Beginning Great Lent

This is my standard introduction to the practices of the Christian season of Lent.

I realize that not all of my wonderful readers are familiar with the purpose and practice of the Lenten season. Stay with me as I indulge myself (and perhaps you) in a little bit of history and theology.

Where it Came From

In the earliest Christian centuries, once the Christian mission moved past Palestine and the "god-fearing" Gentiles (those familiar with and disposed toward the story of Israel's god, like Cornelius in Acts 10) and into the wider Roman world, it became necessary to catechize potential converts - to be intentional about teaching them the story of Israel's god, his people, his world, and his Christ, from beginning to end. Catechesis was a time of ethical reformation, as members of the church discipled these soon-to-be Christians in the way of God's New Community.

Much of the theological instruction for this one to three year period was put into the period of 40 days before the Great Vigil of Easter. The forty days brings echoes of Moses conversing with God on Sinai before receiving the Ten Commandments, the forty years of temptation in the wilderness that refined Israel, and the forty days when Jesus entered the wilderness for his communion with God and to prepare for his own testing. Forty days is a time of refining and of being with the Lord.

At the season of Lent, Christian converts receive intensive theological education, accompanied by prayers, confession and exorcisms - it is indeed an intense time of being with the Lord. The rest of the Church also walks through this time of penitence and learning and self-examination.

Walking with Jesus

It also has a place in the overall narrative of Jesus' life: At Epiphany, we commemorated his appearance to his people, and realized that he is the light that scatters our darkness. At his baptism, he was revealed to be the Son of God, bearing divine favor for the people. At the reception of John's baptism, he identified himself with the faithful remnant of Israel, and began to reconstitute the nation in terms of loyalty to himself by his calling of the Twelve; now enter the story of the last days of his ministry, when he begin to orient himself and his disciples to his vocation of suffering and death for the sake of the people. The story has taken a dark turn, and we join the Master as he sets his face resolutely toward Jerusalem. In solidarity with him, we begin the time of sorrowing for our sins and his suffering, walking into the darkness of our broken humanity in the hope of Easter's light.

So the matter of Lenten disciplines or practices is this: what can I do to set my own face toward Jerusalem? What in my personality and my life with the Church in the world needs to be put to death, and what does God wish to be raised up? I think we find the answers to these questions by putting ourselves in an intentional posture of listening: making a quiet space in our routines to hear from the Lord.

This is not meant for Herculean efforts of spiritual zeal - like boot camp for Jesus - but for a time of greater intentionality. We learn to be quiet and make space, preparing for the conviction of sin, and to offer our brokenness for his healing, so that when we do speak and act, we will do so as a grateful and repentant response to the Trinitarian God who leads us into truth.

We rededicate ourselves in practical ways to prayer, to seeking and listening to the counsel of our brothers and sisters, and in learning more deeply the Way of Life. In this practice-able, regular actions - these ways of making space - we invite the Lord to purge our personalities of the dross of the old nature, and to refine us more and more as part of the new creation. Repentance, it must be remembered, is a change of attitude, a new way of seeing that sends us walking in a different direction. Sometimes the turning is slight, and sometimes it's one hundred and eighty degrees. Our goal is not a particular spiritual experience or to start or stop a particular habit necessarily, but to be with the Lord and offer to him our readiness to turn in unexpected directions, to listen to words we would not have anticipated, and answer yes to him in ways we would not have imagined.

The time of Great Lent is upon us. May it be a holy one as we walk into the dark places of ourselves and discover that the Lord Himself leads us into the stillness of our solitary fears, to sit with us, to heal us, and to absorb all of our darkness into the Darkness of his Cross and the Light of Easter Dawn.

So how do we make this concrete?

Saying the office is a way of making space in our day that will sanctify the rest of it, and letting the Scriptures teach us how to offer our hearts to the Lord.

Centering prayer enables us to quiet ourselves in a deep, purposeful way, to stop the noise and stop the thinking and just stop … and wait for the Spirit of the Lord to come and do what it will. It's about giving him space to do the deep works he needs to do, but doesn't really need to tell us about.

Attending to the holy mysteries, and receiving the mystical body of Christ into oneself - does that need explanation? Salvation, after all, isn't only or even mostly in our heads. Salvation is performed, and salvation must be eaten.

Peace and blessing be upon you as you begin the journey of Lent in God's Church.

Still Thinking About the Church

We've just passed the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. I wanted to write, but really felt as if I have nothing to contribute to such a thing. I've been thinking and reading on the subject of ecclesiology for some time now (more thinking than reading lately), and it always seems to be a very divisive subject.

I have no use for Christians who take deep pride in their particular spiritual pedigree or denomination. In this region that pride is often in the form of their supposed lack of a "denomination." "I'm a non-denominational Christian," many will say gleefully - as if that were possible or desirable. Perhaps it is, but I cannot treat it as such a foregone conclusion.

Why even think about "ecclesiology" - what makes the churches "the Church" at all? If a Christian shares perspective with most forms of Protestantism, there is little reason indeed. In contemporary Christian life, it is commonly agreed that Jesus did not "found" any church at all, and that our churches are our own little man-made organizations that try to carry out the work of spreading the gospel and converting the heathen more efficient. I know this sounds glib, but that's what it comes down to: that the church exists because it is useful to our version of the Gospel (which we believe to be a separate thing from the church) simply because Jesus wants his people to "meet together."

On the other hand, what if Jesus didn't come to impart some information about God and a revised moral code? What if he didn't come with a way for us to have an individual personal relationship with God that we could practice with other people if we wanted to? What if Jesus really did found a community that really did have a real and physical existence in the world? What if being joined to Jesus through baptism and being joined to this real physical community really is the same thing, the same Godward movement that makes us alive and saves us from death?

Upon Christian initiation, one becomes part of Christ - in Pauline language, the Body of Christ. While I understand that one should avoid an ultimate identification of Christ and those who make up the Church (it is full of sinners, after all, for Jesus loves the riff-raff), we must say that if Jesus founded a "community of salvation," that an impaired communion with that Church entails an impaired communion with Christ himself. If that is a worthy question and a valid concern, our ideas about what makes up "the Church" really matter very much.

The bottom line is this: if the bedrock of the Christian life and God's work of transforming love in the world is a "personal relationship with Jesus," then theories about "the Church" are non-essential issues. However, if our membership in that community determines in some way our relatedness to God and his work of salvation for the world, than it is a first-order theological problem.

Ta Da!

I am now one of 5600 Americans without a credit card.

It always surprises me

... how many people imagine that publishers will sell $7.99 Mass Market paperback versions of the hot new thriller at the same time that they release the $25.98 hardcover.

I don't think they realize that publishers and writers and marketing staff and booksellers do it to make a living; it's not some kind of hobby everyone does for fun, this book-writing stuff.

It's always a strange moment when an old woman complains even as she pays me for her books that Amazon is so much cheaper. I considered telling the last one that since no, Amazon does not and would not offer any discount on her three mass market paperbacks, she was in truth saving on shipping. Most of you people probably don't read those, and I only own 4 in my entire library,* but now you know. I'd rather pay more and not get ink on my hands, but then again I'm not sitting in a dark room alone counting my pennies all night, either.

(I usually ignore things that old unpleasant customers say. One quickly learns that there is no good or right answer, if by "right," we mean, will make the bitter old woman happy. She is, after all, buying old woman pornography for a reason.)

I'm cleaning the house today. Probably.

*Susan Howatch's Glittering Images, an old copy of Catch-22, A Farewell to Arms, and The Moviegoer by Percy.

Stuff

I overheard Father Matthews saying something before Mass last week about "shedding the rags of popery." Right when the little vein in my forehead started throbbing, I realized that he know I was standing behind him.

Just because I'm spastic doesn't mean it's okay for the other kids to tease me like that.

Our monastery cat, Thunder, is stuck in the back of my desk chair again. He has really sharp, long claws, and they look very regal. He likes to climb up my chair, or attack our ratty old sofa sometimes. The problem is that he gets stuck, and cannot extricate his regal little claws from his large and unwieldy prey. It's pretty funny.

The cat just knocked over my little idol statue of Saint Patrick again. Okay, so maybe he's not the best monastery cat. But he is otherwise very pious. (We have little competitions.)

I just got back from Waffle House with my co-workers. Too much fun.

Marriage and Hypocrisy

I was just looking over the October 2007 issue of Christianity Today this evening (I've been busy, as you know) and was really struck by an article that called for better ministry to "stepfamilies." The point of the article is that instead of passing judgement upon divorced and remarried persons, churches should simply accept that everyone makes mistakes and welcome them into full fellowship.

I've heard of that before: it's called "welcoming and affirming," but it's usually applied to something just a little bit different.

"In many cases, divorce is indefensible, bringing serious consequences to adults and children. It should not be taken lightly. Yet to deny somone full forgiveness and the right to live life to the fullest in Jesus Christ denies the healing power of the Cross."

Denying the Christian legitimacy of a divorce and remarriage is a denial of the healing power of the cross? That's a stunning accusation. There's not a single nod in the article to the idea that Christian discipleship requires some basic decisions for self-denial.

Ron Deal's article, "Redeeming the Remarried" is a nearly identical to most arguments for churches celebrating same-sex unions. One of the really fun things about talking with evangelical Christians who are in favor of serial monogamy is that by the time they offer all of their conditions and caveats, they've left the door wide open in their theological house for the legitimation of same-sex unions.

Of course I also watch people go in one of two ways with this (if they don't ignore it altogether): 1) since we're obviously not going to be so draconian as to turn back the clock on our practices of divorce and remarriage, we should bless same sex unions, or 2) maybe if we're going to claim a theology of marriage, perhaps we should have one and quit legitimating the notion that everybody gets to define the meaning and boundaries of their own relationships with no real reference to the Christian tradition.

Option 1 would at least be honest, and option 2 would be a miracle.

Question

If john piper can have 'christian hedonism,' can i have Christian sadomasochism?

Oh yah, and I'm home now. (In case you hadn't heard the angels singing)

I am so bloody tired.

Anglicans

Has anybody paid attention to the Anglican/Roman Catholic buzz of late? One of the "continuing churches" that formed from the Episcopal Church (which we call T(p)ECusa or TCGC, if you'll recall) when that denomination started ordaining women to the presbyterate in the late 1970s has petitioned the CDF (that's Inquisition to you guys) for entry en masse to the Roman Church.

You can find some late details on this request by the Traditional Anglican Communion (TAC) here at Britain's Catholic Herald. Many of you will already know that Anglican priests who wish to become Roman Catholics may usually take advantage of "the pastoral option," and be ordained as RCC priests soon after renouncing their Anglican Orders. (This is interesting to folks because the Vatican doesn't mind that many of these men are married.) And of course, any Anglican lay person is free to just hook up at their local Roman Catholic parish.

I think the reason for making the broad request is that the bishops of the TEC would like to be ordained (or "conditionally ordained") as bishops and retain oversight in their parishes - this wouldn't happen if they renounced their orders and entered the Roman Catholic Church as laymen.

h/t: de cura animarum

What's Next?

A few friends and kind readers have asked me about my plans now that I've finished my M.Th. I've been thinking about a lot of different things, but here's the outline...

I really enjoy what I do at the bookstore, and the people with whom I work. While I didn't get the marketing position I wanted, I have been given leave to plan and execute at least one author event that I've been pushing for.

The work that I do with the people of Saint Patrick's Church is very important to me, and I'm working on two long term projects in Christian education and formation.

The first project is to design a standard program of Anglican catechesis and introduction to Saint Patrick's Church. St Pat's receives a lot of interest from folks who have come from evangelical protestant denominations, and while they might have been away from the life of any church for months or years, there's still an element of "culture shock" when people are introduced to our liturgy and philosophies of ministry. While we can't make the life of our parish less weird (because we are convinced that it's weird in a good way) we can take people aside to welcome them, answer questions, and provide a basic introduction to Anglican Christianity and its peculiar grammar so that folks will have the theological tools to "read" and therefore better understand what's going on in the life of our parish. We'd like this to be a four week, informal class that we provide 3-4 times a year, as needed. I hope that after a year or two of this, we'll have some well-formed Anglo-Catholics running around the place. Ahem.

The second project is going to be less work but a lot harder: our household is getting together with some other folks in the parish to learn what it's like to share life and a common Rule together with people of different interests and demographics, but who are interested in friendship, monastic practices, and learning to love our Lord better. I'll write on that as it progresses.

Would you believe that it sounds to some folks like I'm a drifter, since I don't have a salary, a title, or an ordination planned?

I won't have a fancy title (unless Father Matthews deigns to give me one) and it's not going to be lucrative. I still have a closet full of fancy dress clothes that I'm not using at the moment. This will not put me on the fast track to the priesthood. But here's the thing: I'm not looking to be a CEO in the Kingdom of God. This is not a matter of "climbing the corporate ladder" - I'm a layman of the Church of Rwanda, so there is no bloody ladder. A friend reminded me this week that there are plenty of people in plenty of churches who have heard a call to ordained ministry, and want to get themselves put into that ontological category ASAP so they can go about the "real ministry" that they're called to do. Right here and now, however, this is the very real ministry that I'm called to do: help build the life of the Church, learn to be a better penitent, and to call other sinners to turn to Jesus and engage fully in the life of God's new Community, and participate now in the life of the world to come. I don't need to be ordained simply to do that. I'm still thinking about priesthood, but any formal process for that really needs to be on the back burners right now, because more important than any institutional process is the question of my own formation in holiness and the life of Christ's Church. Our God has much to do in and with me, and I want to bend my body such that by the time somebody lays hands on me to make me a priest, I have already been formed into the kind of man who should be a priest.

Forming character is like preparing a roast - if you try to do it fast, you end up with something other than you were hoping for.

I am pleased to announce...

I have just received the official word from the University that I have passed the degree program. My dissertation, "Encountering the Christian Colony: An Evaluation of Hospitality as Proclamation" scored in the "Very Good" range.

I am grateful for the friendship, care and support that my friends have given me as I've undertaken the program.

Yours,

Kyle D Potter, MTh (Oxon)

Heh.

Some Catholic Converts Remain Protestant...

Let us imagine that a Protestant Christian were to sit down and read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and study for years the doctrinal differences between the Church of Rome and those of the East, and of the Reformation, and finally come to a place where he agreed with all of Rome's doctines, and finally joined the Roman Church.

That Christian would still be a Protestant.

As I see it, the central issue in Roman Catholic Christianity is not how its many particular teachings square with Scripture - for indeed, this is a Protestant concern - but whether God has given to the church the charism whereby it may pronounce infallibly upon matters of faith and morals, and whether the Bishop of Rome serves as a lynchpin for this divine economy.

This occurred to me when I was talking to a friend, and he related a question he'd asked of his parish priest: 'What are the essential Christian teachings?' The priest responded that this was a very Protestant question. Protestantism takes for granted that it is right and godly and proper for individuals armed with Bibles to continually second-guess the teachings of the broader church. See, for example, Michael Spencer's review of McGrath's new Christianity's Dangerous Idea.

Either the Church in council has the authority to pronounce in this way, or it does not. Councils doth err, or they do not.

My friend asked me why Anglicanism isn't just a stopover on my way to Roman Catholicism. I suppose that I can't know that it will never be, but I do know why it isn't now: councils doth err.

More to follow...

Small Joke

How many Anglo-Catholics does it take to change a light bulb?

27.

A thurifur, a boat boy, 2 Torches, 2 Crucifers, 10 choristers, 3 Acolytes, 4 chalice bearers, a Sub deacon, Deacon, Curate, and a Priest.

from here.

What is the Church? Questions about Ecclesiology

I've thought often about some advice given me by a colleague at Oxford a couple of years ago. He was a Canadian Mennonite who had been recently confirmed in the Roman Church. (Presumably he's still Canadian.) He suggested that I do some real work getting my ecclesiology sorted before getting anywhere near another potential ordination process.

Presumably my friends won't be free to frolic and play the whole time I'm in Oxford this month, so I'm going to do a bit of study in the RadCam. I want to do some focused reading on ecclesiology so I'll have some things to consider as I work a normal job for a little while. I want to get at the truth of what it's going to mean to spend my life as a Catholic Christian, and to do the theological work such that I'll know whether I can do that with integrity in an Anglican setting. Is there a future for Anglican Catholicism? I think it is our hope of a future, but of course I'm very biased.

So here's where y'all come in: as I consider what the Church is, what questions do I need to ask? What do I need to read? A kind Nashotah House reader reminds me not to neglect Ramsey's The Gospel and the Catholic Church, and I've wanted to dig into Radner's End of the Church and Reno's In the Ruins of the Church for some time now. I might go spend some time with deLubac's work and go back to see what my tutor has on his ecclesiology bibliography.

Suggestions?

Leaving

24th week after Pentecost
6th week of Michaelmas term
Days left in Lexington: 5

Life is good. I got to spend time with a lot of great people this weekend, and just enjoy myself. I've got just under a week left in the States. It's going to be low key; other than a trip down to Asbury to see Bishop Tom on Wednesday, I'll just be working and spending time with my friends before leaving.

I'm pretty excited about seeing Oxford folks again. I really wanted to spend an entire term there this past year, but I couldn't work out the logistics. I'll probably get a little teary-eyed at the airport. *sniff* It's going to be a great three weeks.

Heh.

I've been brainstorming ways to advance the Anglo-Catholic insurgency around here. I think when/if I get some money saved up, I'll start stacking some small kneeling pillows by the entrance to the worship space, so folks can pick them up if they'd like. ... with the Rector's kind permission, of course...

I've started to notice that our Eucharistic piety on the whole seems to be increasing by way of quiet liturgical peer pressure - in the same way that all those evangelicals started raising their arms in the 80s (or whenever), these evangelicals are learning to reverence cross and altar. Lord, form your Church.

Anglicans and Reformation

Everyone heard about what +Pittsburgh did, right? I'm wondering if I'll hear reactions from Richard+ or my new Nashotah House e-buddies...

Oh, and now Mrs. Schori is leveling the same threats (it's a form letter) at +Fort Worth. Hm.

Also, Father Pete is twriting a litle series introducing the English Reformation. Very readable. Go click.

I'm often told by folks who don't read history that Henry VIII somehow "founded" the Church of England over the question of his lust, as opposed to the "spiritual" reformation on the continent.

1. Christ founded His Church, and it spread to England.

2. Henry VIII needed an heir to take the throne, not simply another tarted up bed partner.

3. Medieval Christendom 101: the Church and what came to be known as the modern nation-state were very deeply intertwined. Lutherans certainly hold no moral high ground on the matter of local churches being led around by the nose by their secular overlords. Ahem.

4. On all sides, the Reformation was (the Reformations were?) both a political and ecclesiastical process. William Cavanaugh argues that the most staunchly Catholic territories in Germany were the ones with whom the Pope signed an agreement to keep his hands of their money and lands. Hm... (Think about it for a minute - then find the discussion in the first few pages of his recent Theopolitical Imagination.)

5. I think when we grow up a little bit, we quit trying to imagine that there is such a thing as purely spiritual causation in the life of the Church, removed from political/practical/temporal concerns. The dichotomy just doesn't work.

Okay, that's all.