Adult Spirituality Group notes, 3/27/11

(There were seven participants.)

We all are in the process or learning how to live a life of forgiveness in Jesus' model:
FRANCIS S. shared a definition of forgiveness. "Kaphar" in Hebrew means to forgive (cleanse pardon, purge away).
BOB S. mentioned that to learn how to forgive is to overcome pride. To be forgiven is to overcome hopelessness and despair.
It is possible for a BCUCC Movie Night to watch a Catholic movie he was familiar with, As fast as my feet will carry me. (It's theme is that every man deserves to be forgiven.)
BILL K. brought out how the author interplays space and place in the Day Two chapter, A Prepared Place. For example, "Forgiveness knows just how much love there is... plenty."
DAN S. highlighted the importance of exercising forgiveness as a daily practice.
DAY M. discussed his intuition of subtle healing and balance with another person that had occurred this last week. The process seemed to be initiated by the other person, and included DAY proactively responding by making a mental choice to forgive and broaden his perspective, towards a final integrated whole Heart for both.

FOR NEXT SUNDAY, 4/3, please reflect when reading Week Two content, how the questions at end of chapters bring out the quoted bible verses.

Adult Spirituality Group notes, 3/20/11

(Today, there were eight attendees.)

We're starting to discuss a new book, Calmly Plotting the Resurrection - Lenten Reflections for Individuals and Groups. The back cover of the book has the following information:
"Donna E Schaper [a senior minister] has written a thought-provoking book to assist readers in developing a way to move forward, a way to become persons of faith, and a way of becoming Christians by "calmly plotting the resurrection." Schaper provides a daily exercise for the seven weeks of the Lenten season, including a passage of Scripture, a brief reflection, and concluding questions for further consideration or group discussion. The themes for each week of reflections are:

• Week 1 - Where Are We Going?
• Week 2 - Are We There Yet?
• Week 3 - Are We Lost?
• Week 4 - Parabolic Thinking: The Land Beyond Lost, Next To Doubt
• Week 5 - What Is Enough Resurrection?
• Week 6 - Rising
• Week 7 - Risen

Schaper provides a daily guide for our journey through the Lenten season, filled with personal illustrations, inspirational stories, and words for reflection. Perfect for individual study and for adult groups, Calmly Plotting the Resurrection is a helpful resource for anyone seeking a meaningful journey toward Easter.
ISBN-13: 978-1-59752-020-1 "

• DAY MURTI suggested to note 2-3 paragraphs in each week's reading that were meaningful and inspiring to us. This will allow us to condense what really matters to us and help pull out material for group discussions.
• For example, DAN STERN highlighted a bible passage, "In my father's house, there are many dwelling places." Consider that physicists have mathematically discovered 23+ dimensions, as detailed in the Public Broadcasting System Nova series entitled, "The Emergent Universe." (Check out - www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/physics/elegant-universe-einstein.html )

For next week, read (to page 14) the rest of "Week 1 - Where are we going?"

Adult Spirituality Group Notes: 9/19/10

Not having attended BCUCC in a while, I was drawn last night to study Chapter 14, "Nonfiction vs. Fiction vs. Cosmic Illusion". Bra~Brah~Dum! It turned out that was what we were to read....

We right away spoke of our answers to the author's pop quiz, a series of paragraphs we were to categorize as either fiction or nonfiction:
"All the quiz was nonfiction." - Rose Bailey
"The author's message was to point out that writing isn't necessarily fiction or nonfiction." -Pastor Dan
"Only science & math approach is nonfiction." - Tom Ward
"Only science & math approach finds truths, not necessarily solutions." -Pete Bailey
"Yeah! I'm enthralled by to find out the latest science. Check out - www.sciencedaily.com/ Scientific truths are all hypotheses, as we don't know all like the Creator does." -Day Murti

(Hmm... Is there a Creator? We digressed to question the retired Cambridge University physics professor Steven Hawking recent assertion that a Creator wasn't required for the Universe to occur. Find out more at - www.huffingtonpost.com/karl-giberson-phd/hawkings-speculation-ever_b_703374.html)

Pastor Dan brought the group back to the book, noting "It is human to want facts and clarity, but the reality is that there is a lot of mystery. We create mysteries and then we try to solve them. The author of "God Laughs & Plays" is intrigued by the Christian paradox that by losing your life, you gain everlasting life."

There was a long discussion of the conflict provoked by a Gainesville Florida pastor burning Korans. Check out David Horsey's insightful cartoon - blog.seattlepi.com/davidhorsey/archives/220875.asp

NEXT WEEK: Chapter 15, "Assailed - Improvisations in the key of cosmology"
NEXT BOOK: is authored by UCC pastor John Indermark and will be passed out next Sunday.

Adult Spirituality Group Notes: 7/11/10

Today, we brought up more questions than answers relating to Chapter 4 reading, "When Compassion Becomes Dissent":
- Upon the pastor's inquiry, we sought to unveil the best bible discussions of compassion and decided that the "Love Your Neighbor as yourself" quote reflected most clearly Jesus' views on compassion.

We talk in church about how to influence society with Christ's teachings:
1. We agreed that it is hard to sort out a "truth" in anything nowadays in this multi-paradigm global culture. We debated the question of whether possible to do anything positive for good in the world nowadays given the complexity. It was so much more clear earlier....

2. Given that there is so much that can and needs to be done in the world and everything is controlled by the battle over resources, why not restart a global Marshall Plan (rebuilding plan from World War 2) currently?

3. "We have to keep going in the direction of hope, not destruction." (Rose)

4. "We need to all hug trees!" (Day)

5. "We wouldn't have all these problems if we had education."

* Read Chapter 5 (p. 77) "Ashes & Dirt" to discuss next week.

Adult Spirituality Group Notes: (6/27/10)

Today, the group discussed the chapter, "Unsaying the word of God":

--"We humans learn best when we can relate new knowledge to what we already know." (Rose) When we try to frame God through out word symbols, humans often have a tendency to become dogmatic and fundamentalist, boxed in by our own thoughts. When we approach God, we should use intuition to not limit and become bound by the thoughts we use to learn about God. For this reason, Francis (dark-haired) remarked that "The book's author, David James Duncan, takes a Dr. Seuss approach to diagnosing the contemporary American spirit."
* Our group feels that BCUCC is different than the churches that Duncan is critical of. "BCUCC gives confidence in your faith because it expands your thinking, giving windows, not walls." (Rose)
* We do not feel our church is that unique in this regard. "There is hope for common vistas between viewpoints in and among churches. For example, recently a Southern Baptist was on National Public Radio mentioning that loving Earth is loving God, and that he wanted church-goers to take the Earth seriously as one of our spiritual goals." (Charles & Francis)
* "Speaking of woo-woo though. Meister Eckhart, a mystic who lived in 13th century Europe) was considered apostate (a non-believer) by the Catholic church." (Bob)

We related to the author's discussion of a soul's hunger at the end of the chapter:
"On loving God: In the period of preparation for loving God, the soul loves in emptiness. It does not know whether anything real answers its love. It may believe that it knows but to believe is not to know. Such a belief does not help. The soul knows for certain only that it is hungry. The important thing is that it announces its hunger by crying. A child does not stop crying if we suggest to it that perhaps there is no such thing as bread. It goes on crying just the same. The danger is not lest the soul should doubt whether there is bread, but lest by a lie, it should persuade itself that it is not hungry. It can only persuade itself of this by lying, for the reality of its hunger is not a belief, it is a certainty."
(by Simone Weil, p. 31)

(The group had a broad, complex, in-depth discussion of the nature of God & the human necessity of belief in God's infallibility. I was unable to properly transcribe its nuggets to notes.)

NEXT WEEK: Read Chapter 3 "What Fundamentalists Need For Their Salvation" (p. 33 ->)

Adult Spirituality Group Notes (6/20/10)

Today, the group discussed the first chapter of God Laughs & Plays:
- Author David James Duncan is a writing professor, who lives in western Montana and home schools his children. He experiences the Grace of aloneness and God in nature, but has allergies to organized religion from a poor childhood experience in church. Thus, he hasn't been to church in 35 years! As a church going group, we decided that his vantage and perspective was initially at odds to our own. We defended the value of our church discussions and fellowship and queried, "If against organized religion, is one also against community?"

WONDER: We relished the chapter section on the spiritual benefits of wonder. Wonder is unknowing experienced as pleasure. Wonder doesn't have room for fear and anxiety. Like Grace, wonder defies rational analysis.
"As a facial expression, wonder is the letter our eyes and mouths make when the state itself descends. O: God's middle initial. O: because wonder Opens us. O(ld) becomes new. Wonder is anything taken for granted - the old neighborhood, old job, old buddy, old spouse - suddenly filled with mystery. Wonder is anything closed, suddenly opening..." (p. 9)

YOGI: This section reminded us of a few things:
1. An intuitive response is not so scripted. As listener to this response, it is more important for us to look at the unscripted comments for the place from which they come.
2. The dance of life is a balance between careful attention to high quality practiced endeavor and explorative openness to newness of perception & wonder.

GLADLY: My twin nieces are visiting Seattle right now. After church, I, my sister, nieces, and mom used "Skype" (internet video telephone) to call my dad for Father's Day. It was a wonderful example of the power of the "gladly" section. My mom, sister, and I had deeper questions about the nuances of Dad's life. Dad appreciated the contact, but I noticed truly came alive when Josephine and Thais, my 8 month old twin nieces became enthralled by how the computer screen was actually the grandpa that they had hugged and new well from earlier. The babies were pure and bright. Their glad enthusiasm was wholesome & healing for the family.

FOR NEXT WEEK (6/27/10):
Read the chapter two, "Unsaying the Word, "God", p. 17 ->.

Adult Spirituality Group Notes (6/13/10)

(11 participants)
Thanks to Charles Cressey Saturday delivery, everyone has received their books, "God Laugh & Plays" by David James Duncan, and have started to read the forward and preface.

There was general agreement that the author knows the relation between metaphors and compassion, e.g.:
"Unsaying the word of God"
"To define is to limit the unfathomable mystery of God. When very one names God, you give a slant and relationship."

There were two superb quotes that elicited discussion:
1. "Evangelism as embodied by Jesus does not remotely suggest the close-minded zeal of proselytizers claiming that only their interpretation of scripture prevents eternal punishments and pays eternal rewards: it implies, on the contrary, the kind of all-embracing love evident in Mother Teresa's prayer, "May God break my heart so completely that the whole world falls in." Not just her fellow nuns, Catholics, Calcuttans, potential converts. The whole world."

The whole world, for example, seemed to fall into the heart of Mahatma Gandhi. He repeatedly acted upon what his stated belief "I am a Christian, I am a Hindu, I am a muslim, I am a Jew."
(Author's Preface, xxv)

2. We the peoples of Earth, need a new cosmology that can effectivelyl embrace both our innate thirst for deeper, often obscured and intuited meanings as well as the necessary rigors of our intellectual life. We need a cosmology that can feed our souls and our questions about the meaning of life and death, while embracing the realities of our biological and ecological selves." (Forward, xi)

For next week (6/20): Please read Chapter 1, "Wonder; Yogi; Gladly" (p. 5-16)