Forum 3: Amplifying the Text with All Ages

!) We have partnered for a few years with another church for Maundy Thursday and Good Fridy due to sparse attendance. We decided to do that this for Ash Wednesday as well. However, we expected pretty sparse attendance from our folks, so we crafted worship on the First Sunday in Lent as an almost Ash Wednesday. As part of that practice, we distributed Play-Doh to everyone in attendance and invited them to listen to the Spirit and hear what they may need to let go of this Lenten Season and form that with the Play Doh. We weren't asking about food or drink or any sort of fast. It was more about what have we been holding onto or trying to hide about our lives, our church, or our community that we need to let go of and trust for God to do as God wills. During the hymn of discipleship, everyone processed forward and laid their creations on the communion rail. On Easter, everyone will take up the Play Doh again and prayerfully form something that represents how God is giving us life.

The week before Transfiguration Sunday, our minister to families taught about the transfiguration. She, then, invited the children and youth to create drawings that represented their understanding of the transfiguration. These were scanned and placed in the sermon slideshow and discussed as part of the sermon on Transfiguration Sunday.

2) The biggest piece that makes me uncomfortable is the building of partnerships with those from a different social location. However, that's because I enter any social interaction with extreme anxiety. It is a beautiful concept that I look forward to practicing more. I simply work best with a connector bridging the gap. It embodies what we hear of in the book Rising Out of Hatred or the story of Daryl Davis, the black blues musician who by building relationships with Klansmen has changed their perspective so that 200+ people have left the KKK.

1) I should say watching Dean Reyes in the video makes me want to experiment with embodying the text in the sermon.

1) What practices have you tried that have helped amplify the text, have made it "come alive"? What are some that you are eager to try?

I like to deconstruct the preciousness of the text. In my experience, I have seen the faith communities I have been a part of treat these stories with delicate hands and be afraid to examine the sheer humanity on display, as though the text is to precious to ask questions of, or dig into. I joke that the "Lee Translated Version" of the scripture says...as a way of inviting people into a conversation with the text that is relational to our present moment rather than bound to an oft misunderstood history. As a person who has a deep appreciation for theatre and comedy, I like to pantomime other characters alongside the stories depicted and ask lead the people to wonder how they would react or respond in a given situation. I am attaching a video from a faith based performance company called Ted and Co. in which they re-enact the feeding of the 5000 from the perspective of 2 of the disciples.

From a historical faith perspective, I see the work I do to bring the characters of faith to life as a modern midrash, which does not deny the holy in a story, but invites the teller and the hearer to wonder how they might respond to a given story.

2) What "aha" or insight have you gained from amplifying the text and engaging it from a character perspective/vantage point that was unfamiliar or uncomfortable?

Several years ago, I was preparing to tell the story of Martha and Mary and Jesus visiting their home. As fate/serendipity/life would have it, I had just heard a presentation on the importance of hospitality within Jewish culture. As that was churning through my theological imagination, I approached this text and found myself substituting members of my family into the story. Instead of Martha and Mary, it was my grandmother and my mother. I was raised in a matriarchal family, so as the role of hospitality as expressions of faith in God were processing, this story took a turn. I began digging deeper into the culture of the story and found that identifying Martha and Mary as the ones whose house Jesus was invited into, rather than identifying the house as that of their brother Lazarus, was a very unique aspect to the culture of that time that had been lost on me. Martha and Mary were likely seen as homeowners, not something that would have been common in that era. Furthermore, the title of homeowner likely carried with it the understanding of what we would identify as a small business owner, also not a common reality. Thus, for Martha and Mary, to have the home to which Jesus is invited into be identified as theirs, suggested that the status of these 2 women was uncommon, and likely was a result of hard work that was above and beyond what other homeowners (i.e. men) would have experienced. As I pondered all of these, I found myself recognizing that Martha and Mary likely had undue heightened expectations placed upon them from society; which meant that they had to be perfect every time, in everyway. Thus, when Jesus arrives and Martha finds that Mary is not alongside her, she is not overwhelmed from the work as much as, perhaps, she is overwhelmed by the extra pressure placed upon her to be faithful in hospitality as well as perfect in hospitality delivery, for she would have faced extra scrutiny. I began to see the relationship between Martha and Mary from a different point of view because of their family dynamics, societal demands, trailblazing reality and found that there was more to this story than the simple summary of "41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,"

To this day, I find more revealed to me in their story each time I approach it.