Galilean Secret leads to wholeness

Heads up for next month!  November’s book is Rob Bell’s Love Wins.  Here’s the video that states his thesis.  Rob’s questioning of what he calls Christian absurdities is a rock that has hit the hornet’s nest of his fellow Evangelicals and has stirred some angry buzzing.   Love Wins is an easy, but thoughtful, read.  Hope you can join us.  Bring a friend!

At the book discussion Sunday evening, it turns out nearly everybody loved The Galilean Secret —  for different reasons.

• Barb appreciated the clarity about finding wholeness within oneself.
• Thora was happy to realize this was just a novel.
• Colleen mentioned the Author’s Notes;  he wrote the book because he had visited the 9/11 site and wanted to offer hope for peace between the Palestinians and the Israelis.  She also appreciated how Mary was depicted as very human, a woman who struggled with her feelings and grew.
• Jane felt that combining Biblical facts with fiction, like the DaVinci Code, makes a good read.  She enjoyed learning about the zealots — because the Bible doesn’t tell us much.
• Bob was surprised that Mary was presented initially as such a weak character, although she did grow by the end of the story.
• Sandi loved how Nicodemus was portrayed — someone who really thought about his puzzling conversation with Jesus, and learned from it.
• Susan really liked the portrayal of the jilted brother Gabriel, as someone who learned love and forgiveness.

There was plenty of discussion about balancing the masculine and feminine qualities, and how our culture is set up in a way that would put male and female in opposition to each other.  But the necessity of life is to find our own unique expression of these qualities.  And how the Beatitudes about the Pure in Heart, the Peacemakers, and the Meek are Beatitudes that value the feminine qualities.

Tim felt the author had not read the Gnostic Gospels, because he didn’t draw on the considerable information they provide. Especially missing from Mary’s character was the consistency of Mary’s spiritual grasp of Jesus’ teachings as found in the Gospel of Mary.

Perhaps the strongest section was from Brother Gregory’s journals, clear writing on what love is and isn’t, such as: “Before we can be happy with another person, we must learn to be happy alone.  In matters of the heart, no one can give us what we don’t already possess.”

Some conclusions were that the message of this book is that life is all about love.  This book helps us learn how to bind up the broken-hearted.

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