Corporate/Individual Piety and Language

I was taught many moons ago that we must not think too individually about worship. The worry is becoming too self-centered in worship and thus displacing the proper focus, who is God.

Fair enough. Certainly our cultural predisposition is self-centeredness and we should fight against it.

But. Worshippers historic have often used emphatically 1st person singular language in worship, even in corporate worship contexts. 3 suggestions for why this could be come to mind:
1. Self-centeredness wasn't a problem for them. I think this false.
2. Their 1S language is an inadequacy they didn't consider. I think this uncharitable to them.

or 3. 1S worship language has a proper place if we understand it.

This morning I was reading from the rockin' Anglican Breviary (old posts here and here) where Psalms 43 and 67 are juxtaposed for Tuesday Lauds 1. My hypothesis is that the Psalmists, and all good liturgists since, used the singular to emphasize penitence and the plural to emphasize blessing.

To me that makes sense. I don't know if it's true. If it's true it does ironically comment on those who exhorted me to discard the 1st person in worship. They would have me think more about myself in a communal context lest I become too self-focused. The converse danger is failure to adequately examine myself in confession and contrition, thereby short-changing what blessing should come corporately to collective penitents.

By inference, and also I intuit by gross common practice, corporate penitence and individual blessing are borderline wicked. Or at least irresponsible.

THI Reminisced

Almost exactly 10 years ago I began the THI adventure. I've now worn the ring for 6 years. THI isn't the best thing that's ever happened to me, but it's close.

I came across a discussion board for incoming chums. They're so endearing (they don't get the Iliad). They're in for so much time in the crucible of learning (they have no idea how little they get the Iliad).

In 4 years most of them will emerge and we'll stand as brethren who wear the ring. They'll rise as battle-weathered undergraduates with a few less sparkles in their eyes but much harder squints that sparkle nonetheless. They'll know all the inside jokes that never die ("But where's the 4th?"), they'll know the jargon ("It's 'chum' to you."), and they'll shake their heads at each other and wonder what on earth to make of the incoming class who look so very young and so very foolish.

A few of those who rise to THI will graduate and rise again to tasks we all consider extraordinary: Oxford, D.C., Iraq, or territory untrampled by ring-bearers--territory increasingly rare as cohorts march forth.

Most ring-bearers will rise to noble tasks of apparent ordinariness: Parenthood, clergydom, business, teaching. God forbid we take them for granted.

Some few will succumb to the tempations we all face: Divorce, alcoholism, agnosticism, pessimism. By God's grace we are and always shall be sustained.

I spent a few weeks this summer with ring-bearers. Most of those gathered have moved on in life. Married, careered, dissertating, or somewhere in between these. We look back at the ring-bearers of 2007 wondering at how much they've changed since 2003, and how much more they'll grow in years to come. And what will another 10 years bring for us whose rings are dull and scratched from the work of our hands? God alone knows, for the road goes ever on and on.

At one recent gathering everyone present wore the ring, and it might as well have been the anniversary of Agincourt, for each did strip his sleeve and show his scars. And the brotherhood did stand together as friends of unmitigable bond, a bond worth dying for, but mostly a bond of endless laughter and the unbearable joy of learning in fellowship.

Take as a starting point the atoning work of Christ through his incarnation, death, and resurrection. Love your God, read your bible, follow the dialectic. Everything else pretty much takes care of itself.

So, aspirants to the class of 2011, the Perpetual Members, for whom I presume to speak, salute you. Keep your feet on the ground, your noses in your books, and your heads in the clouds. Learn what friendship is. Kick Satan in the teeth. Ask JMNR why there's no hope for you and you're the hope of the West.

And when you wear the ring we'll stand as brethren. Forever.

WordSmyte: Rastafarright

Rastafarright: The convergence of groovy mon and political conservatism. Very rare.

Go see Aphrodite before it's too late!

CNN/Reuters reports the Getty will "plea-bargain" on art theft. Integrity is such a downer for art collections (sarcasm).

We have until 2010 to see her. I personally haven't since she's at the Getty Villa where I have not been.

Official page for the sculpture (whence the image) here.

And, dude!, Getty endowment exceeds $5 billion? Who knew? Can we get them to drop a few hundred mill's on something English Gothic that's within driving distance? And quake proof?

Live from Los Angeles (or close enough), UW is out.