There is no lesson tonight. We are having our study group’s annual Mardi Gras party. The menu is red beans and rice, muffuletta sandwiches, cranberry/kale with gnocchi, and a king cake. You are welcome (as always) to bring guests. Please let Amy know if you are planning to attend so that we can ensure there is sufficient seating.
Next Tuesday, we are beginning our study of Walter Brueggemann’s seminal work The Prophetic Imagination. Books are available for $13 each. The idea of the prophetic imagination is to nurture, nourish, and evoke a consciousness and perception within us in contrast to that of the dominant culture so that we can criticize and critique the dominant culture. It is also energizing us to live in fervent anticipation of the newness that arises from the criticism and critique. In short, the prophetic imagination is understanding (or imagining) God’s acting outside of the boundaries that we have placed around him.
As explained in our Book of Common Prayer, Lent is intended to be a time of self-examination and repentance as we walk with Jesus towards the Cross. 1979 BCP 265. Brueggemann’s work gives us the narrative to intentionally engage in the process of self-examination and see where we claim an ownership of God to the detriment of others and even to ourselves. To properly engage in the prophetic imagination, we can only understand the criticism and critique as pointing towards ourselves and not to others. For it is only I who is called to self-examination and repentance, not my neighbor.
SCHEDULE:
Messiah Ash Wednesday Services: Noon and 7:00 p.m.
Trinity Ash Wednesday Services: 12:15 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
We hope to see everyone here tonight and to join us next Tuesday evening.
Then the Lord said, “I have seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt, and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters; I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians . . . Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring forth my people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.”
Exodus 3:7-8, 10