{"id":16488,"date":"2018-02-15T15:42:49","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T23:42:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=16488"},"modified":"2018-02-17T20:33:28","modified_gmt":"2018-02-18T04:33:28","slug":"finding-community-on-ash-wednesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/finding-community-on-ash-wednesday\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding community on Ash Wednesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Above the fold on the front page of today\u2019s paper was an image<\/a><\/strong> many of you may also have seen. A woman, crumpling in grief, embracing a friend in the wake of yet another tragic school shooting, this one in Broward County, Florida. \u00a0In our consumer economy based on an individual\u2019s rights, the right to bear arms and to possess one\u2019s own semi-automatic rifle was permitted for a high school student. He flamed out with the rage of consumption, consuming the futures of his peers in a hateful burst of glory. But what jolted me into this story was the unmistakable ashen cross on the woman\u2019s forehead, just like the one that had been daubed on my forehead last evening.<\/p>\n

This ashen cross was made from the ashes of last year\u2019s palm branches we had waved to welcome the Lord\u2019s entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. We unreservedly proclaimed our hosannas, and then within the week, we betrayed Him and fled in shame. \u00a0So, on Ash Wednesday, we return in repentance and the grief of our own deception, to seek a new start on our relationship. Thus begins yet another season of Lent, seeking grace anew. Meanwhile, in Nebraska, a young man sells the space on his forehead for $37,000 to a different Lord, renting the space for a month to market an anti-snoring remedy.[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s complicated, living a countercultural life of Christian service and giving when you\u2019re submerged in the waters of consumeristic culture.\u00a0 For there\u2019s a price on everything, and we are all commodified. William Cavanaugh, in Being Consumed: Economics and Christian Desire<\/em>, throws down the gauntlet, declaring that \u201cChristians \u2026 are called to create concrete alternative practices that open up a different kind of economic space \u2013 the space marked by the body of Christ.\u201d[2]<\/a> He does this by revealing a new pathway forward by exploring sets of binaries in our culture: \u201cnegative and positive freedom, detachment and attachment, the global and the local, scarcity and abundance\u201d[3]<\/a> saying that this Christian vision of economics may ultimately \u201cbe the most practical of all ways to live out the Christian life.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

This is good news, the gospel, for my clients, who are pragmatic capitalists, all followers of Christ, who are inspired by their faith to push against the prevailing culture of consumption as they stop accumulating and begin to give it all away. But as I\u2019ve mentioned in previous posts, here<\/a> and here<\/a>, even philanthropy within this all-pervasive culture can so easily transition into a type of accumulating as we rack up grants awarded and compare ourselves to our peers. And philanthropy that remains detached from suffering is missing the mark.<\/p>\n

Lake Lambert, in a 2010 review of Cavanaugh\u2019s book, reveals the problem: \u201cWithout a shared\u00a0telos<\/em>, all that remains is for humans to compete and seek domination over each other. Power becomes the end of human life by default, and so all economic activities are but means for seeking power.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

So, how should we proceed? Cavanaugh points to deep contemplation on the Body of Christ as that which will transform our consumption into self-emptying imitation of our Lord. We eat bread, consuming His body, and thereby becoming His body in the consumption, which we surrender and give away for the world. Read that litany again. It\u2019s an anti-consumption. It sounds like perfect work for Lent.<\/p>\n

As we are changed by our repeated encounters with Christ in the eucharistic meal, we move from deep contemplation into action. Cavanaugh provides some practical examples as signposts indicating ways to live out this Christian vision for economics. One is Focolare, the Italian-originated movement that has now spread to 182 countries, seeding small communities of devout believers living a radically different life of authentic, shared community. [6]<\/a> \u00a0He states, \u201cThe founder of Focolare, Chiara Lubich, has said: \u2018Unlike the consumer economy, based on a culture of having, the economy of communion is the economy of giving.\u2019 However, the Economy of Communion does not see the poor whom they assist as passive recipients of charity, but as active participants in the process\u2026. [R]ecipients become givers, so that the line between recipient and giver is blurred.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n

With only a few examples cited \u2013 Focolare, Fair Trade, and Church Supported Agriculture \u2013 Lambert critiques Cavanaugh for not being specific enough with the examples of this new sort of kingdom economy. He states, \u201c\u2026Being Consumed<\/em>\u00a0would have benefited from additional, concrete examples of the practices that model eucharistic economics. \u2026 Perhaps there are only a few cases to offer, but finding more existing examples and creating new ones matters a great deal.\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps I can add to the list from examples I\u2019ve seen, or heard dreamed about:<\/p>\n