The hand of the Lord came upon me, and he brought me out by the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me all around them; there were very many lying in the valley, and they were very dry.
Ezekiel 37:1–2

Module Three: Tic Tac Toe

Study:

In preparation for this week's liturgy, please read Introduction and Chapter 3 of Jesus Wants to Save Christians.

After you have completed the above, choose one or more of the the following:

“Purification Stories” on the Learning How to See Podcast
“Three Dimensions of a Complete Life” a sermon by Martin Luther King Jr
“The Key Ideas of Rene Girard” on the Other Life Podcast

The Liturgy

Tic Tac Toe

Thus says the Lord God to these bones: I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”
Ezekiel 37:5–6

Segregation is wrong because it substitutes an I-it relationship for the I-Thou relationship. Segregation is wrong because it relegates persons to the status of things. Segregation is wrong because it assumes that God made a mistake and stamped a badge of inferiority on certain people because of the color of their skin. Therefore, all men of goodwill have a moral obligation to work assiduously to remove this cancerous disease from the body of our nation. It must be done not merely to meet the Communist challenge, although it will be diplomatically expedient to do it. It must be done not merely to appeal to Asian and African people, although it would be expedient to do it. In the final analysis segregation and discrimination must be removed from our nation because they are morally wrong. They stand in conflict with all of the noble principles of our Judeo-Christian heritage. They must be removed because they are wrong at the very core. Martin Luther King Jr, “The Three Dimensions of a Complete Life”

Opening Prayer

Creator God, who quickened the world, we gather in the name of life and breath. Spirit of Inspiration, nourish our souls. Save us from despair, apathy, and cynicism. Friend of the broken, teach us your definition of abundance. Show us the way that leads to life, truth, and joy—and console our weary minds who were looking for an utterly different salvation. Attune our hearts to the length, depth, and breadth of our cosmic experience, and help us to revel in the mystery of hope.
Amen.

Confession

Creator of all that is, how is it that we are convinced that if we annihilate the other, it will alleviate the pain of existence? We confess that we have clambered to the top of a heap of your beloved creations to be seen and loved, as if you would love us more if we were only children. Bewildering Spirit, how have we assumed that, because we only see from our own eyes, our eyes perceive the whole of reality? We confess that we have believed that we, alone, sense you. Servant of Love, how is it that you came to show us how to dance and we interpreted it as a battle march? We confess that we have abandoned love for power.

Amen.

Passing of the Peace

Exchange this acknowledgment of confession.

From the freedom of confession, I greet the Christ in you.
From the freedom of confession, I greet the Christ in you.

The Inquiry

These questions will be used each week to guide a time of sharing.

What joy have you encountered this week?

What suffering have you encountered this week?

What longs for salvation?

After each person shares, the group will offer a blessing to each person:

[Person’s name], in the name of Jesus Christ know you are beloved of God

The Reflection

Read aloud:

Tic Tac Toe is a stupid game, but it gets us. Whoever goes first, claims the center of the board, and doesn’t miss anything big at least won’t lose.

We really, really want life to be this way. We scramble to get our kids into the best schools, onto the best teams, and exposed to the best opportunities. Because of course we do. We push our churches to grow, reach more people, change more lives!! Because bigger and bigger and bigger makes us feel insulated from the persistent tapping of despair. We expand our following, we leverage our reach, increase our influence because we need to know that we matter.

I want the center of the board to keep my Xs out ahead of your Os.

But, you have to admit, Tic Tac Toe is pretty boring.

Several years ago, we found some tadpoles in the yard and wanted to watch them grow up into frogs. While they were in the tadpole stage, they did fine with fish food, but once they were froglets, I figured we needed to feed them bugs. Ants are easy to find and catch. We presented our froglets with little black ants for a snack. Most of you already know what happened, but I will confess to the rest of the story. The ants immediately began to attack and eat the froglets. And we were horrified. We tweezered the froglets out of the jaws of the ants to a soundtrack of wailing elementary voices (and one adult voice) and returned our froglets to the wild. I don’t think we even considered the fact that we had tried to murder the ants. We would have been fascinated by the frogs eating the ants, but when the ants reversed the paradigm, we panicked.

Salvation forces us to ask, what are we being saved from. In the Progressive community, the doctrine of original sin has become unworkable. I resonate with this, but, if I am honest, there seems to be something pretty violent about the world. Frogs do eat bugs. Ants, apparently, eat froglets. But this isn’t sin. Sin is something different. Something that looks like violence and suffering, but also abrupts love.

Sin refuses the flow of love that says life should be abundant for everyone, and nothing could increase your access to love except the expansion of love itself. You are already there. We are already there.

Love insists that the Tic Tac Toe board is actually a dance floor.

The Practice

And You Shall Live centers on breathing spiritual practice. Each week, participants will be offered a breathing practice with an optional silent prayer mantra.

This breathing practice is a pyramid practice. The metronome below can be used to provide a measured rhythm to the breaths. The practice starts with an inspiration for one beat and an expiration for one beat without pausing between breathing in or out. After each expiration, one beat is added to the next set until you are breathing in for seven beats and out for seven beats. At that point, the process is reversed, the breaths becoming shorter by one beat after each expiration.

Breathing Practice:

In, Out
In, In, Out, Out
In, In, In, Out, Out, Out
In, In, In, In, Out, Out, Out, Out
In, In, In, In, In, Out, Out, Out, Out, Out
In, In, In, In, In, In, Out, Out, Out, Out, Out, Out
In, In, In, In, In, In, In, Out, Out, Out, Out, Out, Out, Out
In, In, In, In, In, In, Out, Out, Out, Out, Out, Out
In, In, In, In, In, Out, Out, Out, Out, Out
In, In, In, In, Out, Out, Out, Out
In, In, In, Out, Out, Out
In, In, Out, Out
In, Out

Prayer Mantra:

Dry Bones
We Have Dry Bones
We Have Found Our Dry Bones
We Have Found Strength In Our Dry Bones
We Have Found Strength Down Deep In Our Dry Bones
We Have Found Strength Down Through Sorrow Deep In Our Dry Bones
We Have Found Strength Down Through Joy and Sorrow Deep In Our Dry Bones
We Have Found Strength Down Through Sorrow Deep In Our Dry Bones
We Have Found Strength Down Deep In Our Dry Bones
We Have Found Strength In Our Dry Bones
We Have Found Our Dry Bones
We Have Dry Bones
Dry Bones

For Thought

The question . . . is whether there is Spiritual healing, and if it exists, how it is related to the other ways of healing, and further, how it is related to that kind of healing which in the language of religion is called “salvation.” (Tillich, Systematic Theology, Vol. III, p 277)

Read Aloud:

The dry bones of hopelessness and despair can learn to dance again, but salvation and healing come through death and resurrection. Teach us to dance. Amen.

The Response

These questions can be used to help the group engage with the reflection.

What did you notice during the Practice?

What did you notice during the Reflection?

How would you like to grow in response?

After each person shares, the group will offer a blessing to each person:

Christ, give us the courage to hear and be heard.

Responsive Reading

Adapted from Genesis 3 and Ezekiel 37

A. Now the serpent was crafty. He said, ‘Did God say, “You shall not eat from any tree in the garden”?’

B. Thus says the Lord God to these bones:

A. “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden; but God said, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.”

B. I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live.

A. But the serpent said, “You will not die; for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

B: I will lay sinews on you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.”

Closing Prayer

Spirit of Truth, we live in a world enmeshed in deceit. We are assaulted by images of what we should be, what we should desire, what it means to be happy. We learn that the world cannot be trusted—no one is coming to save you. Source of Love, we long for you to make sense of the brutality of life. Hold us in your embrace until we are saturated by love. Let that be a baptism of salvation for the world.

Blessing

Go, love the world, knowing that you are accompanied and encouraged by Love. This, then, is salvation, to be loved and to love even though you die.

Modules

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