Litany of Penitence
(Yes, two posts, one day. Stop the presses. Heck, stop the planet!)
Last evening before our weekly fellowship dinner I lead the second-annual[1] Protestant Ash Wednesday service at the base chapel. I mentioned in the sermon that I've heard that Gospel dozens of times because I've pretty much never missed an Ash Wednesday service in my life.
I've also heard the Litany of Penitence over and over throughout the years. It occurred to me tonight--as it likely does every year--how something new comes out of the service and the readings each year. As another chaplain commented after the service, that's one of the wonderful things about the Word.
Last night, for me, it was this one little line that jumped out... Not even a full part of one of the petitions in the Litany:
"Our anger at our own frustration...We confess to you, Lord."
Often I find I cannot choose a Lenten discipline until after Ash Wednesday, and sometimes not until the First Sunday in the season. Now I just have to figure out how to turn that line into "giving up" and/or "taking up" something this season.
So... That said, what stood out for all of you?
---- I'm sure they've done more than that but when I got here in 2008 there had been a lapse with no Protestant Ash Wednesday service for a few years. [<--]
A Final Entry
This comes through a few other blogs before landing here. It made, for obvious reasons, quite an impact with me. And yet, despite the sadness of it, I laughed a lot reading it. For that reason, if no other, I would consider doing something similar here should those same circumstances ever roll around. Which, of course, we all hope they do not.
For now though, take a read.
Will I still be Anglican?
Someone recently asked, in regards to the upcoming meeting of the Anglican Primates, "I wonder if I'll still be Anglican at the end of the week?" After pondering that question for a short while, I realized it was fairly absurd[1]
Why is it absurd? Well, first off a group of Anglican Primates can't vote to kick a group out of the Anglican Communion. They just can't. They recommend. They guide. That's about it.
They also can't meddle in the internal affairs of any given province, like the Episcopal Church. Why is this important? Well, consider what makes any given Episcopalian an "Anglican." There's the Book of Common Prayer for starters. It is steeped in and comes out of centuries of Anglican tradition and theology. There is the Anglican theology that we hold[2]. Our prayers and beliefs make us more Anglican than attendance of our bishops at Lambeth.
So if the primates can't make us stop using the BCP, and can't order us to change our theology--much less uninvite us to Lambeth--how are they supposed to somehow make us "not Anglican?"
I was talking about this with Jane this morning, and realized just how silly it sounded to think that someone could make me "not Anglican." It isn't like we have membership cards that can be revoked.
"Please turn in your ID card with security on your way out of communion. We also reserve the right to check your person for Books of Common prayer, chalices, and other Anglican items, all of which will be confiscated if discovered."
Plain silliness. I'll be Anglican at the end of this week. At the end of next week. And most likely, unless something radical happens, in 10 years!
Besides, in all of this back-and-forth that we're living in, I keep thinking of one other thing. I may be Anglican, but that's just a bit of fine print down at the bottom of my non-existent membership card. I'm Christian. All this argument about whether this group or that group is Anglican, about how "my group is picking up and joining with the true Anglicans..." Have we lost sight of the fact that Anglic didn't die on the cross, Christ did?
Reminds me of some other troubles in the church, once upon a time:
Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you should be in agreement and that there should be no divisions among you, but that you should be united in the same mind and the same purpose. For it has been reported to me by Chloe’s people that there are quarrels among you, my brothers and sisters. What I mean is that each of you says, ‘I belong to Paul’, or ‘I belong to Apollos’, or ‘I belong to Cephas’, or ‘I belong to Christ.’ Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul? (1 Corinthians 1:10-13)
Sure, I was baptized in an Episcopal Church, but the point wasn't to make me a follower of Anglicanism. It was to make me a follower of Christ. It seems we're spending a lot of time defining who we belong to, but Christ doesn't seem to be on the list!
(Fr. Jake has much more to offer on all this. Worth reading and inwardly digesting!)
---- And, I should add, was probably either rhetorical or asked with a sense of the absurd. I doubt that the person who said this meant it 100% seriously. [<--]
- Which, traditionally, has wrestled with hard issues rather than splitting over them, which rather makes those calling for unity more Anglican than those calling for schism, in my humble opinion. [<--]
Commemoration of All Faithful Departed
The liturgical calendar of the Episcopal Church has an optional celebration today, "Commemoration of All Faithful Departed." In my experience this one is often overshadowed by All Saints' Day, celebrated either the day before or on the coming Sunday.
Since seminary made me more aware of this day, I've taken to thinking more about it, reflecting on this day about those I have known who have left this life behind.
This year in particular I got thinking about all those whose lives have been affected by war (thanks to Micah for the link, which contains a great amount of detail[1]). I'm not just thinking of the American men and women who have died in recent years, but those we have been fighting and those on the sidelines who have died as a result of the various conflicts. Many, I am sure, are not Christian and thus are not what we would think of as the "faithful departed." As a Christian, however, I am aware that everyone is made in the image of God, whether or not they choose to follow Christ as Lord and Savior. And I also suspect that God grieves every life lost in conflict, no matter what that person's beliefs.
I invite you to join me this day to remember all whose lives have been cut short because of conflicts around the world: Americans, allies, enemies, and others. And pray with me that one day no lives will be lost to war.
---- Click on country names, for example, for names of those missing or killed in combat. [<--]
Okay…
Surprisingly enough, my chief complaint in all of this isn't the protesting at military funerals. Granted that does bother me a little, not because they're military funerals but because they're funerals, period. A time when people are already on edge emotionally, and trying to greive and heal, and so on. This is not the time to be trying to stage a protest, especially when you're saying, "Hey, you do know that God took your loved one to punish America, right?" Yeah, not the most pastoral statement.
No, my chief complaint about all this is the line "God hates..." Fill in the blank with a person, group, etc. Do these people read the same bible I do? Do they worship Christ? I don't see how that's really possible. Or if they do, they've edited the bible heavily, for as best as I know that's the only way to put "God" and "hate" in the same sentence when referring to a human being. I just did a quick search on the NIV bible at Crosswalk. Interesting enough, there are some things God hates. For example, God hates some of the "detestable things" other people do in the worship of false gods. And He's (or She's) not all that thrilled with sacred stones.
But people? I don't recall reading those passages, and couldn't find any right off hand. In fact, the last item to come up on that search was 1 John 4:20: "If anyone says, 'I love God,' yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen." So someone who carries a sign that says "God Hates" and holds hate in his or her heart toward another human being, cannot at the same time be honestly said to love God. And if you really don't love God, why are you so concerned about who God might hate?
Perhaps the truth comes back to that old reality: We often fear what we don't understand, or what is different. But rather than admit fear, or admit that you're hating someone or something for your own reasons, you hide behind God. You claim God hates something, and therefore it is okay for you to hate it too.
The problem, again, is that God really doesn't hate people. God might hate behaviors, but not people, period. Normally I'm pretty open to the different ways people read the bible, different interpretations, and so on. But no matter what your views on human sexuality, war, poverty, ... on anything, I do not understand how you can use the words "God" and "hates" in the same sentence to refer to humankind. Not reading the bible I read.
A search on "God" and "love" reveals 104 initial results. That says something. So do these examples.
"But love your enemies, do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked" (Luke 6:35).[1]
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life" (John 3:16).[2]
God Hates? I don't think so.
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