Bending History

I just started reading this book that my Dad gave me, Bending History. It is a compilation of talks by the Rev. Joe Matthews. I just read the first chapter, but already I like it. It is strange reading something that has been such a part of your life - but you've never had before in it's original form. Joe died before I was ever born. My parents left the organization that he founded shortly after I was born. I do not have clear memories of this organization, but still The Order: Ecumenical has been such a part of my life. (Here is a link to the what the organization has become.) It is like the distant relative, Uncle Joe, that we all talk about, but I have never met. I feel that by reading this book I am being introduced to this "Uncle Joe."

It is a strange introduction, because it is not like meeting someone for the first time. Have you ever met someone who you had heard talked about so much that you felt like you already knew them? Reading the theology of this great man, is like that. I already KNOW all these things that he is saying. I was taught them. I was never taught them in a school or in a lecture. I absorbed them through my parents' life and through our discussions and through our family choices. I learned about the theology of this man through the life of my Aunts and Uncles. I learned about their faith through their decision to send me and my cousins to India when I was 14. Reading this book is like having what you've always already known explained to you.