Through the lens of the Nap Ministry's Tricia Hersey and her book "Rest is Resistance", Hayley continues our church's discussion of how to address societal burnout. (Illustration by Kumé Pather)
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The forces of acceleration behind our societal burnout are experienced as guilt by the middle class, and as injustice by the working class. Vince points us to the Bible's Zacchaeus to help us imagine how communities can counter this "tyranny of acceleration" by holding up alternative visions of fullness of life.
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The most natural response to burnout in our culture, according to scholars of the Modern World, is a good response in many ways, but, alas, it can't save us from busyness. Vince explains, and point us to Jesus' alternative vision of a good life that isn't busyness.
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Modern life is like being under a waterfall: so many experiences and demands and thoughts and feelings tumbling down on us, leaving us in constant reactivity mode. "Getting behind the waterfall" is a contemplative prayer practice meant to get us out of reactivity mode.
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Beginning with the famous "Invisible Gorilla" study by Daniel Simons, Vince suggests a prayer practice for experiencing transcendence in the midst of our exhausting, pressure-heavy lives, which can feel simultaneously instinctual AND extremely hard (or strange) against the backdrop of Modern Life.
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In Illinois, over 9,000 people are unhoused, and over 389,000 more are considered at risk of being unhoused. This Sunday is our annual project for packing relief kits for our unhoused and underhoused neighbors, and for demonstrating that the real moral question for our country is how we treat the poor.
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While there are many unhelpful pictures of power and control, we can find in Jesus a power that is rooted in compassion and trust. On this Juneteenth and Father’s Day weekend, we look at the Psalms’ portrayal of God as a source of help and liberation. (Art: "Christ Breaks the Rifle" by Kelly Latimore)
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Is "experiencing God" only for certain people? The intuitive or contemplative? Or, alternatively, the super expressive? Or maybe only the most pious? Or those who know the most about the Bible? The Gospels' stories of encounters with the Risen Jesus (like Luke 24's "Road to Emmaus") encourage us beyond these limitations we may place on ourselves. (Art: "Grace" by Rhoda Nyberg, Eric Enstrom)
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Our hope is that this reflection can stand alone as a meaningful way to pray and slow yourself down today, BUT if you have been following along in our Lent Mealtime Readings & Prayers, this reflection will build upon the story we have been following there (and in particular the reading and prayer for Good Friday).
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Is God always angry? For Palm Sunday -- which begins Holy Week's march toward Good Friday -- we continue our differentiation from the American Christian legacy that we are "sinners in the hands of an angry God", with a focus on alternative ways to believe in the power of Jesus' crucifixion.
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