{"id":812,"date":"2013-10-25T11:10:45","date_gmt":"2013-10-25T15:10:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=812"},"modified":"2013-10-25T11:10:45","modified_gmt":"2013-10-25T15:10:45","slug":"var-_gaq-_gaq-_gaq-push_setaccount-ua-25646250-2-_gaq-push_trackpageview-function-var-ga-document-createelementscript-ga-type-textjavascript-ga-38","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=812","title":{"rendered":"<script type=\"text\/javascript\">  var _gaq = _gaq || []; _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-25646250-2']); _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']);  (function() { var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text\/javascript'; ga.async = true; ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? 'https:\/\/ssl' : 'http:\/\/www') + '.google-analytics.com\/ga.js'; var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(ga, s); })();  <\/script>  <\/heat> Jacob prepares for his meeting with Esau &#8211; Held on Sunday, October 20, 2013"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Outline of Session held on 10\/20\/13<\/b><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Previous Week\u2019s [10\/13\/13] Review<\/li>\n<li>Background to today\u2019s Reading<\/li>\n<li>Reading<\/li>\n<li>Discussion<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><b>Previous Week\u2019s [10\/13\/13] Review<\/b><\/p>\n<p>After being prompted by Tim, I invited those who might be interested in a more in-depth study. \u00a0We would be following the format outlined by Carla Mae Streeter. \u00a0He process would focus our attention on a specific biblical unit of thought by asking a series of four questions.\u00a0 The questions are based on Purpose, Point, Presuppositions and Praxis Value. I then review each of the questions. [If any web reader is interested, let me know.] \u00a0At the end of our session Ken, Faryl, Mark, Tim, and Michael expressed an interest.<\/p>\n<p>My review of the previous week\u2019s conversation was sparked by Jude, my four year old grandson.\u00a0 I had picked him up from the Tuesday afternoon CCD program at St. Anthony All Saints.\u00a0 We headed home when Jude asked, \u201cNonno, [Italian for grandpa] where can I see Jesus?\u00a0 I\u2019ve been looking but I don\u2019t see him.\u201d\u00a0 I certainly wasn\u2019t expecting that question nor did I have a ready answer.\u00a0 By the following Sunday morning, however, I did have a few thoughts.<\/p>\n<p>I saw a connection between what my grandson\u2019s question assumed and an assumption I thought I heard in Kai\u2019s remarks from last week. \u00a0So I attempted to link them together.\u00a0 As part of our conversation in which we wondered whether God\u2019s promise was dependent on us, Kai thought that God\u2019s promise was independent of our actions.\u00a0 Part of his basis for thinking that emerged in a quote he offered from the Christian Scripture.\u00a0 The scene was Jesus before Pilate in which Jesus responded, \u201cMy Kingdom is not of this world.\u201d\u00a0 Kai added we can\u2019t take it with us.\u00a0 As you might recall there was considerable conversation on this point; does what we do matter or are things pretty well determined by God already.\u00a0 Tim raised the issue in different terms, Is God controlling my life or am I controlling my life.\u00a0 Does what we do matter?\u00a0 Is God present in this world, now; if so, how is God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit present?\u00a0 Before you read any further would you be willing to answer those questions for your self.<\/p>\n<p>There is an underlying assumption about how we know anything that I wanted to address. The critical point, from my point of view, is that we don\u2019t know by looking.\u00a0 Looking maybe one part of human knowing but by itself it is not knowing.\u00a0 Jesus is present to us but his presence is not immediate, by taking a look.\u00a0 Rather Jesus\u2019 presence is mediated by meaning.\u00a0 I don\u2019t expect you to grasp the significance of these last two sentences but it\u2019s worth the effort.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s begin with the obvious.\u00a0 I am in the 21<sup>st<\/sup> century in Canton Ohio writing English words, you are reading them on this website on the internet.\u00a0 Let us take one word, Jesus.\u00a0 In some fundamental way, Jesus is present in that word. \u00a0His name, Jesus, means something to you.\u00a0 But that meaning bears the weight of some 2000 years of human history coming to you, most likely from your parents.\u00a0 In some way that \u201cJesus\u201d is unique to you.\u00a0 He is whomever you actually think Jesus is.\u00a0 Now you are not alone, Jesus is meaningful to others, and the others form a community. \u00a0To the extent that the members of the community share a common meaning they are united but are divided to the extent that their meanings are opposed, contradictory.<\/p>\n<p>This point of community united or divided was brought out clearly by a question that Mark asked.\u00a0 He was listening to a radio talk show discussing the changes \u00a0being brought about by what Pope Francis is saying and doing.\u00a0 He wanted to know based on what the Pope is saying and doing, is the culture changing the church or is the church changing the culture.<\/p>\n<p>Most of the group thought that it wasn\u2019t either \/ or.\u00a0 Michael felt that the church has to change with the culture if it expects to reach the people in the culture they actually are living in.\u00a0 Tim, Faryl, and Ken expressed in different words that the church has both to change with the culture but also to change the culture.\u00a0\u00a0 While they spoke in rather general terms, Rosemarie was quite specific.\u00a0 She felt that the culture is almost always attacking the basic beliefs of the church as exemplified in issues such as same sex marriage, abortion, ordination of women, the Health Care Mandate.\u00a0 She believes strongly that the church has to fight these attacks. Her take on Pope Francis though is that he is urging us to focus on the poor, to become a church of the poor.\u00a0 In this way, the truth teachings of the church will be manifested. Heber wondered if Rosemarie was opposed to married priests.\u00a0 She gave her understanding of why we have a celibate priesthood and favored it from one point of view but was not opposed to married priests.\u00a0 There was a financial issue that would have to be resolved.<\/p>\n<p>At this point I am inclined to stop to give you who are reading this, time to reflect and I would encourage you to respond with a question, an observation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Background to today\u2019s our readings.<\/b><\/p>\n<p>In a sense we pick up the narrative from chapter 28.\u00a0 Much has happened but the conflict between Jacob and Esau remains unresolved.\u00a0 We learn in this passage that Jacob is first to meet God and that meeting prepares him for his meeting with Esau.<\/p>\n<p><b>We are reminded as we listen to \/ read the passages to wonder <\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Who are the characters in the story<\/li>\n<li>What role do these characters play<\/li>\n<li>What is the plot of the story, the author\u2019s intent<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Reading: Gen. 32:01 \u2013 09: Jacob prepares for his meeting with Esau and turns to God in prayer.\u00a0 <\/b><a href=\"http:\/\/usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/32\">http:\/\/usccb.org\/bible\/genesis\/32<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>Discussion<\/b><\/p>\n<p>We begin with asking who are the characters in the passage; more to\u00a0 help us stay focused.\u00a0 Ken mentioned \u201cmessengers.\u201d\u00a0 True enough but the word is used twice and it refers to two different characters in the passage.\u00a0 A review\u00a0 of the notes for the Gen. 32: 01 \u2013 02 are illuminating on this point.<\/p>\n<p>[<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/32:01\">32:1<\/a>\u2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/32:22\">22<\/a>] Jacob\u2019s negotiations with Esau. Laban kisses his daughters and grandchildren good-bye but not Jacob. On leaving Mesopotamia, Jacob has an encounter with angels of God (vv.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/32:02\">2<\/a>\u2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/32:03\">3<\/a>), which provokes him to exclaim, \u201cThis is God\u2019s encampment,\u201d just as he exclaimed upon leaving Canaan, \u201cThis is the house of God, the gateway to heaven\u201d (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/28:11\">28:11<\/a>\u2013<a href=\"http:\/\/www.usccb.org\/bible\/gn\/28:17\">17<\/a>).<\/p>\n<p>The notes affirm that the first messengers are \u201cangels of God.\u201d\u00a0 This is the third time that Jacob has been visited by \u201cangels.\u201d\u00a0 You may not believe it but this one word \u201cangel\u201d resulted in a half hour conversation.\u00a0 Let me reiterate, we can\u2019t see angels; even though they have been depicted in art and thus have contributed to our having an image of them in our imagination. \u00a0The word has a meaning and we learned rather quickly that we don\u2019t all share the same meaning for the word.<\/p>\n<p>Ken reflect on how people can get bent out shape if their meaning of angel is challenged.\u00a0 He thought that angel is more a function or role that people can play in the lives of others without necessarily denying the spiritual reality of angels.\u00a0 I mentioned that growing up I was taught that we all have \u201cguardian angels.\u201d\u00a0 So our 2000 year history comes to light in us differently.\u00a0 Rosemarie spoke of the nine choirs of angels.\u00a0 For her angels are spiritual beings that God uses help us, prompt us.\u00a0 But, and this was very important for Rosemarie, we have to be \u201ctuned in\u201c in her words.\u00a0 Being \u201ctuned in\u201d was a function of praying every day.<\/p>\n<p>Eventually we were to return to the passage at hand.\u00a0 I wanted to point out the significance, meaning, of God\u2019s messengers coming to Jacob.\u00a0 The author \/ editor is telling us in his own way that in Jacob\u2019s life [and thus the life of all of us] there is presence of God and the presence of the world; sometimes working in concert, sometimes working in opposition.\u00a0 But it is God\u2019s encampment that matters.<\/p>\n<p>Before I knew it the hour and an half had passed almost in mid-sentence but that is how it goes.<\/p>\n<p>You are invited to respond to these or other questions that might arise within you as you read this passage.\u00a0 Your comments, observations, questions are welcomed.\u00a0 See \u201ccomment\u201d link below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Outline of Session held on 10\/20\/13 Previous Week\u2019s [10\/13\/13] Review Background to today\u2019s Reading Reading Discussion Previous Week\u2019s [10\/13\/13] Review After being prompted by Tim, I invited those who might be interested in a more in-depth study. \u00a0We would be &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/?p=812\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=812"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":813,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/812\/revisions\/813"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rjr.richardross.annaerossi.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}