Taking the Good and Bad from Church Tradition: Making Progress from Contradiction

Scriptural Basis

Luke 10:1-9 (NRSV)

After this the Lord appointed seventy others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. He said to them, "The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest. Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the laborer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; cure the sick who are there, and say to them, `The kingdom of God has come near to you.'"

Blog Reflection on Faith,  Justice and Equality

This is one of those commemorations that I have a bit of trouble with.

Last June shortly after Pentecost, we read about exchanges between the Archbishop of Canterbury and our Presiding Bishop. 

The Most Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori in her response to Archbishop Rowan Williams wrote:

We also recognize that the attempts to impose a singular understanding in such matters represent the same kind of cultural excesses practiced by many of our colonial forebears in their missionizing activity. Native Hawaiians were forced to abandon their traditional dress in favor of missionaries’ standards of modesty. Native Americans were forced to abandon many of their cultural practices, even though they were fully congruent with orthodox Christianity, because the missionaries did not understand or consider those practices exemplary of the Spirit. The uniformity imposed at the Synod of Whitby did similar violence to a developing, contextual Christianity in the British Isles. In their search for uniformity, our forebears in the faith have repeatedly done much spiritual violence in the name of Christianity.  

And:

We live in great concern that colonial attitudes continue, particularly in attempts to impose a single understanding across widely varying contexts and cultures. We note that the cultural contexts in which The Episcopal Church’s decisions have generated the greatest objection and reaction are also often the same contexts where women are barred from full ordained leadership, including the Church of England.

Yet here we are commemorating the first missionary to the new church in the "colonizing" United States. 

Thomas Bray was sent here to see what was happening with the establishment of the American branch of the Anglican Communion.  

I was very interested to read the following quote contained in the explanation of today's commemoration in Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints.

His understanding of, and concern for, Native Americans and Blacks were far ahead of his time. He founded thirty-nine lending libraries in America, as well as numerous schools. He raised money for missionary work and influenced young English priests to go to America.

As the Native Americans were seeing their values, homes and peoples invaded, taken over and destroyed, I am sure they were oh so happy that Bray's understanding and concern were beyond his years.  I bet they were so delighted that he founded thirty-nine libraries in America. 

To those of us who now enjoy what we have, we are so grateful that the Christian faith came here by way of those who came here from other lands.  But for the Native Americans who saw everything they had built and loved destroyed by those first white Christians, such statements are just a reminder of the suffering that their people have endured and continue to experience. 

In this commemoration we have to take the good and the bad from our Church Tradition. 

The first English Christians came and brought with them much tyranny for the Native American people.  There is no getting away from that. They believed they were doing the right thing by way of what they understood the Gospel to mean.  To those first English, Christian settlers they understood Jesus to teach them to go out and share the good news of Christ, and to build a civilization that was suppose to be created on the values of Christian Charity and the Sacraments.  What they did not know or understand, is that Jesus commissioned us with these seventy followers to: "Whatever house you enter, first say, `Peace to this house!' And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you."  

Christians were not commissioned by Jesus to plunder whole communities of peoples and reform them according to an anglicized model.  One of the biggest mistakes of Christians, especially those of us who are part of the Anglican tradition, is assuming that our model of Christ as an Anglo-Saxon must be the same for everyone else in the world.  It is this very kind of thinking that led to racism, sexism and heterosexism among the Native Americans, the African Americans, the Irish, the Italians, the Hispanic/Latinos, as well as the Muslims, folks of other religions, sexual orientations and gender identities/expressions.   It was the image of God as a male that has led to countless acts of discrimination towards women.  

As the Christians of earlier generations established themselves here in America, they did plant the seeds so that one day we would be here in the twenty first century.  Where we now understand that not everything we did in Christian Tradition was so saintly and wonderful.  That we would learn to look with gratitude, but also criticism at what our ancestors did and said.  Here we are in the Episcopal Church of 2011 with a female as our Presiding Bishop.  We have one openly gay ordained Bishop.  We have one openly lesbian Bishop.  We have many LGBT ordained Priests and Deacons. We have Indigenous Communities that are actively part of our church.  Many of them very open to LGBT people too.

One year ago on February 13th, Jason and I were present for the Consecration and Ordination of Bishop Brain Prior as the 9th Bishop of Minnesota.  The Indigenous Community took part in that ceremony with the burning of sage and the beating of the drum before the service began.  The Native Americans and the Episcopal Church were celebrating together a new beginning. 

The image of Enmegahbowh is on the wall at the healing station at St. Mark's Episcopal Cathedral. 

There has been some growing friendships between many American religious institutions and the Native American Nations.  Many of these collaborations are taking place without the Christians requiring the Native American's to give up their Two Spirit nature and understanding of worship, culture and practice.

To quote Dean Spenser Simrill: "Christianity does not hold a monopoly on the truth."

As Christians and people of Faith, we can embrace other traditions, cultures, ways of worship and ideals that help others see what our faith is and what it is not.  

Many of our most cherished celebrations such as Advent, Christmas, Epiphany and so forth are not from the traditions of those first Christians in the Bible.  Many of those practices happened with the "Christianization" pagan rituals.  Some of the most conservative of churches, still celebrate those rituals today. 

The Christian Church and our Traditions make progress from contradiction.  This is nothing new or out of place.

The Christian Church continues to make progress in spite of contradiction as more and more Christians are embracing lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning and queer individuals.  We have learned not to interpret Paul and Leviticus without looking to some good critical scholarship.  Many of us are learning from the Unitarians, that "Standing on the Side of Love" comes from a humanitarian tradition, but with in it lies the very heart of what being a Christian is about. 

Embrace all people with a heart of love.  Standing on the side of love, when the world and even the Church hates so very much is the right thing to do as a Christian.  Speaking up in the Name of the God who is Love is much more important than defending dogmas and doctrines used to defend prejudice and violence.  Letting good human reason guide our understanding of things we do not entirely understand, speaks of Christians "standing on the side of love" rather than using our powers to propagate the earth with more religious based bigotry. 

Whether we agree with how the Unitarians view God and religion or not is irrelevant here.  The more important thing is, are we paying attention to how they are helping us understand the mission of Christ to the Church?  Do we as Christians "stand on the side of Love" or are we too wound up in who we can hate? 

We can all take the good and bad from our Church Tradition.  We can make progress from contradiction.  When we allow the Holy Spirit to continue to "guide us into all truth" (Jn 16:13) we are taking the good and the bad and making progress from contradiction. 

Prayers

O God of compassion, you opened the eyes of your servant Thomas Bray to see the needs of the Church in the New World, and led him to found societies to meet those needs: Make the Church in this land diligent at all times to propagate the Gospel among those who have not received it, and to promote the spread of Christian knowledge; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (Collect for Thomas Bray, Holy Women, Holy Men, Celebrating the Saints, page 225).

Gracious Father, we pray for your holy Catholic Church. Fill it with all truth, in all truth with all peace. Where it is corrupt, purify it; where it is in error, direct it; where in any thing it is amiss, reform it. Where it is right, strengthen it; where it is in want, provide for it; where it is divided, reunite it; for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son our Savior. Amen. (Prayer for the Church, Book of Common Prayer, page 816).

O God, who created all peoples in your image, we thank you for the wonderful diversity of races, cultures, *sexual orientations, and gender identities/expressions in this world.  Enrich our lives by ever-widening circles of fellowship, and show us your presence in thos ewho differ most from us, until our knowledge of your love is made perfect in our love for all your children; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. (Thanksgiving for the Diversity of Races and Cultures (*sexual orientations, gender identities/expressions added by blog author) Book of Common Prayer, page 840).