witness

"Unique in the Church, the Camaldolese life is ordered to a three-fold good: solitude, community, and witness." 

-- The Privilege of Love: Camaldolese Benedictine Spirituality, Peter-Damian Belisle, O.S.B. Cam., Editor (Liturgical Press, 2002), publisher's description.

As I've been connected to a Camaldolese hermitage since college, I've been thinking about this - especially the third of the three goods. Witness.

In Latin, martyrium. 

It is also, in another guise, the third rail of liberal Protestantism: evangelism. 

And, in that guise - evangelism - that word is a challenge. 

It is the third of three themes of this triennium, the three-year period between General Conventions of the Episcopal Church. Not something I normally pay much heed to -- or even know about. But these three themes are also those chosen by the Episcopal diocese of Arizona as themes for three consecutive diocesan conventions. Those themes are: creation care, evangelism, and racial reconciliation. 

In some ways, ways we cannot expect, evangelism is likely to be the most challenging.

Especially when we recall that evangelism, proclaiming and spreading the good news, involves witness - martyrium - martyrdom.

This has been all too real throughout the history of the church throughout the world. Think of the twentieth-century martyrs, from Kaj Munk who stood up to Hitler to Janani Luwum who stood up to Idi Amin. Janani Luwum, a bishop of the church, which turned out to mean head martyr.  

The point is to proclaim the gospel - but sometimes that means following Jesus to the cross. That is what happened to those men and women, those martyrs, whose witness was relentless in the face of cruelty, ignorance, despair, violence, death - and who live in the resurrection.

We have (I hope) a simpler task: to face ridicule, belittling, silent opposition, resistance, anger, rush to judgment, when we say what we believe, or worse yet, act it out in the public arena.

What have we to gain but our souls?

And so as the institutional church, or churches, face the simple-seeming, happy-appearing, theme of evangelism - hoping perhaps for those young energetic generous families we all want to fill our pews, our collection plates, and our rosters for volunteer tasks - we might want to consider the cost. Not to them, the sad targets of our feeble desires, but them, the children Christ crucified has called to join us in the true church, the church of martyr as well as saint.

What have we to gain but our souls?

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2016/03/11/making-reconciliation-and-evangelism-the-churchs-new-normal/

https://www.episcopalchurch.org/ministries/evangelism/

Lent List

Stuff I would like to give up for Lent? Oh yes, I made a list. Space does not permit its inclusion here. Nor does tact. Some of it is pretty common. We have lost so much, some of us, people whom we do not see right now, people we will never see gain. Loss and gain. Anticipation and regret. Possibilities, memories. Waiting. Our current situation is unique. And we are not the first.  

A traveler waiting for a visa. A convalescent waiting for release. Parents hoping for a child, workers looking for a job, people on the move seeking a home. 

Situations that are common and simply our own. 

When I was young I saw a children’s book about Robert the Bruce, waiting in his stone room and watching a spider weave its web. It was slow work, but he had the time. Eventually as an adult I learned more about what he was waiting for as well as what he was going to do. He led a country to unity. And yet that was not the end of the story as he yearned for the Holy Land. As it was, he made it about halfway - to Spain. His heart sought Jerusalem but found its final rest at home. (His heart is buried at Melrose Abbey.)

We hear the Bible stories. A would-be mother waiting with her husband for a place to live, a child to love. A widow with no home to go to but one far away, and no family but one unknown. And a people that wants, that longs, to be free. As we do.

Lent is a season of anticipation. Of preparation. Again, so soon after the Christmas cycle has ended. Advent, Nativity, Epiphany, Presentation. Just weeks ago. And now another cycle, the Easter cycle, begins. But it begins in Ashes. 

Wouldn’t you think ashes are the end of a story, not the beginning? But so it is: forty days from Ash Wednesday, not counting Sundays, Christians arrive where other traditions already are: at Easter Sunday, another feast day of celebration, but not before plumbing the depths of Good Friday. A dreadful anticipation. So we remember our mortality - as if we could forget it! This year of all years. 

Remember that you are made of dust taken from the earth, and to the earth you shall return. And yet all along you are in the hands of God.

Always.

The Rev. Dr. John Leech is an Episcopal priest, a Benedictine oblate, and a friend of the Iona Community. He has served congregations in northern California and western Washington, and now in southern Arizona. 

https://tucson.com/you-are-safe-in-the-hands-of-god/article_2f8cbbff-973c-5bfb-aec7-a1c294536efa.html (Arizona Daily Star, February 21, 2021).

Joel 2:1-2,12-17

or Isaiah 58:1-12

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Matthew 6:1-6,16-21

Psalm 103 or 103:8-14

virtual imposition

As we gather for the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday we seek some sign of mortality and penitence, some sign of preparation, for the culmination of the forty days and forty nights of the season is not sorrow but joy, not death but rising again.

And so today we turn our hearts anew to God.

Receive, then, the gift of mortality, and the hope of resurrection, that is built into us from the beginning by our Maker.

Make the sign of the Cross. Do it slowly and mindfully as we pray together.  And remember - it is not about the ashes. Not even today. It is about the Cross and Resurrection. It is about Jesus, and the work he is doing in us, through the Spirit.

Have a blessed Lent. Give something up, take something on - and remember that you are loved in the mercy of God.

For Ash Wednesday.

Clock

 

Chronos, clock time: punch it! punch in, punch out.

At the car wash before the next tick punch in 

at the car wash the time clock waits 

Wait a tick, don’t wait a tick: punch in

At the car wash after the next tick punch out 

at the car wash the time clock waits 

don’t wait, wait — punch it, punch out 

in between wipe off the cars as the track nudges them into freedom or you stand back as some fool drives clear 

Kairos: in the fullness of time the world is born 

in the fullness of time the child is born 

in the fullness of time a man waits at the altar 

At last his bride appears 

where have you been you are right on time

 

Dust

We bless you, O Lord our God, creator of the Universe, for the gift of earth, from whence we come and to which we shall return. We ask your blessing on the ancient peoples who first enjoyed this land and ask your blessing upon us as we join the traditional stewards of this land in its ongoing care. And care for us, Lord, as we contemplate our mortality, our absolute dependence upon you, and as we prepare ourselves for life beyond death in the hope of the resurrection.

Remember that you are dust of the earth and to that earth you shall return.  

We know who we are by the stories we tell

 actionable self-knowledge

We know who we are by the stories we tell. In the economic realm, Robert J. Shiller says that there are ‘perennial narratives’ which ‘affect economic behavior by changing the popular understanding of the economy, by altering public perceptions of economic reality, by creating new ideas about what is meaningful and important and moral, or by suggesting new scripts for individual behavior.’ 

Change “economic’ to ‘political’ and you have a whole new set of experiences to distill.

To theologians we define what we believe by the stories we tell about experiencing God. 

To combine the insights of two of my teachers, narratives teach us what we believe, and our stories of experiencing God tell us what we believe about God - and what to do about it.

Indeed, the story telling itself may become an experience of God. To read or hear a narrative of a conversion experience may itself become a conversion experience. And of course the primary stories we tell, the references for our being, come from the common shared stories of Scripture. 

(To readers of the Hebrew Scripture this is basic and the insights are of long-ago date.)

But what stories do we tell each other as a community and as encountering strangers? Who are we? We tell you by what we do and by how we tell the stories - the ones that really matter to us most of all may be the last we tell...

(Robert J. Shiller, “Narrative Economics: How Stories Go Viral and Drive Major Economic Events”. Princeton UPr. Quoted by Cass R. Sunstein in the New York Review of Books.January 14, 2021. 32.)

got ashes?

Stuff I want to give up for Lent:

Excess zoom participation (who are we where are we going what are we doing here in this meeting yet another on zoom). Use the telephone, write a letter, or meet up outdoors.

Excess indoors time: get outside! Look up! Even if you are at your desk or on facebook or both ... the mountains surround us.

The same old clothes. Some people - even under your own roof - may be changing the scenery...

Excess following the news. Should have thought of this four years ago.

Watching British people on TV - nope. Not giving that up. Imported vintage drama/comedy relief.

Daily meditation and prayer practices, putting off thereof.

Same old takeout.

Ernest but bad restaurant takeout attempts.

Inattentive cooking. Ooh, busted!

Ashes.

Ashes?

It's not about the ashes. Not even on Ash Wednesday. It is about mortality and resurrection. It is about getting ready for the Great Vigil and Easter Day. 

So we are about preparation for Baptism or the Renewal of Baptismal Vows, as we begin to claim the Christian hope of Paradise, at the end of this trial - trial of mortality, including joys as well as sorrow.

And most of all, surrounding all, love.

***

As we gather for the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday we seek some sign of mortality and penitence, some sign of preparation, for the culmination of all this forty days and forty nights is not sorrow but joy, not death but rising again.

And so today whether you receive ashes on your forehead or only wear them inside, your heart turns anew to God.

Receive, then, the gift of mortality, and the hope of resurrection, that is built into it from the beginning by our Maker.

If you self-administer ashes, please do so during the prayer following the invitation to the observance of a holy Lent. Do it slowly and respectfully - of the sacrament and the others who join you in this solemn moment - as we pray together. 

Make the sign of the Cross, or pinch some dry ashes out of a bowl. And remember - it is not about the ashes. Not even today. It is about the Cross and Resurrection. It is about Jesus, and the work he is doing in you, through the Spirit.

Have a blessed Lent. Give something up, take something on - and remember that you are loved in the mercy of God.

_____________

Dennis Michno writes: The act of receiving ashes must not become the focal point of this day but rather a sign of the day, a sign that is part of the penitential beginning of the season of Lent.

Dennis G. Michno, A Priest's Handbook: The Ceremonies of the Church, ed. 3, 1998. 154.

Howard Galley writes: Lent, the season of preparation for Easter, is a time of penitence, fasting, almsgiving, prayer, and study, which finds its proper climax in the celebration of Holy Baptism and the renewal of Baptismal Vows at Easter.

Howard E. Galley, Ceremonies of the Eucharist: A guide to Celebration. 1989. 42.

* * *

Ash Wednesday: an invitation.

Almighty and everlasting God, you hate nothing you have

made and forgive the sins of all who are penitent: Create and

make in us new and contrite hearts, that we, worthily

lamenting our sins and acknowledging our wretchedness,

may obtain of you, the God of all mercy, perfect remission

and forgiveness; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives

and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever

and ever. Amen.

Dear People of God: The first Christians observed with great

devotion the days of our Lord's passion and resurrection, and

it became the custom of the Church to prepare for them by a

season of penitence and fasting. This season of Lent provided

a time in which converts to the faith were prepared for Holy

Baptism. It was also a time when those who, because of

notorious sins, had been separated from the body of the faithful

were reconciled by penitence and forgiveness, and restored to

the fellowship of the Church. Thereby, the whole congregation

was put in mind of the message of pardon and absolution set

forth in the Gospel of our Savior, and of the need which all

Christians continually have to renew their repentance and faith.

I invite you, therefore, in the name of the Church, to the

observance of a holy Lent, by self-examination and repentance;

by prayer, fasting, and self-denial; and by reading and

meditating on God's holy Word. And, to make a right beginning

of repentance, and as a mark of our mortal nature, let us now

kneel before the Lord, our maker and redeemer.

The Book of Common Prayer, 1979. 264-265.