I like the time change – sort of. I like the part where I don’t have to leave for work in the dark. And I find the recurring debate about “to change or not to change” moderately amusing. I think the media finds it helpful to have a few annual built-in topics to work with. That said, how we react to the dark as humans is a matter of some consequence. Whether it’s the physical darkness of night time or the metaphysical darkness of changing ideas, circumstances or beliefs, in general “dark” isn’t something we prefer. But whether it’s our preferred state or not, it comes. Regularly. Relatively predictably in our exterior lives; less so when it comes to our interior lives. And that’s true for all of us as humans, regardless of our age. These days, that sometimes feels compounded for the young ones by the general (and growing) zeitgeist of fear. So this Sunday, I’m going to use the Talky Bit to explore some ideas pertaining to how we can think about “the dark”, and what we might say to both ourselves and those we influence about it.

Do you ever wonder what the parents of refugee kids say to them about where they belong? I do…and I wonder if it’s at all like what I say to my kids (and myself) when I feel like a religious refugee. In a roundabout way (because it seems like that’s how I explore everything), that’s what we’ll be headed into on Sunday. There will be pictures, but not a single one with eels in it. (Semi-inside joke about last Sunday morning, with apologies to those unable to be there in person.)

Important Details: A big THANK YOU! to those of you that have responded regarding our current / year end financial needs. Generosity always leaves me feeling a bit awe-struck. It seems like a very real embodiment of grace and kindness, and I find that moving. If you are still thinking about your year-end giving, please keep our community in mind.

Coffee and Kids Table will be on. We’ll gather at Creative Manitoba (245 McDermot Avenue, 4th floor) around 10:30 a.m.

Put on your snow boots (barely) and head out. I’ll see you on Sunday.

Peace

Well now…of all the blurb subject lines I’ve ever written, this one may be among the strangest. It’s a gesture toward the fertile imagination of Tim Penner, who is helming the Talky Bit this Sunday. As always, Tim is going to take us somewhere we would probably never think of going on our own – just one of the reasons I’m excited about what he has to share. Here’s his expansion of the subject line:

This week we’re going to take some time to consider the eel.

Wait, just hear me out…

We may not think about eels very often, unless we happen to be ordering sushi, but that slippery little fish, specifically the European River Eel, has been at the centre of an (at least) 2500 year old mystery that involves Aristotle, Julius Caesar, Leonardo DaVinci, Sigmund Freud, the unification efforts of Early Modern Italy, Carlsberg Beer, and the Bermuda Triangle.

Intrigued yet?

Like any good mystery, the story of the eel tends to expand outward, becoming increasingly odd and complex the deeper one digs. It reminds me a lot of what happens when we begin to consider this thing we call God. Despite millennia of confident and bold proclamations about who and what God is by very loud voices, there continues to be a great deal of mystery, and within that mystery, a beautiful, and comforting, unknowingness.  (Tim Penner)

Now come on…doesn’t that make you want to climb out of the sheets on Sunday morning just to be in the room when Tim unpacks this?! Eels and God…I can hardly wait.

Other matters of importance:

Kids Table – is ON! I love the way this community welcomes and enjoys our littles, and I’m so grateful to the team of folks that provide thoughtful and creative input for them week after week. Kids Table leaders – you are awesome!  (By the way, we could use one more person on that team to help us be able to provide this program every week in an ongoing way. If that person might be you, please let me know.)

Finances – a reminder that the next two months are a critical part of our operating year and that your contributions keep this community alive. If finances are part of how you participate in our shared explorations, know that your gift of money is a gift to everyone that calls The Table “home”. Donations are tax receiptable.

Location – we’ll gather at Creative Manitoba (245 McDermot Ave, fourth floor) around 10:30 a.m. (I keep writing that for the benefit of anyone that is unfamiliar with the community. What it really means is that the coffee will be ready around then, but you can come whenever.)

I’ll see you on Sunday.

Peace

Tim Plett (one of the other Tim’s)

If you’ve ever heard a pastor rant about the evils of party x vs the holiness of party y, you have heard something close to the opposite of where the Talky Bit is headed this Sunday. I don’t want to say too much (I mean, why come to the store if everything is for sale online?), but as with other parts of the “Bare Minimum” series, I’ll be attempting to approach the wisdom of Jesus in a way that makes it accessible no matter what you think of the person himself. Come complete with your skepticism and your bias about politics, religion and Jesus all intact, and we’ll see if a first century rabbi has anything to say about 21st century democracy.

(As in eye-glasses, not wine glasses)

Hey folks – with an apology for this being so late to arrive (we’ve been without power since Thursday evening), here’s the blurb:

We’re back at Creative this week, and not a moment too soon. I think the kids might have  been plotting world domination in the University Club boardroom, and even though I’m finding it a bit difficult to be inspired by the current crop of Federal candidates, I don’t think the littles are quite ready to take over.

Because we still need one more person to lead Kids Table gatherings, there will be occasional Sundays where we don’t have anyone and need to not offer that program. This is one of those Sundays.

To be clearer – we will have space for the littles this Sunday, but no one designated to lead them.

We will still have fishy crackers…

And for the Talky Bit I’m going to explore the idea that thankfulness might be a lens that makes it easier to see God in the world around us.

Speaking of our young ones – I’ve been approached by a few parents about having a child/parent dedication. If that interests you, please let me know by replying to this email both to register your interest and let me know which child (or children) you would like to be involved, including their age. That info will help me think about how we might best do this. Once I have a sense of how many people we’re talking about, I’ll circulate some possible future dates and we’ll collaborate on a plan.

Happy shoveling! I’ll see you on Sunday.

It’s a statistical fact that religion is in decline. Denying it tends to fall under “attempting to explain away the data”, much like most of what constitutes climate change denial. There’s been a rash of books talking about what all this means, both in terms of the history of religion and as speculation about what a “religion-less” future might look like. As someone that doesn’t think Jesus came to start a religion at all, I tend to look at this information with hope and even some excitement about what might be ahead for human spirituality.

Details about finding our gathering:  Enter the building (the one that looks like a castle) by the main front doors (right in the middle of the front of the building, on the Portage Avenue side). There is a red and white campus sign on the grounds to the left of the doors that says “Wesley Hall”. Once inside, go straight ahead up the first short set of stairs, and take the wide curving hallway to your right. Once you go around the curve, you will see the elevator in an alcove on your right. Take the elevator to the fourth floor, exit to your left, and you’ll be in the Club. Or you could just follow the smell of the freshly brewed coffee…

Parking is on the surrounding streets, most notably convenient on Balmoral, the first street to the east of Wesley Hall.

We are surrounded by the future. On my drive home yesterday I heard a radio interview with a Swiss scientist who had earlier in the week been one of the speakers at a funeral for a glacier. There were two other speakers, including a priest from the small village at the foot of the mountain that had been the glaciers home. I wish I could have heard what that priest had to say. Today (Friday) is a day of action regarding climate change. Many of us have probably encountered the “take no prisoners” passion of Greta Thunberg;we’ve heard her say that if those with power do not act, it makes them evil. Moral language in response to scientific information. Interesting, for sure.

Hey folks – as a species, we can’t seem to help but “drape explanations on the Unknowable”. And, of course, our stories change as we come to understand what previously had us baffled. You could say that what we believe seems to travel with us, but as we considered last week those beliefs are altered by our travels. This Sunday in the Talky Bit we’ll continue our exploration by overlaying some of the ideas in Moshin Hamid’s essay “We Are All Migrants  with some of the content of the biblical book of Genesis. Fun stuff! As always, my hope is that this will stir our imaginations as we consider our own beliefs and how we act those out in daily life.

At core of what I’ll be poking around in is a set of questions about the migrant nature of both our history as a species and how that might connect with our daily experiences with time and memory, as well as how it might connect with the Hebrew origin stories we find in Genesis, and what God has to do with that whole thing. Did I mention that this won’t be tidy? It won’t be tidy…but I think it might be interesting and I can pretty much promise it won’t the “same old, same old” when it comes to Genesis.

Hey folks – welcome to fall! It seems like there is some kind of correspondence between the nights cooling off and the calendar heating up. I’ll have to look into that…