Despising the Pleasant Lands

My son remarked last night that almost all of his Michigan-born friends continually complain about living in Michigan, and can't wait to move somewhere else. Coming from Maryland, where people are rabidly proud of their Orioles, crab cakes and Baltimore (even though it's a lot like it's pictured on "The Wire"), this continues to surprise him. "Even my New Jersey friends love New Jersey, and everyone knows that it's a hell hole," he said.

No, all his Michigan friends want to move to Florida.

Which is funny, because my younger sister has lived in Florida most of her life. And she hates it. She calls her town of Bradenton "Bradentucky" and says that every time she gets on a plane to go somewhere else, she thinks, "At last! I'm going to civilization!"

She wants to move to San Diego or L.A. I imagine out there, there are people who hate California, too ... for its wildfires, pollution, traffic, pomposity, etc. I bet some of them want to move to that paradise on Earth, Hawai'i.

Which is funny, because people who live in Hawai'i can also start to hate it. In her new book, "Acedia and Me: Marriage, Monks and a Writer's Life," Kathleen Norris (who grew up in Hawai'i, and spends a good part of her life there now, caring for her aging mother) writes about a terrible phenomenon that the island dwellers experience.

Many people stationed in Hawai'i with the military or large corporations come to feel a nagging contempt for the place. They hate the ocean because it reminds them that they are living on an island in the most isolated island chain on earth. They dismiss paradise as "the rock," and refer to their sad condition with perverse pride as "rock fever."

Norris sees this alienation from place as a symptom of a spiritual illness that prevents us from being happy where we are, that cuts us off from joy in our lives, joy in our relationships, and joy in God.

Look outside. This is one of the ugliest sorts of days Michigan has to offer. Can you see the beauty in it? Can you figure out a way to love this pleasant land and not despise it? To be at peace where you are planted?

Being at Peace ... Shalom

The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, means much more than simply an absence of hostilities, or a neutral position. It means a completeness, a wholeness, all parts in balance. As Christians, we can think about the central point on the cross being the position of shalom ... perfectly balanced between God and humanity (the vertical beam) and all humans with one another (the horizontal beam). When we are at peace with God and with one another, we know the true meaning of shalom.

I offer you a shalom exercise for the day. Try to experience each aspect of your life as in balance, even if you might not always think it is in balance. For example ...

The weather. Be at peace with the weather (even Michigan weather!), however it happens to be, without wishing it was hotter or colder, snowier or sunnier, simply accept and enjoy it as it comes to you today.

Your body. Be at peace with your body. If you have aches and pains, accept them as they come, just sitting with them. For one day don't wish you were fatter or thinner, younger or older. Just accept your body and enjoy it as you inhabit it today.

Your colleagues. Be at peace with the people you share the day with today. Don't expect them to be any better than they are. Understand that they have stories they have never told you, problems they have never shared. Let them be in your space with you however they are today. Just accept their humanity and enjoy it as it is displayed to you today in all its weirdness and wonderfulness.

See what it feels like to rest at that balancing point of harmony between us and God, between us and other people. Breathe deeply. Be at peace.

Shalom aleichem.

+ Kit

Praying for the President ... in a Different Voice

A local Lansing colleage, Zach Bartels, who is pastor of Judson Memorial Baptist Church, suggested a website to me. The Presidential Prayer Team is a web site that was set up after 9/11 to pray for then-President George W. Bush. It continued to organize people to pray for the president, to pray during the election season, and then to pray during the transition. Now that Barack Obama is president, they have a program to pray through the first 100 days, and then will continue to encourage Americans to pray daily for the president.

I have signed on to pray with their prayer guides through the first 100 days. Now this is an odd and different thing for me. First, I am perfectly capable of praying on my own for the President. Our Prayer Book has several appropriate prayers for just this purpose.

But I am stepping out of my religious comfort zone to pray with other Christians who probably don't ... no, I'm pretty darn sure they don't ... agree with me on matters of Biblical interpretation, who gets saved, and how much or little government should intervene in people's personal lives. I don't really pray this way myself -- for instance, I don't understand what it means to ask for God to "anoint" somebody. This is not my spiritual milieu.

But I want to be connected to people who DON'T always think or pray like I do. I want to feel that sense of Church ... Church with a Big C ... the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church that binds all followers of Jesus into one Body. I respect the fact that these people -- most of whom probably did not vote for Obama -- are praying for him to succeed as our President.

President Obama said Tuesday that "the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply." I am hopeful that the same holds true for the stale religious arguments that have consumed us for so long.

Via this website, I am praying with my brothers and sisters who are Promise Keepers, friends of Focus on the Family, avid listeners to Christian radio and viewers of the 700 Club. We are all praying for the same thing, for strength and grace and clarity and safety for our new president.

Maybe in Christ there truly IS no East or West, but "all Christly souls are one in him, throughout the whole wide earth."

+ Kit

Standing or Kneeling?

Paper or plastic? Smoking or non-smoking?

Standing or kneeling?

This has become an option during the Eucharistic prayer. Different people have different pieties, different ways of connecting with God.

The Prayer Book says after the Sanctus (the Holy, Holy, Holy) ... The People may stand or kneel. (Except in Rite I it says "The people may kneel or stand." and in Eucharistic Prayer C, it doesn't say anything at all ... it assumes everyone will stand through the whole prayer. You can tell what the Prayer Book prefers you to do when there is a choice, by which option is listed first.)

Why Stand?

Generally, the committee that prepared the Book of Common Prayer would prefer the people stand during the Eucharistic Prayer. It is the position Jesus would have used to pray, it is the position used by the first Christians for prayer, and it was the position specified by the Council of Nicaea. It reminds us that in his death and resurrection, Christ has made us worthy to stand before him. (The prayer in Eucharistic Prayer B even says that ...)

Standing is a position of piety for many people who have grown up with the 1979 Prayer Book. It is more comfortable for some people than kneeling. It strengthens their faith and helps them to feel the celebratory spirit of the Eucharist, to feel thankful for their redemption in Christ.

Why Kneel?

Kneeling for the eucharistic prayer is something that began in the Middle Ages. This was a period when the people did not generally receive the sacrament at all. Only the priests were thought to be holy enough to actually consume the bread and wine. So the people kneeled to show their respect for the priest as he offered the mass and received communion.

Kneeling has been a position of piety for many people long after the Middle Ages passed. It reminds them of their humility before God. It focuses their attention on the prayer and the sacrament. It enhances their devotion.

Now What? Some are standing and some are kneeling!

This is fine. People should be able to express their piety in the eucharistic prayer by standing OR kneeling, as each person prefers.

But this raises a question of etiquette. If you are standing to pray because that enhances your prayer, you may be standing in front of someone who is kneeling, because that enhances his or her prayer. If you are standing in front of someone who is kneeling, what do they see as they gaze toward the altar?

Your backside.

So that everyone's prayer life can be enhanced, if you are a "stander," it would help the "kneelers" if you could sit on the outer edges of the sanctuary, near the windows. That way, as people look up and toward the altar in the center, they will have an unobstructed view. If you are a "kneeler" and a "stander" gets in front of you, please be patient ... try to move to one side or the other if you can. Also, the forward pews and chairs will provide a better line of sight.

Let us be patient with one another, brothers and sisters!

+ Kit

Are You Missing Something?

I left church yesterday evening and peeped in the chapel. There, as he does every Monday at 6:30, Tom Jackson was reading the service of Evening Prayer. The candles burned softly in the late afternoon glow. And Tom was there, leading Evening Prayer ...

Alone.

I wonder how many of us would relish 20 minutes of quiet and prayer at the end of a Monday. But we forget that it is there, forget that it is happening.

6:30 p.m.

Mondays.

Quiet, candlelit prayer.

Maybe it's for you ...