Sunday, February 21, 2010

My "podium notes" from Chapters 1 & 2

We've been watching a lot of Winter Olympics at my house, so since I've been thinking in terms of "gold, silver and bronze" all week, I'll continue the theme and note the bits that rose to the "get out the yellow highlighter 'podium'" for me in the first two chapters of "The Sacred Meal:"

We mistake middle-class conventions or church rules or traditions for the secret code that unlocks the kingdom.

The stories that Jesus tells were more often than not about people who broke the religious rules, not simply for the sake of breaking them, but for something bigger, more important, more life-giving ...

Jesus himself broke the rules by healing on the Sabbath, eating with those who were unclean, and resisting the power of the Roman Empire until he got himself into real trouble. [pg. 17-18]

I was raised by rule keepers. And like lots of other things, communion had lots of rules -- most of which I didn't understand when I was little and didn't necessarily make sense when I was not so little.

Understanding Jesus as a rule breaker rather than a rule maker was the beginning of not only the story but the person of Jesus becoming not only real but relevant to me. And that didn't happen for me until I was a thirty-something altar guild member mother-of-two second soprano in the church choir. And it happened when I lucked/chanced/graced upon the book The Dream of God by Verna Dozier.

So this particular part of Nora Gallagher's narrative struck a deep chord with me -- and I loved how she connected the practice of communion to the practice of justice. I appreciated how she drew the connection between our receiving the body of Christ as individuals at the communion rail and our becoming the Body of Christ as the church God dreamed we would be. And it reminded me how grateful I am that I was challenged to challenge my earliest "rule keeping" paradigm ... even though it wasn't always easy!

So how about for you? Any gold, silver or bronze "podium moments" in these first couple of chapters?

5 comments:

  1. Hi everyone. Terry here.
    Gallaher’s gold for me started in the Introduction where she describes engaging in a practice as “a place where the heart and mind and soul are trained in wrestling, not with doubt but with illusion.” I have been a doubter most of my adult religious life, and my skepticism serves me well. I’m comfortable with doubt. Only occasionally am I jolted when I bump into someone whose faith is grounded in so much certainty that she or he has no questions.

    Recently, I asked a friend I admire why he goes to church. This friend is highly intelligent, a true scholar of the Bible, and a faithful parishioner. When I asked him, he seemed to know that I was wrestling with my own practice, and he refrained from giving a pat, religiously acceptable answer. He gave me three reasons, and one of them was what he called the “mystery of Communion.” He said that in ways he couldn’t fully explain the Eucharist binds him to the rest of the congregation. I understand a little of what he was saying. I realize that for myself, the Eucharist is the time during the service when I am most fully engaged and active. I sing with the congregation; those sitting in the same pew as I rise together and we move forward together, even though we may be strangers to each other. We wait patiently, kneel next to one another and then rise and return to our places. Gallagher describes Holy Communion as “a web, a web of people who were being stitched together.” She says, “Nothing fancy, nothing permanent.” That is, we don’t do it once and it’s done. We need the temporary stitching regularly.

    Gallagher describes the Christmas Eve service when she was worried about her friend’s daughter Frankie. In my former parish, I studied to be a licensed lay reader and chalice bearer, and there were times when I was asked to serve that I was preoccupied or worried. But I also felt a responsibility to the parishioners who came forward. Sometimes now when I receive the bread and the wine, the server will recognize and acknowledge me, and I love that. Other times, the server will not really look at me and will be moving on to the next person while the words string out for both of us or neither of us. One friend told me she had to switch lines because she was angry with the person serving Communion in her line. The mystery is in the not mattering about personalities or the size of the bread or the taste of the wine or about dipping or sipping. Something else is going on there. The stitching.

    I had one negative reaction to the Frankie story. Gallagher seems to imply that her constant thought (“Frankie, stay with the plane”) made a difference. I guess it did make a difference for Gallagher, but I kept thinking about the other people on the plane and their families and friends. Surely they were praying too. Who gets the sign? Whose prayer is heard? For whom is there a happy ending? Is this one of the illusions she is talking about when she says “wrestling, not with doubt but with illusion”?

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  2. Sharyn here...
    Susan, your first quote really stayed with me also (almost posted it on facebook to politely counter some of my fundamentalist friend's posting, whom I never directly respond to).... I did post the most "disturbing" (challenging) quote of the chapter (for me): "Jesus ask us to follow where compassion leads and bear the cost of what we find". I identified strongly with the author as she seems scared and yet pushed toward encounters that she feels responsible to respond to in a real way. I find this to be my challenge, and though I don't feel I have done much toward "solving" any major problems, I am compelled not to run from working directly with my neighbors at the Bad Weather Shelter or similar work.

    The part that stayed with me the most though was the paradigm she introduced regarding "do this in memory of me"----get together and remember what we had and did together. Could there be a better reason to participate in the Eucharist regularly in your faith community? I will carry this one with me and continue to process it.

    Lastly, an observation/reaction to Terry's sharing, I am one of those folks that is VERY sure when it comes to my faith. My life experiences can be processed no other way by me. However, I am equally comfortable with ALL the questions. I think there is a truth out there, we are just too limited to ever truly discover it...I enjoyed your thoughtful sharing.

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  3. There are three things Gallagher says that resonate with me so far; the role of doubt, the task before me, and the need for congregation. It was doubt that led me away from the church and into solo spirituality for many years. The doubt remains and enlivens my faith. My task is to show up each day without attachment to outcome. The need for congregation led me back to the church. What a difference!

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  4. GMKR,

    Would you speak a bit more to the doubt factor? How does it 'enliven' your faith?

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  5. "communion is meant to be done together, it has to be done in community" jumped out at me. That other acts of faith can be done on an individual basis, but that communion weaves the participants together.

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