Faith, Bambi-style

When you see God, you will.....

For those of you who do not know, I work near the center of a large town (approximately 100,000) with a state university.  Earlier this week, I went outside for a break and, looking across the 4-lane street, I observed a full-grown doe in the front yard area of another business carefully browsing on the shrubbery in the cool shade of a tree.  Looking about, there were cars and some pedestrians going by, but nobody seemed to notice this pastoral scene played out in the middle of town.  I briefly acknowledged her, to which I got a quick gaze and ear-twitch, then the hind returned to her late-afternoon snack.  Later, as I was leaving for the day, I looked over to see that our forest friend had decided to bed down under the tree, both unobserved and unconcerned.

This whole interplay makes me think of the Divine and Faith.  If Faith is our reaction to an encounter with the Divine (a working definition which encompasses Trueblood, Aquinas and Lonergan), it requires a few things which I believe explains some people and their lack of Faith.  There is a good body of evidence (and a lot of common wisdom) which says that when things are suitably outside of our expectations, humans have the tendency to edit it out of what we perceive unless it is specifically highlighted for us.  Thus, someone in a pink elephant costume can walk down the street and at least half the passers-by would not 'see' the pachyderm unless at least one person in the crowd has a suitably large and demonstrative reaction.

Where is God in this?   She's right there, nibbling on the leaves within arms reach.  Didn't you see Him?

What's all this religion then then?

“You can believe all the right things and still be a jerk. You can believe all the right things and still be miserable, still be in bondage, or still be untransformed. So, the emphasis upon belief is, I think, modern and mistaken. It’s also very divisive – once people start thinking that being a Christian is about believing the right things, then anybody’s list of what the ‘right things’ are becomes a kind of litmus test as to who’s really a good Christian and who’s not. Being a Christian is really about one’s relationship with God. And that relationship with God can go along with many different belief systems.” Marcus Borg, Living the Questions 2.0 (emphasis mine)

I believe that Dr. Borg has it at least half right, though I would expand it a bit. The spiritual aspect of being a follower of The Way is our relationship with the Divine. There is a horizontal, relational aspect with each other in community as well, which is what I refer to as religious. That said, it is very much not about any shibboleths of creed, a certain way of honouring or worshipping the Divine, a particular eccleisal structure or what you read on the holy day of your choice. If you follow God (by whatever name you call that rose), then your relationship with the Divine is what matters. That relationship is what will shape how you relate to the rest of Her Creation, including others in community.

Lenten reading :A heart of stone

Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. (Heb. 3:12-14)

In our world today, it is so very easy to harden one's heart, to denigrate our fellow man and, in doing so, disrespect the Divine which is in each and every one of us.  It is a simple matter to argue that they are not like us, that we live in different worlds and that our understanding of Truth is superior to another.

This is the way of a hardened and unbelieving heart, for in denying the truth another sees, we deny the Truth itself.  To argue that there is a 'them' ignores that we are all together, we are all one.  To do anything other than acknowledge the Divine in someone else denies the Divine in everything, including ourselves.  If Christians hold that God is omnipresent, then She lies within me as much as He resides within you.  To believe in the Divine is to uplift one another.  To be good is to see the good in all, both others and oneself.

What makes you itch?

You will know a tree by it's fruit

As some may know (or may have guessed), I use two separate lectionaries for my readings, both being linked on the left.  It may seem odd or redundant, but there are good reasons for this as today's readings highlight the differences in theology and outlook.

In the USCCB readings, you have a quote from Psalms 51.

Thus says the Lord GOD:
Cry out full-throated and unsparingly,
lift up your voice like a trumpet blast;
Tell my people their wickedness,
and the house of Jacob their sins.

Compare this to the PCUSA readings, which has Psalms 148.

 Praise the Lord!
     Praise the Lord from the heavens;
          praise him in the heights!
Praise him, all his angels;
          praise him, all his host!
Praise him, sun and moon;
          praise him, all you shining stars!
Praise him, you highest heavens,
          and you waters above the heavens! 

The OT readings are the same way, with the USCCB passage from Isaiah going on about 'tell my people of their wickedness', vs. the PCUSA passage from Deuteronomy which talks about how God 'will love you, bless you, and multiply you' if you heed his ordinances.

You see what's going on here.  Which view of yourself is healthier?  Which idea of the Divine is more spiritually productive?  Which relationship with God fits more with your understanding of yourself and the Divine?

To fear or not to fear....that is the question.

The readings we had at the evening Ash Wednesday service were well tailored and crafted to give a unified message.  Yes, I get it...we're all 'dust'...which is to say that we ain't squat in the big picture...but that isn't anything new to me.  What caught my eye (ok, ear) was the great propounding of fear.  "Fear the Lord!" was the refrain over and again, yet I am called to ask why?  

Why should I fear the Lord? 

My understanding of the Divine is such that He is neither arbitrary, unkind  nor cruel, but rather She is just, loving and merciful.  Take the 'parent' analogy which is so commonplace when referring to God.  Why, why on Earth would I fear a parent who loves and cares for their children? 

How many times, when God appears to people (and God-as-Christ to his people), does the 'conversation' start with "Don't be afraid."

Why would I fear God if the first commandment of Christ is to love God with all I am?  

How can I love and fear the same person...especially when love casts out fear?

Ash Wednesday thoughts

As the cold nights of winter slowly give way to the lengthening days of spring, so to the wheel of the liturgical calender turns towards Lent, a time of preparation, prayer and meditation.  For many, Lent is bound up with sacrifice, of giving something up for a month and a half.  For myself, I consider it a time for spiritual spring cleaning.

Now is the time to open the doors of your heart and swing wide the windows of your mind to let the beams of Divine sunlight brighten those dark corners.  Bask in the glow of the Heavenly as it reflects within you and know that you are beloved of God as Her son, His daughter.

Take this time, these weeks ahead, to examine what is in your life that is profitable, good and holy.  Treasure and strengthen those things while looking at ways to rid yourself of the parts of your life which are neither holy, good nor profitable.

May the Son shine warm upon your face.

Catholic? What does that mean?

A matter which has been brought up again and again within our circle of churches centers around the middle word in our title - Catholic.  What, precisely, does that mean?  It patently does not mean obedience to Rome, for there are other churches which are most assuredly catholic who are not Roman nor even in communion with Rome.

Thus, one must look deeper and consider a more profound question - what does membership in any denomination mean?

Does the identity hang upon ritual and rite?  Upon the words that we say and how we say them?

What about the trappings and physical tokens of our faith? Is a priest any less efficacious in a T-shirt and jeans than in a cope and chausible?

Is it, instead, about the congregation and the communion which they share?  As parishes change in size, demographics and needs, does that mean that the denomination should change?

Whither theology and doctrinal belief? Are they the defining characteristics for a denomination?  What of when said official doctrines conflict with the experiences, shared or unique, of the people the church?

Hard words on reconstruction

A few bits of synchronicity which have come together and inspired me to pen this post. I warn you now that it is not an easy pill to swallow, nor am I pleased to administer it, but medicine is often efficacious in inverse proportion to its palatability.

The first comes this op-ed piece in the Boston Globe by James Carroll.  Carroll recalls the Vatican II council and upon the 50th anniversary of Pope John XXIII calling for the council, his op-ed describes in lurid detail how much promise and change which the Council promised whilst expounding upon its failings.  The upshot of his lengthy memoir is that the revolution which was signaled 50 years ago is dead, ostensibly struck down by a few prelates who felt threatened by the changes which they themselves had instituted.  He states, "Alas, the age of miracles passed."  Clergy and laity both left the Roman Church in droves.

Some of those people came to places like my own Catholic-not-Roman church, which leads me directly into the next bit.  Our Presiding Bishop was in town to ordain a priest and was kind enough to spend an evening in dialogue with the laity of our parish.  When asked what his biggest fear is, the bishop replied that the Church (our break-away V2-style church) would die with 'our' (his, read Boomer) generation.   It is my belief that his fears are not only well-founded, but it is quite likely.

The Boomer/V2 church will die with them just like the Roman model which the prelates are so keen to promote will, realistically, die with them.  Both will die because there is no need for the church as they know it. The US society is, by and large, no longer interested in 'pray, pay, obey' and the 'social justice revolution' of Vatican II is almost quaint and backwards compared to where mainstream secular society is today. Furthermore, there is a more fundamental question of relevance - why any church at all?  People of faith and good will can and do meet in non-church places, perform the Good Work outside of church walls and have formed community beyond the bounds of the bishop.This leads me to what I realized last night as I looked out on a sea of greying hair and balding pates.

St. Dominic once said,

It is not by the display of power and pomp, cavalcades of retainers, and richly-houseled palfreys, or by gorgeous apparel, that the heretics win proselytes; it is by zealous preaching, by apostolic humility, by austerity, by seeming, it is true, but by seeming holiness. Zeal must be met by zeal, humility by humility, false sanctity by real sanctity, preaching falsehood by preaching truth.

This applies to heretics within the organization as well as without. During the 1970's, when the Vatican II pushback happened, where was the zeal? the preaching truth? the real sanctity? Their days of revolution are past and, as is so clearly outlined in Carroll's piece, when it came time to take up pitchforks and torches and force the issue, the faithful did so very little.

IF the Good Work is to continue, it will not be done by the Boomers or the Church.  No, it must be done by those of us who have been left behind by the Boomers, by the prelates, by the Church.  On this, the vigil of the feast of St. Francis, I would echo the words he heard, "Rebuild My Church".

IF we are willing to hear and answer the voice of the Divine, it is for us, those left behind, to pick up those stones and rebuild the church so that it relates to OUR concerns, OUR times and OUR world, not for us or ourselves, but for His Glory and Her Will be done.

Thoughts on buildings, community and liturgy

This past weekend, the people of our region had the joyous opportunity of observing the ordination of a long standing member of our sister parish to the priesthood.  A (much too small) image of the beautiful sanctuary is at right, but suffice to say that the century-plus episcopal sanctuary was constructed to evoke the feel of a Hooker-era English country parish church.  Our sister parish is colocated with the Anglo-Catholics here and they are a good fit, as both are quite conservative and the ordination which we watched was reflective both of the sacred space and the community who uses it.  The bishop, vicar and pastor of the parish sat in front of the altar, bedecked in their finery, facing the pews and performed for us, whilst we took in the spectacle of an old-skool, espicopal-led Catholic mass and ordination.

This would be in stark contrast to the mass I participated in on Sunday.  Our stark-white, modernist sanctuary (well, it belongs to the Lutherans, but they let us borrow it) has little of the beauty which I saw on Saturday, but the differences don't stop there.  Sunday service is normally small (50-60 people) and we all come up and stand around the altar in a big circle while the rite of Eucharist is performed.  All are welcome and all participate in the flesh and spirit.

As I consider my own path, the question sits with me - what best represents the type of place I wish to be in, that I wish to build?  Where do I find the Divine and where/when do I experience Her moving in myself and others?  I'm afraid my answers would not be pleasing to some, but St. Dominic calls to me "Follow the Truth, no matter where it may lead."

Lessons from the saints : Januarius

Yesterday was the feast of Januarius (Gennaros), a fourth century bishop and martyr.  Like so many of the 'persecution-era' martyrs, little is known about the person's life and we only have scant information about his death (beheading...it's the only way to be sure).  What brings Januarius to my attention (and why I wish to mention him here) is his relics.  Yes, you read that, his relics.

In Naples, there is a reliquary bust of Januarius which purportedly contains his head.  There are also bones (fingers, I think) stored in a vault, but there are also two ampoules of his solidified blood which are kept in a specially made monstrance-like vessel.  And this is where things get....exciting.  Thrice a year for the past 600+ years, the vessel is brought forward and placed next to the altar (and the bust).  Every year, the blood liquifies....sometimes for hours, sometimes for days....and then resolidifies.  It has not happened five times in over six hundred years, and every time there has been a significant natural catastrophe which has befallen the city or direct environs (plague, earthquake, etc).  Scientists have done spectral analysis and concluded that it is, in fact, blood, but have no working theories as to how, let alone why, it occurs.

I mention this for two reasons.  The first is that witnessing this miracle first hand is on my rather short 'bucket list' of places/things to see.  I have been to the Temple of the Holy Sepulchre, visited the Upper Room and knelt in the Garden of Gethsemane (Join the Navy, see the world).  I have walked in places where the presence of God was tangible, where the Divine was present, and I have stood in halls called hallowed and knew that there was nothing special here.  I wish to see this with mine own eyes and, through direct experience, know the truth of things.

The second reason I mention this miracle is to highlight the importance of icons and miracles of this nature.  The key is that it actually isn't important.  They are corporeal pointings to the incorporeal being.  These icons and mystical things are fingers which point to the Divine moon.  They can also be considered to be comfort and solace, something tangible which links us to the intangible.  Of course, that is a falsehood...not because they are not temporal things which link us to the Divine, but rather because the Divine is within us all already.

Dispatch from the Wilderness : two quotes, two thoughts

"A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials." - Confucius (attrib.)

A number of factors have been working together to dissuade me from posting.  I have no stomach for the current events or politics as of late and my studies have left me....unsatisfied.  That said, Dad's idea of OJT has been most 'illuminating' and has done much to stretch me mentally, emotionally and psychologically.  Also, my beloved has been most helpful in tempering and testing my beliefs and I feel rather indebted to her for this.  Polishing the stone, indeed.

"Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons. But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good." (I Cor. 2 : 4-7)

The more I look at this, where Dad is calling me and what needs doing, the more I realize that I can't reasonably be like most other priests and that my 'people' don't fit in a parish.  Maybe it's  all of the days and nights in the Wilderness, but the folks who I am called to serve don't sit in pews, sing V2 hymns off-key and talk about their grandchildren.  They don't care about ad orientem, by-mouth reception, bishops or any of that stuff.  They need to see, to know that both the Divine which suffuses all and people here on Earth love and care about them and wish to help them.

There is a lot of uncertainty and questioning which comes of this, being so far beyond the comfortable walls of 'church as usual'.  What I know for certain is that I do not walk alone.  There are others, both visible and invisible, who wander the wastelands with me.

Don't feed the sheep brains

This week, work has sent me to two co-located conferences which are, ostensibly, about increasing workforce diversity.  I say ostensibly because there is a great deal which has been covered in the first conference that I do no see applying directly to my public sector position, yet I am finding the information to be of value in thinking about the Church and the Good Work which I see myself being called to.  A comment which the first presenter made stuck with me enough to go into my personal notebook.

"We are all zombies - we mindlessly go through the same motions, day after day, with our behaviour, emotions and decisions based solely upon past patterns and external influences."

As soon as I heard this, I thought about my own church. They are good enough people, mind you (no overt brain-eating), but it resonates with his statement.  Week after week, month after month, the same V2 liturgy, the same problems within and outside of the congregation and the same approaches to solutions.  "The Church is greying - let's have Peter, Paul and Mary give a concert to connect with the 'kids'." "We need more education and spiritual growth - We'll hold a one-time Thursday morning study of X, or maybe we could have a few weeknights watching one of those edgy 'Emerging Church' videos."

Even those within the online 'radical reform' community (some of which are kind enough to grace these pages with their thoughts), it seems that the polemic has a 'call and response' feel to it.  Every time I read a story in the news about Cardinal so-and-so or Archbishop this-and-that saying or doing something horrible, I can lay $5 I don't have that my blog reader will be filled with witty and sharp expositions of exactly how unchristian these leaders of the Church are being. 

Now, understand that I am not saying that there isn't some value to these things (if nothing else, it prevents some of my online friends from wearing orange).  What I am saying is that we have all done these things for some time without any altering of the status quo.  If one expects things in our churches to change, if we wish to see our world to change, we must change.

We must have a radical re-envisioning of what church is, what it means and how the faithful celebrate it.  Yes, open table and communion before baptism are small steps.  Changing liturgy times, days and places are others.  At the root of the matter is to see what does and does not address the needs of the 'unchurched' and applying the basic teachings of Christ to these needs.  Do we need to have Eucharist every week? Do we need to have a dedicated service at all?  Do we need to have a dedicated sanctuary?  We don't need to think outside the box - we must throw the box away.  Can we get our respective Leadership to buy into these ideas?  Honestly, I don't know and don't care.  The Boss (not Mr. Springsteen) has told us we are to do so.

Feed my sheep.

...and I'm pretty sure He didn't mean brains.

An update.- Failure to Thrive

There are times that, despite the best watering, fertilizing and care, a plant dies on you anyways.  Perhaps the shock of transplantation was too much. Perhaps there was too much care given or the hardening off process was done too quickly.  Perhaps there was an unforseen weakness in the plant material which, despite the best of care, stressed it to the point where it could not cope.

It is easy to replace a plant with another which is nigh identical to the original.  But plants aren't people, each one being unique and special, and when a person fails to thrive, there is a great desperation felt to do anything and everything to save them.

There is a fine line between enablement and empowerment.In one, you provide the tools and the opportunity for someone who may not believe that they have them to make positive changes in their own lives.  In the other, you take those same-said tools to try and fix their lives.  The first is healthy, good and fully in line with Christian charity.  The second is a slow poison which will cripple both people.

That doesn't make this lesson any easier.

Kyrie Eleison
Christe Eleison
Sophia Eleison

For him, for me, for us all

plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose

From Trent....

I have recently started my doctoral work, which is at least partly why I have not been blogging much as of late.  There was some church history in a section I was reading lately and, through various machinations and some good ol' fashioned wiki-creep, I ended up reading the 12 Conclusions of the Lollards. Some of their conclusions don't hold as much truck today as they did some 100 years before Luther....but I find the following four of real interest.

To Vatican II

• The Church, once it began to deal in secular, temporal matters, drove out Faith, Hope and Charity.

• Celibacy in the clergy leads to prejudice against women and 'induces sodomy within the Holy Church'.

• The clergy 'feigned of a power higher than angels, is not the priesthood the which Christ ordained to his Apostles'.

• Clergy should stay out of secular offices and should be accountable to civil laws.

These are reasons Wycliffe, who influenced Hus and, by extension, all of the Reformationists, wanted to break with Rome.

 Aren't these recurring themes?

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

A reply, a reading and a story

Synchronicity strikes.  I was going to reply in the comments to this post, then I read the gospel for today and saw that this is looking for it's own post.

How do people not see?
I would put it that many do not see the miracles which happen around them because they are too focused on watching their own feet to look up and around them. 


People are looking for 'magic', not miracles and miracles don't always work.
I agree with you about the "magic" thing, especially combined with the idea that the ways of the Divine (by whatever name you wish) are quite often different than what we would like and just because things don't manifest exactly as you would like, doesn't mean that something marvelous and miraculous isn't happening right in front of you.  Thus, I would say that miracles DO happen and they DO work, but if we're only looking for a specific manner of response to a specific input (i.e. - I want my prayer answered in X way in Y timescale), then you are correct.

Jesus answered them, "Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' it will be done. Whatever you ask for in prayer with faith, you will receive"  (Mt. 21:21-22)

Note, Christ never said WHAT you will receive, nor in what timescale, nor how that would manifest itself.

This all reminds me of a story:

A flood threatens a town, forcing everyone to evacuate, But Joe thinks, "I'm a devout man, God will save me," and stays put. As the waters rise, Joe's neighbor comes by and says, "Joe come with me, we've got to go." Joe declines, "I'm a devout man, God will save me."

The waters keep rising, Joe scrambles to his second floor. A firefighter in a rowboat comes by. "Get in the boat or you'll drown," he says. Joe again declines, saying, "God will save me. So this flood story goes."

Finally, the flood waters force Joe to his roof. A police helicopter comes by and throws down a rope. "Climb up or you'll drown," the policeman yells. "No, I'm a devout man, God will save me," Joe replies.

Soon, Joe drowns.

He arrives in heaven and challenges God. "Why didn't you help me?"

"What do you mean?" God says. "I did help. I sent a neighbor, a firefighter and a helicopter."

It's about being open to the Divine, attentive to how the universe is manifesting itself and fluid enough in how we think and are willing to act that we can intera

all together now

Over the course of the past two weeks, there have been a number of discussions which my partner and I have had that consistently underline that the 'real world' (in comparison to the theoretical world as written in books and taught in schools) is far more complex and organically diversified in operation.

It isn't just a matter of a rainbow vs. black/white...but that the rainbow itself doesn't have a set of a half-dozen or so discrete colours.  To expand a phrase I have used for years, "Nature doesn't read textbooks, so it does things which the textbooks say it can't."

We, as humans, are part of nature.  Whether it is discussions of relationships, sexuality, or even as basic as how we perceive the universe around us, no two people are identical and divisions created to group folks are arbitrary.  Indeed, all of the divisions we make about nearly everything are imaginary and arbitrary.

We are all connected, all together, all one.  That which separates us is not without but within.  It is our misperceptions, misconceptions and lack of understanding that keeps us apart.

Real Scotsmen wear dresses

Last week, our regional council had their formal decision-making meeting in regards to the question of calling a diocesan bishop.  I MAY post the process and results in another post, but the entire process has had the undercurrent of the discussion of the definition of Catholicity.

It seems that most folks feel that Catholicity is determined by external factors.  Whether it's smells & bells, old men in funny clothes, mea culpas or mumbling the same prayers in a foreign tongue that were done a thousand years ago in another country.

Others seem to think that it includes or is defined by obesiance to a primate or prelate and the hierarchical organization they represent.  Talk all you wish about 'authentic Catholic' or 'purity of Church', the mantra of 'pray, pay, obey' seems to be a hum in the background.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, that seems like a pretty poor definition of a faith system and is very much not where I am at.  For me (and I could very well be wrong) the definition of a faith system of any kind, let alone a set of faith systems (catholic vs. protestant, for instance), begins with belief. It is my contention that those who were raised in a catholic faith system are largely ignorant of the differences and distinctives of catholicity.

Thus:
Catholicity embraces the doctrine of Free Will, and thus rejects Predestination (Persistance of Saints), Irresistible Grace, Limited Atonement and Total Depravity.

Catholicity embraces synergistic salvation, wherein God offers Grace and man freely accepts it, thus rejecting Unconditional Election and other monogistic soteriologies.

Catholicity embraces the validity of the Sacred Deposit, formed of both Tradition and Scripture, as the source of Inspiration and Revelation, thus rejecting sola scriptura.

Catholicity embraces the twin pillars of Justification which are Faith and Works, thus rejecting sola fide.

Catholicity embraces a Sacramental life.

I am sure that I am probably missing some and I know that doctoral theses could and have been written about each and every one I have mentioned.

One final thing to mention is that MANY of the 'distinctives' mentioned by various catholic Churches are not hallmarks of Catholicity, but core tenets of Christianity.  Belief in a Triune deity does not make you catholic, nor does affirming the Nicene Creed or a myriad of other things which make you Christian but not catholic. 

Where?

Is She here?

Where is God? 

Where does Her pathos lie? 

In whom do you see His image?

Where is Christ and where would you find him?

Or is He here?

Where is the fullness of the commandment to love your neighbour seen?

If your answer bothers you, concerns you, pricks your conscience, consider whom it is you associate yourself with....and why.

Listening to the Voice...

"Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect." (Romans 12:2)


Recently, there has been a lot of talk and thought about what is church, what it should look like, what defines being 'catholic' and other such matters. I have pondered and thought and discussed and prayed at length over such things.  I finally quieted myself and then heard what had been said all the time.

"Those are external constructs, matters of mind made material and artificial divisions which come from society.

The form of the thing is not the thing.

The form is temporal and shall be transformed, it's essence inviolate and eternal."

I see this now.  I hear you, Dad.
Thank you.