We, in the West, do not like to let go of things. This is proven by the storage industry. Last year alone, Americans spent $38 billion on self-storage – to store things they wanted to keep, but did not want to see, use or touch. Hmm. What could $38 billion, used differently do?
Owen Hodges and Karen Ray Nelson join as guests to consider Jesus’ openness, the way we process corrections, and our ever present choice to turn and face the Cross.
We start with a Lenten check in, learn a bit about what Jesus was up to while he was among the dead, and finish up our conversation on the decalogue as presented in the BCP catechism.
This week, 2FAB looks at the 13th century dutch poet and mystic, St Hadewijch
The process of repentance draws us back
against our will,
wanting cheer, not sadness –
But like the cartoon spectre,
it waits and knows
surrender to memory will come.
“Personally, I have no interest in becoming the matriarch of nations. But I’m hard pressed to know what my deepest yearning would truly be. If God were to make a covenant with me and were to change my name — what do I want most in all the world?”
“We spend our lives learning. Newborns have to learn to breathe and then to suck. The rest is progressive. Children want to know, so they ask, ‘Why?’ with seemingly every other breath. It’s their way of finding out how the world works, something they’re going to need to know, and, I think, they revel in learning about it.”
“What’s probably lost on us, though, as we read this passage, is that “a scene at the well” was a well known plot device of storytellers of the Middle East, including ancient Hebrew stories. Listeners at the time expected stories of encounters of men and women at wells to be betrothal stories, much in the same way we expect the typical encounter in a romantic comedy to be a meeting where the main female character can’t stand the guy, but will later fall for him.”
“However, it doesn’t just go to suffering. The core of discipleship is self-denial. It is at this point especially that Jesus makes it quite clear that the gospel is certainly counter-cultural. However, one could take “losing your life” more than one way. Losing your life can also be seen as shedding the old way of living that was in harmony with the values of the world.”
“For Lent, I am going to give into being dust. In a way, that is giving up something. It is giving up the hard and marbleized parts of who I am, whether formed over decades or just this last year.”