Jan Bros has pointed us to a wonderful blog describing the Benedictine Way of stability, obedience, and conversion of life. Over the next few days I want to offer some highlights from Fr. Longenecker's blog and my reflections on them. So here goes.
On stability, (Thursday, June 28, 2007)
"The vow of stability means the monk promises to remain in one community for life. He commits himself to one family of monks, one place, one set of buildings, one way of life. The whole point is to stop him doing 'a geographical'. He's not allowed to run away. Stability teaches us that God is not elsewhere. We'll find him here. We'll find him now, or we won't find him anyhow...Stability is serious, quiet, humble and serene. Stability eschews the remarkable, the phantasmagoical, the stupendous and the charismatic. Stability says, 'Stop, Look and Listen.' God is here. Christ is knocking at the door. "
Eugene Peterson must be a closet Benedictine, because this reminds me of him. Peterson pastored Christ Our King Presbyterian church for 29 years. 29 years! According to three different research groups, the average American pastor only lasts five years at a church!
If emergents can overcome their prenatal exposure to a culture of consumption, this statistic may change. What would happen if we looked at churches not as malls catering to spiritual consumers but as Family farms? I'm thinking here of a parallel to Gerald O'Hara's admonition to his daughter:
"Do you mean to tell me, Katie Scarlett O'Hara, that Tara, that land doesn't mean anything to you? Why, land is the only thing in the world worth workin' for, worth fightin' for, worth dyin' for, because it's the only thing that lasts."
Replace "land" with Church, understood incarnationally as Christ's Body, and Body of Christ understood concretely as "community... one family...one place, one set of buildings, one way of life."
Of course, the Benedictine way is not the only way to follow the Way. Its success depends upon a community of believers who vow to incarnate or (at least) mutually value stability as a cynosure for Jesus.
I took the Myers-Briggs personality inventory last week, and I am definitely not a person who is enchanted by the "remarkable, the phantasmagoical, the stupendous and the charismatic." No doubt such persons have an important place in the Kingdom; but theirs is a different way from mine. And Peterson's. And St. Benedict's.
Lord, you have made me what You wanted me to be. Help me to acept that and be able to live it out faithfully for You.
3 comments:
Stability is a value, primarily because it often yields other, greater values. Children, for example, benefit greatly from having a stable, loving two-parent household in which to grow up. The value is not in the stability itself, but in the resulting balanced, well-adjusted person. Too much stability, however, becomes rigidity, which is not desirable.
The Benedictine order was founded in the sixth century. At the time a person could join the order, live out his life, another generation could join then live out their lives, and the society around them would have changed little since the day the first monk joined. Very different world today. I have worked in the same position for the same employer for over 13 years now. I do not do the same job I did 13 years ago. Nor is it the same job I did five years ago. Things change so rapidly that if I still tried to be the same kind of librarian I was in 2002, I'd be a dead duck. Stability - good. Flexibility - required.
If you took away the caption to the picture you use to illustrate "stable equilibrium", and asked people to say what concept the picture shows, you'd be just as likely to hear "in a rut" as "stability" for an answer.
"If emergents can overcome their prenatal exposure to a culture of consumption, this statistic may change."
It’s hard to know what to make of that loaded statement. You seem to conflate the emergent/emerging church movement (a heterogeneous concept to begin with) with evangelicals or mainstream Christians who happen to prefer/enjoy styles of worship that differ from the traditional liturgical "high church" model. From my perspective, the "emerging church" movement has some theologically problematic aspects, but it also has some interesting lessons for the established church. In many ways, it is closer to the New Testament church than most of the existing denominational churches, which by and large are products of the modernist philosophy of the Twentieth Century. In any event, it is a mistake, and not very helpful, to lump everyone with an alternative viewpoint or worship style under the term "emergent".
As a correct/addendum to my previous comment ...
It occurred to me that the parenthetical expression I used in reference to denominational churches "which by and large are products of the modernist philosophy of the Twentieth Century" is one that (at best) could be misinterpreted and could be even considered outright wrongheaded. So, strike that clause from my discussion. I was thinking in terms of, well it would take too long to go into what I was thinking. My only excuse is that it was late at night. "Modernist" is much to vague a term, with too many different meanings and definitions, to be used effectively in this context.
Thanks, Ted, for your comments. Again, your passion is palpable!
Did you read Jan's link to Fr. Longenecker's blog? You'll see that stability is just ONE of the values Benedictines uphold. Stay tuned and I'll eventually get to commenting on the third, "transformation" or "conversion of life. Hopefully that will allay some of your concerns.
Benedictines spirituality is alive and well in our day, and it is not limited to monastaries. You and I both know at least two persons, one in Salem and one now in Corvallis, for whom Benedictine spirituality has been a major influence in their life as disciples of Christ.
As T.S. Eliot wrote, "Words strain,
Crack and sometimes break, under the burden,
Under the tension, slip, slide, perish,
Decay with imprecision, will not stay in place,
Will not stay still." I fear my posts may be generating more heat than light! I'd love to discuss them in more detail with you, perhaps over coffee?
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