{"id":7001,"date":"2013-09-03T00:00:58","date_gmt":"2013-09-03T00:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.brethren.org\/news\/?p=7001"},"modified":"2018-11-13T03:02:29","modified_gmt":"2018-11-13T03:02:29","slug":"tuesday-at-noac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/2013\/tuesday-at-noac\/","title":{"rendered":"Tuesday at NOAC"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Photo by My Radar<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
A weather photo shows the heavy rain over NOAC this morning–the only spot of green on the entire eastern half of the country. Asked about the deep theological meaning of NOAC having an early morning thunderstorm while the country all around remained dry, former Bethany Seminary president Gene Roop explained it this way, “The rain falls on the just.”<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Quotes of the day<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re here to serve the Kingdom of God, and it\u2019s narrative that\u2019s going to do it, and we\u2019re the narrators, you and I.\u201d –Phyllis Tickle, Tuesday\u2019s keynote speaker. Tickle is a lecturer, essayist, and self-proclaimed \u201crecovering academic\u201d known for her Divine Hours series and her writing on Emergence Christianity.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cFive hundred years ago, you may remember…well, you may not remember–but this is NOAC.\u201d –Phyllis Tickle, Tuesday\u2019s keynote speaker.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI’m eager to listen anew to texts that speak of God’s healing power among us.\u201d –Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm, the morning Bible study leader at NOAC 2013. She is professor of preaching and worship at Bethany Theological Seminary.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no pitting of right action against right worship…. It\u2019s not that fasting is wrong, we just have to learn how to do it…. God wants us, by the end of chapter 58, to desire that of God that brings life.\u201d –Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm leading morning Bible study on Isaiah 58.<\/em>
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Homework for a time of great upheaval<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

A 500-year cycle of change and distress–one might have felt alarm at Phyllis Tickle\u2019s assertion that \u201cwe are living through a time of great upheaval,\u201d but the scholar, theologian, academic, storyteller, author, and mother of seven tied it all together with humor, insight, and hope.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Phyllis Tickle speaking at NOAC 2013.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

And a homework assignment for the older adults at NOAC. Noting that that nature of home life has inevitably changed, with the loss of the female householder, and the emergence of women gaining equality in employment, \u201cthere is no one waiting to make stories out of a child\u2019s day,\u201d and therefore no one teaching the biblical story to children at home either, Tickle asserted. \u201cIt is up to us who are grandparents and great-grandparents, who are the ones who know the stories, we must go back and weave those stories into the lives of our grandchildren and great grandchildren.\u201d<\/p>\n

If the older generations don\u2019t do their homework, and children don\u2019t learn the Bible story, Christianity may survive, Tickle said. But, she warned, \u201cthe church may not.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a striking true story from her experience relating to the younger generations, Tickle was at a church dinner where she was asked to talk about the history of the controversy over the Virgin Birth. Afterward, she talked to one of the teenagers who were there to serve the meal for the meeting. Referring to the adults who had been present, he asked her, \u201cDon\u2019t they know the Virgin Birth is too beautiful not to be true, whether it happened or not?\u201d<\/p>\n

That conversation illustrated for her not only the importance of story, but also the rising generations\u2019 new understanding of fact versus truth: that the beauty of a story lies in its \u201cactuality, not factuality.\u201d Another beauty of story is its part in the healing process, both for individuals and society, she said, \u201cWe write stories about our harms, whether we share them with others or not.\u201d Giving several true to life examples, she spoke about the healing that may come when a difficult experience is \u201cwrapped\u201d in storytelling, or written down.<\/p>\n

Tickle is known for her books about Emergence Christianity, and the theory that about every 500 years there is a great change in society, and in religion. \u201cEverything shifts when this happens,\u201d Tickle said. \u201cOur Great Emergence has been building for 150 years. It affects the church. We have to readjust to a new society and a new culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2013Frank Ramirez is pastor of Everett (Pa.) Church of the Brethren and a volunteer on the NOAC Communications Team.<\/em>
\nA biblical family argument, and what it can teach us<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn Isaiah we are walking in on a family argument,\u201d Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm said, Tuesday morning in the first of her three Bible Studies. The family argument is between the people and God, and at the heart of it is the desire and need for healing. The reason this passage matters is that we\u2019re still having the same argument with God ourselves, she told the NOAC congregation, and so it may be studied in the search for healing.<\/p>\n

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Photo by Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Dawn Ottoni-Wilhelm, morning Bible study leader for NOAC 2013.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Isaiah 58:1-14, Ottoni-Wilhelm suggested, consists of \u201creflections on restoration. The images of healing are plentiful.\u201d She also asked, \u201cWhat images of healing are offered to us? What kind of God is presented in these passages?\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the suggestions for images from this passage, shouted out from the congregation, were water, loosed chains, rope of the yoke, bread, house, broken and restored walls, and light.<\/p>\n

The passage calls for the use of imagination, she said, by believers back then and by us. Many assume from reading this part of Isaiah that God opposed the religious practices of the day. \u201cGod is not opposed to religious practices,\u201d Ottoni-Wilhelm asserted, however. \u201cGod wants us to be clear about what our religious practices should be: right action towards each other, our delight in God and each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then asked, \u201cWhat kind of God is imagined in this text?\u201d Answers included, compassionate, a big God, a parent, a just God, God who responds , a forgiving God, God who does not give up, a God who is here, a God who grieves sharing sorrow, a God of all times, a God within each of us, and a disappointed God.<\/p>\n

Finally, Ottoni-Wilhelm concluded, we find \u201can engaged, interested , conversant God.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bible study continues each morning through Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u2013Frank Ramirez is pastor of Everett (Pa.) Church of the Brethren and a volunteer on the NOAC Communications Team.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Question of the Day:<\/strong>
\nWhat was your biggest adventure travelling to NOAC?<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n
\u00a0\"\"<\/td>\n\u00a0\"\"<\/td>\n\u00a0\"\"<\/td>\n\u00a0\"\"<\/td>\n\u00a0\"\"<\/td>\n\u00a0\"\"<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\u00a0\u201cTrying to sleep on the airplane. I had a \u2018red eye\u2019 flight. I feel real red eye right now.\u201d\u2014Alice Quigley, Martinez, Calif.<\/em><\/td>\n\u00a0\u201cDriving the bus with eight other people on board. They all behaved.\u201d\u2014Buddy Crumpacker, Blue Ridge, Va.<\/em><\/td>\n\u201cWe always have trouble getting off the 40. We\u2019ve been all over the place. We had the scenic tour.\u201d\u2014Carol Replogle, New Oxford, Pa.<\/em><\/td>\n\u00a0\u201cDriving through that winding road in the North Carolina mountains!\u201d–Pat Roberts, Indianapolis, Ind.<\/em><\/td>\n\u00a0\u201cI\u2019ve been to every single NOAC. It\u2019s been an adventure just to travel. I had a good driver.\u201d\u2014Virginia Crim, Greenville, Ohio<\/em><\/td>\n\u00a0\u201cWe stopped to see our nephew who just started Belmont College in Nashville.\u201d\u2014Norm Waggy, Goshen, Ind.<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

NOAC Communication Team:\u00a0 Frank Ramirez, reporter; Eddie Edmonds, tech guru; Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford, editor & photographer<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Words and images from National Older Adult Conference 2013, second day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1259],"wf_post_folders":[],"class_list":["post-7001","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-noac"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7001","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7001"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7001\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13300,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7001\/revisions\/13300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7001"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=7001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}