April 2nd, 2008 – The Marriage at Cana and Climbin' Higher Mountains
So much can be held in the heart during a life. I talked about marvel when I talked about the book group last week as we started an overview of Maurice Nicholl’s The New Man.
We moved into Chapter 3 this week, The Marriage at Cana, and the connection this group within the Creator congregation made with one another astounded me. I can truly say I did not expect the intense, inclusive reactions everyone expressed to be shared by the entire group and yet the talk was all about the clarity and deep meaning they were finding as they read this book.
Will asked questions this evening that I have asked for years; “Are there books like this that can serve as guides for reading the Bible that are generally accepted?” and “Why have I never heard Nicholl’s way of finding the meaning in the description of a miracle or in a parable in the sermons I have listened to?”
We talked about different paradigms of the church as we have experienced it. Marcus Borg, in his book The Heart of Christianity, defines the earlier (or existing) and the emerging paradigms of Christianity.
Both of these paradigms seem part of the fabric of the faith for us. For some of us it is the church of our youth and what we now experience in church.
In the existing paradigm the Bible’s origin is a divine product with divine authority. The interpretation is literal-factual, the Bible’s function is the revelation of doctrine and morals and the emphasis is on an afterlife and what to believe or do to be saved.
In the emerging paradigm the Bible’s origin is a human response to God. The interpretation is historical and metaphorical, the Bible’s function is metaphorical and sacramental and the emphasis is transformation in this life through relationship with God.
The New Man is an expression of the emerging paradigm. In our discussion a previous book we read, Brian McLaren’s The Secret Message of Jesus, was also a book from the emerging paradigm. Bridging the differences between the existing and emerging views can be difficult and we went over that difficulty as well in our discussion.
The Marriage at Cana, as Nicholl describes it, can be meaningful in a different way when the marriage is thought of as an inner union of higher and lower levels, This union allows the miracle to occur of changing water into wine, moving one level of truth into another level of truth.
We had new people joing the discussion and those added voices brought more to our discussion.
We thought we would be able to get through two chapters in the discussion but we only talked about Chapter 3. Next week is Chapter 4.
So much can be held in the heart during a life. I talked about marvel when I talked about the book group last week as we started an overview of Maurice Nicholl’s The New Man.
We moved into Chapter 3 this week, The Marriage at Cana, and the connection this group within the Creator congregation made with one another astounded me. I can truly say I did not expect the intense, inclusive reactions everyone expressed to be shared by the entire group and yet the talk was all about the clarity and deep meaning they were finding as they read this book.
Will asked questions this evening that I have asked for years; “Are there books like this that can serve as guides for reading the Bible that are generally accepted?” and “Why have I never heard Nicholl’s way of finding the meaning in the description of a miracle or in a parable in the sermons I have listened to?”
We talked about different paradigms of the church as we have experienced it. Marcus Borg, in his book The Heart of Christianity, defines the earlier (or existing) and the emerging paradigms of Christianity.
Both of these paradigms seem part of the fabric of the faith for us. For some of us it is the church of our youth and what we now experience in church.
In the existing paradigm the Bible’s origin is a divine product with divine authority. The interpretation is literal-factual, the Bible’s function is the revelation of doctrine and morals and the emphasis is on an afterlife and what to believe or do to be saved.
In the emerging paradigm the Bible’s origin is a human response to God. The interpretation is historical and metaphorical, the Bible’s function is metaphorical and sacramental and the emphasis is transformation in this life through relationship with God.
The New Man is an expression of the emerging paradigm. In our discussion a previous book we read, Brian McLaren’s The Secret Message of Jesus, was also a book from the emerging paradigm. Bridging the differences between the existing and emerging views can be difficult and we went over that difficulty as well in our discussion.
The Marriage at Cana, as Nicholl describes it, can be meaningful in a different way when the marriage is thought of as an inner union of higher and lower levels, This union allows the miracle to occur of changing water into wine, moving one level of truth into another level of truth.
We had new people joing the discussion and those added voices brought more to our discussion.
We thought we would be able to get through two chapters in the discussion but we only talked about Chapter 3. Next week is Chapter 4.
The choir practice was comfortable. We practiced new songs for the season but many were familiar to the choir from years past. Climbin' Higher Mountains was exciting to practice and we sang a different arrangement of Healing River then most us know. This arrangement definitely resonated with us.
We celebrated Peter's birthday with cake and ice cream with the youth after practice was finished. It was a good time to socialize and to enjoy the fun of being together.
posted by Gary at
11:21 AM
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