EMERGENT DAY TWO cont'd

Thursday late afternoon

Mauve Learning Community: Scripture--Stan Grenz and Brian McLaren

Conservatives embue scripture with authority, but in the end this version of scripture is domesticated. liberalism domesticates the bible by mashing it thru the colander of liberal culture. the conservative bible is a pitbull. the liberal bible is a french poodle.

the messy, jerky stories of the bible resontate with our messy jerky story.

are there other ways to enter scripture?
- lectio divina
- ignatian reading


Thursday evening: general session

with harp, rhythm, and bass, the soundscape for story is set. a might fortress is our God, built here from notes and sounds, this holy moment is constructed. then in words, Trinity revealed in word. Trinity creates and Trinity experienced by us--by humans. then in sonic dance, God and humanity twirling and running. together. loving. the dance slows and comes to rest, and the moment comes. the reaching beyond ourselves to make ourselves more than we are. in the reaching, the dance is broken. the joyful twirling ceases. all God's good things suffer harm at our hands. Lord have mercy.

yet we keep reaching and the reaching continues corrupting. everything we touch and even what we do not touch is harmed by our reaching hands. Lord have mercy.

the only solution is giving up. stop reaching. stop reaching for who we are not and rather reach to who he is. we must confess our reaching beyond who we are. we must. Lord have mercy. scars. Lord have mercy. pain. Lord have mercy. brokenness. Lord have mercy. self. Lord have mercy.

what of God? damnation? domination? abandonment? no. rather calling. calling us back to the dance. dance in the scars and pain and brokenness and self. he called Moses to the dance thru flames. moses saw. God called. moses answered. God spoke, don't reach. this is holy ground. strange call. strange dance.

we find ourselves here in the story of God's creation.

we join the dance. we dance the dance. we are the dancers among other dancers. others have danced. we dance. we dance with God toward the world for the sake of the story.

the voices speak the dance. prophet, philosopher, poet, and teacher speak the dance.

we made assumptions about Messiah. Messiah did not fulfill our assumptions. at first glance, until that early morning third day, it seemed he failed. the early morning third day everything changed. our assumptions of failure were exactly opposite. on the cross Messiah is on the throne. we are the peole of this Messiah.

Jesus make a people worthy of your name.
Mercy without condition
Justice without condemning
compassion without contradiction

we live as those who know and look for the day when the dance will be dance and more than dance, when the horrendous damage of our reaching is removed and all is renewed. this is the consummation is glorious. not the empty glory of our reaching beyond ourselves, but the full, rich shalom glory of God reaching us.

everything new.

hallelujah.

...signing off for now as computer access is null until monday. more then. it's been great