Sunday, May 5, 2024
We Have Questions: Why Are We Afraid of Death?
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Teacher: Tony Jones, M.Div., Ph.D., is the author of The God of Wild Places: Rediscovering the Divine in the Untamed Outdoors, an outdoorsman, theologian, professor, former pastor, and award-winning writer. He’s written a dozen books, including The Sacred Way, hosts The Reverend Hunter Podcast, teaches writing classes, mentors novice hunters, and guides canoe trips in the Boundary Waters. He holds degrees from Dartmouth College, Fuller Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary. Tony is married, has three children and two dogs, and lives in Edina, Minnesota.
Musician: Jen Sygit is a Lansing-based award-winning songwriter who wields a rare and powerful talent, equally comfortable performing ethereal folk tunes, crooning sultry swing numbers, or soulfully belting gritty alt-county ballads. An accomplished multi-instrumentalist who isn’t afraid to test boundaries and cross genres, Jen’s eclectic musical style draws the listener in and holds them captivated. Her lyrics reveal an oft-overlooked beauty to life’s mundane struggles.
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Music: Jen Sygit
Gathering Host: Tod Wyn
Music: Jen Sygit
Meditation: Beth Buelow
Moment of Silence
Reading/Teaching: Tony Jones
The feeling of it may at times come sweeping like a gentle tide pervading the mind with a tranquil mood of deepest worship. It may pass over into a more set and lasting attitude of the soul, continuing, as it were, thrillingly vibrant and resonant… It may burst in sudden eruption up from the depths of the soul with spasms and convulsions, or lead to the strangest excitements, to intoxicated frenzy, to transport, and to ecstasy… it may be developed into something beautiful and pure and glorious. It may become the hushed, trembling, and speechless humility of the creature in the presence of — whom or what? In the presence of that which is a mystery inexpressible and above all creatures.
– Rudolf Otto, The Idea of the Holy
Mortality is almost no one’s favorite subject, save for funeral directors, casket makers, pathologists, homicide detectives, and a few especially lachrymose ministers and priests. Hunting and fishing involve triphammering our fellow creatures into eternity… If there is a virtue in distancing yourself from what you eat, I do not perceive it.
– Jim Harrison, Sportman’s Journal, “A New Map of the Sacred Territory”
Music: Jen Sygt
Gathering Host: Tod Wyn
Music: Jen Sygit
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