Infelicities and absurdities (dislikes part three)

I got called on my language again, hence the different title. But it's the same series. The subject this time is the oxymoronic "literal symbolism". This requires some explanation. It's long; get a snack.

So (and sorry for banging on about it again; promise it's the last time), we start with the Ash Wednesday service as the paradigm example. We had the drama in which the "prophet" was literally covered in sackcloth and had ashes poured over his head. For goodness sake. No-one uses the phrase "sackcloth and ashes" any more. What does a modern worshipper understand by it? Can we have a modern affirmation, please? And then we literally burn something to make literal ashes to literally mark people's foreheads. We carefully do all this just to assert our guilt-knowledge in a meaningful way. Per-lease.

Let's take something else: Communion, and the contortions we get into by trying to be "true to the tradition". Jesus, at the Last Supper, blessed and gave bread to his disciples and said they should repeat it in remembrance of him. So we take bread and wine in our services. And we all share in the one loaf, and the one cup. Fine.

But in the Methodist Church it isn't wine, it's Ribena. It has to be the "juice of the grape"; but alcohol isn't allowed on the premises - a strong witness to the world - and the non-alcoholic stuff is foul, so we fall back on a commercial product. I wonder if it's the unsweetened version that's better for us. But at least it's in separate glasses. In the Anglican church and elsewhere it is wine - and all from the same cup, so we have to carefully wipe the vessel we communally drink from so as not to catch each other's germs. I bet Jesus didn't do that - I bet he and each of the 12 had their own cups and simply poured it from the same source. They may even have had more than one bottle, don't you think? Drink of the one cup, my eye. Other groups like the Salvation Army can't celebrate Communion because if some of your members are ex-alcoholics you don't want to give them any temptation to their bad old ways and so you have great debates about what "can count". The difficulties mankind creates for itself.

Methodists do generally have bread. The "wafers" you get in some other denominational areas are as much like bread as sawdust and half as tasty. One loaf, I don't think.

So who's actually consistent in having bread and wine then?

Oh and do you have to finish it all off afterwards because it's been blessed and/or transformed or can you put it back in the bottle? What about crumbs? Endless debates about the "correct thing to do" because you are too literal about a symbolic event.

Other examples abound:
Easter Day Sunrise services. If you want to go up a hill literally at the crack of dawn to worship then feel free, but don't persuade me that that in itself "improves" the worship. I can see the same thing on the horizon for the College Ascension Day service, by the way.
You'll be bringing tins of fruit to the Harvest Festival next, as if you'd grown it yourself. Perhaps we should get a few tents?

Can we do symbolic, without getting tied in knots by literalism? Oh yes.

Which brings me to today's Palm Sunday service. We recreated the triumphal entry. Palm leaves? Do me a favour. 21st Century English Christians cheer, let off party poppers, blow bubbles and wave balloons to celebrate, and play a fanfare for the entry of a "special person". Now that's symbolic. No donkey either (yes I did a service with a donkey a few years ago, and I had permission from the Senior Steward to do it today, but here I'm trying to use modern symbols to put an old message in a relevant and resonant contemporary format, are you with me?). What's the modern version of a donkey? Answers on a postcard, closing date next year.
Who is the special person? We welcomed Father Christmas - it's a metaphor, geddit? - the most powerful symbol I could come up with. It's not what today's congregation expected, and the suffering servant is not what the Jews expected. On the next level, nor is Jesus really like Father Christmas. (Santa Claus doesn't give out palm crosses.)

Remembering the title, it is true that the temptation occurred to take this service also into the realm of the absurd but I hope that the wilder ideas - and there were some - were resisted so that it didn't get there. As for infelicities, even at the planning stage when it looked like the preacher had gone mad, those who heard the idea were giving positive responses. (I here express my thanks to the several people who made suggestions, even those that were not used.) And no-one afterwards has suggested to me that I went too far.

Apply this idea elsewhere. Let's celebrate the Lord's Supper symbolically. Why can I not use digestive biscuits and orange juice? Surely I can do exactly that, remembering Jesus' sacrifice just as well as with any other accoutrements. I can choose for his actual words to be repeated (assuming our records are accurate and remembering He spoke Aramaic) - or I can paraphrase, I can describe, I can re-enact, I can merely picture the scene, you can think of your own. I can do it alone or with others. I can do it without a "priest" present (who did Jesus say was allowed to perform the blessing? I don't think he restricted it, actually. Apostolic succession?) I am suddenly freed to worship and meditate anywhere and anytime.

So there's two examples of non-literal symbolism. Now you make your own. You have permission.

Symbolism is important. Too important to be only taken literally.