Yesterday (3/16/08), we gathered again for a couple of hours at the Global Gallery in German Village. Our conversation centered essentially upon the issue of hermeneutics. Considering the 1500 years of Christian church history in which the Bible was primarily experienced aurally, we reflected on the differences that exist for us when hearing a passage read versus reading it one's self. Jesse had a lot to say about story, which John suggested often gets marginalized by the tendency to worship the words of a particular version, thereby losing the freshness of the event being studied. John Cage had a lot to say about nothing, which became an opportunity to reflect on the experience of prayer. [Feel free to disagree with anything I may have misconstrued...if anybody is sleepy...let him go to sleep.]
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Quote from Cage: "I have the feeling that we are getting nowhere. Slowly, as the talk goes on, we are getting nowhere and that is a pleasure. It is not irritating to be where one is. It is only irritating to think one would like to be somewhere else."
The first officially emergent book I read was "An Emergent Manifesto of Hope," and one of the key things I took away from it was a short paragraph that said something along the lines of this: As you read the stories of other emergent communities, don't wish that you were a part of those communities, or wish that you were somewhere else. Embrace the emergent story that you are a part of.
At times, I wish our emergent group was something else. I wish we were more active, more high profile, more diverse, more official, more recognized, more good looking :) But on Sunday, listening to Cage, I remember that it is only an irritation if I wish I was somewhere else. In many ways, we are getting nowhere. And that is a pleasure. And a blessing. To be with all of you, the central Ohio emergent cohort, is in so many ways that I think about most every day, a blessing and a pleasure.
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