27 ...i come from a strong tradition of liturgical toleration that views Holy Communion as a uniting and converting sacrament - uniting the Body of Christ and converting the heart. in all my years of coming to the Lord's Table, i have never once seriously considered withdrawing from a Communion service because of a scrupulous conscience.
SOPHIA WHO?
yes, i had read Wisdom's Feast, coauthored by our guest homilist, so i knew in advance that she had frequently spoken of Sophia as a goddess to be worshiped. in that book, Sophia is referred to as 'a strong, proud, creative goddess within the biblical tradition'...who
28 is this goddess? 'S is, in fact, the God of Israel expressed in the language and imagery of the goddess'.
S wo4rship is not designed to be merely a transitory liturgical experiment, but the fabrication out of whole cloth of a feminist goddess who might be imported into christian worship. the practical question that religious feminists are pressing is 'how can the image of the goddess become accessible to a broad range of women?...since the chapel service was taken verbatim from this book, it is impossible to pretend that this particular service had no relation to this particular book, one of whose coauthors was our homilist.
the introduction of S worship into the liberated old line churches was by a deliberate strategy designed to proceed by a series of calculated stages through which the goddess character of S would be recognized only gradually. in a 5 tier process the homilist had proposed that feminists gradually might bring a congregation to invoke S by taking these steps: 'these stages are: 1. basic and unobtrusive reintroduction of S...2. addressing issues of women's identity in relationship to S; 3. celebrating and deciphering the Jesus-S connections; 4. exploring and celebrating S's presence in all things; 5. invoking S to address questions of human suffering'.
the intent is to legitimize the goddess: 'we must find a way to mainstream the goddess into the universe within which women are actually living their lives'. but car must be taken that the S worship and preaching not offend too abruptly, for 'in our experience, the best way to begin talking about S is to address a meaning of the text that does not concentrate on the goddess character of S'. hence a strategy of incremental homiletical duplicity is recommended: first conceal the 'goddess character of S', then later introduce her overtly in the Eucharist.
i approached the service with some disquiet. i wondered whether it would be best not to attend at all. i might be tempted to do or say something rash, due to my apprehension and annoyance. ...
29 anyway, this still is my worshiping community, so i felt that i had a right to receive the sacrament duly administered. i wanted meekly to come to the Lord's Table without political posturing or ideological skewing. so i decided not merely that i could go. but that i must go and hoped for special wisdom in responding...
our first hymn was entitled 'S', in which was sung the praise of S, vagely objectified into a deity distinguishable from the Triune God. it is S who 'ordains what God will do':
she's the teacher we esteem
and the subject of life's theme.
lover, counsel, comforter,
life is gladness lived with her. ...
with this imitation hymn i began to feel more queasy and manipulated. i wondered whether i was in a place where some other lord than Jesus Christ was being worshiped. i felt just a little (for the first time in my life) like the apologists of the 2nd century must have felt when confronted with the challenge of attesting the Lordship of Christ amid a pagan pantheon of Greco-Roman deities.then came the homily, which was addressed to a highly targeted audience- mostly true blue feminists and maybe a few pale blue hangers on, but no one who might possibly have any critical resistance to feminist rhetoric. in the name of inclusiveness, all other audiences were excluded, disregarded and to some extent demeaned.
the homilist took some time to recount an event of a stormy experience of a combat weary feminist cleric. it was a victory story in which a pious United methodist lay leader and other members were counseled out of participating in her church and invited to change their membership
30 to another church. using the rhetoric of inclusiveness, she recounted how the preacher had proclaimed the virtues of doctrinal diversity, yet specifically invited all who did not agree with her to leave and look for another church. she was apparently oblivious to the inconsistency that exclusion and divisiveness were being practiced precisely in the name of inclusiveness and doctrinal pluralism. there was not the slightest recognition in her demeanor of any inconsistency. her language was filtered carefully through the sieve of egalitarian exclusionary rhetoric. she did, however, tip her hand enough to reveal the value commitments of the lay leader who was driven out: he believed in the confession that Jesus is Lord, in monogamous covenant sexual fidelity and in protecting the life of the unborn.
...the spare scriptures imported occasionally into the service were carefully culled chiefly from the Apocrypha and some Wisdom literature (proverbs 8-9; psalm 104). ben sirach was quoted, but not in any way that would give offense to feminists - only those passages that seem to reify Wisdom into a deity distinguishable from the Triune God. to reify is to objectify, to make an object or think of an idea or symbol. to reify the idea of sophia (the greek word for 'wisdom') is to treat that idea as a personal deity differentiated from the holy trinity...
31...i pondered whether i could in good conscience stay to receive Holy Communion. this was my first experience ever in thinking about withdrawing from a communion service because something offensive to the Lordship of Christ was occurring right there at the Lord's Table. it was becoming clear to me that the god worshiped in this fantasyland was not the triune God made flesh in Jesus Christ, but the reified persona of S, distinguishable from the Trinity. i began to consider how i might inconspicuously withdraw from the service without making a scene.
nothing seems more unbecoming at the Lord's Table than a public demonstration of outrage or divisiveness or pique or politicized commotion...
32 Communion. i was coming to the conclusion quietly that in good conscience i was going to be forced to absent myself somehow. but how?
i prayed for wisdom...just at that time the homilist herself gave me the decisive clue. she urged the gathering not to delay in asserting their convictions. she said that the longer feminists delayed asserting their authority in worship, the more difficult it would be. she then offered the invitation to come to the Lord's Table, not in the Lord's name, but in the name of the goddess who was speaking through Jesus. this was a very carefully worded rhetorical device. the inviter was not was not the crucified Lord of glory but the Sophia figure who was speaking through Him, by her own authority. ironically, we were being invited to His table, but only so in her name.
that did it...
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