Week 2
Thoughts from Class
Two of the major thoughts that stood out from class were 1) “Inspired by God = Breathed into by God.” The Bible is full of life, breathed into by God. 2) You cannot read the Bible carefully without seeing God as covenanting in love with all of God’s creation.
We also watched a video with an interview between Bono, of U2, and Eugene Peterson, author of the Message interpretation of the Bible. I’d watched this interview before and loved it. One part that Bono brings up is that “Lots of christian art is dishonest, which isn’t fair to those who are vulnerable.” He noted that God wants the truth from us and he wishes there were more songs or art about broken marriages, addiction, anger towards the government - the things that people are really going through.
“The only way we can approach God is through metaphor, symbol. So art becomes essential, not decorative.”
The last part from class that I want to go over is talking about the types of stories that we tell and that we see or hear. There are four types of stories: stock, concealed, resistance, and counter.
Stock: the primary cultural or societal story, told by the dominant group.
Concealed: coexist with stock stories but are hidden in the shadows, circulated among those on the margins.
Resistance: lifelong, both historical and contemporary; resistance against various forms of oppression and striving towards a more just society
Counter: new stories developed to challenge the stock stories, often aimed at disrupting the status quo.
Response to Scripture
The scriptures for this week were: 2 Kings 5:1-3, 7-15, Psalm 111, 2 Timothy 2:8-15, Luke 17:11-19
2 Kings: Similar to the story in Luke, a man who is an outsider believes to an extent in the power of God and that he can be healed or made clean. His belief turns out to come true and the verse ends in praise for the Lord.
Psalm 111: God is a God who provides
2 Timothy: God’s word (Jesus) is free.
Luke: I actually wrote a sermon on this text! I’ll be giving the sermon at my church on Thanksgiving Eve, and don’t want to give it all away. But here’s a couple thoughts I had on the text. 1) Jesus sees us in our desperation 2) We are called to see others 3) When do we feel at a distance from God?
Resources
(1) A song or hymn connected (2) a media piece - art, film, music, cartoon, meme, blog post, etc. (3) an action someone could take - prayer, legislative action, meditation, petition to sign etc. Each resource is related or connected either the lectionary text or the focus area of expansive language.
Song/Hymn
Given that I posted the conversation with Bono and Eugene Peterson, I thought it was only appropriate to share one of U2’s songs based on a Psalm.
Pop Culture Reference or Media Piece
Coming at you with another children’s book! I am God’s Dream by Matthew Paul Turner is all about how we fulfill God’s dream as people made in God’s image. To fit in with expansive language, I flipped the language about “I am…” into “God is…”
Images included in this book are: Human sunbeam. Playful and brave. Quirky and curious, creative and kind. Dramatic and clever. Silly and wild. Courageous and true
Action - Journal
Here are a few prompts for journaling on your spiritual relationship(s).
When do you feel closest to your higher power?
When do you feel furthest away?
Do you see your higher power in yourself?
What “art” comes to mind when you think of your higher power? Music? A show? A painting or sculpture?