Why leave the telling up to everybody else?

Date:	05-21-2012 10:01pm
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 44] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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mylittleredgirl [more info]
"For I know the plans I have for you," declares YHWH, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." -Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

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knowledge

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Date:	05-20-2012 12:40am
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 42] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

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

Instead I used all my out-with-people energy at the end of the day. I biked to Goodwill, found a sparkly purple short-sleeved shirt which is probably not quite professional enough for work but which I may wear during the summer anyway. I biked to work and printed out some stuff for tomorrow and following. I successfully biked to Pub Church (I opted not to make a lefthand turn crossing Comm. Ave. -- doing the cross in two parts instead -- but I did find the place no problem). Xochitl was having people [Amanda and Andrew and Erin+William] over to hang out afterward and I decided to go, figuring I could always bike home. I got to her apartment no problem (she gave good directions, and it was fairly straightforward, despite my never having been on those streets before). At various times during the night I considered leaving (hi, my 7:30am alarm), but I ended up staying until we all of a piece decided at 11:40 to leave. I biked home uneventfully (low traffic and mostly didn't hit red lights) -- I turned the wrong way on Mass Ave. coming off of Putnam, but I remedied that fairly quickly (I knew it was wrong once I hit the Plough and Stars, and I'd suspected earlier).

***

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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1 spark of | knowledge

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Date:	05-17-2012 10:24pm
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 40: Ascension] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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mylittleredgirl [more info]
On one occasion, Jesus told them [the apostles Jesus had chosen] not to leave Jerusalem. "Wait, rather, for what God has promised, of which you have heard me speak," Jesus said. "John baptized with water, but within a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."

While meeting together they asked, "Has the time come, Rabbi? Are you going to restore sovereignty to Israel?"

Jesus replied, "It's not for you to know times or dates that Abba God has decided. You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; then you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and even to the ends of the earth."

Having said this, Jesus was lifted up in a cloud before their eyes and taken from their sight. They were still gazing up into the heavens when two messengers dressed in white stood beside them. "You Galileans -- why are you standing here looking up at the skies?" they asked.

-Acts 1:4-11a (The Inclusive Bible)

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knowledge

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Date:	05-05-2012 09:02pm
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 28] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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knowledge

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Date:	05-04-2012 11:51pm
Subject:	The Avengers (2012)
Security:	Public

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

( spoilers )

3 sparks of | knowledge

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Date:	05-01-2012 11:38pm
Subject:	bonus glee! item
Security:	Public

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

[This is probably because of the gmail draft I have of Avengers Tumblr posts, but whatevs.]

knowledge

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Date:	04-29-2012 09:07pm
Subject:	[Easter Sunday 4] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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knowledge

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Date:	04-29-2012 01:01am
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 21] joy sadhana is home from NYC
Security:	Public

And she really has a tired.

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"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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1 spark of | knowledge

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Date:	04-28-2012 12:18am
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 20] joy sadhana is in NYC
Security:	Public

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."
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knowledge

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Date:	04-24-2012 09:34pm
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 17] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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knowledge

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Date:	04-22-2012 09:41pm
Subject:	[Easter Sunday 3] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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knowledge

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Date:	04-21-2012 09:11pm
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 14] joy sadhana has an ennui again, or something
Security:	Public

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."
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6 sparks of | knowledge

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Date:	04-21-2012 04:41pm
Subject:	Iron Man 2
Security:	Public

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 )

knowledge

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Date:	04-17-2012 11:55pm
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 10] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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knowledge

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Date:	04-15-2012 09:09pm
Subject:	[Doubting Thomas the Believer Sunday] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

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]
Jesus said, "Those who seek should not stop seeking until they find. When they find, they will be disturbed. When they are disturbed, they will marvel, and will rule over all." (The Gospel of Thomas 2:1-4)

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knowledge

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Date:	04-14-2012 11:38pm
Subject:	[Eastertide, day 7] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
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knowledge

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Date:	04-13-2012 05:03pm
Subject:	[Jesus and Kink] Thomas and Jesus' wounds
Security:	Public

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?"

knowledge

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Date:	04-08-2012 08:25pm
Subject:	[Easter Sunday] service 3 & joy sadhana
Security:	Public

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]
Weeping may come; weeping may come in the night,
When dark shadows cloud our sight.
Joy comes with the dawn; joy comes with the morning sun;
Joy springs from the tomb and scatters the night with her song,
Joy comes with the dawn.
-from "Joy Comes With the Dawn"

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1 spark of | knowledge

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Date:	04-08-2012 02:58pm
Subject:	[Easter Sunday] services 1 & 2
Security:	Public

Walking home last night, I found myself softly singing "Alleluia." It took me a little while to realize it was from "Christ is risen, earth and heaven, nevermore shall be the same..."

This felt inappropriate (though it was after ~9pm Boston time, so certainly some Easter Vigils had already passed the Gospel Acclamation), but it also didn't really stop me.

***

Reading facebook before sunrise service this morning, reading the "Christ is Risen's" and "Alleluia's," I felt like I was reading stuff I wasn't supposed to yet, because I hadn't gotten there yet.

Molly posted to facebook another Maren Tirabassi prayer:

April 8, 2012

O where-are-you God,
who won’t stay where we left you
wrapped in the ties that bind,
confuse us by looking like gardeners
and janitors, like
the undocumented and twelve-steppers,
(even like that pierced hitchhiker
on the Emmaus Tpke)
until we indiscriminately
Alleluia
at everyone. amen.

And then at Easter sunrise service, we started right up with "Alleluia" &c., as if Easter were already a given -- which made me wish I had gone to an Easter Vigil service.

On our way to breakfast after, I asked FCS-Ian if I was misremembering that we usually have some lead-up, rather than starting as if we're already at Easter. He said he didn't think I was misrememebering -- but that the service changes from year to year (in large part because of pastoral turnover).

Jeff M., in his ~homily, talked about Resurrection as a continuous thing, talked about Jesus' "Noli me tangere" to Mary Magdalene as, "Do not cling to me, for I am still rising." (Molly used that same language in her sermon at 10am service, so I don't know its actual origins.)

***

FCS' service started with the choir in the back doing an almost haunting (that seems slightly extreme, but I don't have a better word, as "unsure" or "distant" [as in "far off," not "unemotional"] aren't right either) "Alleluia."

Four clergy told the Easter Story, each representing one of the four gospels -- complete with, "no, that's not how it happened" and editorial commentary and saying in unison pieces that are common across gospels.

And then after they finished, they started Easter-fying the sanctuary. I'd seen some drapery which I knew would be taken off, but when the clergy took off their black robes, revealing white robes underneath, I was transported back to last year's service and realized, "Oh. That wasn't just something special they did last year." (I think last year people indicated to me that it was a Thing Molly had been doing for some years -- but I didn't start doing Sunday mornings there until after Easter Sunday the previous year, so I didn't have an internalized prior.)

One of the kids processed in the Paschal Candle (which Molly had processed out at the end of Maundy Thursday's Tenebrae service), and that might have been the moment when I lost it, though that also might have been earlier. (Sidebar: At Good Friday I think it was I noticed the white floral paraments peeking out from under the black and thought, "I see what you did there," but I just thought, "That means you don't have to put the white ones up when you're prepping for Easter" -- I totally gasped when the black coverings got pulled down at the beginning of service this morning.)

For a variety of reasons, I haven't really been feeling Lent this year, including even Holy Week much, but as the sanctuary blossomed, I felt so bursting full with joy it felt like I literally couldn't contain it, like it would literally bubble/burst out of me. We prepared to sing "Christ the Lord is Ris'n Today" and I couldn't sing loudly enough to express my joy.

Molly's email to the list-serv had said, "Michelle S[.] is our very-much-alive liturgist, for a Resurrection Moment in lieu of a confession, because this of all days, when Jesus has taken the sin of the world into himself, there is no need to free ourselves from the bondage of sin." Michelle talked about resurrection plants, about times of drought, and about coming through them ... and I think I might have started crying during her first drought story but she kept going, and I was so crying by the end. My voice sounded so tearful throughout the Resurrection Moment Prayer:

Jesus Christ, who killed Death forever,
Thank you for showing us that we have nothing to be afraid of, not in this life, nor in the life to come.
Thank you for saying "don't be afraid," with kindness in your voice, so that even if we are afraid, we don't have to be ashamed of it -- and so we can keep your words in our pocket for when we most need them.

Lord God of Creation,
Thank you for making this world! In case we forget to mention it from time to time, it is fabulous.
Thank you that spring follows winter
That daffodils follow dark days
That crocuses follow the cross
That as soon as something dies, something new starts trying to get born. Give us resurrection-eyes, to see all the new somethings, today and every day.

knowledge

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Date:	04-07-2012 11:30pm
Subject:	[Holy Saturday] joy sadhana
Security:	Public

"Joy Sadhana is a daily practice in the observation of joy."
-

mylittleredgirl [more info]
"Hope begins in the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don't give up." --Anne Lamott

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2 sparks of | knowledge

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