Seine Net is the same series of reflections I have been doing on Sundays, just a new name.
I wanted something a little more nautical oriented that also captured (get the pun?) the sense of my grabbing random bits of information to think about. Just as a seine net pulls up all sorts of things, some unexpected, so I think of this reflection post.
The Lectionary Readings for today
Scripture Lessons for this Week: 4th Sunday after the Epiphany:
Deuteronomy 18:15-20; Psalm 111; 1 Corinthians 8:1-13; Mark 1:21-28
Reflections on A Scriptural Theme
I got to reflecting about the Mark text this week.
Jesus goes into a Synagogue, and a demonic confronts him, there is a healing, and Jesus’ fame spreads.
We don’t often think about demonic positions these days (unless it is in watching a horror movie). So, how do we preach on this?
But don’t we actually face certain powers that tear us apart as a culture, as people? Racism, Misogyny, Xenophobia, Patriarchy, Post-Industrial Capitalism, Environmental Degradation to name a few.
They are a part of the air we breathe, or the water we drink. These “-isms” have shaped us, like it or not. By participating in this culture, are we not also participating in these “principalities and powers” (as Paul refers to them).
How then does this Gospel lesson speak to us? Where do we find ourselves possessed? How does the Gospel save us? Where do we still have work to do?
Here is a Reflection on Some Creative Environmental Work
National Geographic ran a few posts on their Instagram feed this week regarding stupas being built in the mountains of Northern India. In essence, they are constructing their own glaciers. I thought this was Good News, and so here is a link to the National Geographic Article.
A Creative Artist I Discovered this Week
José Naranja is an artist and diarist. (I originally wrote “journaler” but I don’t think that is actually a word). At any rate, he writes about all sorts of things with beautiful script, adding stamps and stickers and drawings. The pages are just glorious and beautiful works. Go check him out. On Instagram. On Blogger.
An Article for Reflection That Though Painful, is Necessary Reading
We came across the following on-line Scientific America article this week (for the link, see below). I’m presenting this here, not to be political per se, but to draw attention to the fact that there are a lot of people in the United States who are not getting their basic needs met. I couldn’t help but notice the parallel with today’s Gospel lesson. Pay attention to how “violence is a life impulse gone awry.” Listen to what Bandy X. Lee says regarding socioeconomic deprivation.
Of course, socioeconomic deprivation has not just happened to the people discussed in the article. There are entire sectors of the United States population who have felt socioeconomic deprivation for years based upon the way they look (in particular BIPOC).
“Whenever the Goldwater rule [that discouraged psychiatrists from diagnosing public officials they haven’t examined in person] is mentioned, we should refer back to the Declaration of Geneva, which mandates that physicians speak up against destructive governments,” Lee says. “This declaration was created in response to the experience of Nazism.”
Lee emphasizes in another work “the symbolic nature of violence and how it is a life impulse gone awry. Briefly, if one cannot have love, one resorts to respect. And when respect is unavailable, one resorts to fear. … Violence helps compensate for feelings of powerlessness, inadequacy and lack of real productivity.”
Lee:
“But there is important psychological injury that arises from relative—not absolute—socioeconomic deprivation. Yes, there is great injury, anger and redirectable energy for hatred …”
What is the recommended solution?
For healing, I usually recommend three steps: (1) Removal of the offending agent (the influential person with severe symptoms). (2) Dismantling systems of thought control—common in advertising but now also heavily adopted by politics. And (3) fixing the socioeconomic conditions that give rise to poor collective mental health in the first place.
What does Lee recommend for prevention measures?
Violence is the end product of a long process, so prevention is key. Structural violence, or inequality, is the most potent stimulant of behavioral violence. And reducing inequality in all forms—economic, racial and gender—will help toward preventing violence. For prevention to be effective, knowledge and in-depth understanding cannot be overlooked—so we can anticipate what is coming, much like the pandemic.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-shared-psychosis-of-donald-trump-and-his-loyalists/
A Quote about Love and Relationships
“Everyone, she understood, was mainly and mostly interested in themselves. Except Sibby had been interested in her, and she had been terribly interested in him. This was the skin that protected you from the world – this loving of another person you shared your life with.”
~ Elizabeth Strout. Anything is Possible. pg. 34”
A Spiritual Practice
With the above reference to José Naranja’s journaling, I thought it might be useful to mention Journaling as a Spiritual Practice. One needn’t journal as Naranja does. Anything can be useful.
For many years, journaling became a way of physically praying (via the act of writing) what was going on in my life. All through college my devotions tended to use the following structure presented in Rueben Jobs and Norman Shawchuck’s A Guide to Prayer for Ministers and Other Servants (UpperRoom, 1983).* For it was this book that formed the basis of my devotional life.
The weeks’ outline looks like this:
- Invocation (Prayer for the week, written)
- Psalm (for the week)
- Daily Scripture Readings (for the week, by each day)
- Readings for Reflection (which followed the “outline” page, they were usually brief, with many more options than days to choose from)
- Prayers: for the church, for others, for myself (no reference)
- Reflection: silent and written
- Hymn (of the week)
- Benediction (of the week, written)
To follow this style of devotion, you need a Bible (to look up the scripture) and a Hymnal (if you were going to at least look at the hymn, let alone sing it). But I also used a journal.
It was the process of journaling, of writing, out my side of the conversation with God that allowed my mind to quiet enough to be able to listen to God’s side of the conversation. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was using the journaling to move into a contemplative type of prayer.
And that’s where I think journaling can be very helpful as a spiritual practice.
But other people use journals in different ways, so you don’t have to follow what I’ve outlined. I rarely go back through my journals. I know others who review them on a yearly (or more regular) basis.
Maybe I should. It might be useful to see what themes continue to come up over and over again, like a certain wave train from far over the horizon.
Blessed be
*Note, A Guide to Prayer was published in 1983. We all should have known better. However, we didn’t practice inclusive language, etc. at the time. As a consequence, this work reflects that time period.
Currently I’ve been reading Philip Jenkins’. The Lost History of Christianity, the Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia – and How It Died.
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