Discussion: Chapters 1-9

I have to be honest, Take This Bread, isn't what I was expecting. It's a brutally honest look at religion from a person who had no faith to start with. Unlike, Girl Meets God, Sara Miles comes to church not knowing what to expect and being overwhelmed with the feelings she has when she receives communion. But as I read further, I appreciate her transformation and feeling that God has spoken to her and she hears, "Feed my sheep." Her connection with food reminds me a bit of another author, Ruth Reichel, and the beginning of the book reminded me of some of Reichel's tales. Reichel, a former food critic for the New York Times and editor of Gourmet, doesn't follow a religious path.

What has struck you the most about the book so far?

Live blog changes to Sept. 23

Hello everyone,
Hope you're all enjoying the book this session. There are several of us who have a conflict with next week's "live" blogging session. We will be moving that session to Thursday, Sept. 23. I apologize for the schedule change.

Beginning in September, we'll be reading Take this Bread by Sara Miles.

Linda Post Bushkofsky from the WELCA wrote this review of the book: "I thought this was going to be yet another memoir of a California-based journalist who finds religion and becomes an Episcopalian. There’ve been a lot of those. It was this, but then so much more. Miles’s faith is grounded in the Eucharist, the table to which Jesus invites all. Since she wasn’t raised in the faith, Miles doesn’t get bogged down in rituals and pretense, like so many cradle Christians do, and instead lives the Gospel and creates church – communion – in a food bank that serves all, without question."

The "live" blog will begin at 7 p.m. on Thursday, September 16 and will cover Chapters 1-9; Chapters 10-17 on October 21 and finish with Chapters 18-25 on November 18. If you have any questions about the blog, please contact Kim Shindle at kimstamps@comcast.net.

As I finished this book, I was struck by something profound Nora says in the chapter, Pentecost. As they prepare for their workshop on homosexuality, Mark, their priest questions where the church as been as people grapple with divorce, birth control, homosexuality and other issues. And both Mark and Nora suggest this is how the church has become irrelevant in so many people's lives. Because it is "standing on the sidelines or insisting on rigid standards while a whole generation dealt with sudden sexual liberation and confusion." I think this is a fascinating observation. And the process as this church tries to decide whether to call a homosexual pastor is another issue churches grapple with as well.

Lent, Holy Week, & Eastertide

I like the way she dovetails the message of the church season not only with her involvement in the church's life and mission, but also the events of her personal life. I find myself really identifying with her as she describes typical lay involvement in church activities. There were a few things that hit close to home! But, if I take only one thing from this text, it is the statement that it is (the monk's job) "to make sure I know where the gas stations are". What a great analogy for our need to know where we can be "filled up" or for that matter, that we need to periodically stop and fill up.

I liked the comment - "Holy week is the ultimate list". Do we get too caught up in the details, planning, and behind-the-scenes involvement that we lose sight of the message of a particular church season?

Believing Allows Us to See

Some folks say “seeing is believing.” Author Nora Gallagher, in her book Things Seen and Unseen, turns that cliché around to bring out a truth: Believing is seeing.

Gallagher shows through her description of a year in the life of her congregation that faith in God’s abiding presence in our world produces a type of seeing that opens up all kinds of possibilities for Christ-like love and service.

The phrase “things seen and unseen” reminds us of the familiar words of the first article of the Nicene Creed: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. Nora understands it is often difficult to see God at work and present in our world. In fact, she even equates faith with peripheral vision, saying we can only hope to increase that peripheral seeing, even if it is not direct and clear.

But as Nora continues telling the story of that particular church year in her congregation, we discover what she discovers—that we truly have a God who has chosen to be incarnate, “in the flesh.” Because God is incarnate, and not detached and “from a distance,” God is to be seen again and again: In the meal of Holy Communion which nourishes Nora, and which she lovingly distributes to others as a communion assistant. In the faces of the poor and hungry who come to her parish to eat in the soup kitchen. In the people who prepare and serve those meals to the hungry each day. In her fellow sisters and brothers as they strive to live faithfully in spite of frailties and foibles, always seeking God’s strength and direction and grace. In the person of her brother, Kit, who is slowly dying of AIDS.

During Pentecost Season (also called “Ordinary Time”), she meets a poor gentleman at a church meeting. She realizes how easily someone such as this homeless man could be rendered invisible, could be “not seen.” She writes, “In our midst is a man without a blanket and shoes too large for his feet. We have organized our lives so that he is hidden from us. He lives, like God, in invisibility. But when we do see him, I think tonight, we keep a rendezvous. In the seeing is a glimpse, a foretaste of the kingdom: it will be a place where everyone is seen, including us. Here we are together, in Ordinary Time, learning how to see.”

May Nora’s thoughtful words help us to see God in the places we travel, in the people we meet, and in the ways we serve.

New book blog begins in June

We'll be starting a new book blog in June and we're changing the date for the "live" blogging. In June, we'll begin discussing tThings Seen and Unseen: A Year Lived in Faith by Nora Gallagher. We'll be dividing the book into three parts and blog June, July and August. I've talked with a few people and Tuesdays have created some conflict. I'm thinking we might try the third Thursday of each month (which would also keep us away from summer holiday weeks. That would mean we would follow this schedule: Thursday, June 17: Chapters Advent, Christmas and Ephiphany (pages 3-79); Thursday, July 15: Chapters Lent, Holy Week, and Eastertide (pages 80-157); and August 19: Chapters Pentecost and Ordinary Time (pages 158-234).