This Day in Church History

In addition to this blog, I'll also be maintaining a second one: This Day in Church History

Check it out and stay tuned for fun facts from the 2000 year history of the Church. 

Somber Thanksgiving

I know that being Thankful is generally good. Gratitude is by all means a virtue, so I won't belabor this too much.

As you go about your Thanksgiving celebrations, be aware of those things that you may have at the expense of someone else.

Thanksgiving is rooted in the feasts celebrated by Puritans to express appreciation for things that they attributed to the Providence of God. This included a bountiful harvest, or a victory against Catholics in Europe. This of course included the notion that the "New World" was offered to them by the Divine Providence of God.

We've maintained this outlook in our modern celebrations of Thanksgiving. We thank God for our prosperity. We thank God for the things we have (which other people do not).

Don't be thankful about these things. God didn't give us the New World; we took it. God didn't give those of us with privilege privilege; we took it from those weaker than ourselves.

Be somber if you have wealth, because the last will be first and the first will be last. Why be thankful for the thing that makes you less likely to be welcomed into God's kingdom than your weaker sister or brother?

Be Thankful for only one thing this Thanksgiving— be thankful for the gift of God's Son. Because Christ was offered to all of us. Christ was given by the Providence of God. The Eucharistic feast which Catholics and Orthodox celebrate is a table where all are welcome. It is a table where we express our gratitude for the one thing that was offered to all of us: salvation. My salvation is not given me at the expense of someone else. I didn't take my salvation from someone weaker than I. It was given freely to me and all my sisters and brothers.

This Thanksgiving, don't be grateful for America and all of its 'blessings'. Be sorrowful that for the past couple of hundred years we've been prancing around talking about how God has blessed us, when in reality we stole this place and we keep stealing from the weak.

My favorite quote from John Chrysostom:

If you cannot remember everything, instead of everything, I beg you, remember this without fail, that not to share our own wealth with the poor is theft from the poor and deprivation of their means of life; we do not possess our own wealth but theirs.

And here's what I wrote about this last year: The American Myth: Giving Thanks on Thanksgiving

Quaker School Gives Sex Lessons

Link: Teaching Good Sex

But Monty Python did it first:

Everything is so troubling. 

Nativity Fast

So on Monday I decided to do the Nativity Fast. I've found myself getting eager to try new vegan recipes. Tonight's Vietnamese crêpes sucked. I deserved that. Because fasting isn't about trying exciting new recipes.

Although I wouldn't say fasting is not at all about excitement. I'm excited for Christmas. Advent is a beautiful season of eager anticipation. Vigilance is serious but it can also be exciting. The way children look forward to Christmas should be the way we all look forward to Christ's coming.

Fasting is great because it is about different things for different people. I should say it's about a lot of things for everyone, but I think different people relate to different benefits of fasting. Fasting is humiliating. It reminds us that our earthly possessions/blessing/whathaveyou are all hinged on the providence of God. When we start to forget about the source of those gifts and start appreciating those gifts of themselves, we have a little problem. At that point it's time for us to reorient our priorities. For some people fasting is about hunger and suffering. All that is great.

I don't really get particularly hungry though, so that doesn't work for me. I'm such a scatterbrain that I often forget to eat and go for hours with hunger pangs. Or I poorly plan and just literally do not have time to eat. Either way, I'm used to it. It doesn't turn my mind towards God. It doesn't make me feel humble or pious. [As a side note, I don't like black coffee, so I had to drop coffee entirely, and was only alerted to my addiction because of the severe, crippling headache that resulted.]

I do think about food a lot. I like to decide what I'm going to cook and plan my meals. I get excited to get off of my bus and stop at the grocery store to get any ingredients I don't have. I get home early enough that cooking is something I have time for. My end of day cooking is a bit of a ritual. I also really like meat, or basically anything with animal fat. I like butter and cheese and all of those delicious things. I also don't eat gluten. So, taking meat and dairy out of my diet really throws me for a loop every time I do it (actually this is the first time I've gone completely vegan). It's confusing. I don't understand how what I'm eating is food if it doesn't have meat in it.

So for me, this type of fasting helps God to pervade my life more fully. I'm always thinking about food. Now when I'm thinking about how the hell I'm going to come up with a gluten free, vegan meal that won't result in my body disintegrating, I'm thinking about God too. Not that I mind it. It's not like I plan my meals begrudgingly while shaking my fist at God. I like it. I realize fasting is a humiliating practice, but I enjoy the opportunity to derail my life in this little way for God. Life shouldn't be so easy for me. Being a Christian should be a little bit counter-cultural and therefore a little inconvenient sometimes.

So even though for a lot of people fasting is a time for weeping and gnashing of teeth, it's joyful for me.

And it also reminds me why I would never be a vegan full time if you paid me. Steak is good.