Pentecost: Go Back to the Fire

Pentecost C
May 19, 2013

Acts 2:1-21

Psalm 104

John 14:8-17, 25-27

We come from the fire /
Livin’ in the fire /
Go back to the fire /
Turn the world around …

We are of the spirit /
Truly of the spirit /
Only can the spirit /
Turn the world around

- “Turn the World Around,” Harry Belafonte and Robert Freedman

According to the Acts of the Apostles (attributed to Luke), the Church was not born in stone buildings.  The Church was born in fire:

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place.  And suddenly from heaven there came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting.  Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and a tongue rested on each of them.  All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability (Acts 2:1-4).

The noise from the house was so boisterous, the crowd outside thought that the Apostles were “filled with new wine” (vv.13).

The word “spirit”, from the Hebrew ruach, literally means “breath”.  It is a vital and life-giving force.  When ruach is taken away, people and institutions die.  Fire must breathe in order to exist.  The breath feeds the fire.  Scholar Walter Brueggemann describes the Hebrew Bible usage of the term “spirit” as meaning “an invasive power at work in the world, deeply linked to YHWH’s will and purpose, capable of disrupting and transforming earthly reality” (Reverberations of Faith, 2002, pp.200).  So the Spirit is more than some abstract concept.  The Spirit is visceral, disrupting and transforming.  And for any church that identifies with inert, stone buildings and stale, unchanging liturgy, that can be frightening.

What happens when Episcopalians speak in tongues (from the Rev. Jay Sidebotham)

With the exception of Pentecostal and Holiness churches, mainline Christian church services can be deadly sober (even with the Communion wine).  This is not to say that all churches should immediately incorporate speaking in tongues or praise bands into their services.  But do we really need to hang on to hymns and liturgies using language that no one has commonly used since the 17th Century (“Thee”, “Thou”, “Hadst”, “Shalt”, etc.)??  When was the last time our church services were so spirited that the people inside were mistaken for drunk – Ever??

Here’s a radical idea: why not take the Church out of the stone building and into the community?  While this idea may sound laughable at first blush, dozens of churches across the country have begun doing exactly that.  In 1996, the National Community Church in Washington, DC was about to become homeless, after the school that it regularly met in had been condemned.  After much prayer, the congregation hit on the novel idea of renting space in the movie theaters at Union Station.  Mark Batterson, lead pastor, says “Few churches could claim their building welcomed 25 million visitors each year, had its own bus and metro stops, train station, shopping mall, food court and parking garage.  We attracted a wide variety of people as we were located four blocks from the Capitol and four blocks from the largest homeless shelter in the city.”  From that time, the numbers of “movie churches” have steadily grown.  Christianity Today reported in 2009, “Currently 180 churches are renting movie theater space under one-year contracts with National CineMedia, which manages rentals in 1,400 theaters nationwide.  That’s an increase from three churches six years ago.”

Another radical idea is making church services meaningfully inter-generational.  What better place to unleash the fire for our churches than in the hearts and minds of our young people – who will be the future church (if we are lucky).  Many churches have an “upstairs/downstairs” model for children’s church: grown-ups upstairs, children’s chapel downstairs.  Maybe once a year, there might be a youth service, but for the remainder of the year, children remain “out of sight, out of mind”.  Why not overhaul the liturgy so that it would be interesting, engaging and understandable to a young person?  Why not have children regularly participating in services, not just as alter servers/acolytes, but as Eucharistic ministers and readers?  Why not have whole families “sponsor” a particular service, taking all the roles?

Decline in Mainline Church Attendance as a % of 1970 Attendance (“The Heretics are Restless: A Call for Theology Transformation”, Bill Cooley and Robert Aubrey)

Change is not comfortable.  The mantra that often meets change is “We’ve always done it this way.”  The problem with always doing things the same way is that culture and technology outside the Church is changing at the speed of light.  If the Church does not keep pace, it will be left in the dust-bin of history, as families and young people find other things to occupy them on Sunday mornings.  And the numbers are fairly stark.  As the chart to the left demonstrates, the trend is relentless decline.  There is no longer a choice between change and no change.  The choice is now between change and institutional extinction.

The good news is that the Church was born in fire.  The Church has radical change in its spiritual DNA.  All we have to do is remember on Pentecost who we really are.  As Harry Belafonte says, “Go back to the fire / turn the world around.”

 

The Zen of John

Easter 7C
May 12, 2013

Acts 16:16-34

Psalm 97

John 17:20-26

“I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.” – the Beatles

The Gospel of John drives me nuts.  Its circular logic completely confounds me, with my left-brain, linear thinking.  Take, for example, the following verse from this week’s Gospel reading: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21).  HUH??  If I were to translate that sentence into a Venn diagram, it would turn out looking like a pretzel.  And if my faith depends upon me understanding that statement, I am well and truly screwed.

The phrase “It’s a Mystery” comes to mind.  I heard this phrase often in my Catholic girlhood when I would ask too many questions in Sunday school (which I often did).  “It’s a Mystery”: kind of like the Virgin Birth, Transsubstantiation and whether or not nuns had legs.  “It’s a Mystery” usually translated into “It’s None of your Business.  Now be Quiet.”

The verses after Verse 21 do not get much better:

The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me (vv.22-23).

I think I need an Advil.

Sometimes I find when I do not get an answer to a problem head-on, it can be fruitful to do an end-run around the problem and look for answers somewhere completely different.

Consequently, I found it helpful to consult Zen Buddhism about the problem of John.  Zen Buddhism has a treasure-trove of koans, which are basically philosophical statements, questions, or stories that make no rational sense.  Koans include sentences such as the famous “What is the sound of one hand clapping?”  Here are some other koans:

When Banzan was walking through a market he overheard a conversation between a butcher and his customer.  “Give me the best piece of meat you have,” said the customer.  “Everything in my shop is the best,” replied the butcher. “You cannot find here any piece of meat that is not the best.”  At these words Banzan became enlightened.

 

One day Subhuti, a disciple of the Buddha, was sitting under a tree in a mood of sublime emptiness.  Flowers began to fall about him.  “We are praising you for your discourse on emptiness,” the gods whispered to him.  “But I have not spoken of emptiness,” said Subhuti.  “You have not spoken of emptiness, we have not heard emptiness,” responded the gods.  “This is the true emptiness.”  And blossoms showered upon Subhuti as rain.

The purpose of koans is not to be understood or solved like a puzzle (although many Zen students have probably spent many centuries trying to do just this).  The purpose of koans is to transform the individual by shaking him/her out of his/her linear, logical, dual (this-or-that) thinking.  Koans do this by presenting images that are fundamentally confounding (and sometimes downright offensive) to the rational mind.  The disciple becomes consumed by the koan, going into a state called the Great Doubt, which one Zen master described as being “like swallowing a red-hot iron ball.  You try to vomit it out, but you can’t”.

It seems that the Gospel of John, in many of its sections, attempts to do the same thing.  While John was not a Buddhist (at least, not consciously), the Gospel attributed to him exhibits the same kind of non-dual, non-linear logic that produces red-hot, iron ball-like confusion.  Zen masters would say that this is actually a good thing.  It is a sign that the deluded, dual, linear mind is starting to lose its grip.  While the end of the Gospel of John may not be enlightenment (in the Buddhist sense), I think the Gospel is trying to produce a metanoia (or transformation) of belief that leaves the individual with a sense of his/her complete embeddedness and enmeshment in God and Jesus Christ “that they may become completely one” (or whole).

While I cannot say that this insight has left me enlightened or transformed (at least, not consciously), it has made my headache slightly more understandable.  When I obtain metanoia, you will be the first to know.

 

Homegoing, Homecoming

Easter 6C
May 5, 2013

Revelation 21:10,22 – 22:5

Psalm 67

John 14:23-29

“Home, home again.

I like to be here when I can.

And when I come home, worn and tired,

it’s good to warm my bones beside the fire” – Pink Floyd

Some quirky Oklahoma artwork

I am back in my Oklahoma hometown for the first time in about a year.  The place I am from – while not small – has the feel of a small town.  Everyone knows everybody’s everything.  I get to catch up on everyone’s latest quips, quibbles and physical ills.

There was quite a while when, for various reasons, I did not go back home.  Like many Gay people from Oklahoma, home was a place where I was from, but not a place I had any desire to go back to.  It was like that for at least 15 years.

More local artwork

Home, nonetheless, persists in occupying a place in our bones.  No matter what we remember about it, good or bad, it stubbornly remains a part of our spiritual DNA.  When I shut out home, there was a large chunk of my life that turned into a question-mark, or a murky void that I just chose to ignore and focus resolutely on what was in front of me.  What was in front of me, however, always bore the tell-tale hieroglyphs of the past.  Things would trip me up, trigger odd feelings or associations, and I couldn’t explain why – until I went back home again.  Then, the song of who I was sang out from every street corner, every old, weathered sign, and every conversation.

In the Gospel reading for this week, Jesus tells his Disciples during the Last Supper, “Those who love me will keep my word, and my Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them” (John 14:23).  A key part of keeping Jesus’ word is forgiveness (Matt 18:22; Matt 5:39), which is a thorny subject for many people.  There are many who feel forgiveness is simply not an option for some people and communities in their lives.

This one particularly spoke to me …

However, my experience with forgiveness has taught me a couple of things: 1) Unforgiveness hurts the unforgiving person far more than the person who is unforgiven; and 2) Forgiveness occurs on God’s time-table, not on yours, mine or anyone else’s.  Forgiveness is a part of Christ’s commandment, but we can’t dictate when it happens.  We only know that when it happens, something that was fundamentally missing or out of joint is finally made whole again.  We finally come home.

When we forgive, the Triune God makes a home with us, but the same God also makes it possible for us to go home again.  And I can tell you, being back at home is a wonderful, peaceful feeling.

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you” (John 14:27).

Gardening the Community: New Heaven, New Earth, New Us

Easter 5C
April 28, 2013

Revelation 21:1-6

Psalm 148

John 13:31-35

“What would it look like, practically speaking, to proclaim the Gospel to rivers, redwoods, raccoons and roaches?  Is our presence on earth good news for all the creatures with which we live?”

- Norman Wirzba, “Reconciliation with the Land,” Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation (IVP Books, 2012).

The reading from the Book of Revelation this week gives us a fantastic vision of renewed creation:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband (Rev 21:1-2). 

The renewal of heaven and earth is a supremely joyful happening, much like the celebration of a wedding.  19th Century commentators saw this renewal as the result of God’s grace spiritually transforming all creation: “As the world of nations is to be pervaded by divine influence in the millennium, so the world of nature shall be, not annihilated, but transfigured universally in the eternal state which follows it” (Commentary on the Whole Bible, Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, 1871).

Here is a thought, though: What if the thing being renewed and transformed was not nature, but the way that we view, work with and live with nature?  What if the idea of reconciliation was viewed as more than just “confined to individual, disembodied souls” (Wirzba, ibid.) and extended to a reconciliation of the way we related to each other, the earth and to all living creation?  What if the way we work, travel and even eat were all objects of reconciliation in the “new millennium”?

News flash: It’s April 27, 2013.  The new millennium is right here, right now.

In Making Peace with the Land, Fred Bahnson and Norman Wirzba argue that the union of heaven and earth is not an ethereal, other-worldly state where our souls are “Raptured” up to heaven, as much popular evangelical fiction would have us believe:

God comes down from heaven so that [God] can make [God's] home with us, and God brings heaven along.  Here we encounter the good news that creation is not going to burn or be “left behind” while a few anemic souls fly away to some distant heaven.  No, the once-distant heaven now takes root in earthly soil.  

Local children learn about sustainable gardening at The Lord’s Acre

Instead of viewing God’s transformative work with creation as taking place at some distant “End Time,” why not view this work as taking place in our hands, mindful that “When people, land, and community are as one, all three members prosper” (The Land Institute, Salina, KS).  This transformative work is taking place in community gardens and farms across the country, where people put their hands in the soil, their hearts into their communities, and sit together at a communion table filled with sustainable produce that does not damage, poison or deplete the earth.  At The Lord’s Acre farm in Fairview, NC, members were able to raise nine tons of vegetables on a quarter acre, and to do so in a way that is spiritually revitalizing:

The work we’re called to do here at The Lord’s Acre is as small as dust and as large as the mind and heart of God.  It is humbling, mysterious, and joyful.  We don’t own it, create it or control it.  We certainly don’t sustain it.  In our work, we try to mirror the kingdom. – Susan Sides, Garden Manager (quoted in Making Peace with the Land).

The new heaven, new earth and New Jerusalem don’t happen because God waves a magic wand in some apocalyptic future.  They are happening right here, right now, because people put their hands to the soil and their minds to God and creation.

Eternal Life, the Good Shepherd and a Good Yarn

Easter 4C
April 21, 2013

Acts 9:36-43

Psalm 23

John 10:22-30

[Preached at All Saints Church Episcopal, Sunderland, MD, Sunday, April 21, 2013]

Listen more often, to things than to beings

Listen more often, to things than to beings

Tis the ancestors’ words, when the fire’s voice is heard

Tis the ancestors’ words, in the voice of the water ahhhhhhh

 - “Breaths,” Sweet Honey in the Rock

Hi, my name is Amy, and I am a yarn-a-holic.  I love yarn, and I love making things with yarn.  All crocheting and knitting is basically an elegant, intricate series of slip knots that are built on this [SHOW THREAD OF YARN].  By slipping loop into loop, chain onto chain, something comes into being from almost nothing, which I find comforting.  [SHOW PRAYER SHAWL]  This is one of the prayer shawls that our knitting ministry makes and Father Ken has blessed [PASS AROUND].  In addition to providing comfort for the people who receive them, I would say (from experience) they also provide comfort to the people who make them.  Knowing that I have created something out of almost nothing, and that my something is going to go out and touch someone else … it just makes me feel that there’s something right with the world, in spite of all evidence to the contrary.  So when I am distressed, I knit my way out of my anxiety, feeling the hands of my knitting mentors – especially Silvia Laurie – guiding me.  The chains and rows and panels I create end up being the lifeline between me, those who have gone on before me, and those who will touch my work after me.

I suspect that Tabitha, the protagonist in our first reading, was a fellow yarnie.  After her death, the reading says that the widows of her community stood beside Peter, weeping and showing him tunics that she had made for them.  Chances are those tunics were spun from wool into yarn and hand-woven in a very labor-intensive process.  Tabitha’s good works – the clothing that her deft hands spun and wove – in turn wove her into the fabric of her community, which remembered her every time they touched something that she lovingly made.  She spun and wove her life into something everlasting that touched everyone around her, even after she had gone.

Those who have died, have never, never left

The dead are not under the earth

They are in the rustling trees, they are in the groaning woods

They are in the crying grass, they are in the moaning rocks

The dead are not under the earth ahhhhhhhh

A shepherd (not Catherine) at the 2011 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

In addition to linking me to the past, the future and the community, yarn links me to the lovely, fluffy animals that produce it – mainly sheep (although I have a real weakness for alpaca).  There is quite a bit about sheep in today’s readings.  I know nothing about sheep, other than the fact that they are where yarn (my favorite thing) comes from.  So I decided to search out a subject matter expert on the topic, and was lucky enough to run into Catherine Donley.  You may have met Catherine’s mother, Nancy, at our annual Christmas Market, where Nancy sells her stunning, hand-spun and woven shawls – much as I suspect Tabitha did.  It turns out that Catherine has a knack for shepherding, having been raised around llamas and alpacas, whose wool her mother artfully wove and spun.  As a freshman Agricultural Economics major in college, Catherine did a summer internship on a sustainable farm that had a flock of sheep.

A beautiful sheep at the 2011 Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival

Sheep, unfortunately, have the reputation for being stupid.  But according to Catherine, our good shepherd, a lot of what people mistake for stupidity in sheep is actually fear.  Sheep are prey animals, and they know it.  Consequently, they are slow to trust and do what you want them to do.  Sheep that are unfamiliar with someone will not follow that person.  They must gradually become accustomed to the shepherd’s voice, the cadence of her step, and have the experience of being successfully led to pasture over and over under her direction.  The good shepherd knows her flocks and their rhythms so well that the flocks become accustomed to her and will respond to her voice – and her voice alone.   As Jesus says in the Gospel reading, “My sheep hear my voice.  I know them, and they follow me.”

Listen more often, to things than to beings

Listen more often, to things than to beings

Tis the ancestors’ words, when the fire’s voice is heard

Tis the ancestors’ words, in the voice of the water ahhhhhhh

Carving of an early Christian communion meal

The original listeners of John’s Gospel were – like our sheep – probably very fearful and anxious about their lives.  Since the Gospel was written at a time when Jesus-followers had broken with the synagogue after the destruction of Jerusalem, John’s “flock” was facing both social ostracism and economic disaster.  Most of their community’s networks of influence were tied to the synagogue, and the Jewish authorities were often the only thing that stood between the early Jesus-followers and persecution at the hands of the local Roman authorities.  Without the synagogue, they undoubtedly felt lost.  And lost sheep do not last long.  Catherine said that a sure-fire way of finding a lost sheep is to look for the vultures circling.

The image of the shepherd was certainly a comforting one for the early Christians, who were no doubt familiar with this activity.  In fact, the image of Jesus the Good Shepherd was the dominant image in Christian artwork from the 2^nd to the 4^th Centuries.  Jesus is depicted as a vibrant, strong young man, often carrying a lamb on his shoulders.  These images were often found in the artwork on the early Christian catacombs of Rome.  The early Christians linked the image of the Good Shepherd with the one who would lead them to everlasting life.

Those who have died, have never, never left

The dead have a pact with the living

They are in the woman’s breast, they are in the wailing child

They are with us in the home, they are with us in the crowd

The dead have a pact with the living ahhhhhhhh

Mosaic, “Jesus the Good Shepherd,” Ravenna, Italy, 5th Century

While some critics protest that the image of the sheep is intended to reinforce the image of believers as docile, herd-bound creatures who do not question authority, I think that the image is a comment on the vulnerability of the people that Jesus – and the early church – was reaching out to.  In the passage before this week’s Gospel reading, Jesus says:

Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep.  All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them.  I am the gate.  Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture.  The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy.  I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.

When the Second Temple of Jerusalem was reconstructed after the Babylonian Exile, the first structure that was completed was the Sheep Gate.  This was the gate adjacent to the sheep market, where the sacrificial lambs would be led into the Temple.  Particularly around this time of year – Passover – thousands of sheep went in, never to come out.  Rev. John Davies points out that the Sheep Gate was also the place where people with disabilities who were excluded from the Temple community by purity laws would gather by the pool of Bethesda, beg, and hope for a miracle to heal them.  By saying “I am the gate”, Jesus is proposing a different Temple system, where people are not systematically sacrificed and excluded, but are cherished, fed, and led to abundant life.

A survivor of the Boston Marathon bombing is comforted

When we are confronted with events such as the bombings at the Boston Marathon this week, it is often difficult to remember Jesus’ promise that He is the new gate for the sheep.  It is hard to remember that we have been promised abundant life when we are bombarded by images of suffering and victimization.  Some of us may even have been personally affected by the events in Boston.

Those who have died, have never, never left

The dead are not under the earth

They are in the rustling trees, they are in the groaning woods

They are in the crying grass, they are in the moaning rocks

The dead are not under the earth ahhhhhhhh

In our Gospel reading today, Jesus says of His sheep, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish.  No one will snatch them out of my hand.”  The Greek for “eternal life” is aiOnios zoe, which means both “life without end” and “life without beginning”.  Jesus is not simply offering immortality after death in exchange for following Him.  He is pointing to a vision of life that never ended in the first place.  Because the past has ended, and the future is not here yet, the present moment is really the only moment in life without beginning or end.

No matter what happens to us, no matter how traumatized we may be by events of the world, that golden thread of life is always there in the present moment, waiting for us to take it back up again.  And the voices of those who have died can only be heard in that moment.  We have a Savior who endured the worst that the death-dealing institutions of His time could inflict.  But in the end, it didn’t matter.  Life abundant, without beginning or end – which is as close to us as listening to our own breath and as real as that prayer shawl going around the room – won out.  In the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings, it may be tempting to give in to rage and unforgiveness, and look for scapegoats to blame.  But we don’t forgive because other people are particularly deserving of it.  We don’t forgive because we don’t care about bringing people to justice.  We forgive because we are a Resurrection people.  We are promised aiOnios zoe, right here, right now, and we cannot hold the present moment and rage in our hand at the same time.

When we let go of that rage, we can pick that thread back up and reach out to others, who grab the other end, and we can begin to knit the fabric of our lives back together again.  It’s interesting to note that, immediately after the bombing, thousands of people in Boston posted electronic messages offering their homes to marathoners who were stranded from their hotels.  People who were shivering in the cold, traumatized by the blast, were brought into peoples’ homes, offered food, warmth and comfort.  Maybe a home-made shawl or blanket was offered to them that was created by someone’s loving grandmother.  Ties were formed.  Souls were healed. And a community is gradually knitting back together.

Listen more often, to things than to beings

Listen more often, to things than to beings

Tis the ancestors’ words, when the fire’s voice is heard

Tis the ancestors’ words, in the voice of the water ahhhhhhh

Splitting Open the World at the Western Wall

Easter 3C
April 14, 2013

Acts 9:1-20

Psalm 30

John 21:1-19

“What would happen if one woman told the truth about her life? / The world would split open.” – Poet Muriel Rukeyser

Western Wall Plaza, Jerusalem

The Western Wall of Jerusalem is one of the holiest sites of the Jewish faith.  Also known as the “Wailing Wall” or Kotel, the Western Wall is a remnant of the Second Temple that was almost completely destroyed by Roman soldiers in 70 CE.  Today, it is the gathering place of Jews internationally every Friday at sundown for Shabbas – the day of rest: “… it’s simply an amazing sight …  A sea of religious Jews – thousands, really — praying, swaying, singing and dancing in circles facing the Wall” (Daniela Deane, January 8, 2013, “Women at the Western Wall,” Washington Post). 

Public prayer is a key element of the Jewish faith, as emphasized in Psalm 30 this week.  The prayers of the faithful must be heard aloud, not only before the congregation, but before YHWH in order to give full voice to praise for the Creator:

I will extol you, O Lord, for you have drawn me up, and did not let my foes rejoice over me.

 

O Lord my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.

 

O Lord, you brought up my soul from Sheol, restored me to life from among those gone down to the Pit.

 

Sing praises to the Lord, O you faithful ones, and give thanks to [the] holy name (Psalm 30:1-4).

As Carolyn J. Sharp comments, “‘Temple’ becomes a richly layered symbol for the participation of the faithful in worship through the centuries.  In the sweeping historical perspective constructed by the superscription, the Temple with its liturgical rhythms becomes the spiritual edifice constructed by those who sing God’s praises in every generation” (“Commentary on Psalm 30“).  At the Western Wall, Jews from around the world are united in worship, not only with each other, but with the deep, rich history of YHWH’s promises to Israel.

The group “Women of the Wall” tells the story of what happened when a group of women attempted to pray at the Wall aloud over 20 years ago, with Torah, and wearing prayer shawls (objects which Orthodox Jews maintain are for men only):

A woman attempts to pray at the Western Wall in December 2012 wearing a prayer shawl (Dan Balitty – AP).

On the morning of December 1, 1988, a multi-denominational group of approximately seventy women approached Jerusalem’s Kotel (Western Wall) with a Torah scroll to conduct a halakhic (according to Jewish law) women’s prayer service.  As no provisions for Torah reading existed in the women’s section of the Kotel, we brought a sefer Torah (Torah scroll), stood together, and prayed out loud (a number of us wore  prayer shawls).  Suddenly many women, and men on the other side of the mechitzah (barrier separating men and women), began to scream, curse and even threaten us.

Woman arrested at the Western Wall for praying in public with a prayer shawl, April 11, 2013 (Michael Fattai/AP).

Since then, Women of the Wall has fought a protracted legal battle to allow women to pray aloud at the Wall, as a part of the community, with the holy items of their faith (the Torah and prayer shawls) that connect them with YHWH.  These women have been subject to repeated arrests, and even physical abuse by Orthodox extremists, as they attempt to pray at the Wall.  In a recent development, however, the head of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky, made a sweeping proposal to expand an area to the south of the main plaza to “provide for an area of non-Orthodox worship at an extension of the Western Wall south of the main prayer plaza; men and women could pray together there, and women could lead services” (Joel Greenberg, April 11, 2013, “Women Challenge Orthodox Practice at Israel’s Western Wall,” Washington Post).

For full and meaningful inclusion of women into the prayer life of their community, they must be on equal footing with men, not crowded into a tiny “women’s space” and consigned to silent prayer because their voices are regarded as “lewd” (as some Orthodox authorities maintain).  The full truth of a woman’s life is intertwined with the public life of her faith community, and when women speak aloud in prayer and praise, the walls of intolerance split open and crumble so that a new and inclusive structure for praise can be built.  As the Prayer for the Women of the Wall says, “May our prayer be desirable and acceptable to You like the prayers of our holy mothers, Sarah, Rivka, Rachel and Leah.  May our song ascend to Your Glorious Throne in holiness and purity, like the songs of Miriam the Prophet, Devorah the Judge, and Hannah in Shilo, and may it be pleasing to you as a sweet savor and fine incense.”  Amen.

Inspiration, Trust, and “Coming Out”

Easter 2C
April 7 , 2013

Acts 5:27-32

Psalm 150

John 20:19-31

Andrea del Verrocchio, “Christ and Doubting Thomas,” 1476-83

The story of “Doubting Thomas” is a familiar one to most people raised in the Christian faith.  Thomas, the Disciple, was – according to the Gospel of John – not present when the Resurrected Jesus appeared to the rest of the (male) Disciples.  (Note: The female Disciples had already seen the empty tomb and tried to tell the male disciples, who initially did not believe them either … )  The (male) Disciples told Thomas they had seen the Lord, and Thomas would not believe them because he had not seen Him.  Jesus again appears to the Disciples and invites Thomas to “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe” (John 20:27).  Thomas sees, touches, and cries “My Lord and my God!” (vv.28).  Jesus then says to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me?  Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe” (vv.29).  The lesson was, of course, ”Don’t be a Doubting Thomas.”  The end.

Well, maybe not.  If we dig a little further into this Scripture, we might find some details that make Thomas a little more sympathetic to us, not to mention relevant to modern people who are struggling with belief.

R. Stevenson, “Jesus appears to His Disciples in a locked room,” Contemporary

The first detail to note is that, when Jesus first appears to the Disciples (without Thomas), “ the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews” (vv.19).  The text does not say that the Disciples opened the door and invited Jesus in – it simply says “Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you’” (ibid.)  The Resurrection did not happen because the Disciples welcomed it and embraced it.  They were locked behind doors in their fear.  The Resurrection came to them, in spite of walls, locked doors and fear, and stood among them.  So if voluntary belief is the precondition for Christ’s appearance to us, that certainly did not seem to be the case with the Disciples, even without Doubting Thomas.

The second detail to note is that the first thing that Jesus does (after reassuring the Disciples with “Peace be with you”) is “He showed them His hands and His side” (vv.20).  Only after that did the Disciples “rejoice when they saw the Lord” (ibid.)  The Resurrected Christ was not whole.  He was still wounded, with the marks of the nails in His hands and the wound from the spear in His side.  The promise of Resurrection does not necessarily mean that God heals all our wounds and makes everything all better.  The Resurrection means that we can rise again and bring peace to others, in spite of our wounds, and in spite of being given up for dead.

The final detail to note is that – after showing them that He is still wounded – Jesus sends the Disciples out into the world to forgive (or not) and breathes the Holy Spirit onto them:

Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.”  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” (John 20:21-23).

The root for the word “inspiration” is the same as the root for the word “respiration”: Spiritus.  In order to be in-spired to leave their locked room and come out into the (still hostile) world, the Disciples have to receive the breath (Holy Spirit) and reassurance of the still-wounded Jesus.  In order to be free to forgive (or not), the Disciples have to be freed from their fear.  They have to be in-spired.  Without inspiration, they would still be trapped in fear and distrust of the outside world.  They would have no choice but to sit behind locked doors in distrust and unforgiveness.

So there was a great deal of doubt and distrust going on among the Disciples, long before Doubting Thomas showed up in the first place.  And the only thing that could break through those locked doors of mistrust and in-spire the Disciples to come out was the Resurrected (but still-wounded) Christ.  The message of the Resurrection was carried along with Christ’s wounds.  It was only the testimony of His wounds that gave the Disciples the inspiration and courage they needed to break out of their fear, come out of the locked room, and bear witness to the world.

The decision whether or not to “come out” is one that is fraught with anxiety for many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered (LGBT) people today.  Many LGBT people have locked their authentic selves away from a world that (in many areas) is still hostile to LGBT people living openly and with integrity.  Many LGBT people have locked the Church out of their lives (justifiably) because of the wounding and condemnation they have received there.  Fear and mistrust – of the Church, of society, and sometimes of themselves – keep the doors locked.

Fortunately, the Spirit of the risen Christ comes to us in spite of locked doors, mistrust and bigotry.  The Spirit of the risen Christ comes to us when we hear the testimony of other people who have been wounded by the world’s bigotry, were given up on by society, and have still lived on to bring peace and inspiration to others.  When we see others’ wounds and hear their uncensored voices, we are in-spired to come out and be heard as well.  We realize that we can choose freedom and trust, as well as the prison of doubt and mistrust.  When people are “coming out”, it is absolutely critical that the Church be there to visibly and tangibly support them.  Failing to do so (or condemning them in bigotry) betrays the spirit of the risen Christ, who brought people out from behind locked doors with His testimony, His love and His wounds.

Recently, professional football player Brendon Ayanbadejo has announced that four football players may be preparing to “come out” for the first time in National Football League history.  Let the Church be there for them, in the Spirit of the risen Christ, and let the Church be there for all people who hover, waiting to come out from behind locked doors.

Easter 2013: The World has Shifted

Acts 10:34-43

Psalm 118

Luke 24:1-12

In 1962, Thomas Kuhn wrote The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (University of Chicago Press), where he argued that scientific advancement is not evolutionary, but rather is a “series of peaceful interludes punctuated by intellectually violent revolutions”, and in those revolutions “one conceptual world view is replaced by another” (pp. 10).  This phenomenon – this titanic revolution in thinking – is called a “paradigm shift”.  Paradigm shifts don’t just alter how scientists view the world, they also change how everyday people see and understand their lives around them.

When Galileo proposed the heliocentric (sun-centered) model of the solar system, the Church had one of two choices: it could either alter its thinking (which was earth- or geocentric) or it would have to suppress Galileo’s findings.  The Church, unfortunately, chose the latter path, accusing Galileo of heresy and forcing him to spend the rest of his life under house arrest.  However, Galileo’s theories could not be kept secret, and his influence on astronomy and the scientific method has been felt to this day.

In the shift between one paradigm and another, there is often a sense of confusion and bewilderment.  The current system we have of thinking about and seeing the world no longer works.  It seems that everything is in chaos.  Nothing makes sense, and we don’t have a new language or vision to make it make sense.

In all the Gospel accounts, women are the witnesses who loyally stay by Jesus all the way through His crucifixion.  Jesus was the center of their moral and emotional world, and they saw that center brutally shattered before their eyes.  When the women go to Jesus’ grave to anoint His body after the Sabbath, they discover something that makes no sense:  “They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body” (Luke 24: 2-3).  The moral center of the universe has not only been demolished, it has now disappeared.

The women are then visited by a vision of “two men in dazzling clothes” (vv.4) who announce that “He is not here, but has risen” (vv.5) .  When the women attempted to tell this to the remaining eleven Disciples, “these words seemed to them an idle tale, and they did not believe [the women]” (vv.11).  The Greek word for “idle tales,” leros, also means “babbling” – as in the words spoken by someone who is delirious with fever or insanity.  When we are experiencing a massive shift in how we understand the world, and attempt to relate that shift to others, we are often seen as babbling or delirious.

I believe that we are currently undergoing a massive paradigm shift in the way that we interact with each other, obtain information about the world and influence the world.  This paradigm shift not only affects us intellectually, but morally and spiritually as well.  Gartner, a research firm, calls this paradigm shift “The Nexus of Forces”:

 

The nexus of forces describes the convergence and mutual reinforcement of four interdependent trends: social interaction, mobility, cloud, and information.  The forces combine to empower individuals as they interact with each other and their information through well-designed, ubiquitous technology.

Every time there has been a major shift in human communications technology, a major shift in how we understand ourselves spiritually and how we celebrate that understanding has followed.  The development of the printing press powered the Protestant Reformation by putting the Bible into everyday peoples’ hands.  The advent of radio, television and mass media fueled the development of televangelists and mega-churches by allowing single evangelists to reach mass audiences.

While the printed Bible is static, and broadcast religion is uni-directional (with the masses as passive recipients), mobile technology has created an omni-directional communications environment – with messages being created, sent and received from everywhere, all at once.  When everyone has a computer in their pocket, and can communicate with the world at the touch of a button, it is impossible to restrict the Bible to one literal, unchanging interpretation for all people.  What many of us thought was faith has shifted, changed and disappeared into the Cloud.  Our immersion in this omni-directional communication environment is both liberating and confusing – for some, it is little more than white noise, babble and sensory overload.

So what does all this have to do with Easter?  Everything.  The historic Jesus (or what we thought was Him) - bound by Church dogma and wrapped in literalist evangelism - has disappeared from the tomb.  There are new people telling us that He is risen, but we can’t say what the risen Christ – and the risen Church – looks like yet.  Some of us (such as author Phyllis Tickle) are speaking of an Emergent Church movement – independent of authority and location – that is coming into being, but these people are often ridiculed as babbling by orthodox theologians of the old Church, for whom all this makes no sense (or at least, not in their paradigm).

Theologian Matthew Fox has termed the new understanding of Christ – independent of the institutional Church – as The Coming of the Cosmic Christ (1988, HarperCollins).  When we see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” (Like 21: 27) – or on The Cloud – Fox says that this new understanding of Christ will include:

• an embrace and healing of human sexuality;
• an understanding of the Divine as both male and female, and full inclusion of women at all levels of the Church;
• a renewal of the arts in worship and as a personal way of life;
• the honoring and empowerment of youth;
• a new reverence for the earth and a drive for her healing;
• a renewed commitment to prophetic acts of justice and
• a deep ecumenism, reaching out across and between religions and cultures to celebrate both our commonality and our diversity together.

The tomb is empty and the body is gone.  Let us now go out into the world to celebrate the risen Cosmic Christ in all life and all peoples.  Amen.

Holy Week 2013: Stations of the Cross

Liturgy of the Palms C
March 24, 2013

Psalm 118

Luke 19: 28-40

“Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it to one of these brothers of Mine, even the least of them, you did it to Me” (Matthew 25:40)

[WARNING: Graphic images]

ACT OF CONTRITION: O my God, my Redeemer, behold me here at Thy feet.  From the bottom of my heart I am sorry for all my sins, because by them I have offended Thee, Who art infinitely good.  I will die rather than offend thee again.

FIRST STATION: JESUS IS CONDEMNED TO DEATH

Asia Bibi, a Christian woman sentenced to death in Pakistan for blasphemy (she has been reprieved for the time being)

SECOND STATION: JESUS PICKS UP HIS CROSS

New recruits, Alaska Army National Guard

THIRD STATION: JESUS FALLS THE FIRST TIME

A woman boxer is knocked out

FOURTH STATION: JESUS MEETS HIS MOTHER

One of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, protesting the kidnapping, torture and murder of civilians during Argentina’s “Dirty War”

FIFTH STATION: SIMON OF CYRENE HELPS JESUS CARRY HIS CROSS

In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy, a woman carries donated supplies to victims

SIXTH STATION: VERONICA WIPES THE FACE OF JESUS

A young Syrian girl wipes her tears after not being allowed entry to Turkey for shelter.

SEVENTH STATION: JESUS FALLS THE SECOND TIME

An unconscious Kashmiri woman is taken away during election violence

EIGTH STATION: JESUS MEETS THE WOMEN OF JERUSALEM

Indian women protesting rape

NINTH STATION: JESUS FALLS A THIRD TIME

Lana Rosas, 25, was beaten into a coma after refusing to move from a parking space in New York’s East Village, February 2011.

TENTH STATION: JESUS’ CLOTHES ARE TAKEN AWAY

A naked prisoner in Abu Ghraib is intimidated by two dogs

ELEVENTH STATION: JESUS IS NAILED TO THE CROSS

A man is prepared for public execution in Iran

TWELFTH STATION: JESUS DIES ON THE CROSS

A man dies of AIDS in a South African hospice

THIRTEENTH STATION: THE BODY OF JESUS IS TAKEN DOWN FROM THE CROSS

The father of a child killed in the Sandy Hook massacre testifies in Congress

FOURTEENTH STATION: JESUS IS LAID IN THE TOMB

A woman grieves at the grave of her husband, a soldier killed in Iraq

We are About to Do a New Thing

Lent 5C
March 17, 2013

Isaiah 43:16-21

Psalm 126

John 12:1-8

 

Do not remember the former things,

or consider the things of old.

I am about to do a new thing:

now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?

- (Isaiah 43:19)

When heard that there was white smoke issuing from the Sistine Chapel, signaling the election of a new Pope, I thought, “Oh Lord, please let them do something different this time.”  I wasn’t expecting a miracle, just maybe someone under the age of 60.  Or someone from somewhere other than Italy or Germany.  I saw a fluttering of the curtains on the balcony windows by St. Peter’s Square.  I sent my Catholic knitting mentor a Facebook message: ”The suspense is killing me!!”  She agreed.

Pope Francis I

Then the doors opened and the proclamation was issued “Habemus Papam!” (“We have a Pope!”).  On the TV screen, the message flashed “Cardinal Jorge Mario Borgogolio from Argentina elected Pope.  Chooses the name Francis I”.  I just about fell out of my chair.  I sent a message to my Catholic friend: “Oh my God, IT’S THE ARGENTINIAN!!  We have a Latin American Pope!!  Awesome!!”  Yes, I am technically not a Catholic any more, and do not recognize the authority of the Pope … but old habits die hard.  For the next two hours, I was – along with many other parts of the world – on a high.  According to one tweet, the Italian journalists were weeping with joy.  In Argentina, another enthusiastic watcher tweeted to soccer rival Brazil: “Hey Brazil!  Hey Brazil!  We have the Pope – you can keep Pélé!”

The election of a Latin American Pope signals a massive shift in focus for the Roman Catholic Church.  For centuries, it seemed as though only Europeans (mostly Italians) had any chance at the Papacy.  Demographics, however, have eroded the notion of a predominantly European Catholic Church.  As you can see in the map to the right, only 27% of the world’s Catholics currently reside in Europe.  The greatest percentage by far (42%) are in Latin America.  The election of a Latin American Pope is an acknowledgement by a European-dominated institution that the global center of gravity has finally shifted elsewhere.  Hopefully, as a result, global attention (and ultimately global resources) will begin to shift to the “global South” as well.  At a meeting of Latin American Bishops in 2007, then-Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio stated “[w]e live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most, yet reduced misery the least” and that “[t]he unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers” (National Catholic Reporter).

The Hebrew Bible reading for today speaks likewise of momentous change for the people that YHWH has chosen.  The passage from “Second Isaiah” (to the Israelite captives in Babylon) gives a message of hope and renewal for people who have seen their land decimated by foreign occupation:

… I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert,

to give drink to my chosen people,

the people whom I formed for myself

so that they might declare my praise (Isaiah 42:20).

The commentary in the Discipleship Study Bible (NRSV, 2008) states “These themes of liberation from old ways and the forward look to the new thing remain vital resources to people of faith today as they seek to build a better world” (991).  That statement is certainly true for the faithful in Latin America.

Argentinian President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner shakes hands with Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires in 2008 (AP Photo/DyN)

Lest I be accused of wearing rose-colored glasses, I am certainly aware of the current Pope’s vitriolic stance on Gay marriage in Argentina (which was legalized there in 2010), which he characterized as “a move by the father of lies to confuse and deceive the children of God” (“Pope Francis, Argentina’s President Kirchner have a history of contentious battles“, NBC Latino).  I am also aware of accusations in the press regarding his ambivalent role in the Argentinian “Dirty Wars” in the 70s and 80s, where over 30,000 people were murdered by the military junta.  However, there are far more reports of Bergoglio’s humility and humanity during his tenure in Argentina, living in a small apartment, cooking his own food and taking a bus in to work every day, and washing the feet of AIDS patients in 2001.  In recent comments regarding why he chose the name Francis, the new Pope said “Francis of Assisi, for me he is the man of poverty, the man of peace, the man who loves and protects others” and also “Oh, how I would like a poor Church, and [a Church] for the poor” (“Pope Francis wants the Church to be poor, and for the poor” Reuters).

I think the Roman Catholic Church and God are both beginning a new thing on a grand scale.  Even the mere fact that parts of the world that had no clue about Argentina are now familiar with its politics speaks clearly of the change that this new Pope is causing.  And change, let us not forget, has a way of gaining momentum …