Monthly Archives

November 2021

BREAKFAST WITH JESUS

Our faith and trauma conversations with Zachary Moon have been so rich! I’m sure we’ve all been carrying around little nuggets of thought and epiphanies, recognizing behaviors and emotions we know from our own experience. One thought that keeps surfacing in my reflections is the idea of “normal” and, perhaps even more timely, “returning to normal.” This is a phrase we’ve heard for months. And it stubbornly refuses to happen.

 

As we’ve said often in our discussions—and many of us know from experience—there’s no such thing as an objective “normal” before or after trauma and loss. Nor is there a “normal” set of behaviors we can define for dealing with traumatic events. That’s why a lot of the well-meaning one-size-fits-all comfort clichés we’ve talked about simply don’t make the grade, including those that may contain morsels of truth. And yet we reach for these ideas to make meaning of what makes no sense, trying to find answers to our “why” when the “what” feels like more than we can manage. We just want to get back to normal.

 

Centuries before the first textbook about trauma and loss got written, the Gospel writers recognized the symptoms or psychological injury and described them with extraordinary accuracy. John’s Gospel concludes with a classic case study of post-traumatic urgencies to “get back to normal.” Jesus is noticeably different—and understandably so, given what he’s gone through. But these changes also affect his followers, who are riding their own emotional rollercoasters.

 

Peter does what we hear many people talk about today talk: he tries to pick up where he left off before his life got interrupted. “I’m going fishing,” he tells his buddies, and they say, “Let’s go!” But what begins as a back-to-normal move ends in a most unusual way. Jesus makes breakfast for them! It’s a beautiful gesture. But’s also a little, well, weird. Why would John’s writer choose to close the Gospel in this way?

 

Give John 21 a fresh read and join us Thursday evening at 7:30pm CST as we end our three-part Fearful & Faithful study series with Rev. Dr. Zachary Moon. If you’ve not been there, you don’t know what a blessing this is! Click on the button below to access the Zoom study. I look forward to seeing everyone this Thursday!

 

Peace and blessings,

Pastor Tim

Finding Ourselves in Their Stories

Dear Gatherers,

 

Traumatic events affect us in different ways. Indeed, for as many people as there may be in a community there are probably that many different responses to loss, pain, and distress. We see this in our own time. The pandemic, racism, sexism, and violence, an increasingly absurd political landscape, a wide-swinging economy, and so on have affected us all communally and personally. And the degree to which they alarm and exhaust changes day-by-day, minute-by-minute.

 

The Gospels give us a very similar in their depiction of how the arrest, execution, and resurrection of Jesus impacts his community. As we learned in last week’s study, the prospect of Jesus’s return to life didn’t incite Easter celebrations among the first witnesses of resurrection. Mark’s original text freeze-frames a group of terrified people. This week, we look at them individually to discover how the events (of only 72 hours!) shape their responses to what they’ve been through. Famously—or infamously—there’s Thomas, who doesn’t know what to believe. But there are others to consider as well: Peter, James, John, Mary Magdalene, Jesus’s natural family, even Judas. The Gospels portray these traumatic events as deeply personal, and refuse to let us to look away.

 

What can these stories teach us about our own struggles with trauma and loss? How do we locate ourselves among Jesus’s faithful—and fearful—followers? Don’t miss our second session with Rev. Dr. Zachary Moon, as he walks us through what how disciples dealt with the aftermath of their Leader’s loss and reappearance. Take a minute to read John 20:24-29 before to the study. That will be our stepping off point for the discussion, which begins at 7:30p CST via Zoom. (Click below to access the study.)

 

We look forward to seeing you all for a very rich and transformative conversation!

 

Peace,

Pastor Tim

 

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85472355614

Meeting ID: 854 7235 5614

Or dial 1-312-626-6799 using the same meeting ID.

Fearful & Faithful

Dear Gatherers,

 

Imagine this. Over the past three years you’ve followed a dynamic preacher who espouses a lot of dangerously countercultural ideas. Joining his group completely changed your life—no small miracle because you came with a lot of baggage. In fact, everyone in his group tells that story. Some had dark and troubled pasts. Others were so poor they had nothing to lose. Still others were social pariahs. There’s no reason you should be together, love one another, and work tirelessly to live out the transformative message of your teacher and healer. But it’s an amazing project that embodies bold hope for the world and you can’t believe you’re part of it.

 

Then everything implodes. One minute everyone’s enjoying dinner. The next, your leader’s arrested, abused, falsely convicted, and publicly executed, with his corpse sealed in a borrowed grave for safekeeping. Now there’s no trace of him. The grave’s torn open. A stranger says your teacher has come back to life and wants to meet up. (He did predict this would happen, btw.) But seriously: Where is he?

 

Living through the Calvary and Easter aftermath had to be terrifying. Yet the disciples’ reactions offer up compelling case studies that can transform our own understanding of trauma. This month we’re blessed to have one of America’s foremost trauma and theology experts, Rev. Dr. Zachary Moon, guiding us through the events after the cross, starting with Mark’s Gospel, whose earliest drafts end with this: “Overcome with terror and dread, they fled from the tomb. They said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid” (Mk. 16:8). We’ll spend November observing these believers who were fearful and faithful as they struggled to cope with loss and trauma in real time.

 

This just-for-Gather series promises to be one of our most unforgettable ever. We meet each Thursday evening at 7:30pm CT. Click on the link below to be there!

 

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85472355614

Meeting ID: 854 7235 5614

Or dial 1-312-626-6799 using the same meeting ID.

 

Blessings,

Pastor Tim