Our Shared Vulnerablity

Sometimes it seems a reading was intended, made, or meant for us.  I am a firm believer that the Spirit works in wonderful and sometimes unexpected ways.  This week's article comes from the Christian Century - where I usually go first to look for our weekly article.  It just so happens that it's perfect for the conversation about Ash Wednesday that we started at the end of our last TOT and in relation to the Alternative Worship service this past Sunday. 

First read Psalm 103:8-17a

⁸The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.

⁹He will not always accuse, nor will he keep his anger forever.

¹⁰He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

¹¹For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

¹²as far as the east is from the west, so far he removes our transgressions from us.

¹³As a father has compassion for his children, so the Lord has compassion for those who fear him.

¹⁴For he knows how we were made; he remembers that we are dust.

¹⁵As for mortals, their days are like grass; they flourish like a flower of the field;

¹⁶for the wind passes over it, and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.

¹⁷But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear God.

Then read the Fear of Flying in the Christian Century. 

Here are some questions to ponder:

1. What is your experience of flying?  How vulnerable do you feel when flying?
2. What does it mean that we have shared vulnerability?
3. What does Stephanie Paulsell suggest we should do with this vulnerability?  What does she suggest we often do with it?  
4. How do you understand your own vulnerability? 
5. How is our vulnerability one of our strengths?
6. How is our vulnerability related to God and our relationship to God?

I hope to see you all at 7:00 PM this coming Sunday, March 7th at ABC for an interesting conversation, good food, and good beer! 

Comments

[Drew]

Seriously, you need to stop reading Christian Century. I scarcely recall a single article that was edifying or immediately brought my thoughts to the person, matchless character or completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Nary has one article reminded me of His sufficiency or the efficacy of His atoning blood.

1) Lots and lots of experience. Not at all vulnerable. I trust in Him

2) It means we are all created beings from the same mold, all seeds of Adam’s race.

3) Foolishly she suggests we lean on each other. ISA 45:22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I [am] God, and [there is] none else.

4) Paul says in Eph 2:12 “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world.” I understand without Christ I am dead. Furthermore, in Rom 8:17 “And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with [him], that we may be also glorified together. And in Gal 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Finally in Phl 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

5) My vulnerability is nullified by my fellowship with the Creator.

6) Stephanie robs God of His due glory by fraudulently directing the reader’s thoughts to each other as a means to appease fear. She neglects the most important relationship we human beings can have. Our vulnerability is not to teach us to lean on each other. Far from it. Our vulnerability is to teach us to rely on the one who spoke all of creation into existence, who knows the weight of air, who can draw out the leviathan or made the behemoth. Our vulnerability is to humble the proud and lay to waste any sense of self.