Advent is here! Advent is here!

The world started celebrating Christmas on November 1^st, but for we Christians, Advent is here!  Advent with its yearly battle to keep Christmas at bay until its appointed time draws near. Advent with its need for constant vigilance against the forces of materialism. Advent with its annual opportunities to practice enough risk-free token charity to salve our souls for the rest of the year. Advent, the only eschatological season.

Reign of Christ; Sunday, 25 November 2012

The Feast of Christ the King is one of the most recent additions to the liturgical calendar. Born in 1925, just as earthly kingdoms were well and truly going out of style permanently, at least in Europe, Pope Pius XI instituted the solemnity, in order to counter the growing nationalism he saw in European politics. The tragedy of the 20^th century was that so many people threw off the tyranny of despotic monarchs, only to find themselves under the thumb of equally despotic, and far more efficient democratically elected tyrants. Pope Pius XI saw the two most heinous incidences of this before he died, and retained his determination that humanity would simply accept the kingship of Jesus Christ, everything would turn out much better.

Just what do you think you are doing?

In Spider and Jeanne Robinson’s transcendent (literally) trilogy The Stardancers, a modern dancer and her choreographer/cameraman decide that dancing in zero gravity is what they want to do. They sit down with Harry Stein, an engineer, to invite him to build a space station for them, and he asks the question, “What do you want it to do?”

In the opening article in the current issue of Liturgy Joshua A. Edelman approaches an unusual instance of liturgical action from the same point of view: what is it doing.

On Performance

Introductions to academic journals are often rather rote: “Here are our authors, and here is what they are writing about.” Guest editor Megan McDonald’s introduction to the most recent issue of Liturgy: “Liturgy and Performance,” however, is quite a bit more essential than most introductions are.  The reason that you will want to be careful to read this introduction before venturing into any of the fine articles is that, like Vizzini in The Princess Bride, the word “performance” may not mean what you think it means, at least in this context. 

Put another way, this is not an issue of Liturgy devoted to telling you to stand up straight at the pulpit, spit out your consonants and look the congregation in the eye.

Twenty-fifth Sunday after Pentecost; Proper 28; Ordinary 33; 18 November 2012

When I first left parish ministry to re-enter academia, I joined a church in my town and enjoyed attending worship as a member of the congregation for the first time in two decades. I missed preaching though. Missed it terribly. So imagine my surprise when the pastor asked me to stand in as the replacement preacher on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, so that he could go and visit his family in a distant state!  “Absolutely,” I said, “I’d love to.” Then I went home and looked up the lectionary readings for the day.

Little apocalypse.  Bleh. 

All Saints/All Souls

One of the challenging aspects to a long pastoral tenure within a community is that one forms very close relationships. This is also one of the great advantages to a long pastoral tenure, of course, but the downside becomes apparent as well when it is time for funerals, and for the annual observation of All Saints/All Souls. You see, in the olden days of my denomination (your humble blogger is a United Methodist) you could count on 2-4 years in a congregation before being moved on to greener pastures. I won’t bore you with the many advantages and disadvantages of that arrangement, except to point out that one never had to bury a close friend in those days.

More than just a cup of sugar

What are the limits we should place upon ourselves in terms of borrowing or reclaiming ritual actions of other times & traditions for current Christian use? It is, I imagine, a question that would be answered in a host of different ways. Pope Benedict XVI’s desire to replace inculturation of Catholic worship with a more universalized interculturalism speaks to a narrowing of the possibilities of reaching across boundaries in a desire to make our worship richer. On the other hand, the history of the church, especially in its earliest centuries, speaks for a vast capacity for borrowing the liturgical and organizational structures of other religions. Today, in a world where Christianity has achieved (and then begun to lose) cultural hegemony, at least in the West, and where westerners have blessedly begun to be aware of the evil that is cultural appropriation, our borrowings of liturgical actions and texts must be done, if at all, with the greatest sensitivity.