Month

Dear People of Christ Church,
This Sunday, our Episcopal Church class meets with the oh-so-exciting topic of “Contemporary Moral Issues.” We’ll tackle all the hot questions, from the death penalty to the environment to sexuality to whatever else anyone brings to the table. We’ll also talk Scripture, and by necessity Episcopal polity will get thrown in too, since that’s some of how we do our work. How we organize ourselves as a church and how we read the Bible are both part of how we discern together the mind of the church.

Or, probably more accurately: minds. Sometimes we’re not of one mind. By design—and since the beginning of Anglicanism with King Henry, we’ve had dissent built into our DNA, with no expectation that the individual consciences of Episcopalians must agree with some higher authority (apart from, you know, God).

Our own branch of the Anglican Communion, The Episcopal Church, makes decisions together by meeting every three years. The next General Convention is this summer, when representatives from every diocese—bishops, priests, deacons, and lay people—will meet together, this year in Salt Lake City. Six years ago at General Convention a decision was made to acknowledge diversity in the church on the practice of marriage and representatives voted that in places where equal marriage was the law, bishops could decide to permit clergy to officiate at all marriages. Our bishops said yes—our partners in Western Massachusetts at the time said no (finally, in 2013 that changed to yes).

How does Scripture help us reason through this stuff?
Well, if we’re going to read the Bible literally, we are in trouble. If instead of saying the opening prayer on Sunday I mutely held up a sign saying that the Bible forbids me to speak in church (1 Cor 14:34; 1 Tim 2:12), the wardens would have my head. Although since they’re women, too, it’s not like they could step up and lead the service.

So the Episcopal tradition of Biblical interpretation is not literalist. There is no neutral, “interpretation free” way to read the Bible. No matter what, we are always reading from somewhere. One of my favorite texts about this happens when the Ethiopian eunuch meets the apostle Philip on the road, reading the book of Isaiah. Lest we think a spectrum of gender expression is a new invention, the eunuch was a castrated man who served in the court of the Queen (unfortunately in this case, it was probably not a chosen life path). “Do you understand what you’re reading?” Philip asks him. “How can I, unless someone explains it to me?” the eunuch answers. This work of explanation and interpretation happened in that chariot 2000 years ago, and happens now. We read Scripture with all of our senses—we look at history and politics and language—and we read the rest of Scripture! If the Gospel of John tells us that God is love, then how do we interpret loving partnership in expansive ways? If, as Galatians 3:28 says, in Christ there is no male or female, and in Genesis humankind is made in God’s image, then how do we reason gender equity next to those passages from Corinthians and Timothy? Scripture argues with itself just as much as we do. And what a gift it is to be part of that conversation!

Blessings,
Sara+

Dear People of Christ Church,
Continued happy Easter, everyone!
I had a great week off last week reconnecting with my family after a long and wonderful Holy Week. As I have said many times, I’m a big fan of the services of Holy Week not just because it’s “good” to go to church (which, sure, it is), but because participating in those liturgies helps me come near to God in a deeper way—beyond my over-active mind, beyond anxiety and distraction. To actually place your body on the ground in front of the cross and to hear the first bells of Easter at the Vigil is to be placed in the path of mystery: God simply dwells with you.
On Sunday, I had the pleasure of attending church with my kids at Church of Our Savior, Arlington, where one of my daughter’s classmates’ mothers is the rector. (Thanks to new parishioner and retired priest Dan Crowley for being here!) COS is a smaller space, with a round altar in the center of the church and the pews facing inward on either side. As an Episcopal Church, the liturgy was much the same, but when it came time for the Nicene Creed Rev. Malia introduced it in a new way. Not everyone, perhaps obviously is a huge fan of the recitation of the Creed. As a historical artifact, it’s a snapshot of the heresies and arguments of the early Church—not necessarily intended to be an inspirational invitation to a holy life. For every line of text, there’s a backstory of debate with proponents on all sides.
For many contemporary Christians the doctrine that Jesus was fully human and fully divine seems self-evident, but it was not so 1600 years ago. The docetics said that Jesus just seemed human. The Arians said that he was divine but still definitely subordinate to God the Father. The Orthodox theology of the Trinity as three in One and of one substance carried the day, and we still recite this explanation of our belief even now.
A trickier question is how do we believe when we say we believe. That’s between you and God. When I introduce the Creed at Christ Church, I say something like “Let us confess our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed:” my way of explaining that this is the tradition of the church and this is the articulation chosen through hundreds of years, but it’s not necessarily the most comprehensive. The deeper meaning of the words and ideas is a personal question. At COS, Rev. Malia invited the congregation to say the Creed as either We believe (the “real” words) [in one God, Jesus, Spirit, Church] or We trust [in one God, Jesus, Spirit, Church].
For an over-thinker with some trust issues, this was a fascinating shift. The Latin word credo which the word “creed” comes from means “to give your heart to.” That explanation has always resonated with me because there’s an intentionality to it. But the poetry of it also lends a certain abstraction. “Trust” has a deeper vulnerability at the center. How do I trust God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit? All the time? What does it mean to trust God in the Church? To proclaim our faith? What does it mean to join our faith with the church through time in these Creeds?

Blessings,
Sara+