Book 4 of 2019 -- The Sacrament of Interruption

For Lent I am preparing a series called "The Practices of the Church". Actually I did the first one in the series on Baptism of Christ Sunday since that was an opportune time to talk about Baptism and the other parts of the series will be: Prayer, Marriage/Relationships, Funerals/End of Life, and Communion. This book was suggested as a possible resource for the series.

It is a quick easy read, though I will likely re-read any relevant chapters while prepping for the sermons in the series. I tend not to follow where Schaper goes  much of the time but she does present some sparking thoughts about what it means to be sacramental.

Book 3 of 2019 -- TheMerchant of Venice

Because sometimes you just need to read a classic.

To be honest I do not think I have read any Shakespeare since I was in University, which would mean either Richard III or Othello is the last play I read.  I might have looked up a sonnet or two in the interim but certainly the last play was for a drama class. Which puts it pretty close to 30 years ago.

It took me a scene or two for me to get the rhythm and get my language back under me. All the more so since this is one I have never read before. I have heard some passages like Shylock's contention that as a Jew he is much the same as other men "if you prick us do we not bleed" and Portia's plea for mercy "the quality of mercy is not strained" but had little more than a passing understanding of the plot.

Interesting play. To read it in an English class today would not only lead to discussions of love and mercy and revenge (definite themes of the piece) but also to the racial dynamics of how Shylock is written and described.

And I need to read such things more often.

Book 2 of 2019 -- Out Of Sorts

In her book The Great Emergence the late Phyllis Tickle spoke of the idea that every 500 years or so the Church has a great rummage sale as a part of a grand reset. I found the idea intriguing, even if I think it fit the Reformation better than her other historical exemplars, and only time will tell how the current era will math that image. In this book Sarah Bessey takes a similar tack to discussing her own faith journey.

Bessey uses the image of gathering to sort through a loved one's 'stuff' after the funeral. What gets kept? What gets donated? What gets tossed out? She then uses this image in terms of how our faith changes over the years, a process in which we once again ask what to keep and what to toss, along with deciding whether or not or how to integrate new insights and understandings.

This book is largely a memoir, but in the act or writing a memoir Bessey invites us to consider the questions we bring to faith.

I think Tickle is right. I think the church is once more at that time where we need to investigate what needs to get put out to sale.  I am not sure the church is yet willing to do it. I like Bessey's approach.  When we go through the belongings it often takes a few goes. Some stuff gets tossed immediately. Some gets put in a box because we just can't deal with it yet. Some survives one or two cullings before eventually being put out to sale or toss. I suspect that is how the church will move into what Tickle called the great emergence.

Book 1 of 2019 -- Revelation for Progressive Christians

Early this month I pondered offering a Bible Study on Revelation and this book was suggested as a possible resource.

Revelation is, to say the least, challenging book for many of us. This is largely because of how it is sometimes used by some of our siblings in faith. It does not help that it is a challenge to move through the imagery in much of the book to see where meaning may be found (well that and all the death/destruction).

I think Schmidt does a good job here. Indeed this is likely to be one of two resources I use for the study group,