The Same As It Ever Was….Kind Of

It’s funny how the ancient rituals find a way to stay in step with the times. In a way, what’s old keeps its head up and stays proudly old; but the tried and true can also go through a kind of makeover when it needs to walk side by side with the new.

Last Monday, my husband joined a group of Episcopal clergy and laypeople who went to Washington D.C. to participate in something called “Holy Week Witness: Challenging a Culture of Violence.”  Initiative for the event came from the Diocese of Connecticut, resulting in part from the tragedy in Newtown and a growing campaign to promote federal legislation for gun regulation. In preparation for what turned out to be a very cold and rainy march down Pennsylvania Avenue, the three bishops from the state (with the help of many others) produced a hefty document consisting of Bible readings, Meditations and Prayers entitled “Challenging a Culture of Violence: The Way of the Cross.”

The different sections take turns within the document, as in a regular church bulletin. The familiar lines from the gospels are like tall and dignified trees; they have many rings around their trunks.  Luke, Matthew and Isaiah stay pretty much the same through the centuries.  The Meditations, however, were written by an array of people from our time, and just about each one includes a combination of references to events from long ago—Jesus and the cross on up to the assassination of Abraham Lincoln — as well as events from the very recent past, particularly the horror of Newtown.  The main effect is to provide a kind of bridge between the old and the new, to see the sweep of history and to recognize just how high the stakes are now for us in a time when guns are so readily available.

While the group was in Washington, technology provided all kinds of ways to follow what they were doing and what they were saying.  If we tuned in, we could see all the purple cassocks under umbrellas, hear the spoken word and almost feel the cold rain.   It still amuses me, but tweeting – something that celebrities and athletes got going – now might as well be part of job description for a bishop.  It’s considered an effective way to maintain contact with thousands of people who want to keep their faith life buoyant during the regular work week.  The Facebook page “Episcopalians Against Gun Violence” provides a convenient place for these same people to meet – over a particular pressing issue — without hurrying to get dressed and get in the car in order to enter a pew at a designated time.  That is beginning to seem, well, so last century  —  and the one before that, and before that….

My husband reminds me that, in the Gospel of John, Jesus says “I am the vine; you are the branches.”  In a way, the enormous shift we are all experiencing away from “we-are-here-together-actually” and towards “we-are-here-together-virtually” is a kind of modern fulfillment of that metaphor.

Of course, there may still be something to be said for gatherings where people are actually breathing the same air and reaching for their hymnals, with the same old hymns, together.  It does still happen.  In fact, it happened in countless churches this past Easter Sunday.  Maybe some of the devout were able to find a service on-line that was satisfying, but for the most part the day was about sharing pews and sharing tables with other real people.  And yet, even a morning in church isn’t completely a technology-free zone.  A few days ago,  I watched a young father studying his cell phone as he walked with his baby at the same time that the bishop was confirming and receiving about a dozen people, uttering the words that are so satisfying mostly because they are unchanging:  “Empower her for your service, and sustain her all the days of her life.”

Right afterwards, as I discussed with some parishioners the hazy (to some of us) distinction between receiving and confirming, one woman piped up:  “I think I’ll Google it.”

It’s no wonder that New Hampshire Public Radio recently did a story entitled “NH Entrepreneurs Launch Social Network for the Prayerful.”  The brainchild of two brothers,  this site provides users with a convenient method for donating to their churches as well as for starting “prayer campaigns.”  Prayer – that might have been something you thought was still in the realm of quiet spaces, spaces that brought your gaze up high to see the stained glass windows, spaces that you entered by opening a tall door, or perhaps just by sitting down and being alone somewhere without a computer.

Think again.  Not wanting to let its dignified history cause it to lose an ounce of relevance, prayer has gotten up and is walking straight into the future.