Category: Theological Rant
Heart Imposition
Knowing that commitment unleashes energy, what can I commit myself to today?
(Daily Question, Gratefulness.org, Jan 31, 2018)
It’s that time of year that followers of Jesus begin thinking about a discipline or practice for the season of Lent. This year, Ash Wednesday is February 14. Yes, if you’ve not thought about it yet: Ash Wednesday on Valentine’s Day. If I was in Godspell, I would expect to receive a heart imposed on my forehead rather than a cross. Maybe that’s what we need in our context. To have our hearts and heads better connected, realigned, or reset. Realigned head and heart religion instead of “you are dust and to dust you shall return.” There is an abundance of dusty death throughout the centuries and in our midst. All kinds of Christians still struggle with “love God and love your neighbor as yourself.”
When you think about Jesus of Nazareth, without a christological faith claim, a heart on the forehead represents how Jesus met people at wells, along the road, and at banquets. Jesus had a heart for people seeking better health, inclusive community, and for the comfortable complacent ones assured they would be first rather than last. Would it be an edgy faith statement to sport a heart rather than a cross this Ash Wednesday? It would invite conversation, which we need more of, and less debate.
On Ash Wednesday, members of our Regional Youth Council, (youth and adults that serve on a leadership team for the Christian Church in Oklahoma) will post a weekly devotional on my blog page, Old Camp Hat, hosted on the Region’s website. Yes, you may not know that Pam, Leslie, and I each have a little blog page on the Region’s website. I confess that we are not very active writers, but we want to be. Each Wednesday, one or more RYC members will offer some thoughts about Lent and their experience of being a follower of Jesus. So, please stop by each week, as RYC unleash the energy of a discipline during Lent.
I’ve been asked what my discipline will be this year. I’ve ‘practiced’ a variety of disciplines, from thirty minutes of silence to learning to roller blade. Quick aside, I’ve got a nice set of roller blades, size 8, and accessories, if anyone is interested. Rather than give something up, I add something to my living during Lent, which requires me to shuffle my priorities and let something go. This year, I’ll be adding sermon prep as my discipline and posting thoughts on the Lectionary texts each week on Old Camp Hat and my personal blog, davisonsdoodle.com. Why is this a discipline? I’m not an every week preacher. I’ve been a witness to ministers’ schedules and preaching preparation, so this will help me deepen my understanding of what local ministers experience. If I was a weekly preacher, I most likely would blog about the process — kind of a ‘back of the house’ look at the formation of the sermon and my thinking. It would not really be a full blown text, but thoughts working on me as part of the process. I’ll post on Tuesday afternoon during Lent.
Commitment unleashes energy. What will you commit to this Lenten season?
Edgy Advent
Here we are again at the edge of Advent. Like a power point on loop or your favorite song or album on repeat, the story of the life and times of Jesus of Nazareth is beginning. Again. Decorations go up and come down. There is a parable or two, a beatitude, a great commandment, a meal. Hope races toward Good Friday and a garden where there is an open tomb when Christ is proclaimed. Rather than epiphany, Jesus’ story can become background noise that is sentimental, but not transformative. Maintenance medication for the symptoms of all kinds of “isms” that will not go away no matter the execution of the cure.
Tense, nervous, irritable, unable to relax all describe what it means to be “on edge.”(1)
On edge. That describes my observation this year of our culture, our body politic, my neighborhood, the world, and my brand of Christian witness, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). I don’t think your politics, theological, or ideological perspective matter. Little has felt “normal” and maybe that is not a bad thing.
I am re-reading Borg and Crossan’s, The First Christmas. This quote has captured my attention.
The imperial kingdom of Rome — and this may indeed apply to any other empire as well— had as its program peace through victory. The eschatological kingdom of God has as its program peace through justice. Both intend peace — one by violence, the other by nonviolence. And still those tectonic plates grind against one another.(2)
I’ve been thinking that Advent is a bridge of some kind that spans a chasm from one kind of living to another kind of neighborliness, compassion or grace. You no doubt have better words that describe what the other side of Christmas is or is like. For me, Advent has become a bridge conceptual understanding of the great commandment (or Golden Rule) to a practice equipped for a diverse, pluralistic and simulcast connected/disconnected 21st century.
I know you will, as best you can, actively travel through Advent, winter Solstice, and the shopping season to go and see this thing which God has made known to you. I trust you are surprised by the Messiah that is birthed in your life.
Me? I need a daring, provocative, or trend setting “edgy” Advent experience of hope, peace, joy, and love this year.(3)
That’s the character of Jesus I read about in the gospel narratives and the good news of God that Jesus proclaimed.
Notes
- on edge. (n.d.) Farlex Dictionary of Idioms. (2015). Retrieved November 30 2017 from https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/on+edge
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Marcus Borg, John Dominic Crossan, The First Christmas: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus’s Birth. HarperOne (New York) 2007. p 69-70.
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edgy. (n.d.) American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. (2011). Retrieved November 30 2017 from https://www.thefreedictionary.com/edgy