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Jul. 16th, 2006 12:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mari4212I love our summer Bible Study at church.
It's a small group, today there was only five of us, but we have such great discussions springboarding from the text. Last week we ended up talking about how occasionally you have to shut up and let your actions speak for you, instead of trying to talk people into believing in God. This week we were focusing on the feeding of the five thousand and how we should see the need and do something, instead of trying to pass the buck or start worrying about logistics. We also noted how in this version of the story, Jesus and the disciples were trying to go away and re-center themselves when the crowds came to them, the idea that retreat is necessary sometimes but that we also have to consider the needs of others and respond. It's a nice set-up for church, because it puts me in a receptive state of mind when the service starts and I find myself paying more attention to the rituals and the lessons and music.
But I think the best part of the group is that all of us are at different stages in our lives. The oldest people in the group are a couple in their seventies, my mother (and my father when he's there) is middle-aged, our priest has just been consecrated as a priest about three weeks ago and is only a few years older than my sister, and I'm just twenty. It gives a nice spectrum of viewpoints.
It's a small group, today there was only five of us, but we have such great discussions springboarding from the text. Last week we ended up talking about how occasionally you have to shut up and let your actions speak for you, instead of trying to talk people into believing in God. This week we were focusing on the feeding of the five thousand and how we should see the need and do something, instead of trying to pass the buck or start worrying about logistics. We also noted how in this version of the story, Jesus and the disciples were trying to go away and re-center themselves when the crowds came to them, the idea that retreat is necessary sometimes but that we also have to consider the needs of others and respond. It's a nice set-up for church, because it puts me in a receptive state of mind when the service starts and I find myself paying more attention to the rituals and the lessons and music.
But I think the best part of the group is that all of us are at different stages in our lives. The oldest people in the group are a couple in their seventies, my mother (and my father when he's there) is middle-aged, our priest has just been consecrated as a priest about three weeks ago and is only a few years older than my sister, and I'm just twenty. It gives a nice spectrum of viewpoints.
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fun
Date: 2006-07-16 08:52 pm (UTC)Viewpoints really are best when taken in a spectrum.