Mother-Tongue

I am learning my 'mother-tongue'.(Mark Allan Powell, Opening the Book of Faith)

Like a child who hears her mother and father speaking it and then learns the words, I am being immersed in a language I don't know and learning how to listen to it, what the cadence is and what the words mean. I am also listening to stories and learning who the characters and authors are. Like a child growing up on AA Milne, Shel Silverstein and Dr. Seuss, I'm discovering the authors who write about theology. I am also experiencing some wonderful but startling moments where it all overlaps.

New concepts, ideas, practices:

Tenebrae Service - The Service of Tenebrae follows a tradition of the church dating back to the 8th century. From the Latin, the word Tenebrae, means "darkness" and commemorates the final hours of our Lord's life on earth, as he suffered death upon the cross. In the early church, the service of Tenebrae was celebrated on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of Holy Week.

Mission Developers - this is work happening in different forms in different places, but one place is Netzer Co-op http://www.netzercoop.org/ near Austin, TX

Shema - from Encyclopedia Brittanica: (Hebrew: “Hear”), the Jewish confession of faith made up of three scriptural texts (Deuteronomy 6:4–9, 11:13–21; Numbers 15:37–41), which, together with appropriate prayers, forms an integral part of the evening and morning services in the Jewish faith.

Random vocabulary:
phylacteries held the Shema and were literally bound to one's hand or forehead as a reminder of God's Word

a prolegomenon is an essay

aggiornamento is a 'bringing up-to-date'

abrogate means to 'nullify or abolish'

expiation means to make atonement

exigencies are state of affairs that make urgent demands

People I've learned more about:
Rudolf Bultman
Paul Tillich
David Tracy
James Cone
Sallie McFague
Rosemary Radford Reuther

Old Testament Discoveries

Often the Psalms are written as call and response. If you read to a semicolon, the words that follow often restate the first verse in different words. Finally, I understand why we often read the Psalms responsively in liturgy.

The story of Jonah isn't simply a miracle story (Jonah fell into the sea and God rescued him by giving him refuge in the belly of the big fish). When Nineveh repents and God forgives them, Jonah reacts to God changing God's mind like a petulant teenager. He goes out and pouts.