Saturday, January 5, 2013
i resolve the church thing in one sentence...
Given that, as Jaroslav Pelikan pointed out, the Luderans are now either Baptist or Methodist, those communions being honorably wrong in themselves and not at all that Luderan in any substantive way, it is clear to me that me and my house cannot eventually land in any particular parish of any Luderan gaggle, for I was and remain the kind of Luderan that can only be called Luthodox, with a strong love of Augustine built in that prevents me and my house from permanently taking up residence in any particular parish of any Orthodox gaggle, though each of those gaggles is beautiful in themselves and worthy (Axios!) of love and respect, yet I can only figure out one thing at a time, time being distended being given to a man in limited quantities and qualities for the purpose of praise embodied, such embodiment the sine qua non of human life in space-time such that, all things being equal, we would find heaven without a body to be nothing more than a sensory deprivation dimension, and that one thing at a time this past year has been what to do with the next fifteen years of my and our life, it therefore seems meet and right and salutary that I resolve to not resolve the conflict known to any and all as The Church Thing at this time (see above remarks about time, distension of being, and suchlike), because I really, like, for crying out loud how is a guy supposed to make sense of this clusterfuck in the first place?!?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Sorry, I'm too long-winded to resolve anything in one sentence. But as one Luthodox to another (or, as I suspect, from one of the Luthodox to the other of the Luthodox), I certainly empathize and mostly agree.
ReplyDeleteAnd yet, is it really true? Is it really true that none of the Lutheran groups is "all that Lutheran"? And is it really true that love of St Augustine excludes one from being truly Orthodox? If that's true I think Fr Reardon is going to have to be kicked out. He not only likes Augustine, he likes post-schism Westies such as Bonaventure and Bernard of Clairvaux.
I'm more or less happy in a high-Church LCMS parish which serves the Mass every week strictly according to the Synod's service-book, and I can keep my fingers crossed at the filioque or mumble "through the Son, dammit", and continue my devotion to the Virgin and the saints in my personal prayers and not tell anybody. You could do that too if you could find such a place.
Or you can become Orthodox if and only if the priest will allow you to take "Augustine" as your Chrismation name. Would it be so bad to be Orthodox if every time you come to the Chalice the priest has to say "the servant of God Augustine receives the most precious Body ..."?
It's a bother; I don't know the answer.