The Invitation: Taste and See…
8 April 2008 - 4 ניסן 5768 by Huw
So, lets take all the essays in this series:
Faith 1
Faith 2
Faith 3
Faith 4 (a summation of the three)
I spent the most time on “Faith” because that’s what seems to be making the big stumbling block: some people, Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic (and some Anglicans, too) seem to think that they have a right, a divine duty and a responsibility to limit who can come forward - based on the assumed faith (or lack thereof) of the seeker.
The Orthodox Invitation is,
Proper, OT, Biblical fear, the Hebrew word Yirah, as I tired to show in my first essay is paralleled not with terror (as in the Greek word, “Phobos” (whence, “phobia”) but rather with the near erotic imagery of Da’at.
Faith, as I tried to show in all four essays, is not the simple belief in Santa Claus that makes Christmas Morning awesome for a three year old and boring for a 13 year old. Faith is trust. God is a consuming fire and when we come, like fire walkers, we have to love the fire. If we disrespect the fire, run away from the fire, or douse the fire, it will simply swallow us up, whole. But if we come in trust… not checking off points on a creed nor, like the Cowardly Lion, chanting over and over, “I do believe in spooks! I do believe in spooks! I do believe in spooks!” (while quaking in our boots) then we have nothing to fear. As a child or an atheist can come, feeling the love - and having no second thoughts - but never knowing why… so should we come.
And love, finally, is not something for God, but for our neighbour. It’s hospitality: we come with two hands outstretched, one to Jesus and one bringing a friend along behind us. In fact, we can not come to God at all, alone.
To really partake of communion, there is no call to hide it, in fact, I’d go so far as to say if you *were* hiding it from others, you might not be really partaking of communion anyway.
I’ve shared this story before, but one Sunday after giving out Communion, I asked Donald: “When I hold up the bread and say ‘Lizzie, The Body of Christ’, am I saying something about the Bread or about Lizzie?” and Donald said, “Yes”. We fail to discern the Body of Christ (in the fullest Pauline Implication) not when we forget there’s something magical about the bread: but when we forget to love the person standing next to us at Church or on the street.
