First Week of Advent: Monday, December 4th

From Luke 20:1-8 — “‘Tell us, by what authority are you doing these things? Who is it who gave you this authority?”

In standard form, the Gospel here sets up a (true or false) dichotomy between the leaders (“chief priests, scribes, and elders”) and the led (“the people”). We know from other stories (Nicodemus in John ch.3, Gamaliel in Acts ch.5) that the division wasn’t nearly as clear and clean as the Gospel would suggest. So why set up the division in the first place?

It’s true that an essential subtext to the entire Gospel corpus is the story on non-recognition — especially strong in John’s Gospel, but present in all four — and this isn’t just a problem for “the bad guys,” but is foretold as a problem for us all. Further, emotional content of this non-recognition appears to come in many forms, anywhere from inattention to indifference to excitement to open hostility. And we’re invited into this story as those whose belief is still seeking understanding — maturing in faith and recognition of Christ as Lord and Messiah.

Much on the theme of yesterday’s Gospel in which we heard about the individual’s responsibility to engage God directly, not vicariously, so too today do we hear about the individual’s responsibility to respond in faith to that engagement with God directly, not vicariously. The chief priests, scribes, and elders represent all those caught in the difficult middle between personal doubt and public faith — unable to give their own ‘yes’ to the ‘yes’ of so many others. And here in Luke, of course, they’re to represent the absurdity of non-recognition. But it might be more fair to affirm their cautious discernment — leaning now toward doubt but, perhaps, given time to steep in the faith and love of community, might one day lean toward a faith of their own.

Better not to vilify these folks too much, lest we vilify that part of ourselves that still wonders on occasion — by what authority does Jesus do these things? who gave him this authority? Good questions in the days ahead.

 

First Week of Advent: Sunday, December 3rd

From Matthew 25:1-13 — “The foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the wise replied, ‘No! there will not be enough for you and for us; you had better go to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’”

We’re rightly shocked by this pericope (snippet of Scripture) in this day and age in which the values of sharing and cooperation are so highly treasured over the values of selfishness and competition. So clearly, it seems, our present sensibilities would suggest that the fate of “the wise,” who are prepared with ample oil which they are unwilling to share, would be a far worse fate than the fate of “the foolish” who were never prepared to begin with. And, for sure, we’re always to be mindful that our slow journey with God is rightly a partnership with other pilgrims along the way — sometimes strong, sometimes struggling, but always doing so together. This is a good and right view of our life together in the Body of Christ, which is the Church.

However, today’s Gospel from the daily office reminds us that we’re never saved by the faith of others alone but, rather, are expected to “go [directly] to the dealer and buy some for ourselves.” We can be supported by the grace of God through the lives of others, but we can never receive new life itself without going directly to its source and trading in the empty bottle of our own will for the full bottle of God’s Will, which overflows with an abundance of oil — a sign of blessing and source of light. Love others — depend on others — support others — and do so always first with a recognition and appreciation of the source of Light that keeps your own lamp aflame.

 

Headlines: U.S. Catholic bishops, Baptists specify policy on gays

Strangely enough, right there, side-by-side on page A4 of the 11/15/06 Spokesman-Review — two articles reporting on two denominations’ moves this week to further limit the dignity and humanity of glbt individuals — many of whom are also our glbt brothers and sisters in Christ. 

The Baptist State Convention of North Carolina has so concerned itself with the glbt “issue” that it has actually voted to alter its polity — moving from a primarily congregational model in which independent member churches support each other and consult with each other about matters of faith and doctrine to a new model in which independent member churches can actually be excluded from what has heretofore been a freewill sharing of common life.  Remorseful, I’m sure, convention spokesman Norman Jameson said, “It’s not something that we wanted to do, but homosexuality is the only sin that has its own advocacy group.”  What about the ‘judgment group’?  Lest we feel too proud of ourselves, there are those in the Anglican Communion who are making moves to shift our polity in similar fashion.  God help us.

And the US/RC Bishop’s Conference has produced a formal statement on homosexuality in the Church, “Ministry to Persons with a Homosexual Inclination,” which they describe as “positive, pastoral, and welcoming” in its tone and pastoral trajectory toward the glbt community, whose sexuality the statement refers to as “disordered.”  Bishop Arthur Serratelli from NJ, wishing to calm the hearts and minds of those who might find this whole notion offensive, noted that “Its [the document's] starting point is the intrinsic human dignity of every person and God’s love for every person.”  Not only do several RC glbt advocacy groups think this is “flat-out wrong,” but so do I, personally.  Were I to perfect Bp. Serratelli’s comments, I would add that, in fact, the document’s starting point is the much-debated (and fundamentally flawed) notion of “natural law” in which it is presumed that all “natural” (i.e. “good”) sex is only and always pro-creative — and never simply for human joy and pleasure.  The bishops are simply speaking from within their Thomist paradigm of “right order,” from whose perspective homosexual sex is clearly “disordered” b/c it can never result in procreation.  From the same sheet of music (at least they’re trying to be consistent here), the bishops also issued a statement condemning “safe sex” (i.e. contraception-aided) for the same reason as noted above.  Note, however, the subtle difference in nuance – whether it’s a reporting inaccuracy or not, I don’t know: The bishops are “telling gays to be celibate,” while they’re “encouraging [straight] Catholics to obey the church’s widely ignored ban on artificial contraception.”  Fascinating — hurtful — expected.  At least all parties concerned have been directed to “examine their consciences to decide if they are worthy of receiving Holy Communion.”  Fortunately, we Episcopalians (at least Rite I Episcopalians) already know we aren’t “worthy,” and we tell God we know this and in so doing tell God and ourselves that we know it isn’t about us and our “unworthiness” but about the immeasureable mercy and love of our God. 

Let’s keep our RC and Baptist brothers and sisters in our prayers this week, as well as our glbt brothers and sisters in whatever spiritual home they find themselves.  May we all find God’s Will and Way forward and, if possible, find ourselves denigrating fewer and fewer people along the way.

 

Young Adult Internship Planning Retreat this Weekend

We ask that you keep our planning group in your prayers this weekend as we meet for an initial retreat to discuss preliminary plans for building a year-long internship program here in Spokane. The proposed internship would be one of only a few internship programs in the country — coordinated by the office for Ministries with Young People (MYP) of The Episcopal Church. The Rev. Douglas Fenton will be joining us for the weekend from NYC — guiding our prayers and deliberations and sending us forth with several homework assignment to complete before his follow-up visit in the spring.

Planning group members: Bryan Krislock (Spokane Valley), Evita Krislock (Spokane Valley), Lisa Stagaman (Spokane), the Rev. Margaret Fisher (Ellensburg), Michelle Klippert (Spokane), the Rev. Paul Lebens-Englund (Spokane), and Phil Mixter (Pullman).

What would you want to do with a year-long internship program? What guidance and suggestions would you want to give us?

 

Elections

I read an interesting article in the newspaper today suggesting that the Democrats had a resurgence of electoral success among voters of faith — even among white evangelical men. Of course, none of the numbers were staggering — a few percentage points shift from one party to the other — and nothing indicating that the shift is necessarily related to issues of faith and conscience and not simply the all-too-popular and apparent dissatisfaction with the Republican party as a whole and this president in particular. What do you make of these numbers? How did your faith impact your vote? What are you hearing from other people of faith around you?

 

Daily Ruminations

The saints are what they are, not because their sanctity makes them admirable to others, but because the sainthood makes it possible for them to admire everybody else.  It gives them a clarity of compassion that can find good in the most terrible criminals.  It delivers them from the burden of judging others, condemning other men.  It teaches them to bring the good out of others by compassion, mercy and pardon.  A man becomes a saint not by conviction that he is better than sinners but by the realization that he is one of them, and that all together need the mercy of God!                                         Thomas Merton, New Seeds of Contemplation

Who are the saints in your life?  What makes them so?  How have they affected your life of faith?