Frankly, Diana, our altars were cleared off decades ago and replaced by new idols. Not only in our social spaces, but our houses of worship.
To me, the idols are glorify our appetites for material goods, for status, for attention, for power, for money, for the ostentatious lifestyle, extreme self-absorption. Anyway, you get the idea. Let's be brutally honest: the altars are spilling over with all things self.
appreciate this reminder of the iconclastic thread that rumbles through Christian history and periodically cleans house.... more than that the phrase "empty altars" also haunts and resonates with me as an image holding together many facets my/our spiritual experience in these days... I am experiencing the "leaving" of much that was meaningful to me in past years/decades of a life lived in ministry and church communities... and in my life as in the lives of so many it appears, the pandemic and now in the post pandemic time has been washing more and more of it "out to sea." I often experience it as an "ebbing away" ... Perhaps it is only the last vestiges of the "Church Triumphant" or the "Church Militant" that are being pulled out to the sea... and what remains will be something I will value and be more at home with, but at present I'm most keenly aware of the loss and the emptiness, the grief.
"Empty Alters Everywhere" (both the line and the essay) reminds me of the shrine to the unknown God on Mars Hill in Acts. Maybe an empty alter (in church and the public square) can be a step stone to proclaim resurrection.
Love the poems! I was just talk g about Ozymandius yesterday. The empty altars imagery especially in reference to the changing church and our current societal upheaval really spoke to me in this letter.
Wow! This brought tears to my eyes. And the final plot twist - from "Law" to Gospel - was powerful: The question of what we make - better, what will God make through us! - from the dust uplifted my spirit. Thank you, at least three times over!
When you wrote about the concurrent side of everything returning to dust, and from that dust something new will be made, I was reminded of the words from the creation story in Genesis. Where, when the day's work of the original creation was finished, "God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good." (Gen 1:10) It may take us a long time to clean the dust of the earth, but from the beginning, it was good.
When I read the title for this week's Lenten reading, that which came immediately to mind was/is ALL the PERMAENTLY empty alters (as well as sanctuaries) main-line churches are dealing with/experiencing today.
In order to help me understand this "situation," I'm definitely doing the zoom program...and sending in a donation, too.
Back in the fall of’21 I got to go back to Richmond (I attended seminary there) for the first time since the removal of the Monument Ave. monuments. It was a particular comfort of sorts to venture beyond the “official” Monument Ave. boundaries to find one statue that remained: Richmond native and tennis/humanitarian great Arthur Ashe.
Isn't there enough unavoidable pain in our world? If a stature causes pain, remove it from public viewing.
If the statue is a work of art and a part of history, then put it in a museum.
I am a native Atlantan, 4th generation. I saw the magnificent statue of Sherman in NYC and can mentally go back to that moment in time, OUCH. Remove and put it in a museum.
I like the darkness of Ash Wednesday. There is something very holy about it.
Diana, I listened to you and Tripp on the New Evangelism podcast.
In my opinion the word "death" means something different for each person. It has so much emotional baggage. So when you talk about death, and I talk about death, we are talking worlds apart. I have an idea. You and Tripp have a conversation about "all of this" without using the word, death.
Thoughtful and well written as usual. I like that idea : "empty altars everywhere." Reminds me of Jesus' injunction to leave the altar empty and be reconciled to your neighbour before offering your gift.
Frankly, Diana, our altars were cleared off decades ago and replaced by new idols. Not only in our social spaces, but our houses of worship.
To me, the idols are glorify our appetites for material goods, for status, for attention, for power, for money, for the ostentatious lifestyle, extreme self-absorption. Anyway, you get the idea. Let's be brutally honest: the altars are spilling over with all things self.
appreciate this reminder of the iconclastic thread that rumbles through Christian history and periodically cleans house.... more than that the phrase "empty altars" also haunts and resonates with me as an image holding together many facets my/our spiritual experience in these days... I am experiencing the "leaving" of much that was meaningful to me in past years/decades of a life lived in ministry and church communities... and in my life as in the lives of so many it appears, the pandemic and now in the post pandemic time has been washing more and more of it "out to sea." I often experience it as an "ebbing away" ... Perhaps it is only the last vestiges of the "Church Triumphant" or the "Church Militant" that are being pulled out to the sea... and what remains will be something I will value and be more at home with, but at present I'm most keenly aware of the loss and the emptiness, the grief.
"Empty Alters Everywhere" (both the line and the essay) reminds me of the shrine to the unknown God on Mars Hill in Acts. Maybe an empty alter (in church and the public square) can be a step stone to proclaim resurrection.
Love the poems! I was just talk g about Ozymandius yesterday. The empty altars imagery especially in reference to the changing church and our current societal upheaval really spoke to me in this letter.
Yes 👏
Wow! This brought tears to my eyes. And the final plot twist - from "Law" to Gospel - was powerful: The question of what we make - better, what will God make through us! - from the dust uplifted my spirit. Thank you, at least three times over!
So well conceived, constructed, and said. Thank you, Diana. Thank God for you!
I love this. Thank you for writing it.
When you wrote about the concurrent side of everything returning to dust, and from that dust something new will be made, I was reminded of the words from the creation story in Genesis. Where, when the day's work of the original creation was finished, "God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good." (Gen 1:10) It may take us a long time to clean the dust of the earth, but from the beginning, it was good.
Thank you for your thought-provoking message at the beginning of Lent.
When I read the title for this week's Lenten reading, that which came immediately to mind was/is ALL the PERMAENTLY empty alters (as well as sanctuaries) main-line churches are dealing with/experiencing today.
In order to help me understand this "situation," I'm definitely doing the zoom program...and sending in a donation, too.
Back in the fall of’21 I got to go back to Richmond (I attended seminary there) for the first time since the removal of the Monument Ave. monuments. It was a particular comfort of sorts to venture beyond the “official” Monument Ave. boundaries to find one statue that remained: Richmond native and tennis/humanitarian great Arthur Ashe.
I have already forgotten
the summer, have
stuffed it in my pocket
with the dust and
crumbs from
this morning's biscuit,
quickly becoming as stale
as memories of control.
My hand refuses
the pocket, afraid
to touch
the crumbling.
Isn't there enough unavoidable pain in our world? If a stature causes pain, remove it from public viewing.
If the statue is a work of art and a part of history, then put it in a museum.
I am a native Atlantan, 4th generation. I saw the magnificent statue of Sherman in NYC and can mentally go back to that moment in time, OUCH. Remove and put it in a museum.
I like the darkness of Ash Wednesday. There is something very holy about it.
Diana, I listened to you and Tripp on the New Evangelism podcast.
In my opinion the word "death" means something different for each person. It has so much emotional baggage. So when you talk about death, and I talk about death, we are talking worlds apart. I have an idea. You and Tripp have a conversation about "all of this" without using the word, death.
Thoughtful and well written as usual. I like that idea : "empty altars everywhere." Reminds me of Jesus' injunction to leave the altar empty and be reconciled to your neighbour before offering your gift.