Saturday, May 11, 2013
Thursday, May 09, 2013
An American view of Pope Francis from two Yale Professors--'I hope this is clarifying for you', says Sister Janet Ruffing...
Sisters in this country are generally hopeful about Pope Francis. He has just appointed to the congregation of religious life and apostolic societies a Franciscan who is as a leader in religious life, and everyone is expecting to have a positive relationship with him.
This article by Peter Menkin
Most will agree the Jesuit Roman Catholic Order has been at odds with the Vatican for decades. Never has there been a Jesuit Pope. Now there is and his name is Pope Francis, 79 years old and a former South American Cardinal in one of the most difficult Diocese in South America. In this reflection and comment in opinion on the New Pope that is cast as an American view with its perspective by two Yale Divinity School Professors, this piece is their American statement.The first viewpoint noted is by Lamin Sanneh, the D. Willis James Professor of Missions and World Christianity and Professor of History at Yale. Born in Gambia and descended from an ancient African royal family and a naturalized U.S. citizen, he is described in the Yale Divinity School publication as a convert to Christianity. The biography was written by Ray Waddle, who is Editor of the school’s, Reflections magazine.
Sanneh was raised in a scholarly, aristocratic Islamic family in Gambia. He knew of Jesus from the Qur’an, but he had no intention of taking interest in Christianity, much less of embracing it. The community expectation was for him to become a Muslim leader and mentor. But as a teenager, his encounters with the story of Jesus took an unexpected turn. He became captivated with Jesus’ plight as described in the Qur’an, then anguished about this godly prophet’s earthly ordeal. It turned into an intellectual and moral struggle for him.
“Jesus was obviously so good, and that made me wonder why he was so hated and rejected. Why should these terrible things happen to him? That bothered me. I decided it could only make sense if God had not abandoned him. The question tormented me: I could not abandon Jesus, or, at the time, Islam either. Jesus’ enemies had enmity toward God. Maybe I too shared such enmity toward God, in which case I needed God’s forgiveness as much as Jesus’ enemies did. All of these things transfixed me on the figure of Jesus,” said Sanneh, who converted to Christianity while still a teenager.
Professor Sanneh points out in the article titled, “Lamin Sanneh: immersed in the drama of world Christianity,” that today only 35 percent of the world’s Christian are in the United States and Europe. His specialty, world Christianity. An Interview with Professor Sanneh in Christianity Today is found here .
Book Trailer for Lamin Sanneh’s Summoned from the Margin
Published on Jan 31, 2013
SUMMONED FROM THE MARGIN: Homecoming of an African By Lamin Sanneh
This Religion Writer found this statement for an unpublished writing sent by Professor Sanneh worthwhile because it gives his world viewpoint in a nutshell, so to speak. He reflects on the New Pope Francis in this statement, and gives an American viewpoint that emphasizes that it is not America whom either the Vatican turns to, but the world. Americans believe they are the focus of the Pope and the world, frequently with their many concerns and opinions. This is not so. This is the case despite the fact the United States is the world power, number one. Roman Catholicism is aware of this, of course, but its real business is global.
Professor Sanneh calls the concern of Pope Francis to abandon the image of the Church as what he calls, “musty anachronism.” This quote from an unpublished paper sent to this Religion Writer by the Professor.
As a hint of his desire to abandon the image of the Church as a musty anachronism, Pope Francis has spoken before of the need to avoid “the spiritual sickness of a self-referential church.” He has criticized the over-clerical character of the Church, saying “the priests clericalize the laity and the laity beg us to be clericalized.” He calls that “sinful abetment,” saying baptism should suffice for the life of discipleship. If he adheres to that strip-down, unpretentious view of the Church, he would likely advance the promise of lay enablement Vatican II encouraged but left unfulfilled. That impulse has been lodged like a dormant supplement in the body of the Church, waiting for the day when it can be released for the good of all believers.For more from his draft paper, unpublished, Professor Lamin Sanneh, which he titles, Pope Francis and Pope Francis and the Church of St. Francis see the Addendum. This long quote from his paper:’
One influential book, Translating the Message: The Missionary Impact on Culture, argues that Christianity’s success and proliferation, ancient or modern, have hinged on the faith’s ability to translate the gospel from culture to culture, adopting and adapting in local languages and idioms, refusing to enshrine any particular civilization as the exclusive or normative expression of the faith. Sanneh has been critical of Western Christian leaders who discount the rampaging growth of the faith beyond the West. The widely noted shift of Christianity’s center of gravity to the global south has unfolded during his own adulthood. In 1960, most of the world’s Christians were in the U.S. and Europe. Today, only 35 percent are.
He counsels against Western complacency —the secularizing trend of the West’s disengagement from its own religious heritage, an impulse, he said, to gloss “freedom of religion” to mean “freedom from religion,” as if religion is incompatible with freedom, and vice versa. Western self-preoccupation is blinding leaders, including Christian leaders, to dynamic forces of change under way in the world. A post-Western Christianity is proving that the faith as a world force is as vigorous and as potent as ever.“I believe too many people in the West are too sanguine about their religious heritage—they seem to think they can hold a cultural consensus together based only on a cultural memory of the faith,” he said. “But you cannot continue to draw on the heritage if you do not replenish it. In time, people will forget what that heritage is. Young people won’t learn it. They need inspiration. For the sake of coming generations, churches must exercise their responsibility and retrieve the positive aspects of the Christian heritage. We need to give ourselves to something greater that also has a future.”
Lamin Sanneh: immersed in the drama of world Christianity
The Future of the Catholic Church with Professor Janet Ruffing (Extended Interview)
Published on Feb 28, 2013
Yale Divinity School professor in the Practice of Spirituality and Ministerial Leadership Janet Ruffing discusses Pope Benedict XVI’s legacy and the future of the Catholic Church.
Richard French
As host of ”Richard French Live,” an Emmy Award-winning nightly public affairs program, Richard has interviewed politicians, pundits and personalities ranging from President Obama to the biggest newsmakers from the national to regional level. A multiple Emmy and state broadcaster awardee, Richard came to broadcasting from the world of politics. He has been with RNN since its inception.
In a phone conversation with Sister Janet Ruffing, Professor at Yale University along with an exchange of emails, she commented on the New Pope Francis for me. As a Roman Catholic Sister, she says, “The Sisters, our whole lives, were affected by Vatican II and we are very hopeful. … Someone who will focus on the Gospel.”
Sister Janet, or Professor Janet Ruffing, is a member of Sisters of Mercy. Sisters of Mercy say of themselves:
The Sisters of Mercy actually do not consider themselves monastic. If you look at the FAQ portion of our website, it captures the Mercy lifestyle. I’ve included it in quotes below.
“All congregations of religious women share certain characteristics: they strive to live simply; they are celibate (do not marry); they give up the right to make decisions independently of their community; they make prayer and contemplation a significant part of every day; they engage in work (they call it ministry) that addresses the needs of other people.
Sisters of Mercy respond to a call to serve persons in need and to follow the example of Jesus Christ in his compassion for suffering people. In addition to the three vows (poverty, chastity and obedience) all Catholic sisters take, the Sisters of Mercy also take a fourth vow of service to persons who are poor, sick and uneducated. We are an active community in contrast to some communities that are contemplative or monastic.”
Here is what is said of Janet Ruffing as excerpted from Yale Divinity School website:
Originally from California, Professor Ruffing, a Sister of Mercy, is Professor Emerita of Spirituality and Spiritual Direction at Fordham University where she directed the spiritual direction program from 1986 until her arrival at Yale Divinity School in the spring of 2010. She has published five books and numerous articles on spiritual direction and supervision, mercy spirituality, female religious life and leadership, kataphatic mysticism, prayer, and other technical topics in spirituality.
This is a quote from one of her books:
The Sacred Tale told in spiritual direction is never complete, always unfolding, and always susceptible to new interpretations and fresh revelations. …More than ever most of us can benefit from the opportunity to tell our sacred tale in spiritual direction. Others write their sacred tales for the public on blogs and in autobiographies and memoirs. In our anti-modern, modern, or postmodern context, we need to read, see and hear such stories of belief and religious experience…to nourish our sense of the Holy being deeply involved with us. We need models for our own faith journeys, and yet we realize that each of us makes this journey both deeply alone and together with others in the communion of saints who have gone before us and who live among us in our faith communities.( 165-167) To Tell the Sacred Tale: Spiritual Direction and Narrative (Paulist Press, 2011)
Yale also writes of Professor Janet Ruffing:
Interests
Beginning with her dissertation on Spiritual Direction and Narrative (1986), Professor Ruffing has remained keenly interested in spiritual direction and narrative process. She has recently completed To Tell the Sacred Tale: Spiritual Direction and Narrative to be published soon by Paulist Press. This book draws on case material from her experience with directees and students for many years as well as postmodern understandings of the narrative creating self. She has recently published a historical essay in Studies in Spirituality, (2009) “The Epistolary Soul-Friendship of Elisabeth Leseur and Soeur Marie Goby.” Since 2006, she has been giving workshops on Love Mysticism and Spiritual Direction and plans to develop that material into a book. Recently, she gave the Kay Butler Gill Lecture in Christian Spirituality at General Seminary in New York: “Love Mysticism: Relic or Contemporary Experience?”
Three questions were asked her and she replied in a candid manner in writing. The questions:
1) What sense have you of the New Pope regarding the controversy of Sisters of Mercy and other American Nuns failing in their obligation under vows due to their outspoken statements and actions on social issues?
2) It is so surprising to find a South American named Pope, at least to this Religion Writer. Also to find a Jesuit becoming so? What does this bode for the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican, and even the Papacy?
3) Will you make a statement or comment of your own liking on this new man, Pope Francis?
In her response to the first question she notes that the LCWR is a leadership group for American Nuns. They are the focus of the controversy with the Vatican. Here is how they describe themselves according to their website. The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is an association of the leaders of congregations of Catholic women religious in the United States. The conference has nearly 1500 members, who represent more than 80 percent of the 57,000 women religious in the United States. Founded in 1956, the conference assists its members to collaboratively carry out their service of leadership to further the mission of the Gospel in today’s world.
CDF is defined this way by the Roman Catholic Church, and this is a quote from the first paragraphs of Vatican definition:
Founded in 1542 by Pope Paul III with the Constitution “Licet ab initio,” the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was originally called the Sacred Congregation of the Universal Inquisition as its duty was to defend the Church from heresy. It is the oldest of the Curia’s nine congregations.
Pope St. Pius X in 1908 changed the name to the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office. It received its current name in 1965 with Pope Paul VI. Today, according to Article 48 of the Apostolic Constitution on the Roman Curia, “Pastor Bonus“, promulgated by the Holy Father John Paul II on June 28, 1988, «the duty proper to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is to promote and safeguard the doctrine on the faith and morals throughout the Catholic world: for this reason everything which in any way touches such matter falls within its competence.»
Comment by the Sister:
… Sisters make vows to God under the leadership of their congregations. The Vatican is not accusing us of lack of fidelity to our vows. It is hard to sort it out, what the Vatican is saying is that the present controversy with the LCWR has supposedly had nothing to do with all the Sisters of all the congregations. This group is a group of leaders; it is exclusively a leadership group. The accusations … are about the speeches that were given at their meetings, and that the leaders as a whole have not been outspoken enough of abortion, etc. It’s a little confusing because our leaders are us…but supposedly, this is not critical of the 50,000 Sisters in the U.S.
Sisters in this country are generally hopeful about Pope Francis. He has just appointed to the congregation of religious life and apostolic societies a Franciscan who is as a leader in religious life, and everyone is expecting to have a positive relationship with him.
Regarding caring about the Pope, Sister Janet responds: “I was moved to tears when he appeared on the balcony and asked people to pray for him. In that simple gesture he had expressed Vatican Two. Everything he has done since that….his statements in his homily are all … hopefulness.”
She also responds:
The Sisters, our whole lives, were effected by Vatican II and we are very hopeful. … Someone who will focus on the Gospel.
I don’t think that. Francis offers the perfect Papal election for a third world country. Because he is the child of Italian immigrant parents. He understands the Italian immigrant families. He sees himself as a piasano. There was some speculation that a new Pope would come from South America. Argentina is the most European Country. He is a wonderful bridge person. He is deeply aware of the Pastoral needs of Latin America and Africa. The problems in both places are insufficient clergy to provide sacraments. There are communities that never see a Priest and celebrate Eucharist once or twice a year. This is important because we must remain a Sacramental Church.
Part of the problem in Latin America is we are bleeding congregants to Pentecostal and Evangelical Christian Groups. The problem is we are lacking Priest. They do not have enough Churches.
Part of our difficulties in thinking about the Pope is that we are only 10 or 15% of the Church. The papacy is a Worldwide leader, and one of the reasons why an American could not be elected Pope, for an American would be conceived as an American first. The Church would never be free of the American government. We always have to think of the Church as a Holy and Apostolic Church…Under Vatican II the Church was becoming a world church rather than a European Church under Vatican II. In terms of Francis under the 8 men and they represent the … major parts of the world.
So in terms of this new Pope we have dealing with this and he should be able to understand us. It was he was formed by the Jesuits and they believe in faith, and justice.
Sisters involvement with social justice teaching are aligned with our Bishops.
. [This is a paraphrase.] Francis has been engaged in this and social justice as have the sisters. The previous Two Papacies were not enthusiastic with Vatican II, and the Sisters have been living out of Vatican II for 50 years. What the Sisters have to do is continue the dialogue and have been doing this in a deeply contemplative place. The discussion was not a frank discussion before. It is unlikely the Pope would immediately reverse the present process.
Somewhat annoyed at not getting the kind of understanding in follow-up questions to her answers, Sister Janet Ruffing replied in this lengthy manner by email to me:
You still are confused about the CDF /LCWR situation. CDF has made this a doctrinal issue…and it should not be. They took statements out of context and misconstrued the statements in addresses that had been given over a long period of time at the annual meetings of LCWR which only leaders attend.
Because these leaders have listened to an address does not mean they necessarily agree with the comments the speakers actually made.
CDF accuses the group and their speakers of “radical feminism,” specifically because sisters have not remained silent about the question of women’s ordination and the role in leadership women ought to have in the church. One might ask how could women religious remain silent about their second class status in the church? Many women religious who are theologians have constructed feminist theologies and remain within the Church and desire its reform, considering these questions open rather than closed. Women leaders in religious life have developed a largely collegial and participative form of governance within their religious communities which men in the church functioning in a hierarchical mode do not understand.
This is a style of governance that Vatican II taught under the terms of collegiality and subsidiarity. Yet all of our Constitutions have been approved by Rome over the last several years. The leadership remains committed to remaining in dialog with CDF and the Bishops appointed to supervise the process as long as necessary to reach common understandings and until or unless they reach a point where the women feel they would violate their own consciences. Should they reach that point, and the women withdraw, that would bring about the end of this particular leadership organization. These leaders still hope that will not be the outcome. It is important to note that women religious agree with the Bishops and official teachings on most points.
And the church itself teaches that following one’s own conscience in disputed matters is an inviolable right and responsibility. At the present moment, leadership is engaged in this dialog. Many hope that Pope Francis, because he is a Jesuit, has a better understanding of religious life than many other churchmen and will want to resolve this misunderstanding. And that will take more time to play out.
As I stated early on in our conversation, women religious make vows to God within the context of their religious communities. Unlike the Jesuits, sisters to do not make a special vow of obedience to the Pope in relationship to mission.
I hope this is clarifying for you.
September 26, 2010 Sermon at Yale University Church
Uploaded on Nov 16, 2010
Janet Ruffing, R.S.M., Professor of the Practice of Spirituality at the Yale Divinity School, preaches at the weekly Sunday worship service in Battell Chapel on the Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost. This sermon was delivered at the University Church in Yale at Sunday morning worship. The University Church is an ecumenical campus Christian community serving the Yale and New Haven communities since 1757.
ADDENDUM
From Lamin Sanneh’s , Pope Francis and Pope Francis and the Church of St. Francis
Still, the figure of St. Francis has staged a comeback now in the official nomenclature of the new pope. St. Francis was a picturesque character who combined earthiness with towering supernatural faith, and who made the passion of Christ so plausible and so palpable an outflow of faith and obedience that all whom he touched felt a gut affinity with him. His rule of gathering around low and mean tables so that a beggar would feel at home in that company raised the bar of Christian charity and hospitality to the level of common, unadorned humanity. He tamed the propensity for position, power, and privilege into one of deference and courtesy for the poor and the sick. In the presence of St. Francis we could claim our humanity only by acknowledging that of the poor. When we are in the sight of God, to recall St. Francis, we are only so much and no more. For him the love of God was the supreme passion and rule of his life, and in consequence moral and ethical matters came before matters of doctrine and theology. As the “minstrel of the Lord,” he took the presence of God into the converging worlds of the personal, social, spiritual, natural, and the sacramental. In following in the saint’s footsteps, Pope Francis intends to bring his Jesuit credentials into the crucible of serving the poor, making peace, and defending the dignity of the downtrodden and the forgotten. Pope Francis seems resolved to launch the Church into a new age of evangelism guided by the spirit of St. Francis. In an ironic way, nothing could be more appropriate for the mood of the contemporary world as was so well expressed in The Singer, Calvin Miller’s poetic allegory of the life of Christ inspired by Catholic mystics:
A healthy child is
somehow very much like God.
A hurting child, His son.
Pope Francis explains reason behind name choice, wants ‘Church for poor’
This work appeared originally Church of England Newspaper, London by Peter Menkin. Contact the author... pmn01@att.net .
Wednesday, May 08, 2013
Brother Rich, Franciscan, talks about formation to the consecrated life of a religious
Without comment: Live conversation about vocation and formation of Franciscan religious.
by Peter Menkin, Obl Cam OSBBrother Rich who is a Franciscan (Order of St. Francis), spoke by phone with the founder of the Order for the edification of members and also the general public. This he did by telephone from Marin County, California to a technical expert who recorded what he said in his original, unrehearsed, mini-talk. This is that video playing that live talk. He spoke two or more years ago, and note he is the vocations director aiding Franciscans in formation to come to reflect on their choice of a way of life--a divine vocation.
Interview: Luke Powery, new Dean, Duke University Chapel tells of his plans for the future of his ministry
My hope for Duke Chapel is that we would continue to be a place and people of mediation. That we would embody hospitality towards all kinds of different worshipping traditions: High Church, Low Church, and “no church” folks. I want us to be a beloved community, representing the beauty of God.
Article-interview by Peter Menkin
New Dean of Duke University Chapel
This big job in what is really a large building serves the larger community around the school as well as the University. The new Dean Luke Powery is part of that line of pastors serving both communities. The interview with him done by phone, starting October, 2012 and stretching to this day in April, 2013, tells us much of his ability to pastor and his plans for the Chapel. These segments of conversation in interview were done with Dean Powery from this Religion Writer’s home office in Mill Valley, California, but 11 miles north of San Francisco, to the Dean at his office in the Chapel located in Durham, North Carolina.
One thing noted by the American Press in general of the new Dean Luke Powery is that he is an African-American. Apparently such public information still merits notice, and this is good for he is the first African-American Dean at the University. Times change. There is an African-American in charge who was chosen for his fine work as a Pastor, his administrative skills, and because of his ability to give a Sunday sermon or not.
Chapel Tower, a traditional view
There are YouTube with this story to enrich readers with their video presence. See for yourself the Dean speak from the pulpit. He is reputed a preacher to hear. The Dean in the pulpit was a pleasure for my ears, especially in his occasional use of the creative phrase which I as journalist and writer noted in listening while watching a YouTube of him in action as Preacher.
In a background interview by phone made prior to the interview, Dean Powery said:
I am beginning to view here my ministry as one of mediation. This may become … this could become an overarching theme, and by that I mean bringing together all kinds of people, high church folk, low church folk, no church folk…(the various schools), bridging university people and community people. It’s even bridging various art forms, and the roles the arts play here. At my installation there was two pieces at the choir, but we also had a choral piece where we used steel drums. That we had the organ and the steel drums in the service speaks volumes about what the church is about.
In another part of a conversation with him, I likened onto this phrase of his: This is an ongoing mission. We have a staff of about 25 in the chapel. Mission is important, if not first ranking with him and he was on it right away.
The Duke University website about the Chapel says: Located on Duke University’s West Campus, Duke Chapel is as magnificent in structure as it is rich in ministry. Construction of the Chapel was begun in October of 1930 and completed two years later. During that time students continually congregated at the stonemasons’ huts to watch the Chapel take shape. It was first used for Commencement in 1932 and was formally dedicated on June 2, 1935.
This quote from the website is very telling for it gives some substance to the fact the University has a strong sense of the need for Worship in the Christian community. Granted the Chapel is non-denominational, but it is clearly Christian: Duke Chapel is one of the most visible chapels among leading research universities in the United States. Regular Sunday attendance during semesters is around 1,000, rising to 1,500 for special occasions, and 3,500 for Easter. This vibrant participation makes the Chapel as exciting a context as any in which to address the opportunities and challenges facing all faiths in contemporary America. With a highly talented and motivated staff, Duke Chapel works hard to be an exemplary institution in worship, music, and ministry—engaging all to look to the future with faith, gratitude, and hope.
You may also find this a worthwhile to read interview, as this Religion Writer found it a well worthwhile act of work in holding.
INTERVIEW WITH NEW DEAN OF DUKE CHAPEL THE REVEREND DOCTOR LUKE POWERY WITH RELIGION WRITER PETER MENKIN
1. Congratulations on becoming the new Dean of Duke University Chapel. This is a two part question, and the first is about your predecessor. Talk to us some about his work, and how that work bears on the work you will do as new Dean. If you like, speak of the tradition you will bring forward, and in the short time you’ve been Dean, what your first impressions of the job may be as you’ve found it. The second question, tell us something of how you prepare a sermon for Sunday, for this Religion Writer has heard you give a good sermon. For example, do you begin the work the week before, and do you look at the readings primarily for inspiration. This isn’t a request for tips, it is more to discover something of your own reflections on the work of homiletics you’re going to do and have done, either recently or in the past.
Dean of Chapel, The Reverend Doctor Luke Powery in the Chapel.
To answer the first part of that question, there are two things that stand out in my mind regarding my predecessor, Sam Wells. Those two emphases are: outreach to Durham and the wider community, and an initiative called Faith Council, which focuses on interreligious dialogue and interfaith engagement. There is also, of course, the great tradition of preaching and liturgy that has been a part of the Chapel’s Sunday worship for a long time now.
The Chapel’s Religious Life Program oversees and engages with a variety of religious groups on campus. Some of those groups included in the Faith Council are: Muslim, Jewish, Catholic, Hindu, Buddhist, and Protestant traditions. We also have a student ministry called PathWays, which is multidimensional, involving mentorship and classroom-work as well as public service.
The Chapel is pastoral, administrative, academic, and has a public voice in the community (Durham, North Carolina, and beyond) in which it serves. It offers a mosaic approach to ministry. Compared to other major universities, Duke Chapel is a distinct place with a kind of vibrancy that interplays on many layers. A sign of some of that involvement can be seen on a weekly Sunday basis. We have close to 1000 people in the pews, which is quite unusual for a University Chapel. We accomplish this through great support through offerings, private donations, endowments and the University, and by remaining open to new ideas.
To answer the second part of that question, for me, the first step in sermon preparation is prayer. Before I even approach the Biblical text I approach God with an open ear and heart. With that posture, I begin a conversation with scripture by doing my exegetical work of history and literature, and closely reading the text itself. In some ways, I am reading the world as I engage the text—what’s going on at Durham, at Duke, what’s happening in the news—and asking myself, “What is one way that this passage intersects with this human life?” Once I discern the answer to that question, the challenge becomes easier. Then it’s time to decide how I am going to put the sermon together, not only how I will share the Biblical text, but how I will share it as a word of hope, with God’s help.
My experience and nurturing — my entire formation — has been highly ecumenical. I am ordained in the Baptist tradition and I grew up in the Pentecostal Church. My own academic interest and writing has focused on the Holy Spirit (pneumatology). My upbringing shaped that interest and while it includes Pentecostalism, I also strive to see beyond Pentecostalism as well. I’ve found ways to broaden my own experience via the work of Jurgen Moltmann, gleanings from the episcopal tradition, and the early church traditions—especially the Eucharist. There is a deep sense that without the Holy Spirit not much work of worth can happen in our lives. The Spirit is vital; the breath of God is vital. The Spirit crosses Christian traditions and helps to bring us together.
2. No Doubt the Chapel is a beautiful place, and the music excellent. I think readers, like congregants, are always interested in the music of worship. Just like music journalists ask musicians of the popular kind, tell
us as a minister of worship what hymns are favorites of yours, and something about your own faith experience in worship when it comes to the integration of choir and liturgy. Please feel free to give concrete examples, and even quote lyrics, if you wish.I have a degree in music and also grew up in a musical family; so much of my education came through the medium of music. I came from the apostolic tradition, where music is the handmaiden of theology. So for me music was always a vital part of the worshipping community. I experienced singing preachers who sang in the beginning of the sermon, the middle of the service, and the end of the service. So I learned that music comes from the preacher, not just from the choir.
At this moment, Here I am Lord is the phrase I find myself singing most. It is a song found in several hymnals. I first heard it at a memorial service, and I sang it as a farewell call in a church in Switzerland. In one Chapel Choir rehearsal we sang the words and it held great meaning for me. The other hymn is an African American Spiritual, Soon I will be done with the Troubles of the World, which is a mixture of the human reality of trouble, and struggles as we hope in God. “No more weeping and a-wailing.”
Music is so much a part of worshipping God at Duke Chapel. Sometimes when the song feels really meaningful, the organist will pick up the tune and incorporate it into the recessional music.
3. Of your background and the reason for your answering the Call to be Dean, speak to us about your own preparation (in the spiritual and religious sense) for the decision to do so, and something of your journey toward your accepting the Call and being installed as Dean of the Chapel. I think everyone likes to hear a pilgrimage story, and this Religion Writer suspects answering a Call as important as the one you answered is a pilgrimage. Is it not?My father has said, “Take a song on a journey.” So, I feel that I’ve always been on a journey. In terms of my own calling, I was always in conversation with friends, family, a community of people (obviously my wife!), but this particular call to Duke came out of nowhere. We were not looking to move when it came on our radar, so conversations with friends and others became critical. I needed to smell the air and meet the people, so we came down from New Jersey to visit. And for the first time since the opportunity arose, I got a sense of the possibility of coming to Duke, of moving south. I became aware of the geographical change – of the shifting in the intellectual landscape. And now that I’ve been here, I can even see a trajectory change in my own writing and research. It is a different geographical location both literally and metaphorically.
There is a book I am co-authoring with Fortress Press out of Princeton: An Introduction to Preaching. My co-author is Presbyterian; I’m a Baptist. I’m Black; she’s Caucasian. And in our conversations with each other and the text we are writing, we are taking context seriously. It will be coming out in the fall of 2014 and I’m sure some of what I’m saying about geographical location will show up on those pages.
4. So much of the work of a Chapel is work with students. Talk to us about the work of the student in his or her community life, and especially campus life. Especially note the place of worship and, in particular, the Chapel in the spiritual and religious life of a student at Duke University. Is it similar to the work of other University school chapels?The heart of any university is really its students. So the ministry that is done attempts to facilitate the spiritual life of students. Some of the Chapel staff teaches and engages students in the classroom, with the hopes of integrating their intellectual and the spiritual worlds. Others on staff primarily engage students by meeting with them one on one, and facilitating small groups discussions outside of the classroom. These activities happen primarily through PathWays and Religious Life. PathWays promotes vocational discernment and spiritual analysis, that asks students to ask: “What is God up to? How is God calling me? What does God have to do with all this?” Students in PathWays and other Religious Life groups have a lot of opportunities to decide where to “plug in” to the community at large, whether its mission trips, community service, interfaith dialogue, or a service project directly connected to their spiritual life and field of study.
A service of worship in Duke University Chapel. The Rev. Dr. Luke Powery delivers a sermon entitled “Why Are You Afraid?” Mark 4:35-41 Bulletin: http://bit.ly/LLIIyK
5. As we come to the end of our conversation by phone, and we have learned something about your faith, work and even your Sunday sermon work, now is the time to talk about anything you like. Is there anything I have not asked, of you that you want to say? Thank you for your time and the opportunity to make your acquaintance in this interview.My hope for Duke Chapel is that we would continue to be a place and people of mediation. That we would embody hospitality towards all kinds of different worshipping traditions: High Church, Low Church, and “no church” folks. I want us to be a beloved community, representing the beauty of God. In my own formation, this idea comes from the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr., where it is God’s community, God’s diversity, which includes all genders and classes of people in the crossing of boundaries for the glory of God. Wesley would say that we come to this through works of mercy. So that is what we will strive to do. But we will always be working toward it, because it never fully arrives. For, in the end, the beloved community is the home of God.
ADDENDUM
This unusual sermon for Easter given by The Reverend Doctor Luke Powery is certainly a statement about the secular culture and the popularity of the American writer Anne Lamott’s work as a Christian and woman of faith. But after all, she as a very good and readable, popular writer who as artist embodies so many of the attitudes and tastes of so many seekers and erstwhile Christians today. When I think of this sermon, I think it almost an exaggeration of the Dean’s unique style and that it almost matches author Anne Lamott widespread fame and well read, many sold, books about Christianity. To a degree, it is given to catch the ear of students. For is not that the primary business of the Chapel’s work?
–Peter Menkin
Chapel
Why Are You Weeping?
John 20:1-18
A sermon preached by the Rev. Dr. Luke A. Powery on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2013 at Duke Chapel
Mary Magdalene has forgotten that it is Easter. According to one writer, there are three essential prayers—help, thanks, and wow (Anne Lamott). Easter is supposed to be a wow Sunday. Right? Can I have a few witnesses to say ‘wow’? But, Mary makes it a woe-is-me Sunday, not a wow Sunday. Come on, Mary, don’t rain on our Easter parade today or dampen the mood of our party. Don’t wrinkle our frilly dresses or mess up our new fancy hairdos or crush our favorite white Easter lilies. O Mary don’t you weep. But that’s exactly what she does “early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark.” Mary “stood weeping outside the tomb” in a pool of tears that drench this story. One commentator says that this biblical text is “awash in tears” (Allen Callahan). The pages of the pericope are still seemingly moist with Good Friday sorrow. But it is trumpet-tongued, brass-blasting Easter at Duke Chapel! Yet Mary reveals that we are an Easter people living in a Good Friday world. Mary “stood weeping outside the tomb.” Weeping is more than tears; it includes wailing and lamentation for the dead. It’s an ancient Jewish expression of mourning and grief.
Why does Mary weep? She says, “They have taken away my Lord and I do not know where they have laid him.” Mary does not weep as a sign of the penitence of the gift of tears nor does she weep over the bitter division in this country over human equality. Mary weeps because she mourns the loss of Jesus. The God she knew is gone. I did not say she mourned the death of Jesus in this case, because Jesus was already dead. She weeps because Jesus is lost. The One, who declared his university major to be finding the lost, was lost himself, and she couldn’t find him. Her weeping, or what John Donne calls “fruits of much grief,” flow because of the presence of the absence of Jesus. Jesus is MIA, missing in action. Mary had gone to the tomb because that was where she was used to finding Jesus, the dead Jesus, the impotent Jesus, the Jesus- who-does-not-meddle-in-my-life-Jesus, comfortable and cozy Jesus. Mary had become used to the place of death so she weeps because what she had come to expect had shifted all of sudden and everything she knew, Jesus, was gone. She weeps due to a nostalgic disorientation.
“They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” Mary still expects to find a dead Jesus in a dark tomb, located in the same old place and acting in the same old way. Controlled, cold, numb, and locked in a grave cave. Mary has forgotten that it is Easter. She weeps because she has lost what she has known to be reality, the usual place where she thought she could find Jesus forever—in a mausoleum manger. “They have taken away my Lord,” my personal Jesus, my concept of who Jesus is. I wish I could return to the days when it was as simple as ‘Jesus is the answer,’ a simpler way, no complexity to theology, no unanswered questions because the ‘bible tells
me so,’
the good ole days when I ruled God from the throne of my own anxiety, and wrapped an entombed Jesus, not in swaddling clothes, but in a psychological safety blanket. That dead Jesus was gone for Mary. Where she left him, he could no longer be found. The Jesus she knew and believed in was lost, the tame Jesus of her childhood, the one with blond hair, blue eyes, and a pointy nose on the fans used in the country church. Her Jesus, her Lord, was lost. The one she understood. The dead Jesus laying in a dead place. A Good Friday world for an Easter people.This is in stark contrast to what Anne Lamott dreams about in her book Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith. She dreams of an Easter like the resurrection vision of a child in Sunday School who drew an Easter Bunny, not Mary, outside of the empty tomb, joining eternal life with a basket full of chocolate eggs. With that vision, the tomb would be tasty. Yummy yummy to my tummy. What an Easter it would be— chocolate, white chocolate with macadamia nuts, dark chocolate melted over strawberries, Hershey chocolate ice cream cake, chocolate-covered grits with scrambled eggs. Maybe or maybe not. Either way, scientists have argued for years how eating sweet chocolate makes us feel good and is more pleasurable than listening to your favorite music or winning the lottery or even falling in love (don’t let your
significant other know that secret!). Chocolate can lift you to heights you’ve never seen before, they say. And a 2012 article in the New England Journal of Medicine argues that chocolate consumption contributes to one becoming a Nobel Prize winner; with this theory, we probably have a house full of Nobel Laureates!
Anne Lamott dreams of a chocolaty Easter—innocent, child-like, and care-free full of chocolate fountains flowing deep and wide outside of the tomb with the Easter bunny as the doorman. This is a dream. Not the reality she knows. On the contrary, she’s not surprised by Mary’s weeping in a Good Friday world.
Mary, not the Easter bunny, stood outside the tomb, without a basket full of chocolate eggs, but carrying despair and hope in the chest of her heart. Mary weeps because she finds herself in a Good Friday predicament on Easter morning. What else can she do in this situation? She could post a jazzy and flashy neon-colored flyer with Jesus’ picture on it and put “Missing” at the top and hang it outside of the Bryan Center; but how could she do that when it seems as if Mary doesn’t even know what Jesus looks like anymore? She had lost Jesus or at least her conception of him. She had gotten so used to a dead Jesus that a living Jesus was a stranger to her. And how strange this is when Mary learns how to weep from Jesus who wept at the tomb of Lazarus. She picks up where he left off—weeping. Mary loves Jesus and her tears are signs of that grieving love. But maybe the flood of tears blinds her eyes so she doesn’t recognize Jesus when Jesus asks her face to face, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” She “saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus.” She sees him but doesn’t see him with the eyes of faith. You can love someone but once that person changes you may not recognize him/her anymore. They may be so different because death and life are different. A dead Jesus is distinct from a living Jesus. UNC’s men’s basketball is different from Duke’s men’s basketball, and we know who’s dead and who’s still alive in the tournament! Jesus had changed clothes because he was alive and shook off the sting of death’s designer attire. Death’s clothing won’t fit on a living God. Jesus left his tomb linen suit in the deathbed of the grave and was now wearing living clothes of light.
The question “Whom are you looking for?” suggests that the real issue was that Mary was looking for the wrong Jesus, a powerless dead Jesus in a cold tomb, just laying there. Not a living risen Jesus and Lord. She doesn’t recognize him because she wasn’t used to a living risen Jesus. She looked for him in the wrong places and had gotten used to a God who lies dead, inactive. A small, lifeless Jesus she could control and even carry around as she offers to take him away, if she can find out where he lays. But the living Jesus looks right at her.
Then Comedy Central arrives in the midst of a tragic time. After Jesus asks her why she’s weeping and who she’s looking for, Mary speaks to him “supposing him to be the gardener.” She’s talking to the incarnate God but thinks he’s a gardener. That’s like walking around in a department store shopping and someone asks you if you know what row the Clorox bleach is on; and you weren’t even wearing an employee nametag. What made Mary think that Jesus was a gardener? Was it his tattered clothes or his accent or his humble demeanor, or his skin color or his body odor? Was it that he resembled God in the Garden of Eden? Was it the sweat on his brow or the scars on his hands? A gardener? That’s like someone saying to me, ‘you look like a preacher.’ What’s that supposed to mean!? You can’t always judge a book by its cover. The writer of Hebrews teaches us not to neglect showing hospitality to strangers because by doing so some have entertained angels without knowing it. Mary was entertaining the resurrected God but she didn’t know it. She saw a gardener.
According to various accounts, Sir Winston Churchill did not have the greatest relationship with his parents. As a young boy, he was berated by his father and told that he would grow up to be a failure. They perceived him to be less than what he was. What they saw, he was not. On top of that, he had a speech impediment and was discouraged by some of his teachers; sadly, most of us have probably had a teacher or a school counselor like that, who only knew how to be a midwife for stillborn hope. Yet, Churchill became one of the major 20th century leaders in the world. You can’t judge a book by its cover. Too small. Too big. Too tall. Too short. Too thick. Too thin. Too loud. Too soft. Too uneducated. Too unsophisticated. Too human to be divine.
Jesus can be right in front of us but we don’t recognize him because we think he’s just a yard maintenance man. Our lack of recognition keeps us weeping in the dark of dawn. Even when resurrection comes, we may not recognize it because we’ve become so used to, so familiar with crucifixions, dying and death. And as the psychologists have taught—familiarity breeds liking. Liking death can become the norm when we hold membership at the Jerusalem temple of the tomb. Those who attend services there are dead too among the saintly zombies or at least counting down to the date of their death on the website, deathclock.com. No wonder weeping occurs. That is, weeping over our own death. Perhaps Mary weeps because a part of her dies when Jesus died. I don’t know but I do know that she weeps because of disorientation due to losing her Jesus, the dead Jesus. But she’s the one who’s really lost because she doesn’t know resurrection when it’s even staring her in the face.
Good Friday weeping on Easter intrigues me, but I guess it makes sense since my former students at Princeton Seminary used to call me the ‘doctor of death.’ Mary’s weeping is fascinating and I wonder something else about her weeping. Unwittingly perhaps, Mary weeps even as a
deep yearning for the return of Christ. In fact, she weeps for resurrection and as a summons, an invocation for the presence of the risen Lord. She doesn’t know this but her tears are prayers. Sometimes we cry and we don’t even know why. We’re weeping for resurrection. And just as “at the tomb of Lazarus, [Jesus’] tears inaugurated the triumph of life over death. So too, tears inaugurate the triumph of life over death here” (Callahan). In this context, we are reminded of the words of Jesus, “I am the resurrection and the life” (Jn 11:25).
Jesus, the one who rises and calls us by name (“Mary!”) even if we don’t recognize him, even if we think he’s still dead. He’s calling you. The risen, living Jesus refuses to be imprisoned in death’s solitary confinement. This living Jesus cannot be controlled by our theological paradigms or ecclesial traditions embalmed in a tomb. We won’t find the living Lord of light there, dressed in death’s dingy clothes. Jesus is alive and on the move in the world, which is why he tells Mary “Do not hold on to me.” You can’t control me. You can’t hold me down or hold me back or keep me dead and useless. There’s too much work to do in the world. Too much interceding and healing and comforting and reconciling. Bringing peace in the midst of conflict. Love where there is hatred. Justice where there is oppression. “Do not hold on to me” with your sanctified straightjacket. Release me for the work of redemption. To ascend to the Father in order to lift you higher. Don’t look for me at the tomb. You’ll look for me and I’ll be gone. I’m not there. I won’t bring you back to the way it was because I’m no longer dead. “The way out of the darkness is only by moving ahead” (Craig Barnes) into my resurrection light. Don’t dwell on the memories of the past, but remember the future I have for you.
Why are you weeping? Mary weeps not because she fears death but because she fears life, the new adventurous, unpredictable, resurrected life and future in Christ. The old, lost, dead predictable, comfortable ways, dead Jesus, had passed away. Behold, the living Jesus was making all things new. Weeping for all things new. A new start, a new beginning, a new day, when there would be no more tragedy and agony. All things new. What we see in the flesh of the risen Lord is God’s embodied promise that a new day has begun in Christ and that resurrections still happen. All things new. A new start with your family that had fallen apart. A new job when you’ve just lost a job. A new dream for your life when you thought all you were capable of were nightmares. A new medical invention that may actually help cure cancer. All things new.
Because Jesus got up, we can get up, as he lifts us up as he ascends to the Father. Mary was down but when Jesus calls her name he lifts her spirit up, he wakes her up, he resurrects her, which is why she had been weeping for resurrection all along. Mary hoped for all things new. Mary’s weeping ceases in the presence of the resurrected Christ who resurrects her when he calls her name. She was dead but in that moment he made her alive. She no longer needed a dead Jesus because the living One was right in front of her. Mary had “seen the Lord” and her life was never the same again. She became an apostle to the apostles.
After all she had been through in the past this was an unexpected future. We can’t control the future but Christ leads us into the future and holds the future. We can’t hold on to him because he’s actually holding us. Why are you weeping? O Mary don’t you weep, mothers don’t you weep, fathers don’t you weep, sons don’t you weep, daughters don’t you weep, students don’t you weep, faculty don’t you weep, facility workers don’t you weep, coaches don’t you weep, university administrators and staff don’t you weep. Because in the life of the risen Christ we pass from death to life, from death’s tomb to God’s triumph, from an old age to the inauguration of a new one. An age when “[God] will wipe every tear from [our] eyes.” An age when “death will be no more; mourning and crying and pain will be no more.” An age when we just might have chocolate for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Mary had forgotten Easter in her Good Friday world. But she no longer weeps and we no longer have to sing, “O Mary don’t you weep.” For weeping may endure for the night but Easter joy comes in the morning. This morning. Jesus is not dead. He is alive. I told you it was a wow Sunday. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed. Not even Easter bunny chocolate can beat that. Alleluia!
Easter Sunday Worship – 3/31/2013 – 11AM – Luke Powery
This work appeared originally Church of England Newspaper, London by Peter Menkin. Contact author Peter Menkin: pmn01@att.net
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