Day Two: Whole Hearts, Fake News & Thresholds
The first full day at the Festival began under a cloud. Well, there was the fact that I somehow slept through my alarm and had to rush more than I intended. But I really meant that the skies were overcast, leaden clouds hinted of rain, or maybe just a humidity you could feel in every pore. But I made my way to the Scottish Rite Theatre for worship with my distant relative from Denver. Well, actually, I’m pretty sure we aren’t related, though her name is Nadia Boltz-Weber. She is the pastor of the Church of All Sinners and Saints, a Lutheran Church in downtown Denver that is made up of people who never found a home in the respectable churches in town. Boltz-Weber is a former stand up comedian who became a Lutheran pastor and founded a church because she never really found a home in the respectable churches in town either. Tattooed and pierced she often sets people on edge. But her theology is compelling and Christ centered in a powerful way. Boltz-Weber said in her lecture later in the day that she is always a pastoral preacher, she holds no designs on being a prophet. She wants the Word to matter to the people, to her people, people on the edge, people wounded and wounding. But that’s later, this morning she is preaching.
She decided to bring us an Ash Wednesday text. Joel - “return to God with all your hearts.” Even the crappy parts of our hearts, she suggests. Even the parts we’d rather not acknowledge, the parts we ignore, pretend aren’t there, that embarrass us. Those parts too. Return them to God. But not, she tells us, because it is some kind of test for us, to see if we are strong enough or holy enough. No, it’s because God can handle it. Our hearts are safe in God’s hands. God will receive our heart and bless it and heal it. Even the part of our hearts we’ve given to those who hurt us the most. The parts we won’t name. The parts that are cold and dark, like a root cellar. The hearts that were broken by a heartless world. Or the parts we’ve given to a shepherd shaped wolf. Because, the good news is we have a God who never tires of forgiving.
Which might be a useful skill for all of us to learn, at least according to Dr Alyce McKenzie, who teaches at my alma mater, Perkins School of Theology at SMU in Dallas. Dr. McKenzie came to speak on “Finding a Way in the Wilderness: Biblical Wisdom’s Good News in a Culture of Fake News.” McKenzie has long been fascinated by preaching from the Wisdom literature of the Bible. Do we live, as some propose, in a Post-truth era? Truth seems to matter less and less all the time. We live by opinions and biases. What we look for is not information in order to learn, but that which will confirm our opinions. We don’t want to understand, we want to be proved right, even if we have to make things up - fake news - to do it.
McKenzie says the antidote is an emphasis on Wisdom. Biblical Wisdom contrasts Fake News in that Wisdom is about shalom and fake news is about chaos. Wisdom wants to guide us through life, to the good life, Fake News just wants to upset, throw out the “experts” and drain the swamp. Wisdom is collaborative and Fake News is conflictual. Fake news presents us the fool that Proverbs speaks of, in contrast with the wise person, who is characterized by living in the fear of the Lord (humility), compassion for others, impulse control and the courage to speak up.
The analysis of the current age continued with a presentation from Dr. Jennifer Lord, who teaches at Austin Presbyterian Seminary. Her presentation was titled “Way In and a Way Out: Preaching and Liminality in a Culture of Change. Liminality is the stage of change from one thing to another, usually used to define ritual change like rites of passage. Lord spoke of her own childhood as she moved from Brownies to Girl Scouts, and Bluebirds to Camp Fire Girls. Yes, she said, she was both. And she remembers most vividly the ritual of transfer from Bluebird to Camp Fire girl. The night of the ritual, they had constructed a little bridge for the cross over. The appropriate time she and the other bluebirds walked across and became camp fire girls. She said that bridge was her liminal space. Moving from separation - through liminal space - to incorporation into something new.
But, Lord asks, what if she stopped in the middle of that bridge and didn’t keep moving forward? She would have been neither, or some of both, or ...? Her thesis is that is where we are in our culture today. A constant state of liminality. Moving from one to the other, except no one knows where we are going, and we are losing track of where we have been. Delayed adolescence, others call it. The surge of the gaming culture, all kinds of gaming - gambling, electronic games - merges with the event culture to live in a constant state of non-reality. I know I’m not doing her lecture justice, but here’s the mic drop issue. The Christian life is a constant state of liminality. We are always becoming. But will likely never reach our goal in this life.
You thought that the preacher was to rage against this not here or there kind of world in which we live. I know I did. But instead, Lord suggests that we claim it. Live into it, embrace it, proclaim it as essential to the Christian life. But, and this is important, the Christian liminality is different from the world’s liminality. In many ways, but the most crucial is this, we know where we are going. We know who we are want to become. We are to be like Christ. Unlike the world that embraces the unknown and unknowable, the Christian faith is crossing the bridge with every step.
There is more. There was more, but my brain is full and I don’t want to tax yours. So, I’ll let these three carry the meaning of the day. Time to rest for another day. Oh, I also managed to explore a little bit and will post some photos of the Riverwalk and other interesting San Antonio sites. As soon as I can figure out how to get them off my phone. I mean they are there but not yet here, kind of in transition, crossing over, at least I hope. If you see what I mean.
I need some sleep.
Shalom,
Derek
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