Moving Notice

I have recently moved from here to http://crossintents.wordpress.com/
Hope to see you there!

On Pandemics

I intinct in a cup of lies.
I intinct in a cup of fear.
I intinct in a cup of shame.

I break bread not chains.
I break bread not stereotypes.
I break bread not walls.

I pass on a pandemic not peace.

Where is the cup of salvation?
Where is the bread of life?
Who will they say that I am?

- Chris Travers ‘09

Strong, Loving & Wise and Elements of Rite in Conversation: Book Review

Aidan Kavanagh’s book Elements of Rite: A Handbook of Liturgical Style is comprised of six sections dealing with the essential elements and intentions necessary for transmitting and recapturing the mystery, beauty, celebration and meaning found within liturgical rites. The book is written with the thesis in mind that, as clergy practices with regards to the Roman liturgy took on an understanding that the forms of liturgy as they are found tend toward the mere practice of narrow rubricism. As a result of this view, Kavanagh suggests that the liturgical style of presiders and the liturgies themselves took on a malaise all of their own. Implicit within this argument is the notion that the presiders own understanding and spirit toward liturgical presidency can and does affect both the form of a given liturgical rite and the ability of a given worshiping community to pray and celebrate. The intentions of clergy toward movement away from perceived rubric marginalization of the rites appears to be, within his presentation, a movement forward to provide liturgies that were relevant for the time and place of the Church. This understanding further points to an understanding that the intentions of clergy were to attempt to unburden the worshipping assembly and its ministers from perceived rubrical encumbrance. Kavanagh proceeds, in development of the thesis presented, to suggest that the lack of success resulting from the clergies intentions was not a lack of ‘good’ intentions but rather a misunderstanding of the nature of human ritual in general and the liturgy in particular. (Kavanagh 1982, 1-2)

In so far as an understanding that the Ten Commandments provide God’s creatures with a greater freedom through obedience than chaos ever can, Kavanagh has proposed that the rubrics of a given liturgy provide the ministers and the worshipping assembly with a greater freedom within the rites themselves. The premise behind such an argument derives from an understanding that the laws and rubrics provide both congregation and minister with the necessary boundaries from which to experience God’s grace, mercy, judgment and love which the liturgical act that allows retention of the acts integrity as both a ritual act itself and as an act of the communion of churches which celebrate them. (Kavanagh 1982, 2)

The book does not concern itself with the specifics of the rubrics themselves. Kavanagh lays out rather an explanation of their value and reasoning which sustains their usage as foundational for the rites. One cannot, be they presider or member of the worshipping assembly, attain the freedom implicit and explicit in the rites, he suggests, if they are subject to the whims and tastes of the liturgies presider. Liturgies that have been thrown together as a way of simply avoiding the perceived narrow rubricism, despite ‘good’ intentions often if not always have the opposite affect.

Supporting Kavanagh’s thesis are ten affirmations concerning the nature of Christian liturgy: 1) Tradition and certain good order are qualities of Christian liturgical usage; 2) The liturgy is hierarchically structured; 3) The liturgy is an act of the Church; 4) The liturgy requires focal points in space and time which are constant and stable, and which have about them a certain sober splendour; 5) The fundamental criterion against which all liturgical things, words, gestures, and persons are measured is the liturgical assembly; 6) The liturgy happens in space and time; 7) The liturgy is neither a text nor an audio-visual aid; 8) The liturgy forms but does not educate; 9) Because the liturgy is a species of the genus ritual, it is rhythmic and repetitive; 10) The liturgy assumes the closest correlation between visual, sonic, and kinetic media of expression. (Kavanagh 1982, 10)

Kavanagh presents a relevant, consistent and theologically sound argument for the practice of and participation in the liturgical rites of the Church that is profound, knowledgeable and cuts across socio-cultural movements through time. Through the presupposition that the liturgy is in all places and at all times the common expression of the worshipping communities prayer, praise and function as it pertains to God’s revelation, Kavanagh has written a book that provides clear expression of how best to provide liturgies that are faithful to an understanding that at any liturgical experience the participants are partaking in the prayer of the Church universal. While this understanding of Kavanagh’s argument may at first appear to negate liturgical reform and hold to an explicit narrow rubricism to which many clergy believe impedes worship, the foundation as laid out behind the his thesis provides a framework for liturgical reform and renewal that finds expression within an understanding of the Christian community that is free in obedience and grounded in scripture, reason, and the tradition of the Church.

In as much as, Kavanagh’s thesis is dealing with the liturgical rites and Robert Hovda, in his handbook Strong, Loving and Wise: Presiding in Liturgy provides an approach to presiding and an understanding of the foundational material necessary to preside faithfully, they are in agreement along a number of lines of thought. In both cases, the author’s provide a structure that provides for freedom within the boundaries of rubrics in the liturgy, and what could be called rubrics for the body as the role of the presider. For both sound liturgy and sound presidency require an intentional framework that speaks in unison with one another that enhances the worshipping communities prayer and praise and avoids ‘sloppy’ practices. Both Kavanagh and Hovda, stress the importance of repetition in ritual which grounds and centres a worshipping community in the presence of God. Within the multitude of worshipping communities I have found myself over the years, disregarding variations in liturgical styles, the ones that were done with clear intention, reverence, planning and forethought provided the space in time and location that transformed worship from an event that was spectacle to an event that was prayerful.

Bibliography

Hovda, Robert W. Strong, Loving and Wise: Presiding in Liturgy. Collegeville: The Liturgical Press, 1976.

Kavanagh, Aidan. Elements of Right: A Handbook of Liturgical Style. New York: Pueblo Publishing Company, 1982.

Susan Boyle: Judged by Beauty

Bruce Hamill wrote a brilliant and condemning post about our reaction to Susan Boyle at Per Crucem ad Lucem which is well worth the read.

We realized for a moment our own judgment. We were the judges judged by her truth. And then another thing happened. We began to tell stories which justified the world we are a part of. We could not face the judgment that her unveiling made upon our world, so we turned the attention on her heroism, in such a way that we could in fact adore her as an appropriate idol and icon of our time. Like Pilate we avert our gaze from the truth that judges us. Where Pilate asks the dialectical question, we renarrated the familiar ‘rags to riches’ tale in which there is no judgment or surprise and Susan’s triumph is the logical conclusion of our meritocracy. She becomes the hero so we can avoid the spotlight being turned on us the audience and the world of American Idol-atry that we participate in.

Yet it goes beyond this does it not? Sure there is a rewriting of the narrative in order that we can sweep the judgment underneath the rug, a re-narration that is still based in the meritocracy. We are ready and willing to accept the 'rags to riches' tale that is being spun out because what came out of her mouth when she began to sing, made up for the lack of outer beauty. We can handle substituting one beauty for another, but how different would her story be (if there were one at all) if when she opened her mouth to sing a squawking horrendous sound came out?

Are we truly a society that cannot see Susan Boyle as another beloved human being who is on the same earth, walking the same paths we're walking, trying to find herself as the rest of us are trying to find ourselves?

Prayer

Thanks to David W. Congdon who posted this over at http://fireandrose.blogspot.com/2009/04/ten-theses-on-prayer.html. Thought I would cross post it here for those who aren't familiar with that particular blog.

Ten Theses on Prayer

1. Prayer is an act of faithful obedience to God. We pray as part of our discipleship to Jesus Christ. We are not compelled to pray; there is no law that demands prayer. Instead, prayer is an act of love which follows from our acknowledgment of the fact that God first loved us.

2. Prayer must conform to the two primary models of prayer in the New Testament: the Lord’s Prayer and Jesus’ prayer in Gethsemane. The so-called “Lord’s Prayer” (Matt. 6:9-13; Luke 11:2-4) is a template for all prayer in that it encapsulates the basic elements of prayer: the glorification of God’s name, the submission of our lives to God’s Kingdom, the humble request for our basic provisions, the penitential asking of forgiveness, and the petition for protection and deliverance from sin. The prayer in Gethsemane provides an even more fundamental picture of prayer in the total submission of our wills to the will of God. Seen from this perspective, prayer is not “getting something from God,” but an acknowledgment that God alone can act on our behalf. Prayer is an act of faithful submission to the sovereignty of God’s love. We must interpret all other passages about prayer in Scripture in the light of these two paradigmatic prayers.

3. Prayer is not magic. We do not pray because we think our words compel God to act differently. Prayer is not divine manipulation. The strict opposition to witchcraft and sorcery in Judaism and Christianity should extend to include those forms of prayer in which we expect our words to control or influence God to perform miracles.

4. The efficacy or worth of prayer is not dependent upon the result of a prayer. A prayer is not efficacious because it achieved some empirical “result”—a quantifiable answer. For example, the prayer for the health of a sick person is not worthwhile only because that person became well again, nor should it be deemed worthless because the person did not become well. We must expunge all notions of “success” from our concept of prayer. Prayer does not conform to our modern capitalistic ideas of what is successful; rather, the faith out of which prayer flows defines what is truly successful.

5. Prayer is a primarily an act of listening to God, rather than speaking to God. While prayer takes the form of speaking to God, it is properly a mode of receptivity toward God. Of course, we must take not the idea of “listening” literally. Prayer is not a form of information-gathering. Instead, prayer is a form of listening in that we attend to the Word of God as proclaimed in Scripture and preaching.

6. Prayer is a political act in that prayer acknowledges a Lord who stands over against Caesar. Prayer challenges all earthly claims to lordship—whether social, economic, political, or religious. In prayer we seek the face of the triune God and submit to this Lord alone. Prayer is implicitly the denial of lordship to any creature. Positively, prayer acknowledges the sole lordship of the triune YHWH—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

7. Prayer is the proper mode of all Christian worship. Prayer is definitive for what counts as true worship, since in prayer we are concerned with a concrete relationship between an I and a Thou, between the worshipping community and the worshipped God. Worship should not be about God. Instead, worship is a living relationship in which we commune with God. Prayer is therefore the concrete form that all worship should take.

8. Prayer is the living bond between the covenantal community and the God of the covenant. Prayer is not primarily an individual act, but rather a communal act between the people and God. The God who brings the covenantal community into being through the covenant of grace in Jesus Christ calls forth our faithful, loving response as a community through prayer and supplication.

9. Prayer is a groaning in the Spirit with all creation. According to Romans 8:18-27, all creation “waits with eager longing” for God’s apocalyptic in-breaking, which will free the creation from its bondage. Creation groans as in labor for the coming of God. As part of this creation, we “groan inwardly” in the power of the Spirit, “for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but that very Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words.”

10. Prayer is the cry of faith, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit of Jesus Christ bears witness that we are indeed children of God by bringing forth the primal cry of faith: “Abba! Father!” (Rom. 8:15; Gal. 4:6-7). All true prayer begins and ends with this cry. It is the mark of our identity as God’s covenantal people. It is the cry that defines us as God’s children, “and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17).

Looking toward Jerusalem II

Thursday January 29, 2009, the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams gave an address at the World Islamic Call Society Campus, Tripoli, Libya. The address was titled: "How does God reveal himself? A Christian Perspective" of which I would like to share the following as we continue our journey toward Jerusalem and the Cross.

God has made the world to display something of his nature and his power, but he also speaks through his witnesses in history. So for St Paul, the habitual ignorance of human beings as a result of the betrayal and fall of the first human beings has to be addressed first by the giving of the Law to Moses. But sadly, this Law has itself become – against God's purpose – another means by which human beings try to get beyond their dependence on God, so that they imagine they can make themselves pleasing to God simply by their own efforts. So God acts once again to overcome this new error and rebellion. He acts in history to open the door to a new possibility for human beings , and he does so in the person of Jesus Christ.

Thus God always seeks to make himself known. God knows that when we fail to see him and know him, we condemn ourselves to a darkness of spirit that means we never become what God wants us to be. So he desires to bring light into that darkness – not only for the sake of human beings but for the good of all creation.

The address in its entirety can be found here: http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2150

Looking toward Jerusalem

"...in order for this life and death to have the sort of saving effects on others that it has, one must be God, and work by the power of God. Thus, Jesus, to all appearances and as far as any metaphysical inquiry can tell, weeps and feels terror before death just as any human would: what is odd is the way Jesus overcomes these anxieties and fears - for example, the way he nevertheless conforms his will to the Father's as the Father's own Son would - and the saving consequences of such acts - Jesus overcomes our weeping and terror by weeping and being terrified...

A locus classicus of this process can be found in the words attributed to Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane: 'Father, if it is possible let this cup pass from me; yet not my will but your will be done.' A human fear of death, both natural and accentuated by anxiety before death as what brings separation from God through sin to its awful culmination, is here expressed, accompanied by the tears and tribulation that are the human lot under conditions of sin, and then overcome through conformity with the will of the Father, a conformity that is naturally Jesus' own in virtue of being the Son of God, the one whose very will is the will of Father."

Tanner, Kathryn. Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity: A Brief Systematic Theology. Edinburgh: T &T Clark Ltd., 2001. 18 & 30.