The Birth Angle

Then there is this birth thing. I have to admit, it hit home for me. Our first child, a son, was born in January, so being 8 months along as I approached Christmas was poignant for me. I have always wondered if Jesus came a little early for Mary - if she thought she could get to Bethlehem and back with Joseph before the baby came. In other words, I wondered if she was as pregnant as I was, but the baby just came early. Who cares if you are premature when you are the Son of God?
So, bringing the creation wonder into the wonder of birth captured my attention, even in the mess. What brings the wonder of God home to all you Charlenes out there?

On this Gnosticism thing

Hey again. New subject from my last comment.

As I read on Peterson's sense of gnosticism, I kept thinking of all the reasons I'm hearing to leave the PC(USA). Is there not a little "spirituality without the inconvenience ... of sin or morality ... of people who we don't like or who aren't our kind." (p. 62) ???

I keep wondering what broke the dam to start this exit strategy. No one knows how much our polity has really "changed," there weren't a rush of borderline ordinations, no clear cases to point to and say "ah-ha! we knew this would cross an orthodox line!"

Could it possibly be the old familiar reason ... of sin like gnosticism?

Christ Plays in Creation: Exploring the Neighborhood of Creation

Peterson begins this section of his book about Creation with the idea that humans are so acutely aware of the wonder of everything around us. We are curious beings...this is so true especially of children. But somewhere along the way "we are reduced to a life of routine through which we sleepwalk." I know this to be true in my own life, as sometimes I feel as if I'm on "auto-pilot," like when I drive home from work and can't remember taking the turns and exits to get there. I'm thankful, though, that God does jar us awake from time to time and I am again catching my breath seeing his sunsets or moved to tears by his goodness. The only appropriate response to life is gratitude and wonder. In our churches, how do we create a space where people can be wide-eyed, astonished and thankful in their worship?

whoah!

This is the most high-tech I've ever been! Thanks, Tracie. This woman is ALL OVER IT!
Miss you guys already, and I enjoy thinking of what everyone's up to.

A Place to Call Home

Here it is ladies, our new blog! Hopefully this can be a place where we can interact with one another between conference calls. Let's play around with it and see if it works for us. If not, we can stick to email. I was thinking that since the reading is fairly long that we need to cover in the next two months, that it might be easiest if we break it down into smaller segments that I will assign for each week. This can also help keep us accountable to our reading. In Santucci's study guide, the "Christ Plays in Creation" section is broken up into four parts. We will discuss the first two parts (Session 3 & 4) on our first conference call on Thursday, March 22nd at 1:30 p.m. Central Time.

I will send out an email reminder each week (hopefully!) of our reading and to check the blog. It would be great if we could all post at least one comment for that week of reading. If this gets too overwhelming or you don't like weekly reading assignments, we can change it as we go along. This is simply just a tool to help us stay connected. So, here are the weekly readings:

• Thursday, Feb. 22nd -- (Exploring the Neighborhood of Creation, Kerygma, Threat: Gnostism), p. 51-61
• Thursday, March 1 -- (Grounding the Text 1: Genesis 1-2, Creation Now, The Creation Gift of Time), p. 62-71
• Thursday, March 8 -- (The Creation Gift of Place), p. 71-84
• Thursday, March 15 -- (Grounding Text 2: St. John), p. 85-89
• Thursday, March 22* -- (Ego Eimi, ), p. 89-91 *Conference Call Discussion using Santucci p. 12-20 (Sessions 3 & 4)
• Thursday, March 29 -- (The Signs), p. 92-99
• Thursday, April 12 -- (The Glory), p. 99-108
• Thursday, April 19 -- (Cultivating Fear-of-the-Lord in Creation, Sabbath), p. 108-118
• Thursday, April 26* -- (Wonder), p. 119-129 *Conference Call Discussion using Santucci p. 21-30 (Sessions 5 & 6)

The dates listed above are when you should have that week's reading finished and hopefully have posted a comment on the blog. Again, if this gets too structured, we can change or scrap this blog idea altogether. Happy reading!