{"id":31,"date":"2010-02-17T17:48:20","date_gmt":"2010-02-17T23:48:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/community\/dry_bones\/?p=31"},"modified":"2010-02-17T17:48:20","modified_gmt":"2010-02-17T23:48:20","slug":"ashes-and-guilt-by-association","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/drybones\/2010\/02\/ashes-and-guilt-by-association\/","title":{"rendered":"Ashes and Guilt by Association"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"photo
photo courtesy of vince42 via C.C. License at Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I walked into the noon service today, and felt a great sense of comfort at this great annual shift into Lent. The purple cloth over the cross, the silent gathering, the smell of burned palms, the flecks of ash on my nose \u2013 these lured me into the quiet and contemplation of a season of repentance.<\/p>\n

Historically, the Church invites us to express our desire to repent by taking on spiritual practices \u2013 serving, fasting, praying. \u201cWhat are you going to do for Lent?\u201d \u2013 the perennial early February question. Every year, we are called to engage in different behaviors that might jolt us awake from our spiritual slumber. It\u2019s like the posters that the YMCA has put up lately. They show slightly tubby members lifting weights, and they ask, \u201cIn three months, you\u2019ll be wearing shorts. Are your thighs ready?\u201d<\/p>\n

One way to approach it is to do a cost-benefit analysis. Would giving up wine or red meat for six weeks help me be more open to God? [I don\u2019t think it\u2019ll be sweets, since I\u2019m sitting here eating Girl Scout cookies as I write. Why oh why do the Girl Scouts have to sell Do-si-dos in Lent every year?? I could fast from Samoas, but not those Do-si-dos.]<\/p>\n

God knows I have a lot to repent of. God knows I should give up a whole lot of things. But the cost-benefit analysis approach leaves me cold. I need a whole new heart, not a six-week leave of absence from the old one or even a toned and tuned-up heart that\u2019ll last until, well, until I get tired of the spiritual work-out.<\/p>\n

Another way to think about Lent is to take on an unusual obligation or act of service. This is almsgiving for the 21st century. We look around and find ways to ease the suffering of someone around us \u2013 preparing a meal for someone who is sick, sending a grocery certificate to someone who is unemployed, watching someone\u2019s children so they can get a night away\u2026 all good deeds, every one of them.<\/p>\n

Such things are good Christian practices. They\u2019re also just plain good things to do, whether you\u2019re Christian, Buddhist<\/a>, atheist, or Muslim.<\/p>\n

So what can I do for Lent this year that will make me a better Christian<\/em>?<\/p>\n

The \u201cChristian\u201d brand name is part of the problem. The label has become vacuous, and in many ways doesn\u2019t have a lot to commend itself. It can mean nearly anything, and lots of people have a visceral connection with it that dredges up personal and associative memories, good and bad \u2013 but these days, mainly bad.<\/p>\n

Much good has been done under the Christian banner, but so has much evil. For many, the name \u201cChristian\u201d has become synonymous with everything from western civilization, arrogance, abuse, racism, imperialism, Crusades, bigotry, hypocrisy, and greed\u2026 It\u2019s only barely holding its own with associations of selfless service, generosity, compassion, caring for orphans, serving the poor\u2026 It\u2019s a dicey call.<\/p>\n

The Crusades, with their slaughter of Muslims, Jews, and fellow Christians, were Christian. Mother Teresa\u2019s life of sacrificial service was Christian. Westboro Church in Kansas, with its godhatesfags.com website, is Christian. Martin Luther King, Jr., was a Christian, as was his vision of justice. Jimmy Bakker and his empire-building was Christian. Billy Graham with his passion for preaching the gospel is Christian. Most members of the 19th-century Ku Klux Klan were Christians. Rick Warren and his worldwide activities to combat global poverty is Christian.<\/p>\n

You can see the problem. Immediately you think to yourself as you encounter different examples above, \u201cWell, I\u2019m not THAT kind of Christian. A true Christian is\u2026 fill in the blank.\u201d<\/p>\n

It has become popular in some circles to abandon the label \u201cChristian\u201d because of these complex associations. To say I\u2019m a Christian immediately makes me want to give certain qualifiers so you know that I\u2019m not \u201cone of them\u201d (whoever you think \u201cthem\u201d is). Yes, I\u2019m a Mother Teresa Christian, but no, I\u2019m not a Westboro Christian, but yes, I do vote Republican, but no, I don\u2019t support Sarah Palin, but yes, I oppose federally-funded embryonic stem cell research, but no, I don\u2019t think school prayer is a good idea, but yes\u2026<\/p>\n

So by abandoning the label \u201cChristian\u201d and substituting it with something like \u201ca follower of Jesus\u201d we avoid all the baggage. And there\u2019s a lot of baggage under the banner. A lot to repent of. Let someone else do it, I\u2019d like to say.<\/p>\n

And yet part of repentance is realizing the ways we\u2019ve entangled ourselves \u2013 personally and corporately \u2013 in systems of evil. A portion of our reading today was from Paul\u2019s second letter to the Corinthians, where he lists the ways he and his colleagues \u201ccommend themselves.\u201d \u201cIn every way: in troubles\u2026 purity\u2026 kindness\u2026 dishonor\u2026 ill repute\u2026 regarded as imposters\u2026 sorrowful.<\/em>\u201d He seemed to recognize that persevering in faith meant, in part, being willing to bear the burdens of guilt by association.<\/p>\n

The name Christian is tainted, yes. Worth keeping? Perhaps not, but I can\u2019t imagine that any other label will in the long run fare better, because we\u2019re made of the same stuff, and who\u2019s going to manage the \u201cmembership issues\u201d for the new label? Personally, I\u2019d like to remove any association with \u201cthose sorts of Christians\u201d (who aren\u2019t really Christian at all, right?), but to bear the name is, in some measure, an act of repentance itself, a smudge of black on my forehead that I refuse to wipe off before I go out in public.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I walked into the noon service today, and felt a great sense of comfort at this great annual shift into Lent. The purple cloth over the cross, the silent gathering, the smell of burned palms, the flecks of ash on my nose \u2013 these lured me into the quiet and contemplation of a season of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":206,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,13,45,65],"class_list":["post-31","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-christian","tag-community","tag-lent","tag-repentance"],"yoast_head":"\nAshes and Guilt by Association<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"I walked into the noon service today, and felt a great sense of comfort at this great annual shift into Lent. 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