This week we will be discussing chapters 5, 6, and 7 (if we get that far) of Bishop Curry’s book Crazy Christians: A Call to Follow Jesus.
Chapter 5 “A Mountain Climb that Can Change the World,” speaks of theology, not geography. As Curry points out, it is on the mountain that God surprises Moses with his presence (Exodus 3:2), it is here that Moses brings the Israelites to be consecrated before God and to receive his instructions (Exodus 19:11) and it is here that Elijah retreats in his suicidal despair (1 Kings 19:8). It is the mountain that provides the typology which is fulfilled in Jesus’ own ascent at the Transfiguration (Matt. 17). A mountain, in the biblical narrative, is that place where the firmament between the heavens and the earth becomes thin and translucent. It is where we encounter the Father, learn from the Son, and are renewed and transformed by the Spirit. Everyone’s mountain is different. For Tuesday, think about where is your mountain. Where we you surprised by God and where do you return in your despair?
In chapter 6 “Down with the Walls of Division,” Curry broaches the subject of those walls that still separate us. He speaks about the walls separating those who would come to the Temple. It is the existence of these divisions that occasion the question to Jesus of “Who is my neighbor?” (Luke 37:29). It is these continued divisions that Paul confronts in Galicia and the question of whether the church is based upon ethnicity, obedience to a moral code, custom, or simply on Jesus himself. Just as everyone’s mountain is different, the challenge is not to allow our mountains to become walls of division. One of the great beauties of the Anglican tradition is that we (generally) have not given into either the Roman Inquisition of Spain and Queen Mary I or the Calvinist purges of the Puritans and Oliver Cromwell. We do not seek, as Queen Elizabeth I said, “to open windows into men’s souls.” Rather, within our common worship we come together as the body of Christ. For Tuesday, think about the walls we put up to keep others out. What litmus tests do we have to say that someone else doesn’t have a part in God’s Kingdom? (It is easier to see this in others).
Dinner is at 6. The menu is Pesto Meatballs with Polenta. Discussion about 6:45. Compline a little before 8. Hope to see you here.
I lift up my eyes to the hills; *
Psalm 121:1-2
from where is my help to come?
My help comes from the Lord, *
the maker of heaven and earth.