We’re in the midst of another time of reformation (some might say reckoning) for the church. The fastest growing religion in America is “none” and nearly everyone prefers being spiritual to religious. Our reliance on hollow dogmatic formulations of our faith is the very heart of this crisis. We’re a come-and-listen community in a come-and-show-us world. Yet the blessing in this crisis may be a call to explore and to articulate our own faith.

Join me for a exploratory faith conversation about the God we serve and worship, and how articulating what we mean when we say God can enrich our faith and bless others.

We’ll meet Wednesdays at 7 pm on Zoom. Email me to register (or just click the Zoom link and show up!).

Here’s the plan:

Oct. 4 – Creeds, Catechisms, and Change – a placeholder for what?

  • Prayer: Who You Are (Dave Lubbin)
  • Intro: Gary invalidating others’ grief and Church as Pilgrimage
  • Question: How has your understanding of God (and life of faith) changed significantly in your life?
  • Apostles Creed – mandated unity skips Christ’s life (look at difference in the Nicene and Constantinople Creeds)
  • Trinity and God as community (Elohim = God of gods; “let us make…”)
  • What fundamentalists and atheists have in common (defining Xy dogmatically – oversimplifying faith)
  • God is watching us from a distance? (Midler and Bonhoeffer)
  • For Your Journal: Write your personal Creed (I believe…)
  • Blessing: Agnus Dei (Rufus Wainwright)
  • Notes from Week 1

 

Oct. 11 – Biblical diversity and depth in God language and stories

  • Prayer: O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go (Cynthia Clawson)
  • Two creation stories: El and Yah (Genesis 1 and 2)
  • Question: To which of these God-concepts (from Genesis 1 and 2) do you gravitate?
  • No one has ever seen God (and lived) (Exodus 33:12-23 and 1 John 4:12)
  • Prophetic theological reimagination in Exile (2 Samuel 6:1-11 and Hosea 11:1-9)
  • God is love – or a rock, a shield, a strong fortress (Psalm compendium)
  • For Your Journal: What three non-anthropomorphic metaphors for God resonate with your life most profoundly?
  • Blessing: 23rd Psalm (Bobby McFerrin)

 

Oct. 18 – Metaphor, Story, and Idolatry

  • Prayer: Every Season (Nichole Nordeman)
  • Likeness and unlikeness: the provocation of metaphor
  • Story of Amor Conquista Todo
  • Question: How has your experience of love as a young child, friend, lover, parent (or caretaker of young children), and as an adult child changed the way you understand what the word love means?
  • God is a Metaphor by Mark Schaefer
  • Quick Check: What Metaphor Do You Use for God? by Jeannette Cooperman
  • Story crisis and transformation (growth)
  • Projection and Idolatry: falling in love with (the idea of) Father
  • Greek iconography – seeing through/beyond (see Christ Pantocrator)
  • For Your Journal: On what aspects of what you mean when you say God does the father metaphor shed light? What aspects does this popular metaphor obscure?
  • Blessing: Winter Snow (Aubrey Assad)

 

Oct. 25 – Zeroing in: Jewish Torah and the Way of Christ (What the Incarnation Means for God and Humanity)

        • Prayer: I Can Only Imagine/Team Hoyt (Mercy Me)
        • In exile (after the Temple) – what remains? Ezekiel’s Temple? Sabbath/Torah
        • Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19
        • Question: What kinds of practices nourished your faith during the quarantine?
        • When in Rome – the realm of God is like… (not heaven, but engitzoing – now and not yet)
        • Life reading and the heart of Torah:
        • “You have heard that it was said…But I say to you…” (Matt 5:21, 27, 31, 33, 38, 43)
        • Group Focus: God’s law written on the tablets of our hearts
        • Have you not read…? (Mark 2:23-28)
        • For Your Journal: The Latin phrase sine qua non means “without which, nothing.” We might also say “the most important aspect.” What is the sine qua non of the God experience for you?
        • Blessing: Peacemaker (Greg Ferguson)

Nov. 1 – Be-living the Way of Jesus

        • Prayer: One of Us (Joan Osborne)
        • Show me the stories of Jesus – see how the Christians (People of the Way) love
        • Question: What Jesus story had the most impact on your early life of faith? How is this picture of Jesus’ life reflected in your life?
        • Whatever the Father is doing, I am doing
        • You are not far from the realm of God
        • What links the activities Jesus mentions in Matthew 25:31-46 (35-36 and 42-43)?
        • In both Hebrew and Greek, the words that translate “sin” mean “to miss the mark.” How does this understanding change the way you think about right behavior and sin?
        • For your Journal: Paul loved lists. If you were to make a list of behaviors describing the Way of Christ, what would it include? Where did you learn these behaviors?
        • Closing Blessing: More Than Words (Extreme)

Nov. 8 – Praying in (not to) God

Resources