So I have meant to publish a blog on my wonderful Wednesdays at Caritas Village. Since my main responsibility is to serve lunch at Caritas, I even set myself up for a clever (or corny) title...with one my last blog's title being "...and Ketchup." Get it Caritas (restaurant) and Ketchup (Catch up!) Haha!! But that only works if I post a blog about Caritas, which didn't happen. But here is another jewel from Theological Reflections that talks about the abundance I see around me, especially at Caritas...I hope y'all enjoy :)
Mark 8
A Meal for Four Thousand1-3 At about this same time he again found himself with a hungry crowd on his hands. He called his disciples together and said, "This crowd is breaking my heart. They have stuck with me for three days, and now they have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they'll faint along the way—some of them have come a long distance."
4His disciples responded, "What do you expect us to do about it? Buy food out here in the desert?"
5He asked, "How much bread do you have?"
"Seven loaves," they said.
6-10So Jesus told the crowd to sit down on the ground. After giving thanks, he took the seven bread loaves, broke them into pieces, and gave them to his disciples so they could hand them out to the crowd. They also had a few fish. He pronounced a blessing over the fish and told his disciples to hand them out as well. The crowd ate its fill. Seven sacks of leftovers were collected. There were well over four thousand at the meal. Then he sent them home. He himself went straight to the boat with his disciples and set out for Dalmanoutha.
ReflectionWhen I think about abundance, I immediately think of Caritas Village. I have thoroughly enjoyed every Wednesday I have spent serving there making friends with the volunteers, staff, and guests, as well as every meal I have shared there with friends. At Caritas, I feel abundance abounding. People from the neighborhood and beyond come to sit down, pause, and share a meal. I heard the joy of children upstairs on my first day celebrating the end of the school year, their accomplishments, and advancing to the next grade or graduating from elementary school. In every conversation with Charlie, I am once again reminded of just how quick, intelligent, witty, and charming one person can be. I share in Kay’s excitement as she prepares to teach a class on basic sewing skills. I serve lunch to the flirtatious Romeos, a group of older single men or widowers who meet every Wednesday, with a smile at the laughter and community they bring into Caritas. I am humbled by the other volunteers’ and staff’s gentle kindness to me when I give a wrong answer to a customer or get confused with an order or today, knock over a stack of clean plates in a crowded kitchen. The sounds of piano lessons going on above my head in the late afternoon sing their happiness throughout the Village. I witness Onye’s easy generosity and sharing of abundance as she instructs me to make some peanut butter crackers and turkey cheese rollups for some neighborhood kids wandering in after lunchtime. At Caritas, I rarely hear scarcity mentioned, and when I do, scarcity never seems anxious but instead is an indication of the blessing of having many people walk through the doors to share in the abundance and neighborhood common good already present.
I also felt the kingdom of abundance at Manna House. Working in the Clothing and Shower room last week, I was quickly inducted into the Manna House operations. Here, everyone has something to give. In order to provide a clean change of clothes, Manna House asks guests to turn in their dirty clothes after showering and changing to be washed and cycled back to the shelves and given away again. Though I didn’t get to spend time in the backyard sharing in coffee and games, I imagine guests and volunteers intermingling and sharing laughs and smiles as they played checkers or chess. Manna House embraces the abundance business that a house of hospitality can exist through the goodwill of guests who trust and leave their worn outfits behind, the love of faithful volunteers, and the occasional donations that keep the electric bills paid and the coffee pots full.
To me, being in the abundance business is partly in rethinking the questions we ask, like we have talked about in this group many times. Not questions that focus on scarcity like “What are we lacking?” or “What do we not have enough of?” or “What can we get out of this?” or “How do we fix our problems?” but questions like “What can we do with the abundance of life, community, and generosity already present in this place?” and “What kinds of dreams do we have for this place?” God has gifted these neighborhoods, these cities that others might view as suffering from scarcity, the gift of God’s children created with shining eyes and creative hearts and willing spirits. Part of our responsibility as servant leaders is to learn from the feeding of the four thousand and not ask, like the disciples, a question that focuses on scarcity, “What do you expect us to do about it?” but to answer Jesus’ question, “Do you have bread?” eagerly and live into the imaginative possibility of what we can do when we start to be in the business of abundance.
I am convinced that God is willing to gift abundance into our lives and into our neighborhoods, but we must carefully and attentively watch for abundance where the world see scarcity in order to receive it. I must commit to making the journey from an attitude associated with the kingdom of scarcity to a mindset of abundance daily, hourly, every moment in order to live into it. So how do I feel right now that I am receiving and living into the divine gift of abundance? When I remind myself that I have more to learn about God’s grace and goodness from other people than I could every hope to possibly teach, I choose the divine gift of abundance. When I slow down from a busied or worried pace of trying to do it all and begin to seek deep relationship, I choose the divine gift of abundance. When I am anxious about nothing and pray about everything, I choose the divine gift of abundance. When I take Sabbath seriously as God-ordained rest for the purpose of sustaining and reinvigorating creative holiness, I choose the divine gift of abundance. Abundance is already around us, and it is life-giving. May we as humble leaders continue to choose this divine gift for the common good and the glory of God.
Grace and Peace,
Amanda
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Reconciliation: A Dream and a Call
Sorry my blogs have been fewer than expected...Story of my life! I want to get this journal life thing down so bad, but when I am tired, my bed is like a siren's call!! Anyway, here a few thoughts bubbling up in me from this experience (and my theological reflection time with my group here in the Bing!).
Romans 8:18-27
18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Just a few months ago, I discovered how at least two stories from my past fit into God’s calling in my life and my prayer for God‘s vision for the world. I’ll share one here. It is my earliest recollection of crying when watching a movie or television show. I was in 1st grade and up way past my bedtime watching a rerun of the Twilight Zone. In this particular episode, several senior adults in a nursing home decide they are tired of being old and being told they can do nothing, and so they organize a kick-the-can game for the next night. While most of the adults gleefully accept the offer to play and perhaps regain some semblance of youthfulness, one grumplepuss Grandpa refuses to join the others, thinking them crazy. In typical Twilight Zone fashion, the act of playing transforms the elderly into children, the kick the can game their own fountain of youth. Seeing this, the old man who had refused to join earlier begs for a second chance to play with the others and also be transformed, but it is too late, and in the end he sits holding the can, alone on the steps of the home. And I, a young girl, sat alone, in the darkness of my living room, crying at the isolation and breakdown of relationship there before me on the TV screen.
In my own journey, I see reconciliation, the righting of broken relationships between people, both individuals and groups, as part of God’s vision for the world. Like the exhilarating feeling of putting puzzle pieces together to form a whole picture, I have put together some of my experiences and my own longings as I have continued to discern my call from God. Most lead me not to prophetic proclamations against oppressive systems, though there is need for that, but to the simplicity of right relationship with fellow man and woman, not that this is a simple thing to accomplish. Walter Wink wrote in our reading for this week that “miracle is just a word we use for the things the Powers have deluded us into thinking that God is unable to do.” For me, I feel God already crying out through me that the miracle that God is able to do is to be the healing salve that can mend broken relationships, that can mend all the ways that we allow the Powers, whether through corrupt governments or soulless institutions or even the anonymity from others with which we live, to steal our humanness, our humaneness, our compassion and love for others.
On the background of my laptop computer is a quote from C.S. Lewis that reads, “There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind.” As I meditated on the Scripture and the theological reading for this week, I was reminded that living in the presence of God, recognizing our part in co-creation, living into the Biblical precedent of prayerful bargaining requires that we leave a few things behind. Like Wink indicated, we leave behind the mentality that we have to do everything, that if the world is to be changed, it is up to us. Yes, God calls us to work for change, but we have to be grounded in the belief, as is Wink, that it is God’s power that answers the world’s needs, and not our own. This is one of the greatest deceptions of the Powers in my own life, the removal of my trust in God’s ability to intervene, my security in God’s faithfulness. For me, I have to leave behind the mentality that prayer is something I must do, words I must create. I find direction in Wink’s words, “Prayer is not magic; it does not always “work.” It is not something we do, but a response to what God is already doing within us and the world.” My part in co-creation, in the work of reconciliation among fellow human beings, is not my own invention or idea of how God should intervene, how God should change hearts. Instead, I am a reaction to the “sighs too deep for words” of God’s spirit within me, God’s call already active in the world. I am reminded that my prayer for healing in my own life and in the world, peace among people is an invitation to miraculous action to a God already present in my soul and in the world. And now I close with a poem “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, that reminds me that even when we fail to invite God’s action into the world with our prayers for justice, peace, and reconciliation, God is still in the world:
Romans 8:18-27
18I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; 23and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. 24For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? 25But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.
26Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words. 27And God, who searches the heart, knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God.
Just a few months ago, I discovered how at least two stories from my past fit into God’s calling in my life and my prayer for God‘s vision for the world. I’ll share one here. It is my earliest recollection of crying when watching a movie or television show. I was in 1st grade and up way past my bedtime watching a rerun of the Twilight Zone. In this particular episode, several senior adults in a nursing home decide they are tired of being old and being told they can do nothing, and so they organize a kick-the-can game for the next night. While most of the adults gleefully accept the offer to play and perhaps regain some semblance of youthfulness, one grumplepuss Grandpa refuses to join the others, thinking them crazy. In typical Twilight Zone fashion, the act of playing transforms the elderly into children, the kick the can game their own fountain of youth. Seeing this, the old man who had refused to join earlier begs for a second chance to play with the others and also be transformed, but it is too late, and in the end he sits holding the can, alone on the steps of the home. And I, a young girl, sat alone, in the darkness of my living room, crying at the isolation and breakdown of relationship there before me on the TV screen.
In my own journey, I see reconciliation, the righting of broken relationships between people, both individuals and groups, as part of God’s vision for the world. Like the exhilarating feeling of putting puzzle pieces together to form a whole picture, I have put together some of my experiences and my own longings as I have continued to discern my call from God. Most lead me not to prophetic proclamations against oppressive systems, though there is need for that, but to the simplicity of right relationship with fellow man and woman, not that this is a simple thing to accomplish. Walter Wink wrote in our reading for this week that “miracle is just a word we use for the things the Powers have deluded us into thinking that God is unable to do.” For me, I feel God already crying out through me that the miracle that God is able to do is to be the healing salve that can mend broken relationships, that can mend all the ways that we allow the Powers, whether through corrupt governments or soulless institutions or even the anonymity from others with which we live, to steal our humanness, our humaneness, our compassion and love for others.
On the background of my laptop computer is a quote from C.S. Lewis that reads, “There are far, far better things ahead than anything we leave behind.” As I meditated on the Scripture and the theological reading for this week, I was reminded that living in the presence of God, recognizing our part in co-creation, living into the Biblical precedent of prayerful bargaining requires that we leave a few things behind. Like Wink indicated, we leave behind the mentality that we have to do everything, that if the world is to be changed, it is up to us. Yes, God calls us to work for change, but we have to be grounded in the belief, as is Wink, that it is God’s power that answers the world’s needs, and not our own. This is one of the greatest deceptions of the Powers in my own life, the removal of my trust in God’s ability to intervene, my security in God’s faithfulness. For me, I have to leave behind the mentality that prayer is something I must do, words I must create. I find direction in Wink’s words, “Prayer is not magic; it does not always “work.” It is not something we do, but a response to what God is already doing within us and the world.” My part in co-creation, in the work of reconciliation among fellow human beings, is not my own invention or idea of how God should intervene, how God should change hearts. Instead, I am a reaction to the “sighs too deep for words” of God’s spirit within me, God’s call already active in the world. I am reminded that my prayer for healing in my own life and in the world, peace among people is an invitation to miraculous action to a God already present in my soul and in the world. And now I close with a poem “God’s Grandeur” by Gerard Manley Hopkins, that reminds me that even when we fail to invite God’s action into the world with our prayers for justice, peace, and reconciliation, God is still in the world:
THE WORLD is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil Crushed.
Why do men then now not reck his rod?
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod; 5
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.
And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things; 10
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs—
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
If interested, here is a link to the Twilight Zone episode http://www.myspace.com/video/o/the-twilight-zone-kick-the-can/19615645 (I think)
Peace and Grace,
Amanda
Friday, June 1, 2012
...and Ketchup
This post title will make more sense when I upload my next post, but just go with it for now...Here are my catch-up blogs from last week!! Enjoy :)
Tuesday, May 22
What did I do today (see) (hear) (touch)? [Objective--my 5 senses]
• I saw an old church building, smelled its old wood, took in the ringing of gospel music around its rafters. The entrance and beginning to our journey through the Stax Museum, Soulsville USA. As we heard the stories and music from Stax ooze from the walls of the reconstructed museum, we got to experience one place, that for a moment in time and a small spot in history embodied the beloved community which we talked about in class discussion earlier this morning. Like one of the Stax musicians said, “At Stax, color didn’t come through the door.” Not that they didn’t notice the mixture of different races, not that the white folks degrading said to the black folks, “I don’t see you as black but just as a normal person.” No, color was there, it was celebrated, it just didn’t make a difference or draw boundaries between people at Stax.
What challenged me today? What inspired? [Reflective--my intuition, my emotion]
• I was inspired by the story of Stax, resurrected from its destruction to a place of learning and music. It really taught how a place can keep its soul even when we think it is gone.
• I was challenged by the facts presented in “At the River I Stand.” Growing up in Memphis, the Civil Rights Movement gets romanticized. While we are taught to mourn as children that we live in a city where Dr. MLK was shot, we are also taught to think that the marches for the sanitation workers were completely unified that all those working for civil rights were of one mind. While the truth of the distinction and factions even among the leaders of the Civil Rights movement doesn’t take away from the power of the Civil Rights movement or the work accomplished in Memphis, it does take away that easy narrative of events from my childhood narrative. Life is much more complicated, and while I still look with pride on those men and women who stood up for the sanitation workers in Memphis, I realize the gravity of the work Memphis still has left to do to heal the hate between the different races and ethnicities today.
What did I learn today that I didn't before?
• I learned about some great education going on in Memphis that I really didn’t know about before. I hadn’t heard of what Soulsville Academy was doing for students in both academic and musical education. What a great blessing to hear today that the first class from Soulsville will be graduating in 2012!
How does the scripture reading for the day speak to me in light of this day's experience? [Interpretative--What does this all mean?]
• Micah 6:6-8
o God requires mercy, justice, and humility in our own lives and in the world as well. The mercy of people who think differently to work together for the common good. The justice of advocates demanding what is right when society or individuals deny that right. Humility to recognize how much further we have to go as individuals and as humanity towards what God wants for creation as well as the humility to recognize that we can do none of this work on our own but only with God’s help.
• Acts 1:1-14
o God is always with us in the struggle. In figuring out our mission, God sends angels along the way to help. When the disciples are standing around searching the heavens after Jesus ascends, two angels tell them to not look up, but look out. Out in the world, that is where our mission is. Like at Stax, the mission wasn’t to look out on a lot and mourn the loss of a great place. The mission, at least for Kirk Whalum and others, was to restore the lot, bring back (or maybe tap into) the soul that used to be at that place. To use the history of Stax for good today, education and creativity.
What will I do with this? [Decisional--self-conscious response; the next steps]
• Like the owner of Stax who wanted to start a country recording studio but was able to stand back and let the artists that came there come together and create a whole new sound called soul, I decide to use the gift God has given me to be able to get something running, to get it off the ground, and then step back and let the whole group take it further, and created something much more beautiful than I could ever do on my own.
Wednesday, May 23
What did I do today (see) (hear) (touch)? [Objective--my 5 senses]
• I smelled and tasted some of the best soul food in the city of Memphis! The Four Way Restaurant is as much a part of South Memphis history as the Stax Museum. As the owner proudly told our table of all the people who had been to The Four Way or as he told us about the heritage of the lamps on the wall, you heard the pride and history of the South Memphis neighborhood ringing out in the air.
• I could hear and see the Booker T. Washington high school band marching down the street, waking up the neighborhood, calling people to come join the block party, calling strangers to become friends and help create peace, shalom, on their block with the simple first step of knowing who you live with.
• I saw kids running around the neighborhood, playing a pick-up game of basketball.
What challenged me today? What inspired? [Reflective--my intuition, my emotion]
• I was inspired by Marlon’s story of moving back into his neighborhood, and his journey from getting involved with Knowledgequest to starting Christquest church. How awesome that a church would be birthed out of a ministry to kids in the neighborhood, and not the other way around!
• I am challenged by the process of Restorative Justice that Marlon was talking about for his neighborhood instead of getting the police involved, for example if a neighborhood kid breaks a window and working out a system with the person for repayment. I wonder how often we in the church seek restorative justice in such situations, exactly the sort of justice and reconciliation the church is called to practice and seek in the world.
What did I learn today that I didn’t before?
• I learned so much about the Shalom Zone in South Memphis. I had no idea this sort of grass roots and holistic ministry was going on in South Memphis. I had volunteered with some ministries (i.e. Streets) in South Memphis, but I am so thankful that there are churches like Christquest and Greater White Stone Baptist leading this work.
How does the scripture reading for the day speak to me in light of this day's experience? [Interpretative--What does this all mean?]
• Mark 6:30-44
o God instructs us to feed the crowds, not to let them fend them for themselves. But God doesn’t leave us alone in the midst of such crisis, but miraculously transforms meager amounts into more than enough for the need. It reminds me of the community gardens in Binghampton and in South Memphis, using vacant overgrown lots and transforming them into gardens that can provide healthy and fresh food to the neighborhoods.
What will I do with this? [Decisional--self-conscious response; the next steps]
• I want to educate others as to what is going on in South Memphis. A lot of my friends and acquaintances know about the work being done in Binghampton, but I imagine that they are clueless like I was about things like the Shalom Zone and Knowledgequest and Christquest.
Friday, May 25
What did I do today (see) (hear) (touch)? [Objective--my 5 senses]
• I heard a story of a church answering God’s call to move into a particular neighborhood, taking faith that through them God would use a building that seemed too big for them by filling it with different ministries that meet neighborhood needs and allow others to pursue and share their passions.
What challenged me today? What inspired? [Reflective--my intuition, my emotion]
• I was inspired by the time I was able to spend in reflective contemplation in the labyrinth today. By repeating prayers or scriptures, I was able to enter into a conversation with God that is hard to have in the everyday humdrum of my life routine.
• I was challenged by our activity seeking to answer questions we as students had posed. It helped me work through and apply our experiences and readings from the week to my own context and situation.
What did I learn today that I didn't before?
• I re-learned the importance of holy friendship. By working in small groups today, I was able to see how just talking through some issues and questions with other clergy can help my own creativity and resourcefulness blossom.
How does the scripture reading for the day speak to me in light of this day's experience? [Interpretative--What does this all mean?]
• Revelation 21:1-8; 22:1-5
o An excerpt from The Message: “Look, Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women. They’re his people, and he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes.”
o This week, I have seen neighborhoods where God has moved in, where God’s home is right alongside the men and women working for shalom and reconciliation in Memphis. What a blessing to have been able to see this scripture lived out.
What will I do with this? [Decisional--self-conscious response; the next steps]
• Today, I committed to listen behind the words people speak, behind hate and fear, and to hear the spiritual and community needs of people in whatever location God places me to serve and minister.
Grace and Peace,
Amanda
Tuesday, May 22
What did I do today (see) (hear) (touch)? [Objective--my 5 senses]
• I saw an old church building, smelled its old wood, took in the ringing of gospel music around its rafters. The entrance and beginning to our journey through the Stax Museum, Soulsville USA. As we heard the stories and music from Stax ooze from the walls of the reconstructed museum, we got to experience one place, that for a moment in time and a small spot in history embodied the beloved community which we talked about in class discussion earlier this morning. Like one of the Stax musicians said, “At Stax, color didn’t come through the door.” Not that they didn’t notice the mixture of different races, not that the white folks degrading said to the black folks, “I don’t see you as black but just as a normal person.” No, color was there, it was celebrated, it just didn’t make a difference or draw boundaries between people at Stax.
What challenged me today? What inspired? [Reflective--my intuition, my emotion]
• I was inspired by the story of Stax, resurrected from its destruction to a place of learning and music. It really taught how a place can keep its soul even when we think it is gone.
• I was challenged by the facts presented in “At the River I Stand.” Growing up in Memphis, the Civil Rights Movement gets romanticized. While we are taught to mourn as children that we live in a city where Dr. MLK was shot, we are also taught to think that the marches for the sanitation workers were completely unified that all those working for civil rights were of one mind. While the truth of the distinction and factions even among the leaders of the Civil Rights movement doesn’t take away from the power of the Civil Rights movement or the work accomplished in Memphis, it does take away that easy narrative of events from my childhood narrative. Life is much more complicated, and while I still look with pride on those men and women who stood up for the sanitation workers in Memphis, I realize the gravity of the work Memphis still has left to do to heal the hate between the different races and ethnicities today.
What did I learn today that I didn't before?
• I learned about some great education going on in Memphis that I really didn’t know about before. I hadn’t heard of what Soulsville Academy was doing for students in both academic and musical education. What a great blessing to hear today that the first class from Soulsville will be graduating in 2012!
How does the scripture reading for the day speak to me in light of this day's experience? [Interpretative--What does this all mean?]
• Micah 6:6-8
o God requires mercy, justice, and humility in our own lives and in the world as well. The mercy of people who think differently to work together for the common good. The justice of advocates demanding what is right when society or individuals deny that right. Humility to recognize how much further we have to go as individuals and as humanity towards what God wants for creation as well as the humility to recognize that we can do none of this work on our own but only with God’s help.
• Acts 1:1-14
o God is always with us in the struggle. In figuring out our mission, God sends angels along the way to help. When the disciples are standing around searching the heavens after Jesus ascends, two angels tell them to not look up, but look out. Out in the world, that is where our mission is. Like at Stax, the mission wasn’t to look out on a lot and mourn the loss of a great place. The mission, at least for Kirk Whalum and others, was to restore the lot, bring back (or maybe tap into) the soul that used to be at that place. To use the history of Stax for good today, education and creativity.
What will I do with this? [Decisional--self-conscious response; the next steps]
• Like the owner of Stax who wanted to start a country recording studio but was able to stand back and let the artists that came there come together and create a whole new sound called soul, I decide to use the gift God has given me to be able to get something running, to get it off the ground, and then step back and let the whole group take it further, and created something much more beautiful than I could ever do on my own.
Wednesday, May 23
What did I do today (see) (hear) (touch)? [Objective--my 5 senses]
• I smelled and tasted some of the best soul food in the city of Memphis! The Four Way Restaurant is as much a part of South Memphis history as the Stax Museum. As the owner proudly told our table of all the people who had been to The Four Way or as he told us about the heritage of the lamps on the wall, you heard the pride and history of the South Memphis neighborhood ringing out in the air.
• I could hear and see the Booker T. Washington high school band marching down the street, waking up the neighborhood, calling people to come join the block party, calling strangers to become friends and help create peace, shalom, on their block with the simple first step of knowing who you live with.
• I saw kids running around the neighborhood, playing a pick-up game of basketball.
What challenged me today? What inspired? [Reflective--my intuition, my emotion]
• I was inspired by Marlon’s story of moving back into his neighborhood, and his journey from getting involved with Knowledgequest to starting Christquest church. How awesome that a church would be birthed out of a ministry to kids in the neighborhood, and not the other way around!
• I am challenged by the process of Restorative Justice that Marlon was talking about for his neighborhood instead of getting the police involved, for example if a neighborhood kid breaks a window and working out a system with the person for repayment. I wonder how often we in the church seek restorative justice in such situations, exactly the sort of justice and reconciliation the church is called to practice and seek in the world.
What did I learn today that I didn’t before?
• I learned so much about the Shalom Zone in South Memphis. I had no idea this sort of grass roots and holistic ministry was going on in South Memphis. I had volunteered with some ministries (i.e. Streets) in South Memphis, but I am so thankful that there are churches like Christquest and Greater White Stone Baptist leading this work.
How does the scripture reading for the day speak to me in light of this day's experience? [Interpretative--What does this all mean?]
• Mark 6:30-44
o God instructs us to feed the crowds, not to let them fend them for themselves. But God doesn’t leave us alone in the midst of such crisis, but miraculously transforms meager amounts into more than enough for the need. It reminds me of the community gardens in Binghampton and in South Memphis, using vacant overgrown lots and transforming them into gardens that can provide healthy and fresh food to the neighborhoods.
What will I do with this? [Decisional--self-conscious response; the next steps]
• I want to educate others as to what is going on in South Memphis. A lot of my friends and acquaintances know about the work being done in Binghampton, but I imagine that they are clueless like I was about things like the Shalom Zone and Knowledgequest and Christquest.
Friday, May 25
What did I do today (see) (hear) (touch)? [Objective--my 5 senses]
• I heard a story of a church answering God’s call to move into a particular neighborhood, taking faith that through them God would use a building that seemed too big for them by filling it with different ministries that meet neighborhood needs and allow others to pursue and share their passions.
What challenged me today? What inspired? [Reflective--my intuition, my emotion]
• I was inspired by the time I was able to spend in reflective contemplation in the labyrinth today. By repeating prayers or scriptures, I was able to enter into a conversation with God that is hard to have in the everyday humdrum of my life routine.
• I was challenged by our activity seeking to answer questions we as students had posed. It helped me work through and apply our experiences and readings from the week to my own context and situation.
What did I learn today that I didn't before?
• I re-learned the importance of holy friendship. By working in small groups today, I was able to see how just talking through some issues and questions with other clergy can help my own creativity and resourcefulness blossom.
How does the scripture reading for the day speak to me in light of this day's experience? [Interpretative--What does this all mean?]
• Revelation 21:1-8; 22:1-5
o An excerpt from The Message: “Look, Look! God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women. They’re his people, and he’s their God. He’ll wipe every tear from their eyes.”
o This week, I have seen neighborhoods where God has moved in, where God’s home is right alongside the men and women working for shalom and reconciliation in Memphis. What a blessing to have been able to see this scripture lived out.
What will I do with this? [Decisional--self-conscious response; the next steps]
• Today, I committed to listen behind the words people speak, behind hate and fear, and to hear the spiritual and community needs of people in whatever location God places me to serve and minister.
Grace and Peace,
Amanda
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