I must confess what I have left undone: I didn't start reviewing my notes from August until Christmas Eve. I'll just hit what I remember, the highest of highlights.
A retired lawyer who now works with food ministries, Meador knows something about scarcity -- of food, of resources, of time. She refers to the numerous Scripture passages where we hear Be not afraid and reminds us to make time to be attentive to [the prophets] as to a lamp shining in a dark place (2 Pet 1.19). She seems to have been in the same Vestry meetings that I have, as she imagines the apostles brainstorming how to feed the 5000 -- it's too costly... there are too many... there's not enough.... She writes, "Remember the possibility of unimaginable solutions."
When the Apostles are stymied by a "hard saying" about eating the flesh of Jesus, Meador sympathizes. Haven't you ever heard something explained so clearly that you can't wait to tell others, but later, you can't make any sense of it? Yes! (I take notes to remember remarkable insights in sermons by our interim rector Mother Pat Miller but recall only unremarkable snippets.)
Responding to Job, she wonders why God would even care about our lives and our sins? Then she thinks of her infant son. "The love I have for my children cannot be explained, and yet it explains everything. And so it is with God." Amen.
A leader of workshops on centering prayer, Thomas identifies the phrase "I got this" as a source of great anxiety in our culture. Better, like Jesus, to accept I can do nothing on my own (John 5.20). Writing on Psalm 49 for the reading on September 11th, she ties it to other readings for the day: Job's lament that his generosity to the poor hasn't kept him from suffering, and Paul's return to the city where they stoned him (Acts 14.22), and the death of Lazarus. The dead man did not participate in his own renewal. "Sometimes we need God to be our light when there's none in us."
Thomas points out something I'd never thought about in the story in Acts 16 of the servant girl who has the gift of prophecy. Paul removes her power because she's so annoying, following him around and proclaiming her visions. Thomas doesn't deny the annoyance, but she observes that the serving girl is being exploited by her owners. "Paul's holy annoyance ends an injustice."
Thomas admits to being uncomfortable with Psalms, so "prone to exaggerated emotions." But their anger can be a comfort for us when we feel anger out of proportion to the cause. Recognition of that disproportion can bring healing to us. She relays an acronym for times when we are most at risk for Satan's temptations: HALT when you're Hungry, Angry, Lonely, or Tired.
Another confession: this youngish vicar of a "plant" church in Texas, formerly a Methodist minister, connected with me right away. I wrote three times the usual number of notes, visited his web site, and bought his memoir. I'll respond to that book later. For now, a list of his insights as concise as I can make them:
- The sick whom Jesus healed got sick again, those he raised from the dead died; but touching and asking questions of those like the leper and the "unclean" woman and the demoniac, he gives these people their dignity. That lasts! Maya Angelou: "People will forget what you said, and people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
- Yoo says the best ability is availability. Illustrated by the call of Levi, the tax collector.
- Pharisees fuss over the sabbath. Yoo observes that the Sabbath reminds us that our worth isn't based on what we produce; we are free.
- "Following Jesus is simple, but it's not easy." His radical plan to eliminate enemies is to love them. (Cf. Thurman, MLK Jr) BTW God loves those who reject him and disobey him in the day's reading from Hosea 11.9
- "Suffer the little children" reminds Yoo of very young siblings who sang "Jesus Loves Me" during communion, then "Baby Shark." Yoo writes that you might be horrified if you think of communion as a performance, but for a communal celebration, the tots' offering was joyous. He asks, "What changes could you make to honor and celebrate the gifts of everyone in your congregation?"
- "Names will never hurt me" is a lie, Yoo writes, recalling hurtful words hurled at him decades ago. But Jesus heals two people in Luke 7 by words alone. Words have power to hurt and to heal.
- Jesus tells John's disciples, "Go tell John what you have seen and what you have heard." Yoo says, "Jesus invites us not only to tell a good story, but to live a good story."
- A woman crashes a high society dinner party and anoints Jesus's feet, scandalizing the host and others. Jesus asks them, "Can you see this woman?" (Luke 7.44). Odd question: of course they see her. Yoo thinks Jesus was asking, "Can you see beyond stereotypes and status to her?" Following Jesus means changing how we see.
- In the parable of the sower, the God-figure doesn't assess the worthiness of the ground. He is indiscriminate.
- "Let us go to the other side of the lake." Yoo sees this line as significant because that's the Gentile side of the lake. He relates this to the dove, adored as a symbol of the Holy Spirit, despised and called a "pigeon" when it gets up in our spaces at sidewalk cafes and park benches, ignoring our boundaries. Jesus and the Spirit do the same.
- "We don't know what the future holds, but we know who holds it." The rich young man focuses on what he must give up, not on what he could gain with Jesus.
- Farmers don't give names to animals that won't be around much longer. By the same logic, Yoo writes, perhaps we prefer for some people in our vicinity and in our world to remain nameless so that we can continue to hate or mistrust them. Jesus asked the demoniac his name (cf. dignity in the first item of this list).
- Compassion v. Justice is the difference between serving at a soup kitchen v. asking why so many people need this help. Jesus didn't just stop a woman's hemorrhage, but called the woman "daughter" and responded without disgust to her touching him. Yoo writes, "Jesus brings her from the margins and places her right in the middle of the community." (cf. dignity in the first item of this list.)
- Re: God's sparing of Nineveh in the story of Jonah. "God isn't fair, but generous. What great news for everyone!"
- Ha! Moses seems surprised to see God, yet he's on Mt. Horeb, "the mountain of God." Yoo asks if we expect to encounter God at church -- or anywhere?
- Ha. The son of man has no place to rest his head prompts Yoo to point out that many of us will drive past homeless people on our ways to church to hear the words of an itinerant teacher.
- Luke 10.42 (re: Martha and Mary), There is only one thing needed. Yoo quotes someone, "If Satan can't make you bad, then he makes you busy doing things that don't matter." He quotes Richard Rohr: "Thy Kingdom come means my kingdom go."
- Jesus asks the blind man what he wants. Seems insensitive? But Jesus is pushing us to ask ourselves, Yoo believes. [Our interim rector Mother Pat picked up on the same question, and paused for an uncomfortably long time for us to ask ourselves, What do I want?]
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