I apologize for missing yesterday - I took the 'day off' seriously. Referring back to Barbara - the pentecostal 'spirited' woman who came to Mount Shoop's 'contemplative' prayer time - she note this about church.
This encounter with Barbara is an icon of our situation as mainline Protestants today. We are both settled and restless in our habituated denial of body. Our disease can sometimes be disguised as modes of being church that we feel inclined to protect. We have even created idols out of our dis-embodied mode of church. Even with the room most mainline Protestant congregations have for political and theological disagreements and differences, we expect a great deal of conformity around how we dispose ourselves as church. Mainline Protestants have always preferred a decent, orderly, even mannerly way of being church. Emotional moderation, physical control, and intellectual acumen are the unspoken expectations of those who seek church in these communities. We are heirs of a long tradition of such polished behavior.
I enjoy when someone like Mount Shoop gives us a picture of church that is not all that complimentary. This is especially the case when we have a woman who carries a Ph.D. around and yet is not owned by or possessed by that 'orderly, decent, and mannerly way of being a 'church thinker.' She is taking us on a trip into church as a wider experience than we may have been willing to go. That's good. I do not think she is saying that the way of how we do church is bad or even must go. Rather, I think what she is saying is that we have room - room we often would not let ourselves see or experience. I recall seeing a very 'high' liturgical church (I think it was Roman Catholic) that was able to incorporate some really spirited variation on the theme of liturgical order. It was wonderful. Mount Shoop calls this section of the chapter Holy Habits. Sometimes we all need to look at our habits to see how we have become disconnected with how the world turns and offers new visions and new life. I think this is needed in our worship life and then - out and about in the way our worship life then shapes our life - our everyday life. Connection: I still find breathing - good long breathing - breath after breath deep, intentional breathing as being one way to be open to more than what I have claimed to be all that there is. Within the strangeness of all who gather in your name, O God, help us move into the wide experience of your joy as we gather as your beloved. Amen. |
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