 |
| Photo by Bill Burkhart |
I’ve been in school for the last 6 years. Occasionally I try to convince myself that it would be better (easier, more fun, less controversial) to return to being spiritual but not religious rather than a practicing Christian. I have failed miserably. Entering into a tradition of prayer, Bible reading, church-going and communion has changed not only me but the very context of my life. It has changed what frames my life in ways that simply being open and available for spontaneous spiritual experience could not. (Come to think of it, I should re-center myself around a regular yoga practice. I really should. I know I’d be happier, healthier, more in tune with myself and spiritually revitalized if I did. But Christianity is something else again.) Practicing Christianity has given me not just a newly refurbished or reinforced center but a new story. Who I am and who I am meant to be is re-shaped by this story and yet, oddly I feel more like myself as a result. I am not simply re-centered but reframed in something greater than myself that simultaneously makes me more available.
Participating in this story requires first of all a suspension of disbelief. This is the open attitude Aristotle recommended for appreciating a play. And guess what: I’m good at that. I like plays! But it turns out, I am not just watching this play. I am in it. This requires an act of the imagination and an embrace of risk more than an act of faith. To tell the truth, it’s more like my experiences in improv dance and comedy than my childhood experiences of “going to church”. I have chosen to live my life within the framework of a passion play whose story I won’t ever completely understand and whose ending I can’t control. My particular lines have not yet been written. I will have to figure them out as I go along but they require that I be authentic. Playing my part makes meaning for me and other people so it is important that I tell the truth. Other texts and other plays are always involved. Christianity isn’t the only drama that matters. But it is the story I have chosen and that has chosen me.
I suppose in a way I am still spiritual but not religious in the sense that being religious is not my goal. Living in the story of Jesus is. If anything, this commitment has made my critique of religion much sharper.
My participation is a choice. After all, I could always leave the stage. The play is the thing. But it is my job to make it matter that I stay.
*
What story shapes your life?
How are you shaped by the stories you tell yourself or the stories other people tell about you?
Do you think of yourself as smart and successful?
As lost and confused?
As victim or victimizer?
As privileged or oppressed?
Take a moment.
Tell the truth.
Pause
*
Now, consider this: would you be interested in backing up and finding yourself in a larger story?
A story where it is revealed that you are always both?
*
I kill Jesus every day.
And I await his resurrection.
This is the story of hope because it is true.
*
Learn (for the practically inclined)
Open your BCP.
Don’t have one?
Borrow one from church next week and bring it home with you.
(If asked what you are doing with a BCP under your arm, you can blame me.)
Or find it online here: https://www.bcponline.org
Find Daily Office Lectionary in sidebar menu and click on it
(p. 937 in actual Book)
Now Click on Advent
Scroll down to week of 2 Advent, Year 1
That’s today.
Find Tuesday
Read one of these
Psalm 26 and 28
Isaiah 5:13-17
I Thessalonians 5:1-11
Luke 21:29-38
A link to the Bible is right there!
Ponder, wander, free associate.
There is no official interpretation.
Just a doorway to reflection.
The BCP is a tool for prayer and faith exploration FOR YOU at home alone
not just a means of making community in church
or a complicated service manual for priests.
This is what I have learned.
Steal this book.
Make it yours.
Amen.
Post by Mary Barnett
No comments:
Post a Comment