2014.01.19 One Little Prophetic Photo

Here is one little photo that appeared in the Boston Globe’s Metro section on January 17th. It should have been on the front page. Maybe it wasn’t because there is something “wrong” with this picture.  

It pictures the Rev. Anne Robertson, United Methodist clergywoman and the executive Director of the Massachusetts Bible Society, making the Christian sign of the cross on the forehead of Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley, anointing him with consecrated water and saying traditional words: “Remember your baptism and be grateful.”

This is not the expected order of things.

At the parish where I was Priest Associate in Gloucester, MA. there was consecrated holy water in the font as you entered the church and we dipped our fingers into it, blessed ourselves with the sign of the cross, and murmured, or said aloud, “Lyn, remember your baptism.”  It was a customary gesture, not unusual. We did it to renew a faith commitment, often very difficult to keep. I used to love to see children clamor to be lifted up to the font so they too could stick their small fingers into the water and joyfully giggling make the sign—all over themselves.

This little photo shows such a usual ritual—unusually administered. Would a Protestant  clergywoman be tracing the sign of the cross on the forehead of a Roman Catholic friar and cardinal, “Prince of the Church?”  

Yet here it is in living color. It's so darn Christian. I mean if you really follow Jesus you have to speak out wherever you see injustice, greed, cruelty and other inhuman behaviors. You also have to be kind of crazy and bust through walls of rigid rules, especially patriarchal ones. This is what I see here.

The photo was taken at an ecumenical service at a Sudbury Methodist Church last Sunday at which O’Malley had been invited to preach in order to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Cardinal Richard Cushing’s visit to the same church to promote Christian unity. The drill was that O’Malley would dip his thumb into the consecrated water and say the words to Anne Robertson who would then take the bowl of water from him and go to offer the ritual gesture to the others present. 

But O’Malley didn’t follow instructions. He anointed Robertson then gave her the bowl inviting her to do the same for him. It was a powerful expression of shared Christian identity. Nothing in his gesture violated Roman Catholic teachings, yet the image speaks volumes about change.

Much of the change Jesus stimulated he did with his body. He went places he wasn’t supposed to go, healed people he wasn’t expected to heal, dined with people who were outcasts, and invited women to follow him and be apostles of the gospel.  Scandal—2000+ years ago and today. Women’s ministries are still not fully accepted in roles and places of authority in the Christian church. And women's ordination remains against the law for Roman Catholics. 

O’Malley didn’t perform a sacrament, yet he made this familiar ritual mutual.  He broke rank with expectations—the man, the priest, the father, the holy father, the hierarch—received from a woman that which he was supposed to give to her, not vice versa. The Cardinal gave her pride of place and she gave him the touch of a woman. Robertson was moved to tears by the unexpected gesture. See her blog at annerobertson.org for more in her own words.

Extremists have weighed in of course. Those opposed call this gesture “heresy,” “disgrace,” and a repudiation of the sanctity of Holy Orders. O’Malley didn’t ordain Robertson. She’s already ordained and he gave that status respect. At the other extreme, some have downplayed the gesture calling it one of “courtesy," a simple exchange of blessing. Ho hum. Yes, and more.

The photo of course has gone viral. It’s news and I hope good news. No, not an official priestly gesture, yet an outer sign of an inner grace, perhaps an icon, a window through which we can glimpse divinity, dare I say Godde's will?  

To me, what the camera’s eye reveals is prophetic, a visual that simultaneously foretells the future of the Christian church—and advocates for that future.

2013.01.27 Atheist/Faitheist/Theist

Recently I heard a talk, sponsored by the Massachusetts Bible Society, by Chris Stedman, the Assistant Humanist Chaplain at Harvard and the author of Faitheist: How An Atheist Found Common Ground with the Religious.

I braved windy frigid weather to go hear an avowed atheist!?  I remember once 20 or more years ago I began a talk for a Connecticut parish group with “I’m an atheist.”  People shifted in their seats. I quickly followed up with my reasons, which still hold true. I am an a-theist, because I do not put faith in the God, still promoted by many religions and individuals, who is imaged as partial, selective, power-happy, supportive of violence, exclusively defined, and altogether conditional with divine love. Add to those descriptors, infallibly masculinized—by image and pronouns.    

That’s my a-theist platform. It’s why I went to hear Chris Stedman. He is part of a group of newly organized Boston atheists. They don’t believe in God at all, but rather in the strength and salvific power of human compassion generously shared. I also believe in that but, since genuine empathic compassion is relatively rare, when I see it freely given for no reason, I tend to think it expresses Divinity; it does feel supernatural.  God is in that kind of love.

At the talk I was filled up with words ending with -ist, the suffix that identifies a practitioner of some -ism or other.

I confess to a slight bias against -ist and -ism words, although I am a feminIST devoted to the core values of FeminISM.  The trouble with -isms is that whatever goes before the -ism usually holds all the power and can become a dominant and possibly domineering perspective.  I hear  this lopsided braying the left.

Chris Stedman is both atheist and humanist, but he is not an -ist/-ism type.  In fact he is open to conversation in a compassionate context among and within all religious and irreligious or anti-religious perspectives. In short, I found him a man of integrity who identifies as a committed atheist without a conversionary agenda. He is committed to a life of service and has faith in human potential.

He told his story, coming from a non-religious, secular home, to meeting an open-minded pastor, to conversion to evangelical Christianity, to intellectual religious studies, to atheism.  

Chris’s book title, Faitheist, is engagingly, invitingly ambiguous. When I asked him about the God he didn’t believe in, he responded that he wasn’t comfortable with the supernatural aspect of God. He asked. “Why must people use God to describe love, justice, and reconciliation?” God language does not feel authentic to him.  I don’t think we are far apart. Further conversation would be nice. 

I came away with warm feelings and hope that all voices will be heard and respected as we join together to make this world a better place, whether we speak of that as serving God or not. The Rev. Anne Robertson, MassBible Executive Director, expressed this in prayer: “Whether we look to a God that transcends human knowing or whether we find our salvation in the depth of human compassion, it is love that binds us—love that feeds us.”

We will be know by our acts—but also by our words.

I pose some questions for reflection: Who is the God you don’t believe in?  What is your own image of Divinity? What words do you use to speak about your faith?

MassBible:Learn More About this Best Selling Book

MassBible?

Is that a Mass celebrating the Bible? Or maybe it means that masses of Bibles are available for distribution all over not just in hotels like Gideon Bibles. But it could mean that the Bible is a book in which masses of people can find their own experience and the inspiration and guidance of the divine spirit.

MassBible is the new name for the Massachusetts Bible Society (MBS), Christian ecumenical organization that just celebrated its 200th anniversary, an organization of which I have been a trustee for many years. Massachusetts Bible Society will remain the organization’s corporate identity name.

I’m a trustee because I love the Bible. My ministry is to study it, preach from it, teach it, pray with it and lend my time and energy to MassBible, an organization whose mission is devoted to it.

The Bible keeps me sane and drives me nuts at once. It is full of inconsistencies, intricate weavings of many voices and traditions; in fact, it’s got everything but the kitchen sink in it. And that’s not an insult but a compliment. The Bible is a rich nutritious stew.

Biblical redactors made wise decisions centuries ago to leave all the interpretive voices in the canon so the overarching message of God’s loving, creating, saving, life-giving intentions toward all Creation could be available to anyone who seeks to enrich her or his faith by praying with and studying the Bible from generation to generation.

My own definition of the Bible is that it is a multi-authored, multi-genre collection (hymns, psalms, poems, teachings, sermons, parables, just plain story) compiled for the single purpose of revealing the divine/human relationship. The main character in the Bible is not God nor humanity but their relationship. That relationship takes center stage and the Bible is the story of its unfolding through thick and thin as the people endeavor to live faithfully with their God who calls them into community to do justice, love kindness and walk humbly with their God. (Micah 6:8)

In spite of the lack of consistency in data in the Bible, there is a consistent pattern to the divine/human relationality: connection/disconnection/reconnection. This patterns repeats itself over and over and gives integrity and unity to the whole. Every time there is a disconnection either God or humanity reaches back for reconnection. Nothing, as St. Paul famously wrote to the Church in Rome, can separate us from the love of God. Not even ourselves.

MassBible is committed to the authority of Scripture as a source of wisdom and inspiration. We take the Bible seriously but not literally. It does contain facts but they are incidental to the overall spiritual vision it seeks to convey. It is a primarily a theological not an historical document. We recognize that no one voice or interpretation holds sole authority. We are committed to listening to each other’s understandings. We respect the need for multiple voices and know that the last word has not been spoken.

The mission of MassBible has evolved from the distribution of Bibles by horse drawn wagons to a sophisticated operation including the operation of a bookstore. Today’s focus is on the promotion of biblical literacy through live educational events as well as on line resources such as lectures by biblical scholars, a link to ask your questions of a professor, book reviews and recommendations, and updates on biblical topics, resources and newsworthy developments, even Bible games and a DVD series. MassBible has also established a media center in collaboration with Andover Newton Theological School and located on its campus where our offices are also located.

I invite you to join this centuries-long faith journey that God and humanity are on by learning more about the Bible and the work of MassBible at www.massbible.org.

You might like to be a trustee. Think about it.