An Open Apology to Those Who Can’t Find a Church
Sure, some of you have personal stuff of which you need to repent. Some of you don’t have a church home because you’re too opinionated (“Surely, Lord, not Christian blog participants!”) or angry or otherwise weird insome way that needs killin’.
But as an ordained minister of the church, I have to confess that we worked ourselves into a sweat to toss you out the door and didn’t even take a break before nailing it shut to keep you out. Before I apologize for that, let me share the source of the apology:
A few weeks ago, my wife was praying for me and for our parish and had an impression of an anointing (OK, she’s a real live lay Christian and doesn’t speak churchianese, so she described “something flowing over and soaking in.”) Great Bible scholar that I am, I said, “Behold, ‘tis Psalm 133!” (I didn’t say “behold” or “‘tis.” But I did recall the Psalm.) We’ve been praying with that Psalm for a bit, and I am excited to see it showing up in The Revised Common Lectionary for the Second Sunday of Easter.
The Psalm extols the unity of God’s people: Oh, how good and pleasant it is, when brethren live together in unity!
Then it likens this unity toan anointing stuff flowing over and soaking in: It is like fine oil upon the head that runs down upon the beard,
It evokes the particular anointing of the Old Testament Priests as they were set apart to bring the united people into the presence of God: Upon the beard of Aaron, and runs down upon the collar of his robe.
Great Bible scholarSymbol-seeking geek that I am, I found an exposition of Aaron’s oily garments in Exodus 29:21,
So back to the apology:
For all the sorry factionalism by which we divide and subdivide and throw-into-a-centrifuge-until-it’s-subatomic the Body of Christ, the church: I am sorry.
For the many ways we’ve neglected our priestly ministry to do a burlesque of the prophetic ministry: I am sorry.
For the utter and inexcusable infliction and mismanagement of change: I am sorry.
I can’t find just one link to exemplify that last one. But if you are staying home grousing about how we changed the Prayer Book, ordained women, embraced chaplaincy to one political party, blessed same-sex unions, ordained LGBT clergy and then consecrated them as bishops, changed the formal name of the denomination, spent less than two generations to declare all of our traditional belief and practice expendable, constantly ignored our agreed upon processes for change, threw the denomination and the Anglican Communion into disunity and never, ever gave anybody a chance to digest one change before throwing down the next: friend, I honor your staying home and grousing.
And I am sorry we stuck you in that place.
But as an ordained minister of the church, I have to confess that we worked ourselves into a sweat to toss you out the door and didn’t even take a break before nailing it shut to keep you out. Before I apologize for that, let me share the source of the apology:
A few weeks ago, my wife was praying for me and for our parish and had an impression of an anointing (OK, she’s a real live lay Christian and doesn’t speak churchianese, so she described “something flowing over and soaking in.”) Great Bible scholar that I am, I said, “Behold, ‘tis Psalm 133!” (I didn’t say “behold” or “‘tis.” But I did recall the Psalm.) We’ve been praying with that Psalm for a bit, and I am excited to see it showing up in The Revised Common Lectionary for the Second Sunday of Easter.
The Psalm extols the unity of God’s people: Oh, how good and pleasant it is, when brethren live together in unity!
Then it likens this unity to
It evokes the particular anointing of the Old Testament Priests as they were set apart to bring the united people into the presence of God: Upon the beard of Aaron, and runs down upon the collar of his robe.
Then you shall take part of the blood that is on the altar, and of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and his garments, and on his sons and his sons’ garments with him. He and his garments shall be holy, and his sons and his sons’ garments with him.Leaders made holy by the blood of Christ and animated by the work of the Holy Spirit are to bring a good and pleasant offering to the Father. That good and pleasant offering is the holy people of God - you all, the ones we worked so hard to disunite and run off.
So back to the apology:
For all the sorry factionalism by which we divide and subdivide and throw-into-a-centrifuge-until-it’s-subatomic the Body of Christ, the church: I am sorry.
For the many ways we’ve neglected our priestly ministry to do a burlesque of the prophetic ministry: I am sorry.
For the utter and inexcusable infliction and mismanagement of change: I am sorry.
I can’t find just one link to exemplify that last one. But if you are staying home grousing about how we changed the Prayer Book, ordained women, embraced chaplaincy to one political party, blessed same-sex unions, ordained LGBT clergy and then consecrated them as bishops, changed the formal name of the denomination, spent less than two generations to declare all of our traditional belief and practice expendable, constantly ignored our agreed upon processes for change, threw the denomination and the Anglican Communion into disunity and never, ever gave anybody a chance to digest one change before throwing down the next: friend, I honor your staying home and grousing.
And I am sorry we stuck you in that place.
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