Enjoying the Last Supper

This week at Stone Soup we'll talk about Jesus' Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem known as Palm Sunday and we'll talk about what led up to his execution on the cross on Good Friday. This is to prepare us for Easter (4/5/15). Included in these events is Jesus' Last Supper with his disciples. So we'll also talk about how to enjoy the time with other when a separation looms before us.

So for dinner, bring something that you would like to include as part of "your best meal imaginable".
What would you choose for your last meal? Could you enjoy it knowing it was your last?

We'll meet at 5 p.m.  3/29/15 at the Wesley Cottage and play some games first thing. It should be pretty weather.

PS Thanks for your concern and emails. I think both Thomas and I are recovered from our stomach bugs.
Peace,
Rob

Mark 11:7-11; 15:21-39

⁷Then they brought the colt to Jesus and threw their cloaks on it; and he sat on it. ⁸Many people spread their cloaks on the road, and others spread leafy branches that they had cut in the fields. ⁹Then those who went ahead and those who followed were shouting,
‘Hosanna!
   Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!
¹⁰   Blessed is the coming kingdom of our ancestor David!
Hosanna in the highest heaven!’

11 Then he entered Jerusalem and went into the temple; and when he had looked around at everything, as it was already late, he went out to Bethany with the twelve.

The Crucifixion of Jesus

21 They compelled a passer-by, who was coming in from the country, to carry his cross; it was Simon of Cyrene, the father of Alexander and Rufus. ²²Then they brought Jesus to the place called Golgotha (which means the place of a skull). ²³And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh; but he did not take it. ²⁴And they crucified him, and divided his clothes among them, casting lots to decide what each should take.

25 It was nine o’clock in the morning when they crucified him. ²⁶The inscription of the charge against him read, ‘The King of the Jews.’ ²⁷And with him they crucified two bandits, one on his right and one on his left.²⁹Those who passed by derided him, shaking their heads and saying, ‘Aha! You who would destroy the temple and build it in three days, ³⁰save yourself, and come down from the cross!’ ³¹In the same way the chief priests, along with the scribes, were also mocking him among themselves and saying, ‘He saved others; he cannot save himself. ³²Let the Messiah,the King of Israel, come down from the cross now, so that we may see and believe.’ Those who were crucified with him also taunted him.

The Death of Jesus

33 When it was noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. ³⁴At three o’clock Jesus cried out with a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?’ which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ ³⁵When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, ‘Listen, he is calling for Elijah.’ ³⁶And someone ran, filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink, saying, ‘Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.’ ³⁷Then Jesus gave a loud cry and breathed his last. ³⁸And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. ³⁹Now when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he breathed his last, he said, ‘Truly this man was God’s Son!’

Learning to Work in the Dark

It's one thing to know what to do.
It's another thing altogether, to be able to do it.

Working in the dark is learning how to navigate when you don't have a map, it's being able to think clearly under pressure, it's making decisions with inadequate information, it's letting your brain win when your heart wants to fight, it's paying attention to your heart when your mind is saying something different, it's loving when you don't feel like it...

Jesus was trying to tell his disciples that things were about to get deadly difficult and that things were about to get Eternally Good.  As Tom Waits says,
"When there's nothing left to keep you here, when
You're falling behind in this
Big blue world

Oh you go to
Hold on, hold on
You got to hold on
Take my hand, I'm standing right here
You got to hold on"

‘Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—“Father, save me from this hour”? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.’ Then a voice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’ The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, ‘An angel has spoken to him.’ Jesus answered, ‘This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. Now is the judgement of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.’He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. The crowd answered him, ‘We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains for ever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?’ Jesus said to them, ‘The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going.While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.’

John 12:27-36

This Sunday, 3/22/15 we'll meet at 5 at the Wesley Cottage and begin by playing some games with some "confusing factors" added in. We'll be reflecting on doing the right thing when things are most difficult.

For dinner we'll make burritos. I'll bring tortillas and salsa. You bring what you want to go with it and coordinate it by replying to the email so others can see what your bringing.

Peace,

Rob

The Dark Night of the Soul (it's okay, really)

"...When depression passes, all is restored; when the dark night [of the soul] passes, all is transformed."

St. John of the Cross is credited with the phrase/concept: "Saint John of the Cross' poem narrates the journey of the soul from its bodily home to its union with God. The journey is called "The Dark Night", because darkness represents the hardships and difficulties the soul meets in detachment from the world and reaching the light of the union with the Creator. There are several steps in this night, which are related in successive stanzas. The main idea of the poem can be seen as the painful experience that people endure as they seek to grow in spiritual maturity and union with God."

This is our next step in Learning How to Walk in the Dark. We'll talk about the benefits that can come through difficulty.
In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus says, "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the road is easythat leads to destruction, and there are many who take it. For the gate is narrow and the road is hard that leads to life, and there are few who find it."

We'll gather at the Wesley Cottage at 5 p.m. and our dinner will be sandwiches. Rob will bring some sandwich break you bring what you need to make your favorite sandwiches to share and whatever else you want to eat with sandwiches.

The Sight of the Blind

Let's learn how to find those things that we cannot see.
Dinner will be based around Eggs Florentine provided by Katrina and family. Everyone else bring stuff to go along with this. Go easy, nothing too hard to handle because we'll be eating blindfolded. Don't forget to bring a bandana.
"This is the basic idea behind the Blindekuh restaurant in Zurich, opened by four blind entrepreneurs in the late 1990's, where diners still make reservations month ahead to eat in the dark. The restaurant's owners were inspired by a blind Swiss pastor named Jurg Spielmann who routinely blindfolded the dinner guest who came to his house. He said they paid more attention to the food that way, and they also listened to each other better." from Learning to Walk  in the Dark

We will also talk about our "blind spots", those issues in our own lives that lie hidden from us. 

In chapter 9 of the Gospel of John, Jesus heals a blind man but a lot of craziness and blaming breaks out and this is how the chapter ends, "Jesus said, ‘I came into this world for judgement so that those who do not see may see, and those who do see may become blind.’ Some of the Pharisees near him heard this and said to him, ‘Surely we are not blind, are we?’ Jesus said to them, ‘If you were blind, you would not have sin. But now that you say, “We see”, your sin remains."

5 p.m. at the Wesley Cottage. See you then... not!