Sunday
A healthy psyche lives within at least four containers of meaning. Imagine four nested domes. The first is called my story, the second is our story, the third is other stories, and the fourth is the story. This is what I call the cosmic egg.
—Richard Rohr
Monday
Biblical revelation is saying that the only way we dare move up to the story and understand it with any depth is by moving through and taking responsibility for our personal story, our group story, and other stories.
—Richard Rohr
Tuesday
Transcendence is not a denial or detachment from my story or our story. It is an arduous commitment to truth-telling; to fully seeing; to empathetic listening that requires the work of living and be-ing in the world; of deep, intimate knowing; of moving beyond our theories and maps into relationship building.
—Felicia Murrell
Wednesday
The other half of history doesn’t erase everything we ever thought we knew about ourselves and our God, but it does invite us to see all things in a new light. The other half of history is an invitation to live into another story.
—Jonathan Wilson-Hartgrove
Thursday
As we learn the language of leaves and the banter of berries and then share these little moments of poetic wisdom with one another, we are re-storying our place. We are creating new stories that can guide us into a new and yet ancient way of being human.
—Victoria Loorz and Valerie Luna Serrels
Friday
True transcendence frees us from the tyranny of I am, the idolatry of we are, and the scapegoating of they are. When all four stories are taken seriously, as the Bible shows us very well, we have a full life—fully human and fully divine.
—Richard Rohr
Week Eight Practice
Practicing Solidarity
Theologians and activists Rev. Dr. Alexia Salvatierra and Dr. Peter Heltzel explore how we can live out the biblical virtue of solidarity:
While recognizing the value of every vantage point, faith-rooted [community] organizing also understands that a fair hearing of differing perspectives is necessary for truth to emerge. Fair hearings for those with low social status are hard to come by, however. In contrast to a society that gives inordinate weight to the perspective of those with more social status, we read in 1 Corinthians 1 that “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to reduce to nothing things that are, so that no one might boast in the presence of God” (1 Corinthians 1:27–29, New Revised Standard Version). To prioritize the perspective of the poor for the sake of the common good does not imply the devaluing of the gifts of those who are not poor. Instead, it acknowledges the necessity of the dance of solidarity.
Solidarity is a term commonly used in Latin America to describe the commitment and engagement of those who are not poor in struggles for justice. Joerg Rieger speaks of deep solidarity as rooted in the recognition that “we are really in the same boat. The system that is not benefitting the poor is not benefitting us either. Jesus goes out to the lost sheep, the lost son and yells at the holders of privilege.” [1] Those who are engaged in solidarity are committed to a partnership with the poor that rectifies the imbalances of our society. Solidarity does not imply a superior virtue. It is, rather, a matter of recognizing the need for the gifts and leadership of the poor in the struggle to create the beloved community that will bless us all.
References:
[1] Joerg Rieger, Occupy Religion: Theology of the Multitude (Rowman and Littlefield, 2012).
Alexia Salvatierra and Peter Heltzel, Faith-Rooted Organizing: Mobilizing the Church in Service to the World (InterVarsity Press, 2013), 55.
Image credit and inspiration: Priscilla Du Preez, Untitled (detail), 2020, photo, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. With our energy and effort, we treat the stories of others as sacred and worthy of our time and attention, like our own.
