Rachael brings back her (made-up!) translations of the Bible – the Trigger Fest Version (TFV) and the Transformational Wisdom Version (TWV) – to name toxic interpretations of Psalm 37 and then, as a community, to seek within it ancient wisdom to help us to live wisely and lovingly in these troubling days.
On Christ the King Sunday, Rachael and the gathered community wrestle together with the implications of the image of God as King, how Jesus’ life and death invite us to question and reimagine it, and what all of this means for the way we approach our own life and use of power.
After five months, Walter offers a “Part 2” for his talk from last June by emphasizing that the kind of “secure base” that God provides goes with us wherever we go, allowing for multiple attachments that can naturally correct the inevitable distortions we might otherwise hold about God if we were to only rely on one community.
[After Alex Henderson gave a thoughtful introduction to the importance of resilient Christian communities at a “Second Breakfast,” I invited him to share his thoughts as a blog post for those who weren’t there. WT].
In my view, Christian resilience is not a heavy, enduring, self-sacrificial stance, but a patient and purposeful stance. It involves the audacity to hope for good things in the face of hardships. In scripture, we are promised times when we will have to endure unjust suffering, loss, pain, and hardship – this stuff cannot be explained nor said to be a result of any kind of a deserved consequence. Pain and hardship are inherent in the natural world, which can sometimes be utterly awful/cruel or amazingly good/beautiful. Like the rest of nature, the humans around us can be fickle. But resilience is possible despite that fact, and I think a Jesus-centered community’s resilience is built on an especially powerful 2-sided kind of hope: 1) a hope that if we humans treat each other and nature rightly (which can happen if Jesus changes people’s perceptions of everything), then we will be better positioned to weather the random crap that this world will throw at us, and we will later experience more of the goodness inherent within God’s green world; and 2) a hope that if plan #1 does not pan out due to fickle reasons, we can hope for goodness from God during our suffering, even up to and beyond the point of death.
In Psalm 85:10,12-13 the Psalmist says that God’s righteousness and our faithfulness are intimately intertwined, and this results in us having an experience of peace and goodness in the world: “…righteousness and peace kiss each other. Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest. Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.”
In Proverbs 9:1-6, 12 the writer of Proverbs says that secure well-being is built upon wisdom and insight: “Wisdom has built her house; she has set up its seven pillars. She has prepared her meat and mixed her wine; she has also set her table. She has sent out her servants, and she calls from the highest point of the city, ‘Let all who are simple come to my house!” To those who have no sense she says, ‘Come, eat my food and drink the wine I have mixed. Leave your simple ways and you will live; walk in the way of insight.’…If you are wise, your wisdom will reward you; if you are a mocker, you alone will suffer…”
In James 5:10-11, James says that goodness is realized through patience and perseverance through suffering: “Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job’s perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.”
A big reason for being a ‘church-going’ Christian in the 21st century, in my opinion, includes the idea that the world is losing resilient communities.
Resilient Communities in the 21st Century.
A big reason for being a ‘church-going’ Christian in the 21st century, in my opinion, includes the idea that the world is losing resilient communities. Resilience in communities is possible with collective, sturdy, God-imbued values, like insight, wisdom and compassion and treating each other and the world with care. Communities that are full of fighting and selfish ambition maintain a kind of strength through domineering others and exploiting weaknesses around them. But these kinds of communities are not resilient when real trouble strikes – the people in these communities scatter to the wind. Many people lack a community entirely.
The world can be a scary place at times. The ‘humanity + technology’ power we see right now is revealing to many people that we can’t just modernize our way towards a bright future of collective resilience on earth. Maybe if we try Mars…? Technology without wisdom just amplifies human folly – example: the Manhattan Project. We see how with technology we have sowed unsustainable carbon emissions, and we are all reaping climate change. We have tech billionaire overlords with devoted consumeristic cults made up of sad, isolated humans worshipping their symbols and images in flickering blue screens in the dark.
Communities that value selfish ambition, exploitation, hatred of outsiders, vanity, or pride are not resilient to deal with human suffering, they amplify our suffering. Awful communities can obscure the goodness inherent within God’s green world. But since churches have been culpable of being some of the worst kinds of communities in this regard, so why should we continue to invest in them? Because “on paper” (by that I don’t just mean the scriptures) churches should be able to do this.
In history, Christian communities have had an uncanny knack for surviving in the face of persecution, wars, and pestilence. In the past and today, resilient Christian communities served like lifeboats to needy people around them, especially in cases or times when society fails. How were these Christian communities sustained under such intense pressure without being rooted in a deep, powerful and mystical resiliency that comes from ‘going all-in’ on Jesus Christ? It’s possible, and so I think we should strive to build a community built upon Rock and not on sand as the storm surges really begin to kick up.
– by Alex Henderson
At this Sunday’s “second breakfast,” Jess invited the tables to share with each other stories of community resilience. But first there was an introduction that included Alex Henderson sharing some thoughtful material on community resilience and Walter shared a brief story of what helped SSU to be a resilient community.
Mayara and Lorna share the concept of Timebanking, an exchange of skills based on the belief that every person is of value and has something to offer. They are excited to see how Timebanking can build a stronger, more connected community in St. Stephen, and invite and welcome your participation!
Jess Williams shares what she’s been learning about letting go. She considers the ways our culture glorifies independence, success, and getting by on your own, and how this is the opposite of the good life Jesus invited us into. Jess encourages us to let go of the things that keep us isolated and alone when what we need is the help and support of a loving community.
Mark continues where he left off in his last talk (on the temptations of Jesus – “Give Up Like Jesus “) after he shares some of his thoughts on how to read the Bible in a way that might make you more interested in being a Christian. Then he draws our attention to why it was important that Jesus started by building community with some fishermen.
At our Second Breakfast potluck, Janell shared about the variety of intergenerational connections she’s had throughout her life, and continues to enjoy today. From growing up in a close knit church community, to moving to St. Stephen, and now working as a piano teacher and fitness coach for older adults, Janell has experienced the value and joy of nurturing relationships across the ages, and helped us all think about this as a way of being rooted together in Love as a community
Walter uses a story to make the point of how the political methods of Jesus were not at all on the same page as others – and this remains true to this day. The church that follows Jesus has only one approach to politics: to be communities of compassion, generosity and joy.
