Friday Five: Beasties

Jan has given us a 'beastie' Friday Five:

In my experience in the United States, people are either "Dog People" or "Cat People." As the graph above illustrates, not everyone is limited to those types of animals. So I am wondering about pets and experiences with them.

1. Are you a DOG or a CAT person? Or OTHER?

I am a cat person.  I have always been a cat person.  Both of us are cat persons.  J even more than I.  She will stop by the SPCK just to get a 'kitty fix'.  
2. Who were the pets of your childhood and what were they like?

When I was quite small (before 4) I wanted to adopt a stray dog but he bit me. I still have the scar. That ended the 'dog desire' for me as a child.  I like dogs now but we never had a fenced yard when I was growing up so that we could never have dogs.  My first cat was named Sparkle after the Dick Tracy character.  Her brother was a black tabby called BO Plenty after the other character.  They were outdoor kitties at a time when most pets were outdoor beasties.  Then I had a yellow tabby.  He was rather indecisive about going out the door and we wondered "Will he or Won't he?"  He was named Willhe.

3. What pets do you have now?  

We presently have Tyke, a 9 year old grey tabby and Little Bit, who is a tuxedo.  All of our beasties have

been rescue beasts.  Most of them have been strays that have been dumped at the churches we have served.  But these two were formally adopted from the local SPCK.

4. Have you ever had any unusual pets in your household or visit your home?

Not really.  I have'beast-sat' for birds and horses.  I have blessed many different animals but I have only had cats.

5. What have you learned from your pets? Give one recent example, if possible.

I have learned that cats seem disinterested but are far from it.  They know your mood and if you are ill they come and stay close.  They are quite miffed if you leave them for days on end even when they are fed and watered, they miss YOU.  Each of the cats I have had were different, with amazingly different personalities.  They have different ways that they want to be petted or cared for.  Tyke, for instance, is all boy.  When he was little he would go out and stomp in puddles like a little boy.  Little Bit was named for her diminutive state as a kitten but now that she is grown she is called Bit because she does.  Not hard but she wants to play with her teeth.  So we have had to come up with "NO TEETH" command to help her learn.  She also loves to claw the furniture.  We have learned that we can either have cats or furniture.  We have chosen cats... 



BONUS: Pictures or anything else related to animals you love.

Priesthood: Religious leadership and clericalism

In the 1970’s, following Vatican II, there was a study done among religious orders, especially men’s orders that did not ordain their members, on the importance of the priesthood.  I was teaching in a combined Ursuline and Christian Brothers school in Galveston.  I remember reading the document and it raised many questions about the efficacy of priestly orders and was interested that priestly orders were considered really non-essential to the communities of men who embraced celibacy.  Except for liturgical duties, priests among the community were seen as a detriment to the community life of the brothers. The status of ‘priest’ was considered an impediment to the common life. 

When I attended the Kellogg lectures at EDS last week, this conversation was being reprised.  The issue of clericalism is a big one in the Church these days.  It is my contention that the schism that we have been experiencing over the past 15 years is a clerical one.  It concerns not the people in the pew, but it concerns the clergy and bishops of a minority in the Anglican Communion.  It has much to do with control and order, not theology or even basic faith.  And after what I have seen here in Fort Worth following the split of the diocese, clericalism is alive and flourishing in this part of the Church militant.

The discussion at EDS was clearly on the side of abolishing the priesthood.  But the

panelists were all NOT ordained.  They were professors or academics who do not celebrate the Eucharist or absolve sins.  Now, I know some of the members of that panel and some of them have their own ax to grind, BUT I do know what they are trying to get at.  They are trying to address the excruciatingly difficult problem of clericalism that faces, I believe, all churches with the exception of the Quakers.  And while I know that the Methodists, Presbyterians and the Reformed churches do not have priests, they still have clerical leadership that have power that can subject others to their will. 

Here in Texas we have a preponderance of independent non-denominational churches

since the break-up of the Southern Baptist Convention.  Many of those Baptist churches claim themselves as non-denominational these days but they still carry on Baptist theology and ethos.   Some of the churches try to hide their Baptist affiliation by renaming themselves Gateway, or Heartland, or Harvest rather than being ____Ave. Baptist.  But when you attend them even though they have screens and guitars, they are still Baptist.  And the pastor still ‘knows best’.

Religious leadership is difficult at best.  When your primary role model is Jesus who

spoke of the Good Shepherd, it is so easy to fall into the habit of thinking that the people you are called to serve are sheep to be pushed around.  The bishop carries a big stick to drag the sheep back into the fold.  And yet the reality is much different.  As a priest one is called upon to represent Christ (as any baptized person should) but also act as an agent of the institution of church.  I have always understood that priestly orders give me the Good Housekeeping seal of approval of the Church to speak of God AND the organization.  It is why we make vows to obey our bishops in matters of faith and morals. But it IS a crazy-making position.  Those who lead are mortal and fallible.  We have feet of clay and make huge blunders in our efforts to lead the people of God in the way of faith.  And those of us who are priests--the ‘middle management’ often do not get to advocate for our flocks as we would like because the ‘shepherds’ who are in charge think of us as sheep as well.

It is naïve, I believe, to think that doing away with the priesthood would do away with clericalism.  Luther and Calvin tried to do that only to create their own forms of clerical leadership that fell into the same mote that the Eastern and Western clergy had done:  creating a caste of the chosen few who control the Church. 

Over the past decade or so, the underbelly of the Roman Catholic Church has been shown to the world.  If there is any organization that has allowed it to be unresponsive to the Church at large, it is the Vatican.  And the tendency of the populace to speak of The Church as some amalgam of Romanism and severe Reformed versions of Christianity makes it difficult to provide any coherent leadership for those who wish to affiliate with others who have come to a mature faith.  I am thankful for my own denomination simply because it is a form of Christianity that does allow for question, allows for diversity of theological discussion and even allows us to discuss the need for priests. 

As a priest and one who is each day confounded by the mystery of this vocation, it is difficult to explain the uniqueness of the calling.  I am at once humbled by this affirmation of Church and God and exalted by the privilege of serving the Church and God in this way.  But the issue of clericalism is still with me.  I must continually be willing to confront the temptation to use my priesthood to further empower a specific class in the faith.  I am there to empower others with the power of God.  I am there to help liberate those who find themselves disenfranchised by sin to step into that place of wholeness that the Incarnation proclaims.  It makes for a very unwieldy social context because freedom in Christ creates its own havoc.  It is for that reason that the Church instituted the orders of Bishop, priest and deacon in the first place. 

I guess I am of the opinion that if the position of priest was abolished, there would be a

form of religious leadership that would evolve would descend into clericalism just as surely as do some priests do today.  Clericalism is ever with us.  But what we do need is an image of priesthood that is NOT imbued with all the arrogance and exclusivity that we see in so many priests.  I remember writing a paper in seminary using George Hebert’s Memoirs of a Country Parson as a paradigm for priesthood.  It served me well.  But all too often what we see of many priests is the outward desire to be seen as God’s representative and little of the true humility of living out the life of Christ. 

The vocation of priest is hard to live because so many have different images of priesthood.  To live the calling means that one needs to be constantly in relationship with the Holy One so that the Voice that calls also reminds one of their failings.  There are too many who are willing to demand an image of priesthood that is not in keeping with God’s call to us.  I have had people of my parishes want me to be their parent, their ruler, and their step-n-fetchit and at the same time fight me at every turn all in the name of the peace of Christ.   

Being willing to be out of step with society is a constant for those called to be priest.  I can never use the greater society as the pattern for my life.  For those who are introverts it is a bit easier than it is for extroverts because the interior voice is a bit louder but discerning which voice, God’s or self, is still difficult. 

To face the issues of power in our lives is the same for anyone.  But religious power has its own particular evil attached.  To use power of any kind is for the Christian is always a trial because power can be so easily used for ill.  In the early church Power was seen as a manifestation of Evil.  It was referred to as ‘Principalities and Powers’ and was something that was understood as demonic in nature.  I do not believe that power in and of itself is evil.  But it is so easy to blindly use power for ill, thinking that one is using it for good. So

the power in religious leadership constantly has to be raised up to scrutiny so that the image of Christ as the humble itinerant rabbi can be seen and the message that he taught can show forth the Holy One of Israel.   Learning how to do that IS part of the work of the seminary.  It is part of the work of the Commissions on Ordained Ministry in our dioceses.  But it is the work of the individuals who have been called to this unique and mysterious vocation of religious leadership.  It is this constant review and the practice of it that truly creates the ‘priest’ rather than the laying on of hands of the Apostolic Succession.  It is what keeps the Church a living and creative presence of God in the world.

What a difference 1,500 miles make: Cambridge and FTW

What a difference 1,500 miles make!  I would have truly enjoyed my being back in the haunts of Cambridge, MA if some bug from the airless flight hadn’t caught up with me.  Cambridge was in TOTAL bloom this past week.  When we arrived it was still a little cool but the flowering trees were all out.  Redbuds and forsythia as well as tulip trees, pears were a riot of color everywhere our shuttle or taxis went.  For a bit, we couldn’t tell if it was raining or it was the fluttering of cherry blossoms.

When I was in seminary there, I didn’t take shuttles or taxis.  And as a Harvard grad, J is an inveterate T traveler.  You don’t see flowering trees on the subway!  But there is a difference in spring there and spring in DFW.  Yankee spring is short, wet and often chilly.  The flowers absolutely shout through the clouds as if to say:  “Damnit!  Summer is coming!” And they bloom all at one time.  In TX we have long springs with several weeks of color and often a month of pleasant temps before the summer comes.  This spring has been quite lovely in TX too.

Cambridge has about as much ‘Old World’ charm as you are going to get in the U.S., I think.  The tweediness of Cambridge makes it feel a bit more British than the rest of the U.S.  It is reserved as most academic worlds are, but Cambridge likes to be a bit more.  Speaking with a college-bound young Texas woman who could have gone anywhere she wanted, she  found Cambridge ‘cold’ emotionally and unwelcoming.  That is the way that most Southerners find the Yankee demeanor.  You don’t just start up a conversation with people at the bus stop as you do here in TX (that is if you can find a bus stop in TX!).  But I know Yankees to be anything but cold and uninviting. You need but go to a BoSox game or watch the Bruins in the playoffs.   They are as passionate as anyone else.   Their friendliness take a different turn:  it gives the introvert enough respect to think through things and allows the extroverts to make fools of themselves.  It is all tolerated rather than judged.  It is different than in TX where all is met with ‘niceness’ that is often rather phony or judgmental. 

The number of bicycles on the roads and at T stops is awesome.  The ‘green’ considerations are greater.

  And the progressive understanding of medical issues was certainly a relief from the money politics of TX.  I have missed that environment:  one in which the public welfare comes before all else while still giving outstanding care.  And this was only weeks after the bombings.  There was security but not officiousness and that was a relief.

Cambridge is a mecca for every language and nation.  You can’t get comfortable with YOUR way.  There are just too many people there who have other experiences for you to demand that your way is the majority.  Cambridge forces one to consider others in ways that one has never had to in the South.  And if there is any answer to world peace, it may just originate in those locales like Cambridge where a world-view is the only option one has.

There is nothing like being back in an environment like that!  It stirs up one’s thinking.  Even one day back in the ‘grade school’ of your theological training gets those old juices going.  And even while I was feeling so lousy, new ideas would come to me that I wanted to explore, to write about, and to preach about.  Don’t get me wrong.  I do love living in TX once more around my friends and family, comfortable with the customs and the ways of being.  But Cambridge does rattle my thinking cage.  It does not let me be too comfortable. 

I am so thankful for my Episcopal Divinity School training, too.  All of our Episcopal seminaries have a unique quality to them.  EDS has always been a place for scholarship, but it is scholarship with a decided world view.  We learned with a ‘hermeneutic of suspicion’ which really meant “don’t believe everything that you read” or “t’ain’t necessarily so.”  It forced us to base what we learned and what we later taught and preached to be rooted as much in good scholarship as it was rooted in our faith experience. 

Parish ministry can make a priest rather theologically lazy.  Working 70 hours a week precluded much

scholarship while I was in active ministry.  That is why most seminaries have lectures or continuing education programs for their graduates.  The seminaries gain from the experience of returning people in active parish ministry and who can stay current with what is being taught.  It has been too long an absence from Cambridge for me.  J and I need to go back more often not only to remind us of our salad days, but also prepare for what is yet to come. 

EDS has always been willing to stand on the edge both of education as well as theology. For a while EDS was considered too radical and some bishops refused to send seminarians there.   But if the Church is going into decline which many pundits are expounding, I am thankful for that training that valued standing on the edge of society to proclaim the gospel of Jesus, the itinerent rabbi from the Galilee who also stood on the edge to remind Israel of the call of the Holy One. 

Generations--a power construct rather than a faithful community

I am beginning to understand what it means to be discounted because I am a senior person and I don’t like it.  I have years of experience and have mellowed over the years so that people can hear the message of God that I have been privileged to be granted to tell. 

I remember being young and feckless.  I remember the amount of pain that it gave me because I had no patience and I had no understanding of the advice I was being given by those who wanted to help me.  But one thing I am very grateful for is that I did my

clinical training at a geriatric center while I was in seminary.  There I learned to respect those who were my parents age and older, and listen to their stories.  There was wisdom there.  Those people had served in the Pacific during WWII or endured Nazi POW camps or lived through the Depression, or the Dust Bowl.  There was even one woman who was a survivor of the Titanic.  I listened to the pain of their lives and the joys too.  And most importantly I listened to how God had acted in their lives.

Sometimes I had to listen to the same stories over and over.  But that came with the territory.  It was part of their healing and it was part of my education of how God heals us of the stupidity of our youth.  But I always had respect for the history of those folk, of the life experience they had and while it didn’t quite fit the era I was living in, there was much to be learned that I could use for my own life.

I find that I am running up against those who think that I have reached the age that I should just fold up my tent and go away.  I am not technologically astute (but 70 yr. olds don’t generally have blogs.)  I am slow of foot and creaky at best, but my mind has not gone.  And I do speak a spiritual language that most understand and many appreciate.  In fact, I am much farther along the religious spiritual continuum than most of the Gen Xers who are still trying to get the Spirit to abide by the canons of the Church.

 The Church is a mean muthah at times.  It does not support anyone but the majority.  And sometimes the majority is just plain wrong! We certainly have seen that in this diocese.  Being the contrarian that I am, I don’t trust the majority at any time.  Partly that is because I am of a minority.  But it also comes from listening to those who told their stories when I was a seminarian.  The way that those people survived the trials of life was by listening to their inner voice—that quiet way that God whispers in our ears of what is right, just and merciful.

Jesus was a contrarian too.  Over and over he holds the constructs of his society up to the light of faith and proclaims them bogus.  He called the

majority to become the minority or stand in the shoes of the minority.  He did miracles for the outcast.  He admitted the ostracized to his way and taught them to stand for those who had no power or rights.  He also taught with the passion of faith, not the words from theology texts.  He taught with humor and in good rabbinic fashion he taught with metaphors and miracles to understand that God calls us to a kind of radicality that eschews ( I love using that word!) being of the majority.

One thing that listening to seniors does for one is recognize that the construct of  of generations is bogus.  I am supposedly of the “Quiet Generation” but that generation that was anything but quiet.  It was those of us who were born during and shortly before WWII who brought about the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, and the Peace Corp.  We were anything but quiet.

 Generations by definition are majorities who have glammed together because they think that they have characteristics that are alike.  But not all people in that generation think alike and should not be encouraged to do so.  It does not allow the Spirit to move in their generation to step forward in the unique of holiness. 

I have blogged before on the indignity that the young foist upon those with white hair when they call them ‘Sweetie’.  The indignity that the majority always foists on the minority when they are unwilling to ‘wait their turn’—unwilling to listen to the wisdom of lived out experience—unwilling to acknowledge their sophomoric claim to rightness rather than being faithful to the Spirit of embracing the wholeness of humanity.  It will not be long before those same generations will be angry and fighting those who are younger than they are when they have learned of their stupidity.

It was only in the late ‘60’s that we began to hear of the Generation Gap.  It is a Boomer

construct that allowed the awesome glut of those who were born after WWII to ignore the needs of those who were before them or behind them.  Their ‘me’ culture has destroyed the freedoms that their parents had fought for.  And it divided our populations into generations ever since.  Each group now has to have its own characteristics rather than think about what it means to be whole. 

By ‘whole’, I do not mean the ‘majority’.  The majority is a power construct.  The ‘whole’ is the combinations of insiders and the outsiders, Jews and Greeks, males and females, slaves and free, that Jesus envisioned for the People of God.  The outcasts were part of the whole in Jesus’ mind.  They were practitioners of the way—the Way of equality, of generosity, of mercy and grace. 

Perhaps I am of the age that has to move over.  But I don’t think so just yet.  That time will come soon enough for various reasons.  And no matter what age we are now, we will ALL get there soon enough.  But we don’t need to be moved out just because someone in the majority says so.  Christ is not about power plays.  Christ is about mercy and caring for others.

Friday Five: April Showers Bring May Flowers

Jan posted this wonderful Friday Five:

Recently having driven from Corpus Christi to Houston to Austin and back to Corpus Christi, Texas, we saw the effects of rain and drought on the byways. South Texas is in a severe drought situation, but the route between Houston and Austin was graced with some recent rainfalls so that wildflowers were abundant. Otherwise, there were few to be seen.

With the old adage "April showers bring May flowers," let's look at the weather and vegetation in our home areas to see if any May Flowers will be blooming.

1. What spring flowers and plants do you see? Or will see sometime in the future?

Jan is only about 6 hrs. south of me but the climate is quite different in Corpus and Ft. Worth.  We have already seen our Texas blue bonnets and I have geraniums blooming on the patio.  I planted some marigolds in my herb garden hoping to keep the bugs out but it seems that either the cats or the birds have taken their blooms off already.  The bushes in the front of the house have been abloom for the past 2 weeks.  I don't know what kind they are but they have tiny little pink flowers.  I will have to take a leaf to the local nursery to find out.  This is our first spring in this house so we are finding out what we can do here.

2. What kinds of weather are you experiencing in April?

We are having a good bit of rain.  (Sorry, Jan)  We don't get much with each rainfall but I haven't had to water the garden much.  It can vary almost 40 degrees in a day here.  Yesterday I needed to be in shorts to work in the yard and by nightfall I was huddled in my fleece.
3. What are the stereotypical harbingers of spring in your area? How about where you grew up?

Spring came as early as Easter here.  We had a wonderful egg hunt at church and the little girls could wear their summer dresses.  Rain is one harbinger.  We don't get much otherwise.  The dove begin to coo and the birds begin to sing

early in the morning.  We see more kinds of birds as they begin their migrations to the North.  And my nose starts to run.
4. What season do you like best in your home area?

Spring is really the nicest here in FTW.  I goes on for a long time usually.  Much longer than Spring did in the North.  It flits back and forth between warm, shorts kind of weather and cool rainy days. 
5. What is sprouting or blooming in your life? What do you wish for?

The diocese here has been split for the past 4 years by a schism that has had to go to the Texas Supreme Court to be decided.  It has been a bloody battle waged between the extreme conservatives who abhor women clergy and those who want to get on with life.  The schismatics still have much of the property and all the endowment.  Those of us who are still Episcopalians struggle along with just 8 church buildings and 14 parishes that are meeting in jury-rigged locations.  It has made for a rather energetic and wonderfully elastic environment in which people have been willing to try new stuff.  I have been hearing people really share their faith and talk about how to live Christian lives in the face of it.  We are growing like crazy (a new family nearly every week) and I am going to present at least 10 adults for confirmation next month (and Amy is going to present a goodly number of teens) next month.  It is probably the most spiritually exciting work I have done during my priesthood.

We should hear from the courts by the end of the month I am told.  I have been holding my breath for 3 years though and so I will believe it when I see it.  Both J and I will be back in harness if we get all the property back.  I am certainly glad I took all that interim training. 
.

Hearing the voice of the Good Shepherd

It has been a rough week.  The news has been full of bombings and explosions.  There have been graphic pictures of murder and mayhem.  Our news reports tell of horrible crimes and accidents that keep us mesmerized wondering what is going to come next. 

I have lived in the Boston area when I was in seminary.  I know what the Boston Marathon week is like.  My heart goes out to those who live there and the violation of their city that these bombs have done. 

At the same time, closer to home we also hear of the terrible explosion of the little town of West just south of here.  We have seen graphic footage on the news of what can happen to a small town when fertilizer, usually a constant element, loses its stability.  They still have not found all the missing.  Our hearts go out to these places and we offer to aide such places in their time of need.

It has been hard to watch these events and view them with the eyes of faith.  We want to ask, “What is God doing?” or “Where is God in all of this?”  But in both of the instances what I saw in the videos that were run ad nauseum on the news was not just the explosions, but those who ran to help.  Over and over we saw that as soon as the initial explosions happened, there was a swarm of first responders who scrambled to help those who had been hurt.  In the West explosion, the largest group of deaths was of those who were first responders.  They were those who were willing put their lives at risk to help others.

It is this kind of action that gives me hope.  What I kept seeing in the videos and the reports was of heroic action of those who rushed NOT AWAY from the explosions, but TO render aide to those who had been injured.  Whenever we have such horrible disasters we continue to see the best of humanity come forward.  Acts of terror still bring out the greatest heroism; disaster requires a greatness of human spirit.  It is in this that I see the life of Christ lived out most readily by those who may not even know what they are doing.

As some of you know, I have always had difficulty with the sheep-shepherd image of Jesus.  Particularly with the image of the sheep as the followers of Christ.  Origen, the 2^nd Century theologian whose commentary of Scripture was quite allegorical, said that sheep represented the unthinking part of our selves.  And I have a hard time thinking that those who rushed unthinking to the aide of others was sheep-like.  But if it was sheep-like, it was the kind of sheep that I want to be like.

In today’s Gospel we hear Jesus confronting those who wanted simple answers to his place in the Temple during Hanukkah.   They want to know if Jesus is the Messiah.  Jesus says that they do not believe he is the Messiah because he is not of his flock.  “The works that I do in my Father's name testify to me; but you do not believe, because you do not belong to my sheep,” Jesus says.  He is saying to the naysayers that they cannot recognize the goodness, the holiness of his actions because they do not recognize his voice.  Belonging to Christ’s flock has less to do with what you believe but what you do. 

The voice of the Christ that calls us to lay down our lives for others is something that goes way beyond belonging to a specific denomination or believing a certain set of religious tenets.  It is the call to martyrdom that has nothing to do with church attendance or even commitment to a specific faith.  It is the response to something that goes against all our human need for self-preservation.  It enters into the realm of the mystical—it is the response to a call to be more than human, greater than is natural.  It is to reach out in goodness for the benefit of others.

We don’t talk about the mystical very often in the Church.  If there is anything that the Church has traditionally been wary of over the 2 millennia of our existence it has been mysticism.  The mystical is so ‘off the charts’ and uncontrollable.  But it is in the mystical that we know the voice of the Good Shepherd. 

Last week Amy got you to talk with others about your faith during the sermon.  It something that we Episcopalians are  not very comfortable with, yet I do find that here at St. Martin’s I have found more people willing to share faith than other parishes I have served.  Part of that has happened because of the split in the diocese and having to claim our relationship with Christ more publicly than usual.  It is also the time we live in:  we are embarking on an era of mysticism, I think.  We are not interested in doctrine.  We are interested in how the relationship with have with God can be lived out in our daily lives.

Like the flock of Jesus, we want to live out our faith, not discuss whether we living by all the rules.  Jesus said to those who were questioning him in the Temple, ‘it isn’t about whether I am the Messiah or not.  It is about what you are going to do with your life.  Are you going to live according to the goodness of God or are you going to hide behind all your rules and laws?’

We have found among us those who are willing to respond to the greatness and goodness by rushing to help those in need in times of disaster.  We often call those people heroes or saints.  I have been a bit depressed about how often the press is ready to label action as heroic when it is doing what we are called to do as those who are faithful to God—faithful to the call to care and help.

Now the important thing for us today is that this impetus to respond to the needs of others goes beyond disaster times.  It is our everyday.  Those who follow Christ are those who are laying down their lives for others every day. Those who listen to the voice of the God, laying down one’s life is the default in life.  Whether it is raising of children, taking care of those who are ill, listening to the concerns of others, running a business and caring for one’s employees or teaching skills to others, it is all about laying one’s own life down for others.  The sacrifice to be at the service of another is part of the glue that holds society together. It is participating in the goodness of God.  We become the incarnate Christ for others.

Those of us who hear the voice of the Messiah and follow him are known by making ourselves available to others.  It is the only way we can look at what has happened this past week and not despair.  I would invite you to give thanks for those who gave their lives in the service of others this week and to pray for them and their families knowing that you too may hear the voice of God to do the same one day.  It is what we do.  It is what it means to walk in the light of the saints and martyrs of the faith.  But we have nothing to fear.  It is the life of Christ that we live.  Amen.

Dangerous Obedience

This morning I heard another one of those sermons that stopped me in my tracks.  I listen to sermons on the radio as I drive to church on Sundays.  I listen especially to George Mason, Sr. Pastor at Wiltshire Baptist in Dallas.  He doesn't preach like most 'Babtist' preachers I know.  But he does preach like someone who knows God and doesn't shilly-shally around about it.

I have always wished that Episcopalians titled their sermons--but I know that there are too many of us who Dangerous Obedience. Using the story of Peter's continued preaching in the Temple after he had been imprisoned   he talked about those times when being obedient to the will of God put yourself in harms way.  I have known that experience on several occasional   Those of us who participated in the Civil Rights struggle in the '60's knew what it meant to be disobedient for a greater good--to hear the law of God speaking louder than the civil law that kept people imprisoned in customs and majority-held subjugation. 

don't even really think about their sermons until the Sequence Hymn.  But catchy little titles are sometimes harder to come up with than a sermon. But my brother George had a title of

As a Roman Catholic I had come to understand obedience.  It is the primary virtue for Roman Catholics, I think--at least it is the one that is spoken of the most.  Before I had my eyes opened to the abuse of Jim Crow in the South, I think I was a pretty law abiding citizen.  I still am.  I obey traffic signs and the laws of the land mostly.  As an ordained person I have vowed to obey my bishop.  But I have also known when that obedience contradicted the law of Love that is at the center of my relationship with Christ

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. knew that he had to disobey the laws of the oppressive South for the good of the nation, for the good of humankind.  He worked for the liberation of all persons who were subjugated by others who had power.   Our obedience in Faith is not to human authority.  It is to Christ that is represented by that person: bishop, superior, canons, laws.

At one of our gatherings of clergy women I met a newly ordained 'young thing' who was meeting this vow of obedience as a great badge of courage.  She could not even imagine that she would ever disobey her bishop.    I must admit I smiled at her.  There are those with authority who do not deserve to be in the positions that they are in.  Obedience to them contradicts the vows that we make.  It is our obedience to the Christ and the love that he witnessed to that speaks louder than the superficial obedience that makes us acceptable at some level in society or in the Church.  I suggested that she stop and think of what could tempt her to disobey her bishop and what she would do.  Because at some time it will come.  It is painful and demoralizing.  But it will come.  Our authorities in this life are always imperfect.  The Law of Love is not.

I know that in my career I have grappled with this obedience over and over.  I do not disobey the authorities

in my life lightly.  But ultimately I must always balance the 'good order' with the integrity of the Gospel and my relationship with the Holy One.  I know that in one instance I not only had to disobey my bishop, but I had to work for his removal because he had lost his center in Christ.  It is a horrible feeling.  But it was right.  If I had merely obeyed my superior without balancing it with what Christ calls us to, I would have been betraying not only my relationship with Christ but also my relationship with the Church that had ordained me.  It cost me a lot.  The Church does not forgive this kind of 'dangerous obedience' easily.

In Brother Mason's sermon he reported the death of Elwin Williams, one of the white racists who beat up the likes of Congressman John Lewis back in those very heady 'civil disobedient' days.  I have met Congressman Lewis on several occasions around the Jonathan Daniels memorials.  I wept when I heard the

story that George told of the forgiveness that came after all that anger and hatred.  It is now almost a half a century since those days.  Many of the feelings of those days have faded but the power of forgiveness has not.  Obedience to Christ always leads to healing; it always leads to freedom.  It always liberates us from the moments of our lives when either in our pride or in our determination to be right we fail to see the Christ in one another for whatever reason.  But those hurts are still with us.  And until we are willing to open ourselves to that radical, dangerous obedience to Christ we can never know the grace that comes with forgiveness.

If anything that 'dangerous obedience' leads to is the kind of freedom that says that God comes first.  It says that God's desire for us to know deeply that incredible openness that allows us to let go of  fear.  It allows us to step out with a graciousness that is not determined by other's authority, but of God's.  It allowed us to break the law in the 60's because the law was wrong.  It has allowed me to live the integrity of God's law in the face of manipulative people in authority.  It has also allowed me to let go of those who cannot heed my advice when I know they are going in a way that is destructive, knowing that God will chose another to guide them.  These kinds of freedoms are the manifestations of Dangerous Obedience.

But Dangerous Obedience is not just a personal event or orientation.  It must be communal.  Dangerous Obedience must be the work of us all otherwise the abyss of antinomianism would threaten to consume us as Martin Luther found out in 16th century Germany.  The liberation of God allows us to obey with conscience and without anxiety the Law of Love.