Dear friends For our April 23, 2024 Second Saturday Conversation I continued exploring dogmatics and poetics. In this session I contrasted theology and Theopoetics.   To suggest one contrast: Theology declares.  Theopoetics  invites. Both theology and Theopoetics are responses to the mystery of life and our existence. Arguably we need both; we have both. But I suggested that Christianity in the 21st century needs a strong dose of Theopoetics. I also played with three gospel stories and contrasted a theopoetic vs a propositional approach to interpreting the stories.  M ..read more

The Rev. Canon Marianne W. Borg  Trinity Episcopal Church, Bend Oregon April 7, 2024 John 20, 19-31 I was “converted” reading this story. I was 26 years old. I want to share a  little about what this text meant to me then. And what it means to me now. I want to preface by saying a little about stories. The story about Thomas is  just that. A story. Stories are something we make them up because there is no better way to describe what it is we are trying to get at. They are  imaginative. But that doesn’t mean they are not true. Like today’s Gospel, they are not to b ..read more

I began a conversation titled Poetics not Dogmatics. (Poetics is a broader category than poetry.) Poetics invites, provokes, engages imagination. Dogmatics are definitive and determinative. Poetics is open.  Dogmatics seeks closure. The language of poetics (and it is not always text) and the language of dogmatics are different. We live with both. But I suggested that what the world needs now is more poetics not dogmatics.  I tried to illustrate poetics, then drew from a blog LUCID by Ruth Ben-Ghiat about authoritarian language and ended with some thoughts on Lent and Easter.  I ..read more

February 18, 2024 First Sunday in Lent Rev. Canon Marianne Wells Borg Trinity Episcopal Church, Bend, Oregon Mark 1:9-15 This is the first Sunday of Lent. In the Gospel narratives we journey with Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem. We learn more about his life, his vision and his journey’s end. Execution and death. This season invites us to reflect on our own lives and our own end as well. What do we make of our life. And our part in it. The season of Lent is 40 days. Forty is one of those symbolic biblical numbers. Noah was in the Ark for forty days, Jesus was in the wilderness for forty days ..read more

February 10 we had the pleasure of having Belden Lane as our guest for Second Saturday Conversation: “Standing Together in Awe: Four Stages in our Learning to Love the Natural  World.”  Belden led us through our “using” the natural world to “exploring”,  to “celebrating”, and falling in “ love” with the natural world. Such a journey involves risk and evokes wonder, “the wellspring of love.”  So it is with our lives.   Enjoy Belden’s reflection and presence.  (By the way, Belden not only talks to trees, they listen.  And they respond.  Oh that we wo ..read more

January 13, 2024 Second Saturday Conversation continued our discussion about Jesus.  Does he continue to be an important figure for us today?   He affirms our human possibility. And describes a very different God than was presumed in his day. We wonder if he continues to do the same today.  Thoughts from attendees of Second Saturday deserve a close hearing. Enjoy this conversation. And add to it with your own. Marianne Reminder:  Next Second Saturday Conversation February 10, 2024 with guest Belden C. Lane, pastor, professor, author, lover of nature and souls, wisdom and w ..read more

In the December Second Saturday Conversation we had John D. Caputo and Bernard Brandon Scott as guests. They provide a rich, in-depth, challenging view to our understanding of Jesus in our post-modern time under the light and examination of philosophical, biblical and religious study. Dive right in!    It was an honor to have Jack and Brandon with us. They are important scholars and thinkers. And two of my favorite people. Enjoy this session. December 9th 2023 Second Saturday Chat Transcript The post Jesus: King of Kings or Poet and Poem (Featuring Brandon Scott and Jack Caputo ..read more

November 26, 2023 The Rev. Canon Marianne W. Borg Trinity Episcopal Church, Bend, Oregon Matthew 25: 31-46 This is Christ the King Sunday. Sometimes called the Reign of Christ Sunday. It is the last Sunday of our current church year. Next Sunday we begin Advent. Advent means to come. Or the arrival of a person or thing or event. So, advent anticipates Jesus coming again. His second coming. This Sunday’s themes foretell an end time judgement and the coming reign of Christ, and the true kingship of Christ when the kingdom of Jesus will come into its fulness. The feast day of Christ the King is a ..read more

Second Saturday Conversation November 11, 2023 I highlighted three topics. The first the name God. Arguably a name that has been used in more languages than any other  to refer to our “ultimate concern “ or “point of ultimate reference.”  But what do we mean by God? I emphasized our tendency to anthropomophize God and some of the problems with that. I then reviewed some of Scott Holland’s comments about Theopoetics. (Scott was our guest October 14.) And thirdly presented in brief Gordon Kaufman’s “thought experiment”  that God is creativity. (Kaufman 1925-2011.)   I hope y ..read more

October 22, 2023 Matthew 22:15-22 The Rev. Canon Marianne W. Borg Trinity Episcopal Church, Bend Oregon Is it permissible to pay the poll tax or not? Jesus is asked. Show me the coin used to pay the tax? On that coin is the engraving of the emperor. So he says, pay the emperor what belongs to the emperor and God what belongs to God. He didn’t answer the question. He doesn’t advise them to pay or not to pay. But he calls a question. What are your obligations to the empire? And what are your obligations to God? You decide. What belongs to empire and what belongs to God? What are the claims of Go ..read more