Ben Sternke

Field notes on life and mission with God in post-Christendom

Thoughts

Our Humble Complaint

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These words from Dame Julian of Norwich really landed for me the other day (she talks often of Jesus as our “Mother,” FYI):

We make our humble complaint to our beloved Mother, and he sprinkles us with his precious blood, and makes our soul pliable and tender, and restores us to our full beauty in course of time… And then the true meaning of those lovely words will be made known to us, ‘It is all going to be all right. You will see for yourself that everything is going to be all right.’

In the midst of our new awareness of the chaos of the world right now, these words are comforting.

I also keep bringing my “humble complaint” to Jesus, my “beloved Mother,” praying that the future all-rightness of the world will continue to manifest itself in the present, in my relationships and in our world.

Unhooking from the Social Media Drip

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I am fresh off two weeks of vacation, and one of the major shifts that took place for me during this time was my mind got “unhooked” from social media.

Before this vacation, with the pandemic and the protests, I was noticing that my mind would anxiously drift toward wanting to “check and see what’s happening right now” in an effort to figure out what to do and how to lead. I was falling for a leadership fallacy I learned about from Edwin Friedman’s book A Failure of Nerve: believing that newer and better information would help me lead well in these times. (It doesn’t and won’t.)

Unhooking from the social media “drip” has been profoundly helpful for my ability to focus and actually ?lead? the people I’m responsible to lead. I’m also thankful that, even after being back to work for a week, my mind has been able to stay unhooked from the anxiety, even though I’ve been a bit more engaged in “what’s happening out there” via social media.

Social media’s tricky, eh? If you want to reflect a bit more on this, check out this podcast my friend Matt and I recorded about the complexities of navigating social media as a leader.

The Importance of Preparing to Pray

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This morning in my daily readings from the church fathers there was a passage from Origen’s Treatise on Prayer. He spoke of the importance of preparing to pray, and the difference it can make in the life of the one who prays in the this way.

No one can think of devoting time to prayer without being purified, no more than one will imagine that those who pray can obtain the pardon of their sins unless they have first wholeheartedly forgiven the brothers and sisters who ask for their pardon.

Origen

Preparing to pray, then, he later says, involves forgiving anyone who has offended me, and banishing my “irritation at others.” This is why I see a lot of wisdom in placing the confession and absolution at the beginning of morning and evening prayer. I find the sins I’m most aware of within myself are the seemingly “small” issues of uncharitable thoughts and an irritable attitude toward others.

When we come to prayer with this kind of disposition, “banishing whatever troubles the soul,” we find ourselves in an “attitude of prayer which places [us] in God’s presence and engages [us] to pray to him as someone who is present and looking at them.”

We steadily learn, in other words, to live in the awareness of God’s presence and his deep knowledge of us. God becomes the preoccupation of our minds, to our great benefit: we “avoid many sins” in this way, and “many good deeds are carried out.” Holiness of life flows naturally from this kind of prayer.

Prayer, then, is a much deeper practice than just saying the right words at the right time. It is a practice of personal connection, a fully awake engaging of the heart and soul with God in receiving God’s love and letting it flow back to God. We enter into this kind of prayer only through the work of purification and preparation for prayer.

I realize that it is very easy for me to just stumble into prayer, and while I’m grateful that the words of the liturgy carry me along when I’m not “feeling it,” I also realize that taking a few seconds to prepare for prayer will likely be very fruitful for me. This means allowing myself to become aware of irritable thoughts and feelings, and letting go of them through through confession, absolution, and forgiveness.

Preaching Black Lives Matter With False Motives?

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It has been another remarkable week. Protests against racism and police brutality continue around the world, and there is a new groundswell of popular interest in and support for anti-racist efforts.

As Christians, we gladly join in these efforts as a simple outworking of the gospel in our cultural context. For the church, to proclaim and embody that “Black lives matter” should be a simple, non-controversial proclamation of the gospel into our specific context. And to work for justice should be a simple, non-controversial outworking of our Lord’s command to love our neighbors as ourselves.

I hope it’s not a flash in the pan. I’m praying and hoping and learning how to work for the long-term systemic change we need to ensure that we don’t go “back to normal” in a few weeks.

I find myself cautiously encouraged by the mass support we are seeing for justice right now. Mitt Romney marched with Black Lives Matter protesters. NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from races. Confederate monuments are coming down all over the US. Branches of the military are banning the display of the Confederate flag. The president of the Southern Baptist Convention (!!) urged members to say “Black lives matter” as an urgent gospel issue. The editor of Christianity Today is calling for Christians to practice restitution (not just repentance) for racism.

As Jemar Tisby has been saying, “Something different is happening this time…”

And while some celebrities and politicians might be jumping on the anti-racism bandwagon only to garner fans or votes, and least ?this? is the bandwagon! As the Apostle Paul said about those who were preaching Christ for false motives while he was in prison, “What does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice?” (Phil 1:18).

So I’m rejoicing that so many are affirming that Black lives matter right now. I’m also lamenting that it has taken this long. I’m also repenting, because I’m part of the problem. My ignorance and reluctance to stand in solidarity with my Black sisters and brothers in the past has delayed justice.

As I “cautiously rejoice” at what we’re seeing right now, I’m also listening soberly to those who have been in this struggle a lot longer than me who are saying that a lot more is needed. Marching in protests and posting on social media alone won’t bring about the systemic change we need to unravel 400 years of racialized terror and trauma.

Let’s keep repenting and lamenting and praying and hoping and listening and learning how to do the long term work of justice.

What We Do When We Pass the Peace

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The “Passing of the Peace” is one of the liturgical moves I wonder if we’ll need to modify once we’re able to come back together for worship. If people are afraid to touch each other, obviously hugs and handshakes won’t work. Maybe we’ll do elbow bumps, or perhaps a “profound bow,” honoring the presence of Christ in the other.

These liturgical disruptions are an opportunity to remember why we do these actions, and what they are meant to signify and effect. So what are we doing when we share Peace with one another? Here’s what Theodore, Bishop of Mopsuestia wrote in his Catechetical Instruction in 428 AD:

Each of us gives the Kiss of Peace to the person next to us, and so in effect gives it to the whole assembly, because this act is an acknowledgement that we have all become a single body of Christ our Lord, and so must preserve with one another that harmony that exists among the limbs of a body, loving one another equally, supporting and helping one another, regarding the individual needs as concerns of the community, sympathizing with one another’s sorrows and sharing in one another’s joys.

The Peace is meant to signify the unity of the body, which is expressed not just in a single gesture on a Sunday morning, but in ongoing mutual love and support for one another, standing in solidarity with one another as one Body.

This unity is much easier to signify and remember when we share the Peace on Sunday morning. When I see your face and touch your hand, I remember that I belong to you, and you belong to me, and that our lives are bound up with each other. But during “Coronatide,” and any other time we find ourselves physically distanced from one another, it is much more difficult to hold this unity in our minds and hearts.

One of the marvels of Paul’s letters to me is his deep affection and sense of connection to Christians he was physically distant from:

  • “God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus” (Phil 1:8).
  • “My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you” (Gal 4:19).

One of the opportunities I see in this time when we cannot physically share the Peace with each other is to, through prayer, cultivate a greater awareness of our deep unity with and connection to each other as the Body of Christ.