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Sharing space or enforcing boundaries.

This idea comes from a lecture by Ray Aldred given at Ambrose University.  The First Nations people work together with others to share space.  A treaty is a way to work together.  Where this is overtaken by the idea of enforcing a boundary rather than sharing space, we become individualistic and, I would observe, often so power based that we miss the ability to live with many others in peace.

Some interesting thoughts.  Still working them through.

Gluttony is hypocrisy of the stomach; for when it is glutted, it complains of scarcity; and when it is loaded and bursting, it cries out it is hungry. (St. John Climacus – “the Ladder of Divine Ascent”)

Thus we have one marvelous early church member react to overeating eating as though it were an addiction.  Another recent statement (undocumented in the paper I read, but put forward with some certainty) was that gluttony in the tradition of the desert monastics related to the matter of variety of food, not so much consumption of food (Christian Century – September 28, 2021 – “Vocational Gluttony”).  Gluttony thus becomes a matter of the pleasure of the eyes and of the taste buds.  Temperance and sameness, on the other hand, were to be preferred.

The King James Bible mentions in Philippians (3:18) that “their god is their belly”, contrasting them to those who have a citizenship other than here on earth.  Not only do these belly seekers place appetite first (and probably many different appetites), but they brag about shameful things, and think only about life here on earth.

More than needed does not mean you cannot partake of the “more”, just that the “more” may not be what is needed and may even be harmful and less than what we were created to eat!

BTW – I love how some people characterize the double quotes we use around words we want to emphasize.  They call them “scary” quotes. 

I’ve been struck with how we see our gatherings together.  Perhaps even more so now that we have endured restrictions of gathering and interacting.

For quite some time we have been satisfied to just say that we are present.  We showed up.  Most of us have reevaluated that social interaction – which came down to no interaction necessary.  Thus we have abandoned social groups, churches and clubs – not necessary.

Those who are the mingling type have a bit different take on restrictions to gathering.  They are eager to enter back into full on, face-to-face excitement.  Theirs is not a matter of abandonment but rather embracing. 

Let me take this one step further. 

Churches are experiencing an attendance slowdown.  Perhaps we need to reevaluate how we see church gatherings.  For years we have said God is present.  Is that enough?  When we gather do we just want a God who is present?

Or, are we open to stating, as we begin our gathering time, that God is mingling amongst us.  We’ll talk about God and sing about God – affirming his presence.  But we will also want to hear stories about what God is saying and doing while he is mingling amongst us. 

Might make for a lot more impactful gathering.

You don’t have to be responsible for everything!

Deuteronomy 29:29 (NLT) – “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.”

I love the way we try to figure out everything that God knows!  How’s that going for you??  And some days we get anxious that we don’t know enough of what God knows.  Maybe we just stepped over the line or missed something??

OR . . . maybe we just need to go back to what God has revealed to date.  Act promptly and completely on that.  And when we learn something new – WOW!  God’s getting our minds reshaped and reformed!  Nothing contradictory from what we have seen so far, but like the old TV show idea – exploring the edges of the universe can be exciting!