Inside Out Week 7

We began our time together hearing some of the wisdom literature from the Bible. If you have a Bible with an Apocrypha handy perhaps you canlook up some of these readings: Proverbs 8:22-31, Sirach 24:1-7, Wisdom of Solomon 7:27-30, Proberbs 1:20-23, Proberbs 4:13,

Wosdom of Solomon 7:21-26, Baruch 3:37 - 4:1.

Sophia - Wisdom shows up in partnership with God in creation. We talked about divine feminine images and the importance of considering an image of the divine that re-balances the masculine with the feminine. Where do you see signs of masculine/feminine balance in the natural world and in our own experiences?

Another idea we considered are the parallels between Jesus and Sophia. The comment Bruce Sanguin offers is that Sophia, the wisdom of God, was the template the gospel writers used to tell the story of Jesus, particularly in Matthew and John's gospel. Do you see Jesus as Wisdom incarnate?

In the context of our evolutionary/ecological discussion, where does Sophia show up? Are we not being called to use our intellect in each moment as we make daily decisions? What impact does that have on the passage of time?

I look forward to reading your ideas. Don't forget, to read the responses from others or to leave your own comment, just click on the title - "Inside Out." 

Inside Out Week 5 and 6

I apologize for falling a bit behind. Here, I offer some comments on both week 5 and week 6. You are welcome to respond to any or all of these comments.

In week 5 we talked about the Bible as an evolutionary document. Bruce Sanguin offers that even though the Bible reflects the worldview of those who wrote it, our interpretation reflects our worldview, and so it becomes an evolving document. Biblical story offers us a record of God's people journeying through time, expressing an evolving understanding of a relationship with God. The narratives we discussed were: The Story of Exodus: The God of Freedom, The Story of Exile: The God of Homecoming, The Story of Temple: The God of Sacrifice, and The Story of Call and Response: The God of Allurement. How do you experience these narratives in your present context?

Our week 6 discussion dealt with an ecological perspective on Jesus' teachings. There were two particularly interesting conversations; one on the prodigal son, and the other on the good Samaritan. Looking at the prodigal son story through an ecological lens, we thought about how we have squandered our inheritance (the environment) and that perhaps we haven't quite hit rock bottom yet. Where do you think we are in this story?

The good Samaritan story led us to consider first of all, who is our neighbour? We also considered that perhaps it is an endangered species, or even our entire world that is lying in the ditch half dead. How will we respond?

 I look forward to reading your perspective on these chapters.

Inside Out Week 4

The conversation for week 4 began instantly the moment we entered the room. Bruce Sanguin's chapter on evolution as divine unfolding really sparked some energy among us. We took a lot of time considering the challenge to articulate a creed for an evolutionary God. If we are to write a creed that expresses our emerging understanding of evolution as divine unfolding, what would we say? What is our understanding of the reality of God within this evolving universe? How has our understanding of our relationship with holy mystery changed over the years?

Here's a challenge - write us a line for a creed for an evolutionary God. What would you like to include? What do you believe about the reality of God within evolution? I look forward to reading your comments.

Inside Out - Week 3

In week 3 of our study of Bruce Sanguin's "Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos" we began with an imaginary cosmic walk to help us put in perspective the 13.7 billion year history of the universe as we know it to be at this point in time. Using our imaginations as well as our intellects we "walked" through the story that links earth, humans, animals, and mountains as one integrated story. As we did this, we began connecting to our own personal evolving stories. We are part of the evolutionary process and as such, what words would we use to describe aspects of our own creative energy? What energy do we choose to bring into the world? What things do we say "yes" to? What experiences have we had that have prepared us to say "yes" to some things and "no" to others?

What do you think about the idea of evolution continuing, in part, through our own creative energy? Let us know what you think?

Inside Out Week 2

Last night's study group began week 2 of our discussion on Bruce Sanguin's book, "Darwin, Divinity, and the Dance of the Cosmos." We talked about our collective loss of awe and wonder for our natural world and how that affects our decision making around development and the use of natural resources.

There were 4 key statements from the study guide that we focused on for our small group discussions:

1. Because our culture values consumption over wonder and materialism over mystery, we are a dis-enchanted people.

2. When science and engineering are dissociated from spirit, morality, and ethics, the important questions don't get asked.

3. People come to church to validate their experiences of an enchanted or sacred dimension of life. Telling them that the religious life is about being "good," or worse, about being "better," doesn't speak to their spiritual intuition or to their spiritual yearning.

4. The price of our dissociation from the natural world is to be seen all around us in such things as the destruction of natural habitat, the growing numbers of species at risk, the acceleration in the warming of planet Earth, and the growing scarcity of fresh water.

Let us know what you think about one or more of these statements. I look forward to reading your comments.