web site. Lanie will bring us the source of a TR from experience, or a piece of literature, a story from Scripture, some lesson she has been taught, or some selection from our culture's books and movies, paintings and poetry.

← | latest | →

Journey with God, Wk. 7: Wayfaring Strangers Like Us

← | latest | →

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

Worship and Gathering
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.

Respond
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.

Reflect
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.

For Monday:
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."

← | latest | →

Journey with God, Wk. 6: Doubt and Trust

← | latest | →

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

Worship and Gathering
Mason picked up the theme of "doubt" from questions Susan had chosen for discussion. He paired readings of doubt with trust.

The gathering question was, "Do you have a favorite prayer? a favorite place to pray in?" For some of us, it's a conversation with God that can happen anywhere (often in traffic). Forward Day by Day came up a lot. The prayers we love and know by heart included "those who work and watch and weep this night," the prayer attributed to St. Francis, everything in compline, the post-communion dismissal, and the General Thanksgiving (which Scott shares with Brandy: "We thank you for our creation, preservation, and all the blessings of this life." That's her cue to wag her tail.)

We took a moment to review our covenant. Trust is a strong theme in that, too, with "care" and "kindness" for our "brothers and sisters." How are we doing? "Thumbs up" was the consensus.

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: Joyce.

Respond
We discussed "doubt" in breakout rooms, and Scott was delighted to see that everyone came back smiling, as usual! These aspects of "doubt" emerged in the various discussions:

• EfM has turned what I learned in grade school "topsy-turvy" and the new perspectives have been positive
• new to see more ways that we should "listen to creation" while we also listen to Scripture
• differences of interpretation were life-and-death matters in the time of the Nicene Creed's development
• the Hebrews keep falling into doubt and fear despite clear signs of God's presence
• "Textural criticism" and some of the "backwards" laws of Exodus were a challenge, but, "People will find what they want in the Bible."

We also discussed the related ideas that there are many keys to interpreting Scripture, and that the end of it all is love for God. We gave some examples of "keys" such as historical context, noticing the form (e.g., poem + sermon + court propaganda), and getting into the story imaginatively. If we read stories only for moral instruction, we miss the richness of them -- Jacob's wrestling with that being overnight, for example. The author said we should not reduce Scripture to do's and don'ts.

Our rector at St. James, preaching on the Jacob story, said, "Live the story, don't decode it." Fearing to face the consequences of his malfeasance, and yet driven to ask his brother forgiveness, Jacob's night time wrestling match is a great image for doubt!

Kaye recommended the 5th year book by Evans, who writes that it's never "whether" to pick and choose the Scriptures you trust -- that's been done since the very beginning (and literal readings have been a recent innovation, Susan pointed out), but it's how you choose.

Reflect
Our last chapters of our spiritual autobiographies focused on grace and/or forgiveness. While the specifics were for our EfM family alone, I'll observe that we trusted each other when we shared some very strong feelings.

Mason's closing prayers were gentle benedictions after these stories of loss, resilience, forgiveness, discovery, blessing, and "a Pentecost moment!"

For Monday:
We engage with the texts and media laid out for our various years. Rita will lead worship and ask the GQ. Remember that Kaye will be on her way to Texas to see her precious grandchild (whom we got to see on her phone). Scott will choose the questions for discussion. Scott is also responsible for bringing a source for our first full-fledged Theological Reflection (TR), and has asked everyone to bring an object that is meaningful to them. If it's not an object that you can hold up in your hand, then it could be a picture you share on your screen. We'll ask for a brief explanation.

← | latest | →

PS from Monday, 27 October - For today's discussion time, I've chosen the second and fourth questions under the "respond" tab. I'm paraphrasing them here:

Images: What metaphors or images (both pictures and mental pictures) did you find in your reading, watching, and listening this week? How does imagery influence your understanding?

The Stranger: In some of the readings, the theme of the "stranger" (a.k.a. "foreigner") arises. We are asked to think of any songs or poems that relate to this theme. I think we can open this up to movies, too. EfM asks how we see in this theme of 'stranger' a connection between God's work in us and the world?

If you don't have a song in mind, yet, you're not alone. The only one that comes to my mind is "Strangers in the NIght."