Author: MASadmin

Avengers Smengers

Why, yes, I did just get back from seeing a 10:30 am showing of The Avengers. The great thing about only having four days of class a week is that my Friday is free. I expected to go into the theater with only a smattering souls around me. Alas, that was not to be. It seems a local school had the bright idea to take sixty middle school kids into the showing. This wasn’t how I planned to spend my Friday morning.

However, I must admit that the kids were well behaved – or maybe I just sat underneath a speaker that drowned out their talking. I enjoyed the movie, especially the scene after the first round of credits (none of the kids knew who that villain was). The final ending, after all the credits had rolled, was also a favorite. However, I could tell that I’m a New Yorker because what seemed most far fetched to me was that such a shop could afford Mid-Town rents. Aliens, superheroes, and fantastic weaponry – that seemed perfectly normal to me. But that final shop? Sheesh. Only way it exists is if it’s rent has stayed frozen the same amount of time that Captain America was.

I saw the movie at the Magic Johnson AMC theater in Harlem and the crowd was mostly African American and Hispanic. It was interesting looking up on the screen, in 3D, and seeing very few folks on the screen looking like us. I know that’s a consequence of this movie being The Avengers and the Marvel Universe being as diverse as the ELCA is. Yet I did notice that the audience identified mostly with the Hulk. It wasn’t Captain America who got the biggest cheers nor Iron Man; it was that big green guy. I know he was written well (it seems like he was the director’s favorite) but seeing a bunch of minority teenagers scream as the Hulk saved the world was quite a treat. By the end, I was glad that all those kids were there. They pointed out the importance of a character like the Hulk even in this post-modern world. A character, full of rage, completely green, and typically buck naked, was the most important part of the film for those kids. I don’t recall seeing a Hulk cutout in the lobby. They might want to get on it and put that guy out there.

I am Catherine of Siena

Living Lutheran shared a little thing written about Catherine of Siena whose feast my field site commemorated (very briefly) yesterday. I really don’t know much about the women mystics of the middle ages (even though I have read some of their work) but, what follows, struck me.

Unlike many of the other female mystics of the medieval period, like Julian of Norwich, Catherine of Siena didn’t live a cloistered life. She was part of a monastic tradition, but she returned to live with her family so that she could live among them and continue to reject them, a much tougher spiritual task. While doing that, she gave away food and clothing, to the detriment of the family wealth. She didn’t care.

I don’t mean to too my own horn but the part I bolded, that was meant to a T while I was a teenager. I should have used “well, Catherine of Siena did it” as an excuse during those years. Though, yes, I did not give food away, or clothing, or even go to church; details, man, details.

Argh! Why didn’t anyone tell me about the Internet Archive?

The next time I’m writing a paper about a period of Lutheran history where the copyright for published materials has expired, I should take a gander at the Internet Archive. The 1958 Hymnal, History of the Maryland Synod till 1920, The Lutheran Magazine from 1830s, A Lutheran Cookbook from 1907, The Memoirs of the Lutheran Liturgical Association, 1906, etc, etc. 1690 titles! And what’s also great is that some of the uploads can be downloaded in pdf and kindle format. Argh. If only I had a few more weeks to work on my history paper….

Warning: Crude Language Ahead

One of the big differences between Lutherans and Episcopalians is the whole collar thing. In the Episcopal church, there are rules when someone can wear a collar. For Lutherans, there’s a sense of when a collar is appropriate but, really, if you’re in seminary and on an ordination track, you could wear one. I tend to wear one when I preach or when I visit someone in an official role. For Episcopalians, to wear a collar before you are ordained is just not done. It’s not like wearing white after Labor Day; it would be seen as assuming a role that the church has not given you yet. To do so is improper, ridiculous, threatening, and could get you in trouble.

But once a seminarian is ordained as a deacon (which, I think, is like a priest but with mojo), the rules are off. For some seniors, they are ordained a deacon a few months before they graduate. The idea is that they’ll be ordained a priest six months, or so, down the line. Seniors who are Deacons serve in the chapel in an official capacity (they get to assist at the table). It is not rare for me to see a bunch of seniors wearing their collars all around campus. They’re proud of where they are and I can’t hate on them for wearing it. But it seems that there is still a sense that some wear their collar a tad too much. There is a term on campus for when a seminarian seems to be stuck in their collar. They called it “pastor-bating.”

Yes, it’s crude, but I laughed the first time I heard it. And I usually chuckle when I hear it now. But it took me a day or two to realize that there are two insults buried in this one phrase. I think it’s obvious to get the masturbation reference but the other one is a tad hidden, even for Lutherans. The thing is, these folks aren’t being crudely identified only for their embracement of their status symbols. They’re also be degraded by being called a pastor. For a Lutheran, being a pastor is what we are; to call us otherwise would be weird. But a true Episcopalian M.Div. at GTS isn’t a pastor, they are on their way to be a priest. The word isn’t “priest-bating!” The individual is being degraded by being called a pastor first!

It’s a subtle twist and it shows the power of language. Unless I had thought about it, I would never have picked out the degrading reference to pastor in “pastor-bating. But it’s there and a sign of one of the inherent tensions between Lutherans and Episcopalians in the very language that we use to define ourselves. And even when we do call ourselves by the same term (i.e. Bishop), we still are talking about two different things. Even after the Call to Common Mission, the reality is that our relationship together is a strange one when you look at the nitty gritty. And even in our internal insults, it isn’t hard to see how the other is degraded when we degrade our colleagues. Whether that language will ever change, I don’t know. As long as we’re on this side of the eschaton, we’re going to be jerks to each other. But this has least strengthened my own recognition of the power of language even within the hierarchy of the church. How to fix it..well…I’m not sure yet. But if I figure it out, I’ll make sure to let you know.