Today, Mount Shoop gives us a bit more on this notion of 'in-form.'
I use 'in-form' here rather than "re-form" which would seem a logical trope given the Reformation roots of this project. "Reform," a wonderful, ongoing gift of our Reformed heritage, suggests change from something flawed to something correct. When we reform we amend what is wrong, we change to a better form, we correct. While this causation leads to change (that we always hope and pray is for the better), it carries with it a judgment of the prior behavior or action; and I want us to avoid such judgment as we stretch into our own embodied experiences. It is not that we first need to correct wrongs (although there are wrongs that can surely be healed in this process), but that primarily we need more room to know and to be who we are. Being in-formed is a tender invitation to open up to the light of Christ in you and to the embodied possibilities that we hold collectively. It is not necessarily a move from something wrong to something right; it is instead an enriching , a nurturing, a deepening, and an expansion. This in-forming dynamic also has a deconstructing nuance suggested in the word "informality." Informality soften some of the more rigid aspects of formal/accepted behavior, dress, and conversation. Informality has the capacity to clear blockages entrenched by our holy habits.
"We need more room to know and to be who we are." I see that as a time of dialogue. It is the life of the church that invites all to the table - for a banquet - for discussion - for offering a bit of ourselves and taking in a bit of someone else. This is the kind of language that comes from the Holy Spirit. It helps to make us look at what is happening between us and what is the future to which we all move - even as it appears as thought we move differently. We in-form each other. We bring them in and they bring us in - we become the body of Christ - the form of the Christ. In the meantime, we listen and share so that as we are involved in this kind of inspiring give-and-take we often will be surprised by the life that is among us and that which is just beyond and yet coming our way. Rather than stacking up argument of how we will change what is, we come ready to unfold that which we are so that as this become our manner, there will be nothing to hide. As Mount Shoop notes, sometimes we can become 'entrenched by our holy habits' - I'm sure we have all been there. Connection: What does it take to let go of our 'holy habits' and begin to welcome that which is beyond us and yet at our door - or in the room with us? Day in and day out I find it is a struggle that needs much attention from more than myself. Within the strangeness of all who gather in your name, O God, let our strangeness be seen as the gifts you bring among us as a Holy people. Amen. |
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