A Task to be Pursued with Courage

Recently I was called a "Brief Statement of Faith person" by a friend as we were discussing the spiritual needs of older adults. I have to agree. For those not familiar, A Brief Statement of Faith is the youngest document in the PC(USA)'s Book of Confessions. It was written when two denominations merged to create the PC(USA) and became part of the Book of Confessions in 1991. While I do love the Brief Statement of Faith, I have been reflecting on the following quote from Confession of 1967 lately:

"Life is a gift to be received with gratitude and a task to be pursued with courage." (Confession of 1967, 9.17)

For some reason this sentence has stuck with me for a couple months, ever since we studied the Confession of 1967 in my Presbyterian History course. I was really struck by the multiple ideas held together. Life. Gift. Receive. Gratitude. Task. Pursue. Courage. I especially like that the authors did not define these words for us. Words do change in meaning over time and depending on your point of view. Today I'd like to focus on courage. That's a tricky word to define in general, but what is courage to a Christian living in 2011 America? We can point to people we think are courageous. Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Harriet Tubman. Mary. Bishop Gene Robinson. I have many friends at seminary who are graduating this Saturday. One is taking a call in the mid-west and will be ordained in June. One has a job at their denominational main office. One couple has been called to the same church. But several do not have that security.  I think all of them are courageous.

Is pursuing a task with courage the same as being courageous? Being courageous suggests a state of being. Some people seem naturally courageous--globe trotters and dare devils. But anyone can pursue a task with courage. You don't have to be a courageous person to pursue a task with courage. People in abusive relationships may not be thought of as courageous people, but it certainly shows a lot of courage to leave an abusive relationship. It takes a lot of courage to dream of a better world for ourselves and future generations. It takes a lot of courage to dream of a life outside of an abusive relationship or a world where members of the LGBTQ community are considered for ordination on their call and preparation for ministry and not on their sexuality. It takes courage to pursue those dreams. It takes organization, support, and prophetic vision to see what needs to be changed in order to pursue the task. It is no easy feat. So much in our culture tells us to be content with the status quo... but there is a lot of injustice in the status quo.

It's easy to look back in history and say "Well, of course someone needed to change that." Of course slavery needed to be ended. Of course the Nazis had to be stopped. But how many of us are willing to stand up today, name injustice in our world, and pursue the task of change with courage? Courage does not mean there will not be fear or trepidation. Even Jesus asked for the cup to be passed from him. But then Jesus pursued his task with courage. Now that's me reading this confession's language back into the passion story, but the Bible is the basis of the confessions.

Taking time to reflect on these things leads me to more questions...

What are the injustices in our world that need to changed?
Are we participating in communities working towards that change?
What gifts/talents/passions do we have that can contribute to that change?
Are we being the change we want to see? (Mahatma Gandhi)

Well, are we?

Diana Butler Bass

Yesterday and today I was the sexton for lectures by Diana Butler Bass. She was speaking on her latest book A People's History of Christianity as well as our Alumni Reunion Week theme "From Gutenberg to Google." The picture's not great, but it proves that it happened. She also signed my Practicing Congregation. Dr. Bass, or as she's known around campus "D.B.B.", has her PhD in church history from Duke and has done incredible work about the modern Mainline church. Her new book is the first history of the Christian church written for mass reading (not as a textbook) since 1965. She's an Episcopal layperson who is calling for the renewal of the Mainline denominations to ask good questions about how we live our Christian faith in this new digital age. She said that the reason the 95 Theses had such an impact was because Luther had the gall to ask the tough questions that were coming out of the culture that other church people weren't asking or thought weren't important. She lectured on how the digital age is changing how we think, and apparently I'm a "digital native." uch of computer, internet, etc. is "natural" to me while perhaps some of my readers might not know about the purpose of the hyperlinks on my blog or what they do.
I highly suggest reading her books and seeing her in person if you can. I'm currently reading A People's History, and I really like it. If this is what writing church history is, I may jump on that wagon.

Lent, Part 2

Today I got schooled on the Reformed tradition of the liturgical year. I'm in this awesome class called Worship Renewal in the Late Middle Ages and Reformation taught by Dr. Elsie McKee, and today we talked about the ideas of sacred space and time that changed over the course of the Reformation. I learned that the Reformed Protestant leaders stripped the liturgical calendar from the church because of the doctrine of sola scriptura (also made popular by Martin Luther). For example, the Bible does not have Advent or Lent; but the Bible does include events like Jesus' birth and Pentecost. So we kept Christmas and various other holy days (holidays!), but the Reformed leaders really wanted to focus on the Lord's Day. Calvin even moved Christmas in his community to the closest Sunday to December 25th to honor the Lord's Day. The Reformed leaders wanted to preach straight through the different books of the Bible, and that could not be accomplished within the liturgical year the Medieval Catholic Church had. The Reformed leaders brought in books of the Old Testament for preaching which seems from what we've studied highly unusual during the Late Middle Ages. I was shocked! I'm Reformed, and I love the liturgical year (see my previous post on Lent)! So I asked my professor after class how we had gotten from no liturgical calendar to today where the Presbyterian churches I know follow the temporale (history of salvation events such as Christ's birth but not the saints' days) liturgical calendar. Dr. McKee said that within the past couple of generations various dialogues have taken place that have changed how Christians of various persuasions view the church calendar. Because of a renewed focus on the shared history of Christians before various splits, some Reformed denominations have re-adopted the liturgical calendar. Also, in the past couple of centuries preaching in the Reformed churches has moved from going straight through books to more topical preaching; so the liturgical calendar wasn't going to trip up the preaching.
All this means that during my lifetime the Presbyterian church does have the liturgical calendar, but not all Reformed churches do across time and currently. I apologize if I made any sweeping remarks about the liturgical calendar in the Reformed tradition if it is not true in your tradition. My life has been greatly shaped by the rhythm of the liturgical calendar, and I feel very attached to it... or to the PCUSA version of it, I should say.
Isn't that cool, though?!?! The Reformed leaders felt so strongly about the need for preaching, teaching, and staying true to the Bible that they almost completely changed the rhythm of the year for everyday people.
This is why I'm at Princeton Seminary... because every day I'm challenged and grow in my faith and understanding of living the Christian life!