did you forget this week

we are just passing the middle of the week of prayer for christian unity, which began with the feast of the confession of st. peter, the 18th. of january, and which ends with the feast of the conversion of st. paul, the 25th. of january. these dates are, i believe, quite significant, and have much to say about how we should be "churching" these days.

first,the confession of st. peter: i was at a coffee shop last week when a friend was discussing the difference between the episcopal church and i'm-not-sure-what-part of the church. he described episcopalians as "more liberal." i did not mention how odd i found that description of a communion which has often been described as the republican party on its knees. but i did suggest that his was a very inadequate and perhaps even anti-evangelical way of talking about the church. the episcopal church, i suggested, has tried to embrace the continuing reforms of the church while maintaining orthodox christology and liturgy. what is important, the readings for the feast of st. peter remind us, is who we say jesus is. this is the experience upon which the church is built.

then, the conversion of st. paul: paul gets knocked off his horse. he has been on his way to damascus to clean up the heretics to proper pharasaic judaism there, a bunch who call themselves something like followers of the way. "why are you persecuting me?" jesus asks him. in this powerful experience of the risen lord the identity of jeshua, the messiah/jesus, the christ is made clear to be found in his body, the church.

what this says to us, i think, is that when we easily get very excited about what seem to be major divisions within the church, and spend a lot of time condemning those parts of the church with which we disagree, we are doing a very good job of misrepresenting christ to those who do not yet know him, of making him seem divided, of reducing what can be a powerful experience, if we do not hide, into a set of intellectual propositions. rather we should open ourselves to the experience of god, who is just as anxious to walk with us in the cool of the evening now as he was with our first parents. and we should listen carefully to who we say christ is, both as we proclaim that experience ourselves, and as our brothers and sisters share their own experiences. this listening, i have come to believe, is one of our most important spiritual tasks.