On Families and Community

Some time ago, my daughter gave me a book, written by a well known co-worker in the Indiana University English Department. I had started to read it, then put it away, and recently came across it again. In light of our hope with 4 Market Square, I thought I'd share a few paragraphs from a chapter entitled "Family" (pp. 70-71 in Hunting For Hope by Scott Russell Sanders, c. 1998) and I will try not to make so many typos this time around.

"What values and behaviors should the family teach if it is to be a training ground for life in community? That all depends on what sort of community we desire. For my part, I wish to live in a community that is peaceful, that cares for the weak and the poor, that welcomes the immense variety of humankind, that fosters the health and happiness and full development of all its members, young and old, male and female. I wish to live in a community that is beautiful, that encourages good work and discourages everything hasty or shoddy. I wish to live in a community that acknowledges the holiness of Creation by conserving the land and by respecting the creatures that share the land with us. I wish to live in a community that recognizes its links to the larger world yet also meets many of its own needs, especially for food and entertainment, and that has a modest sense of what those needs are. I wish to live in a community inhabited by citizens rather than consumers, public-minded people who honor the richness of our shared life by supporting libraries and museums and schools, and by planning for the common good. I wish to live in a community that has a keen awareness of its own history, one that values continuity as well as innovation and aspires to leave a wholesome place for others to enjoy, undiminished, far into the future.
"That vexed phrase 'family values' often serves as shorthand for a political agenda that is never spelled out. I have my own agenda, which is why I've sketched this vision of a desirable community. The family values that I embrace are the habits of heart and mind essential for creating and maintaining such a community, and among these are generosity and fidelity and mercy, a sympathetic imagination, a deep and abiding concern for others, a passion for justice, a sense of restraint and a sense of humor, a relish for skillful work, a willingness to negotiate differences, a readiness for cooperation and affection. I don't pretend that we always live up to those values in my own family, but we aspire to do so. "

Though we be strangers in a strange land, somehow these words ring true to the vision many of us espouse.

The Contemplative Life

Our small group has been reading The Shattered Lantern: Rediscovering a Felt Presence of God by Ronald Rolheiser, and last week we started to discuss what it means to live a contemplative life. Rolheiser suggests that most of us are in a hurry to discover God in our everyday lives--a statement that most of us agree with. However, we're wondering whether Rolheiser means that that we should consciously think about God as we go about our routines or do we just let God's spirit work through us as we take on the mundane?

Some of us think that to stop and think about God during a complicated day would be
a distraction to us and would be a disservice to those we want to serve most.
Several times during our small group the question arose, "Did Jesus stop to think about God as he healed the sick and went about ministering to the poor?"

Admittedly, Jesus did occasionally talk to God about an encounter, but more often the gospels record him getting off by himself when he needed to slow down. But that's when it got a little confusing. Here's what Rolheiser says about leading a contemplative life. "Contemplation is about waking up. To be contemplative is to experience an event fully, in all its aspects. Biblically this is expressed as coming 'face to face' with God, others and the cosmos. [he refers to 1 Corinthians 13: 12-13.] We are in contemplation when we stand before reality and experience it without the limits and distortions that are created by narcissism (our headaches and heartaches), pragmatism (our pressing tasks), and excessive restlessness (our dreams and distractions)."

We talked about how it's difficult to be fully present sometimes, but all agreed that we would be better people if we could shed our egoes as we deal with others.

Do we have to consider God consciously in every encounter, or do we just unconsciously act as vessels for the holy spirit to work? And if we accept the latter is there a danger into lapsing into our own unconscious needs? I guess another question related to that would be how do we get to the place where we are so in sync with God that He works through us.

Maybe when we have the chance we should think about how God is working through a situation and that maybe we all need time to get away at some point during the day to
allow God to speak to us? What do the rest of you think?

Establishing a Rule / The Daily Office

A few weeks ago, Doug mentioned that we might start thinking about having a sacred space downtown (hopefully 4 Market Square) and when we moved there, establishing morning and evening prayer times (Hours or the Office). (I am blogging about this rather than Doug since initiating a post has been difficult with the Blogger software.) He also alluded to our developing our own personal Rules (specific daily times set apart for prayer, medication, practicing spiritual disciplines, etc.) and I would hope that he and others would comment on this. We were given a number of references, some more contemporary (Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, etc.) and others more classic (St. John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, etc.) , that help us establish and practice this rule / spiritual disciplines.

But in thinking about a downtown sacred space, Doug felt we might start thinking about what the morning and evening office might look like. After a few years of doing it on Tuesday mornings, he had a few thoughts / questions -

1. "The Morning and Evening office from the Book of Common Prayer is too much for most people. I think we need to simplify it or find a simpler model. Patrick and Chris Woodhull have introduced us to the online resource www.sacredspace.ie. I’ve recently been using the online office from the Northumbria Community. You might dig around and look for formats that you like.
2. "What do you envision the time being like? Who do you see attending? Who do you see leading it? My first thought is that it needs to be pretty accessible for folks with varying levels of spiritual maturity, it would be nice if some folks who aren’t particularly mature Christians found themselves dropping by at the end of the day. How might healing fit in? Prayer for the city?"

As we continue to develop our own rule, perhaps we can consider the Office / Hours when our body has a space downtown.

Making Posts

There have been some problems in making posts and I would admit that it is confusing. To get this far (to make this post), I did the following:

1. typed the URL (www.allsoulsknoxville.blogspot.com) into the address field of my browser (Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Netscape, etc.)
2. went to the upper right hand corner and clicked on the Sign In (or Log In) option
3. clicked on the New Blogger option in the upper right hand corner of the next visible page
4. this took me to the Dashboard, where I clicked New Post
5. and I typed in this post. Try this protocol and if it doesn't work, let me know. It may be that Google might require that you have a Gmail address for this to work. If that is the case, I will see what I can do.

david