(radically ecumenical)
Passover is coming up, so Emily asked Ruhi to lead RCFOS discussion tonight and talk about Passover. We talked about Exodus 7:16 (and briefly, Exodus 21:1-6) and Ruhi explained how the word translated "worship me" in the Hebrew means more like "serve me" or even "be my slaves" and we talked about the idea of serving God to the exclusion of all others and what sorts of things we feel ourselves enslaved to, and it was interesting and i found myself rather wishing i was taking notes
Liz came in late, after we all said things we were slaves to, so Ruhi asked her if she thought she was a slave to anything, and Liz said of course, that if she weren't she would feel so free all the time. Riffing off this, Ruhi said if she were free of everything, she would be praising God all the time, couldn't help it, would just feel so full of gratitude all the time, which is a way in which i had never thought about the whole "constant praising God" thing (a thing which has always seemed troubling to me, incidentally) and which actually made a lot of sense to me. And then ElizabethK said that it's like how when you're free of obligations and worries and so on you can notice all the beauty in the world around you.
We talked some about Old Testament God, and God is immature in Her relationship with Israel and the world and has to learn and how it's a partnership (e.g. Abraham and God discussing Sodom and Gomorrah -- Genesis 18:16-end) and i'm always torn on this, because i really like a God you can argue with, but i'm also really attached to my omniscient omnibenevolent God. (My need for that kind of a God is why i made the God leap.)
Check-out is something(s) you're looking forward to, and Ruhi said that Passover's coming, that "I'll be leaving the narrow places," which struck me as so powerful. Apparently Mitzrayim means Egypt and also "narrow places" or "narrow waters."
In other news, i've been using this icon a lot recently, and thinking about how the "we are who we choose to be" could be problematic with the idea that it elides the ways in which we aren't given a choice in a lot of things, and i thought about the image in the icon and how Anya thought about running away in Season 3 and how there she is taking up a sword at the end of Season 7 and what happens to her after that and thinking about how we don't always get to control what happens to us but we can choose how we react to what we're given. And yeah.
P.S. The first two pages of the Living Arts section in today's Boston Globe? (Finding their religion and Winding paths and spiritual journeys) I totally know two of the Smithies.
Liz came in late, after we all said things we were slaves to, so Ruhi asked her if she thought she was a slave to anything, and Liz said of course, that if she weren't she would feel so free all the time. Riffing off this, Ruhi said if she were free of everything, she would be praising God all the time, couldn't help it, would just feel so full of gratitude all the time, which is a way in which i had never thought about the whole "constant praising God" thing (a thing which has always seemed troubling to me, incidentally) and which actually made a lot of sense to me. And then ElizabethK said that it's like how when you're free of obligations and worries and so on you can notice all the beauty in the world around you.
We talked some about Old Testament God, and God is immature in Her relationship with Israel and the world and has to learn and how it's a partnership (e.g. Abraham and God discussing Sodom and Gomorrah -- Genesis 18:16-end) and i'm always torn on this, because i really like a God you can argue with, but i'm also really attached to my omniscient omnibenevolent God. (My need for that kind of a God is why i made the God leap.)
Check-out is something(s) you're looking forward to, and Ruhi said that Passover's coming, that "I'll be leaving the narrow places," which struck me as so powerful. Apparently Mitzrayim means Egypt and also "narrow places" or "narrow waters."
In other news, i've been using this icon a lot recently, and thinking about how the "we are who we choose to be" could be problematic with the idea that it elides the ways in which we aren't given a choice in a lot of things, and i thought about the image in the icon and how Anya thought about running away in Season 3 and how there she is taking up a sword at the end of Season 7 and what happens to her after that and thinking about how we don't always get to control what happens to us but we can choose how we react to what we're given. And yeah.
P.S. The first two pages of the Living Arts section in today's Boston Globe? (Finding their religion and Winding paths and spiritual journeys) I totally know two of the Smithies.