On Friday I posted a link to "We Are Young" by Fun, featuring ft. Janelle Monáe to facebook, saying, "I don't really love this video, but the chorus has been recurrently playing in my brain for some time. (Happy almost Pentecost?)"

We are young / so let's set the world on fire...

It felt too warm today for a long-sleeved shirt, and I don't love the one short-sleeved red shirt I have (plus, I'd rather be wearing a red shirt with black pants, but my weekend usual is blue jeans) so I decided to wear my red dress* and maroon tights ... and I wasn't wearing my rainbow Pride heels** to bicycle, so I wore my black ~Vans with the ~glow-in-the-dark stars on them (they're not actually Vans, they're just laceup flats in that style -- they were on like closeout sale at Berks for $10/pair or something).
*When not worn with black knee-high boots with ~3-inch heels, this dress totally doesn't feel like a hooker dress. [No one has ever called it a hooker dress to me, I just frequently think of it as such, b/c of aforementioned footwear pairing.]
**I got an Urban Outfitters email this afternoon which included these shoes [Jeffrey Campbell Rainbow Starlight Eva Sandal marked down to $99 from $139].

***

(from the FCS bulletin this morning)

Unison Prayer of Confession

God,

We confess that we find Christmas and Easter more exciting than the urgency of Pentecost.
We confess that our worst nightmare is sounding drunk or folish.
We confess that this birthday-church isn't always a party.
We confess that we rarely listen to the speakers of other languages, and almost never try to learn their words ourselves.
Holy One, we are heart-cut and frightened by strong winds.
Make us new, and ready for Your Holy Spirit. Amen.

-Maren Tirabassi, adapted

+

Meditation [a longer piece was printed in the bulletin]

I believe the church can have an integral role in the development of the self, but also of the self in covenantal relation to others. I believe the church should always adapt and change and grow with each person; in other words, to a certain degree, when a person becomes a part of a church community, that church should never be quite the same as it was. And as change happens to the church, I should change, too. I want church to help me to be me, to help me figure out what that means as a child pf God, and to help me figure out what that means as a citizen of God's green earth with neighbors all about. I want church to help me to understand what it is to be loved, to feel loved, and to love. I want church to help me to recognize God around me and others, to see God at work in and through me, to assure me of my place in God's grace.

-from Rev. Kaji Spellman, Yale Divinity School Reflections Fall 2009

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

And those chapters, again, must be read in the context of the entire book of Acts, which begins with Pentecost — bringing together people “from every nation under heaven … Parthians, Medes, Elamites, and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to the Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabs” — and continues inexorably outward to include and embrace European tradeswomen and African eunuchs and anyone else the author can imagine the reader otherwise being tempted to exclude or reject. The book reads like an after-school special on celebrating diversity.
-slacktivist

Predicted high of 87F today. I showered and put on a house dress and didn't really leave the house (I'd seen the weather forecast in advance, so I'd kind of planned not to go anywhere). Though I didn't feel like I needed to seal up the house -- for which I was grateful.

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

I think next year I wanna plan to go to Boston Youth Pride.

@mmaesturtevant Youth pride: a sea of "free hugs" signs.

@etana [a "make way for queerlings: happy youth pride!" sign]

‏@eustaciavye77 There are no words that properly encompass the adorableness that is Boston Youth Pride.

@eustaciavye77 Today is also the zombie march. Some of the kids here are fighting for equal rights for queer zombies

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

... That was not the movie I was expecting. (Admittedly, basically all my prep for the movie was musesfool's Tumblr.)

( spoilers )

1) I heard back from one of the Hindu student groups and we might have someone available for Pride Interfaith.
2) The first ad on the gmail sidebar of said email chain was:

Be a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent
Join forces with The Avengers and test your planet-saving skills.
www.shieldops.com

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

And she really has a tired.

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

It was occurring to me yesterday that NYC was gonna be really bad for my ankle what with all the walking, but it's actually been fine.

I also felt more awake (once I got going) than I was expecting (though I also napped during the bus ride).

We got lunch at a tasty Indian place and then spent the entire rest of the day at the Met and then I successfully navigated (with help) to Astoria and met up with Alexis and we ate at a Greek place ... and now I has a tired.

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

I went to bed last night around 10 'cause I was tired. I got up this morning, leisurely and well-rested, around 9.

Ari was on a mini-retreat at church today, so we didn't phonecall.

I have lots of useful stuff I "could" be doing, but I haven't felt like doing any of it.

As I mentioned, I bicycled to CPL and back and watched Iron Man 2. After that, I puttered on the Internet some and read a bit, but I was still feeling really "meh." So, figuring I'd probably sleep better tonight if I got some more activity, and also aware of the 5-day forecast which [sadface]* is predicting rain for the next few (3) days, I went for a 2+ hour bicycle ride -- I bicycled to CPL (to return my DVD) and then took the bike path along the River from N. Harvard Street west all the way until it ends (the Museum of Science -- where, given all the major roads that are around there, I opted not to do any exploring) and then home (stopping at Trader Joe's on the way).

* I don't actually dislike rain, it's just that bicycling has been my primary/preferred mode of transport recently what with my ankle and all, and bicycling in rain is really suboptimal.

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

I saw the first Iron Man movie in theatres twice, but I never got around to seeing the second one -- but musesfool's Tumblr is sucking me in to planning to see the Avengers movie, so... I borrowed Iron Man 2 on DVD from CPL today.

*shrug*

( spoilers )

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

Following up on Wednesday, Jeff M. preached this morning. He mentioned that while we in the West talk about "Doubting Thomas," in the Eastern Church he is "Saint Thomas the Believer."

Our opening hymn was #253, so I noticed #254 on the facing page, whose first verse is: "These things did Thomas count as real: the warmth of blood, the chill of steel, The grain of wood, the heft of stone, the last frail twitch of flesh and bone." I don't much like most of the rest of the hymn ("These Things Did Thomas Count," Thomas H. Troeger) but I do like that opening verse.

Our Unison Prayer of Confession:

Holy Jesus,
We thought we had lost you
But you broke open your tomb in victory.
It fills our hearts with joy
When we are able to see it.

Forgive us, God, that the truth of Easter is so hard to accept.

We confess, Jesus that we sometimes doubt resurrection.
We see the wounds of the world and despair.
We forget that your resurrected body still bore the marks of the cross.

We confess, Jesus, that when we doubt, we feel lost.
We turn our faces away from you in shame and lock the door out of fear.
We forget that doubt is an invitation to touch you more deeply.

Forgive us, God, that it takes so much convincing for us to hope.

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]

Apparently our current Rest and re/New series topic is "ways to/of faith," and this Wednesday (April 11) we began with our bodies/senses.

This upcoming Sunday (Easter 2), the lectionary Gospel is the story of Thomas who refuses to believe without touching the wounds of the Risen Christ.

Jeff said he thinks Thomas gets a bad rep. (I was reminded that at EDS' Second Sunday ~service on Easter Sunday, Eda said she wishes we would call "Doubting Thomas" e.g. "different epistemology Thomas" -- he just has a different learning style :) )

First he pointed out that no one else in John's post-Resurrection story had believed without evidence. Mary finds the empty tomb, runs and tells Simon Peter and the beloved disciple, who come to the empty tomb and also do not believe.

(I pointed out that John tells us the beloved disciple believed, he just didn't understand -- at H!PS on Monday, Becky had preached on Ecclesiastes 3 and John 20:1-16, and in reading the John I was struck, as I always am, by John telling us that the beloved disciple believed and then in the very next sentence telling us that they did not yet understand that Jesus had to rise from the dead [which makes me ask: so what did the beloved disciple believe?!].)

Jesus appears to Mary in the garden, who goes and tells the disciples: "I have seen the Risen One!" John doesn't explicitly tell us that the disciples don't believe Mary, but the next story we read is of Jesus appearing to the disciples locked up in the room, who THEN go on to proclaim, "We have seen the Risen One!" And Thomas just has the misfortune of not being in that room.

Jeff M. went on to say that Thomas wants more than to just see -- Thomas also wants to touch; Thomas wants a Close Encounter not just of the First kind but of the Third kid (though looking at that scale, I think it maybe doesn't mean exactly what Jeff M. was presenting it as meaning).

He said there's lots of art of the scene -- with Thomas sort of poking at Jesus' wounds, and that seems almost pornographic to him... that he imagines it as more of an embrace.

He talked about Jesus' willingness to let Thomas touch Jesus' "most intimate, most vulnerable, most wounded places," which I found a really powerful framing.

I was reminded of the "Jesus and Kink" series we'd talked about last week*, and the thoughts/conversations I'd had since then about how to do such a series. I'm less interested in proof-texting that Jesus condones/endorses kink than I am in the really queer ways people have engaged with Scripture/Divinity -- like the polyvalences of Christ's wounds ... interaction with bodily orifices as sexual, interactions with wounds as kink, the ways in which Jesus' blood on the Cross can be coded as generative/reproductive, the ways in which fluid-producing orifices can be coded as feminine, etc., etc.

I'm making my way through my best friend's copy of Queer Theology: Rethinking Western Body (ed. Gerard Loughlin), and in Chapter 7, Gerard Loughlin says, "for all these elements [Averil Cameron's 'central elements in orthodox Christianity -- the Incarnation, the Resurrection, the Trinity, the Virgin Birth, and the Eucharist'], the body is not just a symbol of their truth, but the site where it is realized."

---

*Before Rest and re/New last Wednesday (April 4), Keith and Jeff M. were talking about doing a Mindfulness series next (in a way which suggested it was continuing a conversation they'd had previously). Keith talked about maybe using the upstairs Sanctuary space. And then I don't know how we got there exactly, but Keith was joking about Jesus on the cross and hitting people with reeds.

me: "I don't think that would exactly draw the kind of crowd you're looking for."
Jeff M.: "Oh, it would definitely draw a crowd. (This is Davis Square, after all.)"
me: "Oh, I know -- that's what I was getting at. I just don't think it would be quite the crowd you're looking for."
Keith and Jeff M.: [make noises about being an inclusive and welcoming, big tent kind of church]
Jeff M.: (deadpan) "Jesus and Kink is our next series after Mindfulness."
me: "If I thought you were being serious, I would be so excited -- but you're not."
Jeff M.: "How do you know I'm not?"

Things I learned/was reminded tonight:
1) While I grew up really low church and still identify strongly as such, I get defensive of any liturgy/ritual I have any understanding of.
1a) I prefer my religious "services" to be structured, and this perhaps lends itself to an inclination toward ritual.
2) I really like the idea of doing the Emmaus story as the Communion prep.

Edit: Oh, and Eda said she wishes we would call "Doubting Thomas" e.g. "different epistemology Thomas" -- he just has a different learning style :) /edit

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-mylittleredgirl [more info]