The Little Friar

This afternoon, as a random Google search, I typed in the words, "Why are Christians so".  This is a screen shot of the autocomplete function: Guess what?  Those results are depressing.  So I decided to try an experiment.  What would happen if I typed in the words, "Why are Buddhists so"?  Here's my screen shot.  It's quite a contrast between the Christians and the Buddhists -- at least in the first couple of suggestions.  (We do share the "annoying" one.) Go ahead; try it yourself . This got me to wondering:  What would it take for Christians to get the Google autocomplete to come back with this search suggestion: Why are Christians so loving? It was working for the early Christians , after all.

In keeping with the theme of sacraments and eucharist lately, I want to reflect on the Lord's Supper as a eucharistic "new manna" and offer a way forward beyond the transubstantion, consubstantiation and mystery debates.  All as a way of demonstrating a theme that Schillebeeckx argued back in the 60s :  Sacraments (baptism and eucharist, specifically) derive their sacramental power from The Sacrament (Jesus Christ).  That is, they're incarnational acts of the Body of Christ in the world -- perhaps, even, acts that extend beyond worship and into acts of justice and evangelism.   There are a variety of "New Exodus" themes in the life and teachings of Jesus.  That is, in light of the prophecy of Deuteronomy 18:15-18, Jesus suggests in various places that he is the one Moses foretold -- a second Moses leading a New Exodus. There are, therefore, a variety of things that were expected to accompany this second Moses -- a New Exodus, a New Passover, a New ...

Following up on yesterday's post on an open communion , I want to lay out today what I think a genuine eucharistic discipline -- or excommunication -- might look like.  And I draw, as my source, William Cavanaugh's Torture and Eucharist . I read Torture and Eucharist some years ago; it's a revision of Cavanaugh's Duke PhD dissertation.   Cavanaugh's book is an analysis of the Catholic church's response to the torture program under the Chilean dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.  Pinochet took power in a coup d'etat in September 1973.  After taking power Pinochet's regime, particularly in the early years, intimidated, killed and tortured rivals and those not supportive of his government.  Many Chileans were arrested in the middle of the night and never heard from again. Cavanaugh discusses how the Catholic Church was slow to respond to the torture but how it eventually gathered itself.  According to Cavanaugh, the slowness of the init...

This rather lengthy post will spell out the reasons I support an open table for eucharist.  Last night, I was talking with a friend who struggles between a theology of an open table and a strong sacramental theology. This is my sustained defense of both. One of the great locations of diversity among Christian traditions is in the practice of open versus closed communion.  In closed communion only the faithful members of the church, however that is defined, are invited to participate in the Lord's Supper.  Outsiders, even if confessing Christians, are not welcome to participate.  By contrast, in traditions practicing open communion anyone in attendance is welcomed to the Lord's Table. My tradition practices a form of closed communion.  Only baptized Christians are welcome at the Table.  And the priest is under canonical law to ensure that the person receiving Holy Communion be living a repentant life ("If the priest knows that a person who is l...

Rattling around in my head tonight are those words from the Lord's Prayer:  "Forgive us our debts/trespasses, even as we forgive those who owe/trespass against us".  (Depending on one's translation -- whether by Wycliffe or Tyndale -- the words may change, but the meaning is still the same.)  That's because this morning's worship focused on that petition from the Prayer. Of course, it's one of a series of puzzling passages from the New Testament.  The one that stands out starkly for lots of folks is that taken from John 20.19-23.  The context is an event immediately following Jesus' resurrection on Easter. On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"  After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.  The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Again Jesus said, "Pea...

Jesus practiced radical hospitality.  He ate with sinner and tax collectors.  Thing is, when I make that argument, some folks will push back with Matthew 18.15-17: [Jesus said:]  "If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you.  If they listen to you, you have won them over.  But if they will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses'.  If they still refuse to listen, tell it to the church; and if they refuse to listen even to the church, treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector." That is, of course, the locus classicus for arguing in favor of excommunication.  Specifically, if a fellow brother or sister is in sin and fails to repent at the encouragement of the church we are to "treat them as you would a pagan or a tax collector".  That is, we are to shun them. But I argue that that interpretatio...

Bonhoeffer's prison cell at Tegel Prison. From here, he was executed on the gallows. I fashion myself, sometimes, as a sort of anthropologist of religion.  That is, I listen a great deal to what folks have to say about God, faith and the church -- with what moves folks spiritually.  One of the things I've noticed as this anthropologist of religion is the prominence of the focus on God's greatness.  Worship that seems to move folks centers on God's transcendence and uniqueness.  Awesome just might be the number one word used to describe God these days. This focus on God's bigness is often used in worship to create an acute sense of our smallness in relation.  Ecstatic worship is often triggered by a felt sense of God's transcendent power, size, and awesomeness.  I leave such worship psychologically stunned and overwhelmed by God's bigness.  My sense is that a lot of contemporary worship is explicitly aimed at trying to create this experience...