The First Day of Spring 2020
Around the year 4500 BCE, ancient people in the Middle East discovered that the plant growing on the edges of waterways had multiple uses. Among them were clothes, shelter, food, baskets…and later on, paper. The papyrus plants gave birth to writing many years later. We benefited from the move from oral tradition to written tradition as stories, poems, songs, got put onto scrolls........ in what later became the Bible.
What people frequently wrote about were their observations of a world in chaos and the yearning for order. From Homer's The Odyssey to Jeremiah and Luke, ancient people wrote about a world around them rattling with conflicts and uncertainties. Collective anxiety and depression were present in the writings dating back to, well, the beginning of writing…dare I say, the beginning of human consciousness.
What we are experiencing today, therefore, is on one level, not new. In a globally interconnected world, however, everything is amplified. Cable News, Facebook, Texting, and E-mail allow us to share our collective anxiety and possibly to intensify it. The purpose of this letter is to offer an antidote........not to the Coronavirus itself, but a remedy for the escalation of collective anxiety.
Ancient writings from around the world, including the oldest narratives of the Hebrew Bible, make clear that the loss of shared values and meaning in culture cause people to suffer both psychologically and spiritually. True today, as back then, is the realization that a growing sense of despair and deep uncertainty about the future of the world is a dominant theme of life.
That’s my starting point:
· Life is Difficult.
· Life has Suffering.
· Life is Not Fair.
Our way forward begins with an honest acknowledgment of that reality. The real reason the cross is the central symbol of the Christian faith is the honest reminder that suffering is the wound we all carry as humans. We are meaning-seeking people keenly aware that loss, grief, fear, and the termination of life, surround us. Facing this reality is Step One in our Twelve Step Program of Life. We begin here because it is true.
Our knee jerk reaction to this truth is to attempt to exercise some semblance of control over the unfolding events that remind us of our frailty. How else can one explain the excessive purchases of toilet paper? People are attempting to control one small aspect of life in a world run amuck. Truth be told, our attempts at control, while they may bring us temporary relief, do not address the underlying angst of these days.
“But, Bishop, tell me what does? What brings relief?”
Ah, the desire for the quick fix....... the easy answer.......... the magic pill.
We live in the age of the quick fix as one Rabbi reminded us years ago. There must be an answer. As if on some secret gnostic quest for the hidden truth, we are all looking for the one thing that will bring relief to this angst and pain we are experiencing. I'll come back to this, but first, I offer an observation about Holy Communion.
In the last week, the anxiety drive within our tradition (Lutheran movement of Christianity) is centering around Holy Communion. Suddenly, all across the country, ELCA Lutheran clergy in particular (but also a few lay people) are clamoring for a quick fix to our dilemma around the Sacrament of Holy Communion. There is a sense in these online diatribes that there must be an immediate solution.
While thoughtful conversations around communion and emerging new understandings of community are legitimate topics for reading, writing and reflection, let's do that together, but not as a quick fix. Instead, I'm most intrigued by the way this topic has sucked up all the oxygen in the room. Instead of congregations focusing their energy on building intentional communities of connectedness (see below for more), there is a headlong dive into "we need to get communion out to people NOW."
And yet, do we not also believe that the "Word" is a Means of Grace as well?
In New England, I have been discouraging our churches from practicing any of the proposed ideas around Holy Communion. These include, but are not limited to: Drive-Thru Communion, Virtual Communion, and Amazon Drone Delivery of Communion. While I understand the drive, I'm also keenly aware that in the church, we tend to bless a practice too quickly. Questions arise for me:
· After this is all done, will we normalize a regular online communion practice, later adding virtual baptisms?
· Will clergy of the near future opt-out of in-person communion visits because, well, it's more convenient via Zoom?
· And what of those, mostly older, who do not have internet access or comfort with digital tools?
Instead, I've been encouraging two acts that will serve us better in this immediate and temporary situation. These two areas of focus are not quick-fix solutions, but they may address the underlying anxiety our people are experiencing in these times, namely a loss of community and a loss of meaning.
Humanity is community. We are nothing, if we do not have each other. Knowing and believing this as a core value, some of our pastors have quickly moved toward shepherding or small group models. This Ancient/Future Church practice has all of the congregation divided into 3-4 households with one leader charged with contacting them twice a week. The leader stays in touch as they embody the Holy Spirit's glue in our temporarily disconnected body. As needs arise, that leader reports back to the Pastor.
This is not new. Jethro advised Moses in this way some 3,000 years ago. But in our time, a time of extreme loneliness (even before Covid19 sent us all to our rooms), people are yearning for community.
· Could these groups schedule periodic Zoom chats or conference calls?
· Could lay people pray for one another?
· Could lay people attend to the fundamental core values of our faith?
The early church was known not for its elaborate rationalizing of peculiar communion practices, but rather for its care for the widow, the orphan, and the dispossessed. Congregations focusing their energy on establishing this kind of care community would be living and dynamic sacraments. Is this not what Martin Luther highlighted in the confessions "mutual conversation and consolation of the brethren" as a kind of Means of Grace or sacramental participation in the life of God?
Humans are meaning-seeking creatures. Lutherans value Word and Sacrament, but in recent years and recent days, they have fallen prey to that ancient foil of dualism. In this case, we have divided Word from Sacrament as if they are two separate Means of Grace. I've seen scribblings in various Facebook posts as people reactively clamor to get the wafers delivered by any means necessary. What about the Word? Is not the Word also a form of Grace? Do we not still hold to the hope of a kick-ass Law/Gospel sermon? Could that not be delivered in writing, on YouTube, or even in a Pastoral visit with a member via Facetime? Meaning-seeking creatures are hungry for words, stories, and vignettes that remind them of the central antidote to despair, namely hope.
In these days of despair, as in the days of past despair, we find ways to move toward hope. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. She is a hope-driven being. Friends, this has been the way humans have made it through 10,000 years of civilization. Reading about some of the less than competent Kings of the Old Testament is a potent reminder that things have gone wrong in the past, and yet, hope prevailed.
Jesus the Christ presents the ultimate hope........ not because of some magic salvific formula that includes testimonials of devotion, but because he is the center of life. The Hope of the Cross and Resurrection, is that life has lasting and robust hope.
We are in 'temporary' times. Let's gain some perspective here. This, too, shall pass. We have been here before, albeit not quite in this way. We are not at the end. I am wondering if it might be the beginning of something quite hopeful. I'll write about that in my next letter.
