Pub Theology Questions - September!

Join us for Pub Theology on Wednesday (9/18) at 7pm. We'll be at Marly's (101 Old Ridgefield Road).

Here are the questions, each one with a quote from the book:

1) “Paradise is not a place that awaits our arrival but a present we arrive at.” Jesus said over and over again the Kingdom of God is at hand. Where have you found holiness in the ordinary?

2) "See how they love one another.” Not a bad gauge of health. “There was no needy person among them.” A better metric would be hard to find. There is one line that stopped me in my tracks: “And awe came upon everyone.” It would seem that, quite possibly, the ultimate measure of health in any community might well reside in our ability to stand in awe at what folks have to carry rather than in judgment at how they carry it.” How do you think we stand in awe instead of judgement? Can you talk about a time when your judgement proved to be wrong?

3) “Human beings are settlers, but not in the pioneer sense. It is our human occupational hazard to settle for little. We settle for purity and piety when we are being invited to an exquisite holiness. We settle for the fear-driven when love longs to be our engine. We settle for a puny, vindictive God when we are being nudged always closer to this wildly inclusive, larger-than-any-life God. We allow our sense of God to atrophy. We settle for the illusion of separation when we are endlessly asked to enter into kinship with all.” Where have you felt kinship in your own life? What story stood out to you/touched you the most? In your own life where do you think you could find more kinship?

4) “But because I’ve had to bury so many kids — 183 kids, and kids I loved and kids I knew, and killed by kids I loved — boy, if death is the worst thing that can happen to you, brace yourself, because you will be toppled. And the trick is not to be toppled. The trick is to compile a list of all of the fates that are worse than death, but also compile the list of all the things — and so numerous to list — all the things that are more powerful than death. That’s what Jesus did; Jesus sort of put death in its place.” What does it mean to ‘put death in its place’? What things are more powerful than death?

5) “But I also feel like in the end, it is about imitating the kind of — trying to imitate the kind of God you believe in. And it’s natural for us to push back on that. But the truth is, we’re so used to a God — a one-false-move God, and so we’re not really accustomed to the no-matter-whatness of God, to the God who’s just plain-old too busy loving us to be disappointed in us. And that is, I think, the hardest thing to believe, but everybody in this space knows it’s the truest thing you can say about God.” What does it look like to imitate God?

Need a little help and inspiration? Take a look at the reflections our parishioners wrote over the summer in response to the book! Click here and scroll down to take a look.

Never been to Pub Theology before? That's okay! Here's how it works...

This is a special edition of Pub Theology! This time, we're talking about our summer read, Barking to the Choir. What hasn't changed is that the questions invite us to reflect on who God is and how God works in our lives and in the world. You will sit in small-ish groups to have a conversation and answer the questions until about 8pm. You can order snacks, or dinner, or anything else you'd like.

The one "rule" of Pub Theology is that you tell a real story and then make room for someone else's real story. Meaning, share something that matters to you, and then make enough room in the conversation for others to share, too. The questions are always intentionally designed so there are no right or wrong answers. And as long as we're telling our own stories, it is always okay if we disagree. It's the sharing of the story that matters. So, tell a real story. And let everyone else's story be told, too. Something special happens between us when we share our stories.

Then, stay after 8pm and socialize if you want to!