I had to buy new shoes while I was here
in Indianapolis. I was told before convention started that we had to
dress “Business Casual” and that flip flops were definitely outside of
that dress code. I looked in my closet and pulled out the shoes that I
never wear and put them in my suitcase. I thought that these shoes
would be what I needed during convention to participate.
The first day I noticed that I was
getting a blister on my small toe as I walked around from hotel to hotel
and within the convention center. Luckily, I had brought another pair
of shoes. I tried those on. These gave me a blister on my heel. After
lunch on the second day I went and bought two new pairs of shoes. Both
of them “flip flops.” My feet are much more comfortable now and I am
able to walk about the halls and continue the important work that I am
here to do.
I tell this story because I think that it
is an allegory for what the Church is doing now. We have been wearing
shoes that are tearing our feet apart. These shoes are preventing us
from being the Body of Christ. They look pretty on the outside but are
literally tearing us apart on the inside. Whenever we put right
theology over and above love we are denying the Gospel. We are so
concerned with being right in our theology that we do not see how that
relates to our lives. These shoes of our theology are hurting our body.
We are so concerned with keeping up appearances we forget that we do
not exist for these 'shoes'. They exist for us.
This morning in during Eucharist the
gospel stated, “Do whatever they (Pharisees and Scribes) teach you and
follow it; but do not do what they do, for they do not practice what
they teach. They tie up heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on
the shoulders of others; but they themselves are unwilling to lift a
finger to move them.” (Matthew 23:1-12) Our Church is very good at imitating the Pharisees. This morning Bishop Curry preached on the necessity of being crazy.
We would rather have an appearance of justice than real justice. Last
night one of my fellow Episcopal Peace Fellowship talked about the
feeling like this was all useless
because of our lack of ability to act on the resolutions we pass. I
feel the same sometimes, but we have to be crazy to believe, in the face
of the history and in the face of the multitudes of injustice in this
world that God is, in fact, acting to create God's community here on
Earth.
The change that this Church needs is
radical. But we are already suffering the pains from not making these
changes. We are at a crossroads in the Church. (Perhaps the Church
must constantly choose the path but that is for a different post). We
have the option of choosing to hobble along with these shoes that are
literally killing us, or we can discard these shoes and get new shoes
that will carry us into the future that we need. We can delay this
choice. However, God is present here and the building of God's Community
requires something different than a broken hobble down the wrong path.
Whenever we finally get to the point where we can no longer walk we
will begin to look for those shoes that will support us in rebuilding
our broken feet. It is our choice when we get new shoes.
-Maryann Philbrook
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