Finally, a ribbon magnet I like

this one says "support the industry that produces ribbon magnets"!!

It gets worse

It's not just St. Jonah's that uses the phrase (see previous post). In fact, the offensive phrase "the real instruments of unity" originates from the Episcopalians for Global Reconciliation. I'm not sure exactly what they think they are reconciling, when they are using such alienating language (and sneakily, since most of the gung-ho let's fix the world folks probably don't even know what its referring to).

"The 'real' instruments of unity

Members of St. Jonah's have greeted the Millenium Development Goals with unprecedented glee. It's quite a shock, really, to see everyone so delighted. At last, they keep saying, the convention has given us "the real instruments of unity." Even their bulletin announcements regarding this endeavour contains this phrase. No one apparently stops to consider that sniffing at the instruments of unity, also known as the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primates Meeting, the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Consultative Council, is just in the teensiest bad taste. I wish I could say that what they mean is that we all now agree that Jesus was speaking truth when he said, "the poor you will always have with you," but alas, I don't think that's what the MDG-obsessed are thinking. Instead, I suspect they are feeling that they have been given carte blanche in feeding their frenzy of doing-ness, of earning righteousness, and oh happy day, in thumbing noses at historical traditional and what it offers in terms of connection to the larger body of Christ in the world. To think, some of us at some point in our lives, felt this excited about getting to know Jesus.

Using your cell phone for centering prayer

Well that sounds like a joke doesn't it? Isn't the cell phone the symbol of all that so completely distracts us from our life of prayer? Well, I figured out a way to use it so that it helps me! I'm not one of those people, like my husband, who wears wrist watches with all kinds of doodads. As far as watches go, I'm strictly analog. But that means I never have any kind of alarm handy, and so that means that one sneaks looks at the time, when one has set oneself 15 or 20 minutes for centering. Then I realized that my cell phone has an alarm that is easy to use. So now, I can just sit patiently and not worry that I will "overpray." (Not likely!) Of course, this wouldn't work so well if you get frequent calls (I'm not sure if you can turn off the rings and still have the alarm) but since I don't, it's good!

strange days

Father Burt is rummaging around through the cabinets in the kitchen. He says he's looking for something to put holy water in. I almost joke "doing an exorcism?" then stop myself. Why is he looking for something to put holy water in, if not for a purpose along those lines? We find an old pepper jar, and put the pepper in the salt shaker. (If we used the salt shaker, it would be more of an aspergeres!). He wipes it out, gets some holy water from the font, gives it to the woman who is waiting then leaves. He sits down by my desk. "Whew." She is from Venezuela, and her ex-husband has joined a Santeria cult. She said that she and her daughter are "seeing things" around their house. "Things? Like tokens or dead animals?" "No," he says, "like Spirits." "Oooh, cool." Of course, the Holy Water was rather an afterthought: she had originally signed up to speak to a priest for financial help, and seeing as we had no grocery gift cards, asked for this instead. Pray for her!

Still Dualistic

Perhaps the two sides in America (liberal/conservative) can better be framed in terms of whether one finds it more compelling to draw one's identity from a sense of battling power, or from a sense of being a part of a positive force.

Those who see themselves as battling power tend to automatically respond to claims of victimization, and to see governments as necessarily evil, and all oppositional groups as necessarily justified. This view can be supported from the Christian perspective by reference to Jesus' identification with the poor, and his victimization on the cross, and it is a corrective to earlier views which used Christ's missionary mandate as an excuse for imperialistic conquest. However, it tends to idealize the position of victim to the point of neglecting the concept of Christ's ultimate triumph.

Those who see themselves as aligned with a positive force for good tend to belittle claims of victimization, and see the government as deserving unwavering support, thus leaning towards blind patriotism.

What is the solution? How can we draw our understanding of who we are from a balanced perspective of Christians who follow an Almighty God who was willing to become weak? Can we recognize that not all claims of victimhood are equally legitimate? That some, are in fact, simply grabs for power? Can we live in paradox?

When it changed

I snagged the Rector's copy of Theology Today when it came in, and glanced through it before passing it on. I came across this interesting and timely statement by William Cavanaugh:

“This is not an exceptional nation and we do not live in exceptional times, at least as the world describes it. Everything did not change on 9/11; for Christians, everything changed on 12/25. When the Word of God became incarnate in human history, when he was tortured to death by the powers of this world, and when he rose to give us new life—it was then that everything changed. Christ is the exception that becomes the rule of history. We are made capable of loving our enemies, of treating the other as a member of our own body, the body of Christ.”

Cavanaugh, William. “Making Enemies.” Theology Today. Vol. 63, no. 3, October 2006. 307-323.

It caught my attention because I had read something else recently (in Christian Century?) that spoke of the concept of American exceptionalism and I thought that this might be an interesting concept to work with in the American Literature course, which I'll be teaching later in the fall. I think Cavanaugh makes an excellent point that helps us put into perspective the feeling that Americans between the ages of 20-60 felt about the terrorist attacks. Unlike older Americans who remembered Pearl Harbor, we had never experienced an assault on our own land before. (I discount younger people because, as far as I can tell from the kids I know, they were not particularly affected by the images of the towers falling, not being able to distinguish between them and the familiar images of destruction they see in their favorite games and movies). When I read this statement at first I thought it was a shame that Cavanaugh had to use the artificial construct of 12/25 to build the symmetry to make his point. After all, we smart Christians know that Christ wasn't born on that specific day. We could pinpoint an actual date for the Resurrection, why didn't he use that? But then I got to thinking, well, whether or not it was 12/25 (and it certainly wouldn't have been called that then) it was a specific day. And that number symbolizes that. And contemplating how numeric symbol functions, and letting its meaning sink in, in the same way that the numbers 9/11 have sunk in, helps make his statement even stronger and makes me find a source of hope.

Sister Helen

I admire Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, and an advocate for life in all its pathetic manifestations. She did err, however, in signing a political statement, which she has been forced to retract. I think we see here another example of the dangers when we seek political solutions for spiritual problems.

the Gospel according to clipart

Since I am going on vacation, I'm working on the next two weeks' bulletins, so this thought applies to the readings for Sunday, September 3.

The only part of the lection reading that had room for clipart was the Ephesians passage about the armor of God. You'd think there'd be tons of images there: at least these are tangible objects! But I couldn't find anything except little boys dressed up as roman soldiers. I knew I had to be careful with this: anything too militaristic would raise people's hackles here at St. Jonah's. But as I was searching, and re-reading the passage, it made me aware of how Paul is transforming the traditional images of warfare. Essentially, he's looking at the real soldier of his day and saying, yes, you need a helmet, but not one made out of --whatever metal they made them out of them--you need one of salvation. He's seeing equivalents, metaphors and the point is that soldiers of the Lord are not violent warriors. They are peaceful warriors, as yoga and tai chi would have it. It's a term that's been taken over a bit by the New Age folks, but if you engage in a martial arts practice, or yoga which has its warrior pose, you can get a sense for what this means....

Lectionary Thoughts

I haven't been reading along in the Judges passages of the Daily Office lectionary lately: just getting through the Epistle and Gospel, and mostly as always, dwelling on the psalm. But today, since I just had a couple minutes, I only looked at the Judges passage. Coming to it without context, out of the blue, it struck me as very strange. I'm reading along, and somebody's recovered some money and his mother is happy, and she wants to celebrate and express her gratitude towards the Lord and everything seems fine and dandy but hey, wait a minute. She wants him to do what?! Thank the Lord by making an idol? How did this happen? Well, verse six explains it: "In those days there was no king in Israel; all the people did what was right in their own eyes." Not a happy verse for those of us born and trained in democratic ideology but a sound enough explanation, for those times, as well as for ours. What strikes me about the passage is how normal everything, except for the bit about the idols, sounds. They remembered most of what they are supposed to do, there are supposed to be ephods and teraphim and Levites should be priests, there's this longing to worship, but they have missed or mislaid this huge important part of what the monotheistic religion proclaimed. Aren't we just like that? Full of our process theology and our oh so sophisticated ways of reading Scripture, and grasping on to as much of the rituals as we care to remember, but are not we often missing the reality--the connection with God, and instead creating idols of our own creation?

Little do they know

A glimpse of what goes on behind the scenes here at St. Jonah's.

There are a few clergy persons associated with the church of St. Jonah's. Just for fun we'll call the main two Burt and Ernie. 'Scuse me, that's Father Burt and Father Ernie. Father Ernie, the Rector, leaves on vacation after constructing elaborate calendars showing his time off and the other clergy and staffs' vacation times, etc. Only then at the last minute he realizes he's not really going to come back on the day the calendar says he is, and he asks Father Burt to take the services on Sunday the 27th. (This part is a plausible reconstruction of events, based on the fact that Fr. Burt seemed to know that Fr. Ernie wasn't going to be around before the 29th in an earlier conversation.) Then the trusty Parish Administrator (me, Doc Bubbles), trying to get a jump start on the next week's bulletins since she is going on a long awaited vacation, discovers--horrors--that the second lesson for the 27th, according to our still-in-use lectionary, contains the dreaded passage: "Wives, be subject to your husbands, as you are to the Lord." The only choices given are in the psalms, and of course any priest in his right mind would at least want to pray the psalm that begins "Protect me, O God"! She then checks to see if our female clergy might be preaching that day, which might have a palliative effect on the situation, but no, she's out of town. Her chart shows Fr. Ernie's name in red, which means he told her he wasn't going to be back, so she runs to Fr. Burt to see what he wants to do, and he says "Why ask me, I'm not even going to be here that day?"

Too bad Doc Bubbles is going on vacation, 'cause she might well have come up with a lively sermon--maybe she would focus on the really difficult first sentence of the passage: "Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ." But not even she can jump in so will there be some bewildered people milling about the church on Sunday morning a week from today?

Doc Bubbles makes calls, sorts things out and it seems that things will proceed in accordance with the rubrics after all. Now, stayed tuned to find out whether Fr. Burt decides to make the leap over to the Revised Common Lectionary, which happily omits this nasty bit.

Preposterousness

I swear, I was only googling to find the exact words of a quote I remembered, attributed to George Orwell: "there are some ideas so preposterous only an intellectual will believe them." Don't ask why this came back to mind and why I wanted to verify it. But google only discovered a couple references to the quote. One brought me to Shrinkwrapped's blog which offers some interesting material (by the way, he has been UNable to verify the authenticity of the quote) including the following: Pity the Poor Anti-Semite. Worth reading.

Different viewpoint on Lebanon

I was browsing our local Newman Center's website and found a link to what appears to be a national Catholic online newspaper. This article presents the point of view that Lebanese Catholics and other Christians do not hate the Israelis and they do fear Hezbollah, a point of view that I have not heard around St. Jonah's!

Not your mama's VBS

Churches around the country have gatherings for kiddies in the summer called Vacation Bible Schools. Not St. Jonah's. We have Going Medieval Arts Camp. Children get to craft gargoyles, cut their fingers on pieces of stained glass, and enjoy other features of life in the Middle Ages without being bothered with pesky notions raised by Biblical stories. My stepdaughters even enjoy it, and the 16-year-old has decided she doesn't believe in God. (My approach to managing teenagers is borrowed from the wisdom of appreciating the weather in New England. If you don't like it, wait five minutes. So I say nothing.) She was, to all appearances, a fine and friendly counselor during Going Medieval, even to the obnoxious five-year-old who everyday he insisted he could do something better than the teenagers. But when it was all over she was going to reward herself by making a purchase at the neighborhood comic store. She wanted a button that asked, "I'm sorry. Was it my job to fill your life with joy today?"

Why doesn't audio daily office work for me?

I like podcasts and books on tape. I like reading the Daily Office. I would have thought, when coming across an Episcopal church that offers a daily podcast of the Office that it would be something I could use but I can't. There are maybe two reasons. One, this guy's voice and style. I don't mind the new agey music in the background, that works a bit to counteract the cheesy Christian radio sound that he gives to it, but there's something about his slick delivery that reminds me of the lite Christian radio station back in New Jersey that I listened to in a bygone time. (It's out of Maryland, but there's no hint of the South in his voice.) I tried to get past that. After all, we are supposed to be "saying" the office, not just reading it, my tendency, when I read it alone, and wander off in trains of thoughts on various passages, or dwell overlong on some verses from psalms, shouldn't be what defines it for me as prayer. I can't control the speed when gathered with others to say an Office. And yet, and yet... when I read the words myself, I am praying them. When someone else reads it, I am listening to him pray. It's just different.

Items we gotta have

The Episcopal Media catalog arrived on my desk featuring a page of Community Builder and gift items. Of course the usual caps and t-shirts. The Episco-bear is kinda cute, and hey, what dog wouldn't be proud to bear the shield on his collar (and what about kitty collars, people?!). But Episcopal flip flops? Surely there is a saboteur in their midst, who came up with this one! Not that the idea of leaving a little trail of shields behind one in the sand (from the shape cut into the bottom of the sandal) isn't a dynamic evanglical tool (at least until the tide comes in) but isn't the whole concept of flip-flop, as in changing one's mind on critical issues, not exactly something with which we want to be closely associated? Just thinking...

Zapped!

So lightning struck the church. What I mean by that is, um, lightning struck the church, or near enough to us to knock out the power sometime after I left yesterday. Today we still have no phones. We put in a battery back up for the phone system, but since the outage happened right after everyone left, the battery didn't last long enough. At least that's the theory. The phone folks haven't come yet. But naturally, I am enjoying the peace. And yes, naturally I am experiencing a sense of God's presence in this. Not that I think God is up there hurtling thunderbolts on us, but hey, it is kind of funny that right after someone defiles the space with propaganda calling Israelis "predators" that the church is struck by lightning. Kind of does make Doc Bubbles think of Genesis: "12 Now Yahweh said to Abram, "Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father's house, to the land that I will show you.2 I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing.3 I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you."

tempted!

Just after yesterday's post someone parked a car right in front of the church with a big blue swirlygig "ribbon magnet": this one supposed to make me aware of Down's Syndrome! They are trying my saintly patience!

What is my price?

It was almost a bar of chocolate, no, not just any bar, but a bar of Equal Exchange, Organic Dark Chocolate with Almonds, bestowed upon me by a true believer--in the destruction of Israel. Ah, but how deeply and with what passion she believes she is on the side of the light. She had asked to insert a notice in the bulletin, announcing the distribution of a letter from the Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem. She had heard that last Sunday a plea was made for contributions to go to Episcopal Relief and Development's Middle East Crisis emergency fund, which seems relatively neutral in its mission to provide humanitarian aid (though, apparently, not to any Israeli Jews) http://www.er-d.org/newsroom_76926_ENG_HTM.htm . In her mind this meant that we were supporting the Bishop Riah, and it gave her a perfect opportunity to distribute one of his anti-Israeli screeds.

And, so, in preparation for this I was searching the web for some kind of article that would provide another perspective, something that would point out that it is in fact Hebollah that is using the children and innocent civilians of Lebanon as cannon fodder. That you can't broker a cease-fire with a terrorist group. Here's one that expresses it well: http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=23628. Or how about an article that exposes Riah as supporting the Muslim suicide bombers? http://www.comeandsee.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=415 . Nah, that probably would seem reasonable around here. If only recovering terrorist Walid Shoebat had some good articles www.shoebat.com, but he only seems to be available for speeches. Besides, these are a bit obvious. Perhaps the article by a good liberal like Rabbi Lerner, that I found on Tikkun's website: http://www.tikkun.org/rabbi_lerner/asktherabbi might be snuck in to the pile without causing a witch hunt...

I was exploring these options when she came in to drop off her batch of propaganda and started regaling the virtues of her new favorite chocolate bar: "here, have this one!" she gave it to me and I accepted. She is a kind person, just very deluded, having brainwashed herself with nonstop reading of one sided views of a situation half a world away. I always wondered what makes people take up a particular cause. I look around and see thousands of them. Every car's bumper sticker here asks you to save another ethnic group or animal species. And please, if I see yet another disease taking over the sideways squiggle that's supposed to represent a tied ribbon to get me to be aware of autism or diabetes or schizophrenia, I may have to tear it from the car! But people find one to latch onto. The Tibetans. The Palestinians. The Sudanese. How do they decide?

I think we need a new 12 step program for parishioners of St. Jonah's. World-savers Anonymous. Its first step: "Just for today, I will let God save the world instead of me. Just for today, I will be Christ to one person whom I encounter." Imagine that, church!

Anyway, munching on the yummy candy bar, I thought about giving up my stealth counter campaign. Let me just read Bishop Riah's statement. And there in the first sentence, I read the Israelis described as "predators"! We don't even need the article about his earlier statements. It is clear enough where he stands. And there are people in this church who do not think this is partisan and inflammatory, but belongs on a table promoting Christ's peace!!!! I am going to go nuts here. And no, I won't be bought off by the candy bar. Friends, let me know which article I should print out.

P.S. Do all brit folk refer to paper cutters as guillotines? She does!

Cool Bumper Sticker of the Day

Republicans for Voldemort!