joseph of arimathea (31 july)

besides the gospel account of joseph of arimathea as the sanhedran member who took jesus' body for burial in his own new tomb, there are many charming legends about the man sometimes called jesus' god father or foster father. my favourite is that joseph, a tin trader who therefore traveled sometimes to cornwall whence came most of the tin in the classical world, took with him on one of his trips the young jesus. this legend is the basis for hubert parry's great setting of william blake's hymn jerusalem, which many people consider the real national anthem of england.

there is much for us to imitate in all of the stories of this fabled saint. one of the duties of israelites was the burial of the dead, an important part of the story of tobit, which is seem as a prophecy of joseph's action. the early church continued this work, and the non-christians in the pagan world found it quite remarkable that christians buried not only their own but strangers. how ironic therefore that in some times and some places, the church refused "christian burial" or burial in "holy ground" to"those who do not profess the christian faith." i am happy to report that this charity is being recovered by the church, and more and more suggestions for how the church should minister to the dead whose faith is known to god alone are available, such as the excellent material in the episcopal book of occasional services.

in the story of joseph and the young jesus' trip to england and blakes' poem is the recognition that all ground is holy ground, if we have eyes to see (another action encouraged, by the way, in book of occasional services). indeed one of the works of the church as the body of christ is to tread the earth in a holy way, casting off our shoes, as it were. many orders of nuns and monks recognize this.

here is a collect for this day:

o merciful god, by whose servant joseph the body of our lord and saviour was committed to the grave with reverence and godly fear: grant, we beseech thee, to thy faithful people grace and courage to serve and love jesus with unfeigned devotion all the days of their life; through the same jesus christ our lord. amen.

mary and martha: patronesses of hospitality

last sunday at st. paul's during the birthday and anniversary prayers, two women came forward as they begin their third year together. their names were mary and martha, and they celebrate the anniversary of their union on july 29, the feast day of the women of bethany who so often provided hospitality to our lord. talking to them afterward i found they were delighted to have this coincidence because much of what they wanted to model in their own household was hospitality.

it seemed to me quite wonderful to be in a worshipping community in which they felt comforted and supported in their life together in christ jesus. it also seemed appropriate that people who are in some way or another marginalized most often are models of hospitality to those of us who are either in the comfy middle of things, or are able to present the image that we are.

many sermons and much ink have explore the relationship between these two sisters and their gifts. these days the majority of speakers seem to be saying that mary could not have chosen the better part without martha's constant and loving work. this sort of comparison, i think, misses the essence of their relationship and of jesus' statement that mary had chosen the better part. i am always reminded when i read the bethany sisters' story of two beloved aunts, nell and blanche, who during my childhood provided the household of hospitality for family gatherings and feasts. blanche, during such a gathering, would seem very much like mary, while blanche would be doing the kitcheny sort of martha business. at other times, however, nell was the bookkeeper for the local chevrolet dealership, working to pay for the bread that nell would slice while the nephews would sit around blanche in the living room and listen to her stories. (and indeed some of the legends from the early church suggest that mary of bethany was a working woman, too.)

that the two sisters together provided hospitality seems to have much to say to us in the church as we try to provide hospitality today. all too often our work of evangelism, our work of worship, and our work of social justice and alms, get separated. indeed i have evangelical friends who suggest that my social justice friends are tainted by "works-righteousness." of course true healing hospitality--think of the connection between "hospitality" and "hospital"--requires both action and contemplation, and the experience of the church over the centuries is that mary has chosen the better part, that action not based on a deep experience of godlove is fruitless.

the sequence of the jesus' summary of the law is essential: "thou shalt love the lord thy god with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. this is the first and great commandment. and the second is like unto it; thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

i am happy to find this sequence reflected in the collect for the day:

"o god, who bestowest divers gifts and grces upon thy saints: we give thee humble thanks for the examples of thy servans mary and martha, the friends of our saviour jesus christ; and we pray thee to give us grace to love and serve thee and others for his sake, who with thee and the holy ghost liveth and reigneth eve, one god, world without end. amen.

mary magdalene

mary magdalene, whose feast day is the 22nd of july, must be the most pliable of saints. over the years she has been imaged and imagined in many ways, from the first witness of the resurrection and the apostle to the apostles, the inventor of the easter egg (my favourite), through repentent whore to excuse for the da vinci code.

i have long been a "fan" of hers, and remember with great expectation the publishing of starbird's the woman with the alabaster jar, a copy of which the publisher gave me since i was living in santa fe at the time and had given a workshop of the role of mary magdalene in the early church. seldom have i been so disappointed by any book, and few of the many books about mary that have followed have been any better. it seems that she is fair game as a hook on which to hang any hair-brained scheme about the early church or women one wants.

the midaeval understanding of the magadalen as a penitent i have usually avoided, even if i have sometimes defended it against the neo-gnostic goons. therefore i was delighted to re-find (duh! where have i been all these many years) that the epistle reading for her feast is from the fifth chapter of second corinthians:

"if anyone is in christ [she] is a new creature."

ah. of course. so many times in so many ways, i want to be, or at least to have the advantages of, the new creature, but to keep my old mind, thank you very much. i want memories, which i can re-paint as needed, in nostalgic sepia tones, rather than to re-member. but to be in christ is to have the mind of christ. it requires me to repent. there is no other way to be sanctified, which, as the collect for the feast reminds us, is what jesus did for mary:

"o almighty god, whose blessed son did sanctify mary magdalene, and call her to be a witness to his resurrection: mercifully grant that by thy grace we may healed of all our infirmities, and serve thee in the power of his endless life; who with thee and the holy ghost liveth and reigneth, one god, world without end. amen.

proper 11a: ladders in the weeds

we may say in the creed about jesus that "he shall come again, with glory, to judge both the quick and the dead," but it seems that few of us live as if that were an important part of our expectations. indeed liberal theologians often speak of how mistaken the "early church" was in expecting the immanent return of christ. i sometimes wonder whether the phrase "early church" implies that we are the "late church," and that therefore we might be surprised by a trump at any moment.

of course there are those who are making big bucks off "the second coming." if, however, the gospel for this sunday is correct, the left behind folks have it just about backwards: it will be the tares, the weeds, who leave their clothes behind on airplanes, with the good wheat left behind (on an earth that will be recreated, according to the revelation to john).

meanwhile, we have to live amongst the weeds. I once worshiped with a parish that was jokingly called "bede's-in-the-weeds," as if somehow her mother parish downtown were in a perfect wheat field. i confess i find this persistence of weeds less enjoyable when i think of the parable in jungian terms, and realize that the weeds are often within my own heart. if the weeds were only those persons with whom i share the field who were less perfect than i, i could probably forgive them. but the truth is that there are many things growing in my heart for which i pray clearance, and that sometimes i pray with my fingers crossed behind my back.

it is in the context of my own heart that i find the story from genesis hopeful. ". . . the holy one is in this place, and i never knew it." again and again the holy one comes into the stony desert where jacob was fleeing from his brother, no stonier than my weed-filled heart can be, not just a "second coming," but comings "seventy times seven." for as john wesley wrote in his notes on the new testament, "the mediation of christ: he is this ladder: the foot on earth in his human nature, the top in heaven in his divine nature; or the former is his humiliation, the latter is his exaltation."

strange nest fellows

i have been reading two quite encouraging and somewhat unusual books this past week. encouraging because i find myself in such agreement with them, which itself these days makes them unusual.

the first is bede griffiths" return to the center; the second stanley hauerwas's a better hope. it may seem strange that i find two such apparently differing authors so similar to myself in our approach to the modern/postmodern world in which we find ourselves.

griffiths: ". . . men of genius who lack 'wisdom', like luther and calvin, voltaire and rousseau, marx and freud, release such incalculable forces of evil."

hauerwas: "postmodernism . . . is the outworking of mistakes in christian theology correlative to the attempt to make christianity 'true' apart from faithful witness."

having graduated from a seminary downstream from the mistakes of calvin, i am particularly aware of how embedded in the religion of capitalism modern european christianity has become, and as i usually point out in a slightly different context, america is just what europeans do when they have no restraints.

what is needed in these absurd times brother louis called "the modern psychosis" is of course what is always needed: true repentance and amendment of life. what i find hopeful in the writings of griffiths and hauerwas is their recognition that it is our religion itself from which we must repent. once again, those of us who have ears should hear: "the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of god is at hand: repent ye, and believe in the gospel."