"Napa Valley" Brocken InaGlory. Licensed. Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
"Napa Valley" Brocken InaGlory. Licensed. Creative Commons CC BY-SA 3.0
Welcome to LAST SUPPER RED!!
What if laughter and hilarity are sacred? Might prayer be less about words and more about how we position ourselves before Mystery? What if God is less like Santa Claus and more like air? What if we are defined more by "Original Blessing" than "Original Sin?" Would Christianity flourish if we followed Jesus instead of worshipping him? What if "the Kingdom of God" has much less to do with the hereafter and is instead a here-and-now countercultural idea and reality with political and economic consequences?
What if laughter and hilarity are sacred? Might prayer be less about words and more about how we position ourselves before Mystery? What if God is less like Santa Claus and more like air? What if we are defined more by "Original Blessing" than "Original Sin?" Would Christianity flourish if we followed Jesus instead of worshipping him? What if "the Kingdom of God" has much less to do with the hereafter and is instead a here-and-now countercultural idea and reality with political and economic consequences?
Q again plunges his main characters into an extensive theological discussion. At least they don't end up alienating each other this time.
What do you make of Phyllis Tickle's idea about the church having a rummage sale on its doctrines every 500 years or so? (see Footnote 9 on Page 45.) If it's true, should it happen at all? Should it happen more often? Are we living in such a time today? If so, what do you think the church needs to get rid of?
Q returns to his discussion of sacrifice, and he will continue it in the next Dialogue. For now, here are some questions to prime the discussion pump.
Margaret lifts up a comment of St. Paul's to Jen. One way of looking at the overwhelmingly bad news in the newspapers is to see it as symptoms of labor pains! What do you make of that? Is it cockeyed optimism? On the mark? What?
Similarly, what are your responses to the words of Christopher Fry on the poster Advocatus mentioned? Do you resonate with them? Or not? Discuss.
Billy is excited upon hearing Snark's reading of selected passages by the prophet Amos. Are you familiar with the Bible's "prophetic tradition?" Do you find yourself resonating with them or, again, not? Are there prophetic movements and people in our time? Was Jesus one of them, do you think?
Snark seems to be having a struggle with himself about whether to let in the changes he sees in Advocatus. He'd have to get a new "map" by which to navigate the relationship with his old mentor. Do you experience similar struggles "updating your maps?" About other people? About theologies and philosophies for life? In fact, are you experiencing some of that struggle as you wrestle with some of the issues raised already in LAST SUPPER RED? This is an important question, because even more new ideas lie ahead!
A SLEEP OF PRISONERS
Dark and cold we may be, but this
Is no winter now. The frozen misery
Of centuries breaks, cracks, begins to move;
The thunder is the thunder of the floes,
The thaw, the flood, the upstart Spring.
Thank God our time is now when wrong
Comes up to face us everywhere,
Never to leave us till we take
The longest stride of soul we ever took.
Affairs are now soul size.
The enterprise
Is exploration into God.
Where are you making for? It takes
So many thousand years to wake,
But will you wake for pity's sake!
