Pro-choice, Pro-human (Guest Speaker: Eric Muhr)

Luke 2:41-52

Eric Muhr is the publisher at Barclay Press, a Quaker publishing house located in Newberg, Oregon, the town where Eric was born. He's interested in landscape photography, books, quiet places, and food. Eric and his partner, Pha, live in Northeast Portland.

Luke 2:41-52 (NRSV):

41 Now every year his parents went to Jerusalem for the festival of the Passover. 42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up as usual for the festival. 43 When the festival was ended and they started to return, the boy Jesus stayed behind in Jerusalem, but his parents were unaware of this. 44 Assuming that he was in the group of travelers, they went a day’s journey. Then they started to look for him among their relatives and friends. 45 When they did not find him, they returned to Jerusalem to search for him. 46 After three days they found him in the temple, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 And all who heard him were amazed at his understanding and his answers. 48 When his parents saw him they were astonished, and his mother said to him, “Child, why have you treated us like this? Your father and I have been anxiously looking for you.” 49 He said to them, “Why were you searching for me? Did you not know that I must be in my Father’s house?” 50 But they did not understand what he said to them. 51 Then he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them, and his mother treasured all these things in her heart. 52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in years and in divine and human favor.

Queries:

Over the centuries, Christians have frequently gotten into trouble (and caused trouble, too) by working to claim the moral high ground, by defending their identity. Is there an area in your life where your reputation or identity has ever been on the line? What would you lose by choosing not to defend your identity? What, if anything, might you gain?

Is there anything about your faith or about your community or about the Bible that needs to be true in order for you to feel safe/secure in your identity or safe/secure in regard to your future? Think about why that’s the case for you.

Have you ever had a belief or opinion that could have made you harmful to or unsafe for others?

What’s a spiritual practice you do or that you can do regularly? Something that, done with the right intention, could transform your relationship to yourself, other people, the world, and your place in it?

What’s one hope you have or that you practice, something that helps make the present inhabitable no matter what you’re facing?