To Make Something Good Together in the World

From The Potomac Almanac, 30 Mar. 2017 (and The Sounds of St. Francis, 3 May)

Shortly after we moved to Potomac, our eldest son joined the local Cub Scout pack, 773, which is sponsored by Potomac United Methodist Church.  The pack our son had joined near our former home in Virginia was newly established, with just a handful of kids and a rather harried group of parent volunteers always scrambling to pull things together.  It’s been exciting to be part of a much larger pack here, with a really talented and committed group of leaders and an impressive variety of activities.

We were expecting that the Pinewood Derby at the pack here in Potomac would be pretty special.  But nothing we had seen yet quite prepared us for the event that unfolded a few Saturdays ago in the United Methodist Church’s Parish Center. 

The Pinewood Derby isn’t quite as old as scouting itself, but it goes back over sixty years, when a scoutmaster in California decided that his charges weren’t quite ready for the then common project of constructing cars out of soapboxes to ride in down a hill themselves (these were the days before soap came in plastic wrap and people worried much about liability insurance).  The scoutmaster’s idea was to have the boys to whittle or cut a car out of a small piece of pine, to nail on some simple wheels, and then to race the cars down an inclined track.

Ashes for All

“Blow the trumpet in Zion; sanctify a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people.

Sanctify the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants.”

Joel 2:15-16

Once upon a time, you needed to qualify for ashes on Ash Wednesday.  They were reserved for notorious sinners, those whose evil deeds had cut them off from the communion of the Church.   Like more than one of our inherited Lenten practices, the ashes were originally part of the church’s discipline for flagrant lawbreakers—thieves, adulterers, murderers, those who actions brought scandal to all those who profess Christ’s Name. 

Forty days before Easter, these lawbreakers would come to the courtyard before the church barefoot and dressed in sackcloth, confessing their misdeeds.  These penitents, as they were called, would heap ashes on their heads, as God’s people had done in ancient times.  This was a a way of expressing their sorrow for their sins.  The whole community would surround them, chanting the seven Penitential Psalms, which exalt God’s mercy for the wicked.  The bishop would read from Genesis about Adam and Eve’s expulsion from paradise.  Then the penitents would be sent away, forbidden from entering the church door.  They could return after they had proved their intention to make a new start through a rigorous fast. 

Members of Christ and One Another

From the Sounds of Saint Francis (16 Feb. 2017)

“For as in one body we have many members, and all the members do not have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.”  Rom. 12:4-5

About a month ago, we took the plunge and became members—of Costco, that is.  As our boys are growing, we’re seeing skyrocketing cereal and soap consumption.  There happens to be one of those behemoths of a store not far off Allison’s route from the rectory to Catholic University.  I’ll admit to being at least moderately enthusiastic about the project.  That night we were having a dozen churchwardens over for Friday dinner, those half-salmons were excellent for the money.  I do like the samples on the ends of the aisles.  And when you need a bale of paper towels…

But it still seems strange to think of myself as a Costco member. I’m happy to be a customer, maybe even, in time, a loyal customer.  But for me, membership should suggest something more existential or transcendent.  My association with Costco is purely transactional.  I don’t feel that I belong to Costco, that the institution somehow depends on my loyalty.  It’s silly to imagine that the institution would be diminished should I forget to repay my annual fee at the proper time (though I’m sure they will be much more insistent about tracking down that sum than any church stewardship committee I’ve ever known).

Ponder: "A community you cannot curate."

"One of the reasons the Church community can prove so challenging is that it forces those in it to share their pew with those whose paths they might never otherwise cross. People with clashing political views; people who have a wildly different experience of God that bears no relation to what you know; people who take exchanging the Sign of the Peace as an opportunity for a firm handshake, eyes lowered, or a full-on bear hug. Every Sunday, we are told to queue up for bread and wine with whoever happens to have walked through the heavy wooden doors at the back. In a society in which membership is falling not just in churches but in trade unions and political parties, the Church presents a challenge: come be a part of a community you cannot curate. It can be awkward and uncomfortable. It is often beautiful."
Madeleine Davies, "Those Who Applaud the Decline of the Church Will Miss it Once It's Gone."  politics.co.uk. 31 May 2016

Ponder: A clear alternative that demands we all grow up

Yale’s Halloween costume hubbub is not specifically about Christianity; but it is about community. The wisdom of the Benedict Option for this situation is in its unwavering insistence that cultural trends are only going in one direction, and if you want safety and flourishing, the Church is your best bet. We, as Saint Benedict did, are looking out on a world that is eating itself alive. We pity it and we pray for it. We remain cheerful, equipped with the armor of light. We offer a clear alternative that demands we all grow up. We define ourselves by the light of the Gospel, and we bend our knee to the king of kings. In obedience to his gracious rule, we find both our safety and our self-worth. In the hard work of true diversity within the body of Christ, we learn humility. We strengthen what we have by common prayer and faith in action. We expect our communities to grow. And we wait."
Andrew Petiprin, "The Benedict Option and Yale."  Covenant, 4 Dec. 2015

Emmanuel: God with us.

O Emmanuel, our King and Lawgiver, the Expected of the Nations and their Saviour, come to save us, O Lord our God.

O Emmanuel—it is a resonant name, “God and man hyphenated,” one author calls it.[1]  It means, “God is with us,” and the One whose coming we expect, Jesus the Messiah, His name, Saint Matthew tells us, is Emmanuel.[2]  You know this name perhaps, from the prophecy in Isaiah chapter 7, which we have just heard.  But you probably know it best of all from the great Advent hymn, “O Come, O Come, Emmanuel.”  It is a translation of a medieval Latin hymn, which is in turn a versification of a series of beautiful antiphons.  These are one sentence anthems designed to be sung before and after Mary’s Song, the Magnificat at Evening Prayer during the last eight days before Christmas.  In that series of antiphons, and in the original Latin hymn, O Emmanuel is the last one, the antiphon for the Eve of Christmas Eve.  But when the great John Mason Neale was translating the hymn, he put it first instead, and so we know the whole hymn by that immortal plea, “O come, O come, Emmanuel.”

It was a wise choice, I think, for it is the finest of the antiphons, and in a way it is the summary of all of them.  The antiphons and the verses of the hymn chart a series of images, drawn deep from the well of Old Testament prophecy, mostly from Isaiah, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament.  O Wisdom, O Lord of Might, O Root of Jesse, O Key of David, O Dayspring, O Desire of Nations: but together, in their prayers for wisdom, for protection, for fulfillment and deliverance and peace—all of them can be summarized, O Emmanuel, O God be with us. 

Ponder: They miss me if I'm not there.

"That's what these programs sell, along with soul and power, a venue far more intimate than the gym.  They offer a place to belong, a correction to that loss of social connections that Harvard's Robert D. Putnam diagnosed in "Bowling Alone."  Washingtonians are sweating together.  In a recent study and symposium, two Harvard Divinity students compared CrossFit to church, a place where unaffiliated millenials find community and spiritual togetherness.

Solidcore is Anne Callas's community.  "If feel like they miss me if I'm not there," says the 34-year old librarian, who is training to become a coach.

In a city as transient and as uptight as D. C., this is awsome--the ability to create relationships and community," says Solidcore's Bradshaw.  Indeed, the two-year old program's goal, according to the promotional video, is "to create a second home."

Karen Heller, "Sweat Equity-What's Behind the Rise of Intense Boutique Fitness Programs?"  The Washington Post 4 Dec. 2015, C4

For Reflection: "Mass Consumerism Reshapes People."

The ideology and practice of mass consumerism reshapes people—their fundamental visions of who and what they are—not into active citizens but acquisitive consumers.  Society itself is transformed not into a rich network of various sorts of communities and social institutions that together comprise a civil society that promotes human flourishing, but rather a national mega-supermarket of endless products and services where shoppers (having been “empowered” by their incomes) seek human fulfillment through mass consumption.  In such redefined human and societal realities, things like community life, civic participation and political engagement become extraneous, almost meaningless.  They are reduced to places where the rules of the market, wealth distribution and product safety and determined.  In the end there is no such thing as a common wealth, a public square, a common good.  All that exists are income-earning workers, commodity producers, service suppliers, markets, regulation and sites for satiating consumption.”  Christian Smith, et. al., Lost in Transition (2011), 217.