Deliver Us from Amnesia

We know in reading the gospels and the Old Testament that lineage is important.  I found Diana Butler-Bass' discussion about our "roots" to be revealing.  As she points out, today, via the Internet we have the opportunity to delve into our ancestry (for a price of course).  Yet, the humble status of the majority of our ancestors is the very reason we know so little about them.  Had they been royalty or movie stars, we would remember them proudly.  

As it is now, even with my generation, the passing on of stories and of family identity is fading as we indulge in the impulse to choose a a band of friends better suited to our preferences.  But our collective forgetting runs deeper than this. Historians have pointed out a contemporary paradox: we have more information about the past, but less actual connection to it than those in previous ages.  

Built into the structure of Western society is a bias against the past--the idea that what is new is better. The energy of youth takes precedence over the wisdom of age. The ability to listen to the narratives of our families, even of our own faith stories, has waned or been rejected as irrelevant.

To some extent we can see this in our modern day liturgies.  We don't spend a great deal of time discussing the "company of saints" to which we join our praise. Our ancestors seemed to view the world as somehow boundless, the mysterious horizon between earth and heaven as thin. Yet, as Butler-Bass points out, we live in a very "bounded" society that is now dominated by the ideals of modernity--to delineate, define, categorize and systematize knowledge so that we can control and fix our reality.

She also points out that modern history has given us the gift of knowing more about our ancestors while also eroding our capacity to dwell with those who have gone before.  In a sense, then, we have forgotten who we are and whence we came.  Butler-Bass says we have become "nomads in time."

It seems our prevailing culture of "nomads in time" has charged the Church with losing its relevance, losing its ability to connect, unite and to speak to our fractured identity and purpose(s).  I would push back on that charge by noting that for all of our genealogical searches, our deep appreciation of antiques and heirlooms, we do eventually discover (hopefully) that our family tree intersects with other family trees.  Our roots are intertwined. We are all, in a sense, related to each other and belong to each other.  This relational impulse is from God.

And, if you look at the illumination of Jesus' family tree, you will find that it is intertwined with many persons one would not expect to find in a divine lineage. This is the beauty of both of the genealogies of Jesus in scripture. Each makes a different point about who is included in God's Kingdom (the list was shocking in its inclusion of Gentiles to those looking for a warrior Messiah of perfect Jewish heritage). 

If a church is successful in addressing this milieu of Kingdom relatedness, then I believe that church can find and create relevance for anyone by hurling us into the Biblical story again and again until we find our roots there.  

Where do we find ourselves rooted in this Lenten season? What narrative fills the background of who we are and who we want to be? Where do we ground our residence and web of relationships in this world?  

A prayer for Walter Brueggemann

God of peace,

God of justice,

God of freedom,

We give you thanks for your cadences of

peace, justice, and freedom

Cadences that have surged through

[the lives of your saints]

and all that nameless mass of risk-takers who have been

obedient to your promises

and susceptible to your dreams.

Deliver us from amnesia

concerning their courage in the face of violence,

their peace-making against hate,

and their hunger for you in a devouring economy.

Deliver us from amnesia:

turn our memory into hope,

turn our gratitude into energy,

turn our well-being into impatience.

That these same cadences of your will may pulse even among us.

Amen.