Year C, Easter 7, 2016 – Goo Goo G’Joob

Greetings!! We are at the end of the Eastertide Lectionary selections. We truly hope your worship through this season has been filled with the Spirit of the Risen Lord! We also hope that you may have included an idea or two from this podcast. We have some unique offerings this week, especially in the Gospel passage and as always, the images and symbols from Revelation are a treasure trove of ideas. Paul and Silas find themselves unjustly beaten and imprisoned in the Acts reading, but even so they sing praises to God and bring yet another Philippian household into the growing Way of Jesus. We have suggestions for all the intelligences in all the passages, but will only cover a few of them in this podcast. We have discovered that if we leave a few ideas on the shelf, we do not need to rush through what we present. If you would like to hear one of the stored ideas “fleshed out”, please leave us a comment below or on our Facebook page, or send us an email or a tweet and we can include it in our next Feedback Loop. This week’s texts are: Acts 16:16-34 [02:07]  – Paul and Silas are still in Philippi. After bringing Lydia and her household into the fold of Jesus, the story picks up with them returning to the place of prayer. As they are on the way there, they are followed by a slave girl who has the ability to predict the future – an interesting and maybe horrifying thing. She gives Paul and Silas a lot of free advertising as they go to and fro and eventually, Paul gets annoyed and exorcises the spirit from her. We explored this story emphasizing the punishing effects of flogging on the body, as well as how Paul and Silas’ spirits were undeterred and they found the capacity to sing praise, regardless. We looked at how the slave girl and the jailer were both freed from what bound them and the implications for both their lives afterward.  Smarts – Body [06:25], Music [08:58], People [04:27], Self [10:37] Acts 16  worksheet      Revelation 22:12-21 [11:18] – This is the final vision for John of Patmos. As I mentioned above, the passage is full of ideas and we have selected the ones that we found most energizing for us. Part of using the intelligences involves connecting the message in Scripture to elements in our lives that are familiar. So, we explored several mathematical functions, grocery shopping, and trips to the theater in order to connect these images to listeners. We have also included the verses that the Lectionary left out; we did not do anything with them, mostly in the interest of time. Yet, they are part of the passage. As you look at them, do you have any ideas how they might be included using these smarts? Let us know! Smarts – Eye [13:53], Math [15:02], People [17:52] Revelation 22 worksheet      John 17:20-26 [20:48] – Union and unity and common purpose and love. Jesus is all over this theme in this part of the High Priestly prayer for his disciples. Certain words are repeated throughout this selection and that gave us an idea for reading the passage using word smart. Once again, we found some ideas for math smarts (which I think are a wonderful illustration of what Jesus was taking about!). We are suggesting an idea for body smart that David uses regularly and that I have found a way to remind me that I am not an island in this journey. And, we have an unusual suggestion in music smart. Give it a try! Smarts – Word [21:35], Math [22:26], Body [29:04], Music [27:08] John 17 worksheet      Links   … in Acts An account of the Tortures and Torments Paul and Silas may have endured. My Life Flows on in Endless Song To God be the Glory When in Our Music God is Glorified   …. in Revelation The Iterative Method Magnetic fields Smashing Pumpkins – The Beginning is the End is the Beginning T. S. Eliot – “Little Gidding”   … in John  Paper dolls The Math Lab explains union and intersection …. … as does The Khan Academy using a video (Eye Smart!) The Power Puff Girls meet the Beat Alls One Venn