Rituals have a strong place in the life of a church and in the lives of people.  Rituals have been followed from the beginning of time.  Rituals help to give external behaviors to express internal commitments and without ritual some may fail to remember and draw strength from faith.  Some rituals help to reinforce a common belief or behavior.  Through the film documentary on A Time for Burning, there were many rituals that came to our minds. 

Some of these included: small group discussions, barber shop discussions, including children and youth in church conversations, prayer, communion, dress for worship, singing in church (and again, the dress – choir robes), casual meetings, family gathered at the table, birthday cakes, school class outings, shaking hands and committee meetings.

When thinking about some of the rituals that were portrayed through the film it is important to reflect upon the agreement that lies within the value of the ritual.  When we partake in a ritual we should truly think about what significance is held within the ritual and whether or not we agree with what is being said through the ritual.  For example, the purpose of communion brought this to light – communion is not simply receiving the promises of God, but we also affirm that we are the Body of Christ and that everyone holds equal unity within the Body of Christ.  When we come to the table to receive the body and blood of Christ we should keep this in mind and not simply go through the motions of the ritual.  The film brought a few questions of the ritual of communion and whether or not “participants” in that particular ritual internally agree with the meaning held within the ritual. 

This film also highlighted some of the tension that still exists and is present in the church today.  One example that was brought to light was what is currently going on with the ELCA in regard to sexuality.  Sometimes rituals are so engrained into the life of an organization, church, community or individual that things can be difficult to change.  Also, when thinking of the current stand of the ELCA and how congregations are dealing with it there were a few similarities to the film.  

In the film documentary, we questioned and wondered about the formation of small groups and the organization of some of the meetings that took place.  How do we ritually decide who takes place in small groups and who does not?  Also, some of the “casual meetings” which typically take place outside of the “scheduled meeting” discuss some important issues and reveal deep feelings – again, how do we select who hears this information and how it is shared?  Often instead of explaining what happened why try and convince others’ on the “other side” that “our side” is right.  Are there ways that some rituals are reflected upon so that when important issues arise they can be handled in an effective manner rather than simply following what has typically taken place?

When we viewed this film with a ritual lens, it was surprising how many rituals were brought to the forefront.  Rituals are weaved in and out of our lives and often we do not realize a ritual when it takes place, nor do we know the importance and significance behind all of the rituals present in our lives.  I think an interesting point of discussion was understanding the significance of the ritual and thinking about whether or not it matches with internal beliefs of the individual.

Our group discussed the number of rituals that went along with this week’s video and study guide.  Here are the rituals we identified in the video:

1. Opening Prayer

2.The ritual sharpening of the blade

3. The ritual nature of clearing the fields

4. The communal meal

5. Washing the hands

6. The ritual of adornment, (big in Hindu mysticism)

7. Having ice cream

8. Shopping as a family

9. Making Tortillas in the old style (connection to the old ways)

10. The song (is that the same tune as before?)

11.The ritual of communion

And the final minute ties all of these rituals together in a montage, ending with his fadeout arms high in praise, while the crops remain.

1 and 11 are the explicitly Christian rituals.

3,8,9,10 are all ritual reminders of the old ways and of heritage.

1,2,4,5,6 are all rituals that may remind the family of an even further off heritage, connecting them to the peoples of the Hebrew Bible.

7 is a ritual that connects them to American Culture.

Okay, then the in the Faith Conversation on Immigration:

1. The ritual of prayer

2. The ritual of scripture reading and application of verses

3. The legeslative ritual

4. Some formational rituals including-discussion

5.-reflection (particularly on videos)

6.-perspective questioning

7.-and identification of personal feelings and their roots.

4-7 are rituals that show up often in other facets of life, often in psychology.

1-2 are religious.

3 is a civil ritual, but also a religious one.

We went on to talk a little about how ritual exists with meaning insofar as it is unpacked.  Several group members mentioned that without the meaning behind a ritual uncovered, it is not worth much.  Within the context of immigration it was mentioned that various rituals (done by both the immigrant and the so called “native”) serve to remind us of our unique heritage, remind us of our common heritage, and open up a space that god can fill in our lives no matter who we are. Suzanne quoted Practicing Our Faith : “To welcome the stranger is to acknowledge him as a human being made in God’s image; it is to treat her as one of equal worth with ourselves – indeed, as one who may teach us something out of the richness of experiences different from our own.”

The other main theme that we discussed is that of the independent, often contrary, and pervasive rituals of consumerism that we encounter in modern culture.  Particularly in the context of the immigration debate, I think we all agreed that it is important to look at the way our rituals of consumption were perpetuated, and what they were, in end effect, resulting in. Victor Lebow famously said, “Our enormously productive economy…demands that we make consumption our way of life that we convert the buying and selling of goods into rituals.”  Our group all felt that it was time to question these rituals, to make sure that they weren’t causing harm to the ourselves, to the stranger abroad, and the stranger in our midst.

This week the videos displayed many different rituals with in not only our secular culture, but also our Christian culture.  Below are many of the different rituals we saw as a group, this list is taken specifically from one of our group members post in our small group, many of these were also described in other posts.

Beliefs challenged –

Jesus born in Nazareth instead of Bethlehem

Hotbed politically

Urban area with cosmopolitan Greek or Roman life

Rituals/Symbols

Story telling of Rich Man/ Poor Man and the lamb

Money Lenders in Church

Praying for sick

Last Supper pictures

Advertising in church

Jumbo tran in worship

Calling everyone in this store (instead of church)

Jesus with lasso to bring people in

Dissenter challenging church – blasphemous, Whore of Babylon, prophetic

Burning Bush

Could God be a swing vote?

Standing in a pulpit with a cross

Revival Meeting

Quoting scripture – Old Testament

Each side quoting scripture to make their particular political point

Distorting the Bible to fit agenda

Reference to Lot’s wife/pillar of salt

Sharing Food

House church

Baptism (referred to)

Sharing Bible – reading God’s word in community

Singing hymns

Saying Lord’s prayer

Proclaiming Jesus as head of their church

Parish head being beaten and imprisoned – martyrdom

Naming apostles

Belief statement vs trying to prove Christianity through recitation of facts

Faith as wholehearted acceptance

Singing praise songs

Choir in robes

Hands raised in worship

Bible reading

Questioning  the Bible

Tearing apart the Bible

Importance of faith

Our discussion question was what are people learning from these different rituals within the Christian context and are they good or bad or both?  Overall our group discussed the importance of learning the different rituals in our context.  It helps connect us to our past and history, it’s a comfortable starting point for familiarity, and it can push us to dig deeper.

On the other hand our group also commented on how sometimes in being too comfortable we lose sight of the meaning behind the rituals.  Some of our congregation members really have no idea why we do some of the things we do.  Although as Mary talked about in the video this week, there is a fine line in trying to define everything we do and putting a reason behind it, at times it is good to define why we do things.  This could help others become closer to God through their understanding of rituals.

Overall our group thought the important educational goal of rituals overall was to hold on to the rituals and at the same time to bring some understanding to why they are important.  On an individual level and communal level in our churches.  Also to be honest with the grey and messy areas of our understanding of both rituals and of God and faith.  And lastly, to be able to connect the information in our head to what is in our heart, so it becomes more than a ritual out of habit, but a ritual out of knowing and understanding.

Education during the Sunday School morning depicted in this week’s reading contained a great deal of ritual, both explicit and habitual.  Ritual was significant both in the classroom environment (students led by teacher), as well as within the educational leader herself.

In the classroom, intentional ritual included such elements as:

• setting the learning space: welcoming and introducing the students, separating those who routinely interact distractively, three-fold “preparation for learning” (relaxation exercise, loved and chosen identity exercise, ‘good story’ from the Bible read), and clapping for attention;
• symbolic rituals: lighting a candle, ritual positioning for prayer; and
• enacted rituals: public mourning ritual of wailing, letting go exercises of markers object lesson and paper-cramming, building a wall in which their larger community will participate with them.

The educational leader also practiced her own rituals, bringing them in at various levels of effectiveness in the learning environment: preparation of materials prior to Sunday morning, letting-go prayer ritual of stuffing written prayers (which the full class shared in), relaxation exercises (questionable success with energetic young boys), and the loved-and-chosen exercise of unconditional acceptance and identity (wildly successful with the class).  The leader also yearns for her own “grown-up” church rituals at the pivotal point in the chapter at the peak of her frustration that her teaching is not getting through to the amateurs, recognizing how her ritual needs differ from the children’s needs.  Finally, a mental ritual practiced by the leader is the ritual of worry and anticipation of continued bad news.

A point that remained unsettled for us as a group was that of the comment about the loved and chosen ritual: “each of them turned out to be loved and chosen, which does not happen so often.”  If the author means that each of the children are loved and chosen every time this ritual is performed in her classroom, as opposed to their experience in the outside world, then this would seem a good reinforcement of God’s unconditional love.  If, however, she means that this morning they were all loved and chosen, as opposed to other Sunday mornings, when some are excluded, then this would seem a very dangerous practice: are they loved and chosen more when they behave properly? Does God play favorites?  And so forth.

Christian meaning is embodied in many of these rituals as the class learns about God.  For example: welcoming and introductions is thematic for the expanding relational koinonia of Christ’s body (though the early class period of isolated-learner chair-sitting works against this somewhat); loved-and-chosen is central to our identity as unconditionally loved children of a God who initiates relationship prior to our behavior, out of which we are free to live in community with other equally-loved children of God; lighting a candle reminds us of Christ as the light that we are to carry into the darkness; and releasing our prayers to God not only fulfills our emotional need to feel good but in fact enables God to act in God’s ways outside of our control, and invites the children into prayer as frank relationship with God.  It was noted in our discussion that the symbolically-enacted learning points are worth discussing explicitly in relation to how God is at work in our lives (in ways the children can hear, as opposed to the opaque adult generalization of the letting go exercise).  Otherwise, to use “loved and chosen” as an example, the students may simply learn that the leader loves and chooses them.

We are asked to select the most important aspect for the educational leader to focus on in this situation.  Our responses all centered around the work of God: from emphasizing the affective need filled by God in the central identity of being loved and chosen, to recognizing the limitation on our ability to participate as best as we can in the learning environment and then releasing the learning in prayer, to the work of the Holy Spirit.  A centering verse from the Psalmist may be helpful: cease striving (be still) and know that I am God.  From our identity as children of God we can live in freedom to do all things in Christ who strengthens us, in the power of the Holy Spirit who unites us in community.

This essay is a powerful one to engage in terms of ritual, because there is no single Christian ritual evident in the text. And yet, and yet one of the most powerful rituals  – so powerful I felt it tangibly in reading the images evoked – is that of “not-seeing.” In other words, this essay lifted up for me, at least, an encounter with someone I ordinarily would “not see” in the daily drama of my life. There are not many people making homes for themselves on Como Avenue by Luther Seminary. There is no bridge nearby, and it gets very cold in the winter. So the challenge of homelessness is in some ways an invisible challenge. And yet if you look closely, you can see it. You can see it in the family who sleeps in their car close to the middle school up behind Luther, so that at least their kids can have breakfast and lunch at school, and can stay connected. You can see it in the people who ride the bus in the morning, up or down Como Avenue, seeking to get to hot food at the shelter, or perhaps a space for the next night.

So the ritual, the oft-repeated element of practice that this essay calls to mind for me is that of “not seeing,” of refusing to look, of not knowing. For many of us who benefit from warm homes, dry clothing, and enough food to eat, we can manage “not to see.” Many of our churches practice this ritual, and we reinforce for each other “not seeing.” What might change that?

In reflecting on that “not seeing” I am called powerfully to mind of Eucharist, of table fellowship, or the hospitality at the heart of Christian community, which calls us centrally into shared witness, into fully seeing, and into seeing each of us as fully part of the beloved community Christ gathers. So the learning challenge I would identify as provoked by this essay, at least in my reading of it this week, would be the challenge of helping a community to fully live into Eucharistic sharing, into table fellowship that extends beyond those who “look like” me or sound like or smell like me.

Several resources that might be useful include:

National Center on Family Homelessness

The ELCA social statement on homelessness

The ELCA “called to be public church” document, with its section on housing issues (note: this link is to a pdf document) 

resources on hospitality  as a practice of Christian faith

In terms of the Greek elements, here I would point to “kerygma” first, of the need to proclaim God’s justice and the life of Christ as one of gathering ALL to the table. “Leiturgia” emerges, too, in terms of how we understand communion. Indeed, much of what I already said in the earlier cluster question applies here, too.