BB UPDATE: You can hear the reading here at the BabyBlueCafe.I had not completely thawed out after being frozen on the wind swept and very cold balcony at the Firm watching President Ford's funeral procession go by so missed this completely. According to Kendall Harmon over at TitusOneNine (go here) the second half of verse 6 from the Gospel reading of John 14:1-6 was omitted from the reading of the Gospel by the preacher at today's funeral at the National Cathedral (which a former clergy in the Diocese of Washington says is common practice, see here).
Here is the full text with the omitted line highlighted.
1: “Let not your hearts be troubled; believe in God, believe also in me.
2: In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?
3: And when I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.
4: And you know the way where I am going.”
5: Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going; how can we know the way?”
6: Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”
What to make the omission of the last half - and very important half - of verse 6? I had the same thing happen when I was meeting with a member of the Standing Committee for the Diocese of Virginia recently. He quoted John 14:6 "I am the way, the truth and the life," to make his point and then stopped halfway through six, as though the verse actually ended there. But I finished the quote because the point of our discussion was the question of "Is Jesus the Only Way?"
This does cause us to remember Katharine Jefferts Schori's comment about putting God in "an awfully small box" (which you can read in its entirety here).
Watching today's funeral also reminds us that there is just nothing like the pageantry of an Episcopal service and what better venue to lend credibility to the recent theological innovations? With all its attention to protocol, it goes well with dignified and symbolic moments in the Nation's life, as well as (ironically beyond belief) going well with the protocols of the United States military. But to come to the part of the service, the heart of the service of what all this pomp and circumstance actually means and to flinch, well, it does speak volumes to the rafters.
Who should suffer the slings and arrows of life's outrageous fortunes - better to drop the little b then let it Be.
bb
3 comments:
I can't share your outrage here. While the theology of the selection is frustrating and obviously wooly, readings are always selected to suit the theology of the sermon (or whatever). This is a good point in favour of the lectionery. I've been taught to think of chapter and verse divisions as arbitrary and to 'think in paragraphs'.
BB:
When I read this post, I immediately thought back over a year, to words of a ghost writer said in another blog. In a parody of Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, the author noting the orginial epilogue, "there is more than one way to burn a book."
Author's note:
"And then I thought of the clever omissions from the liturgy, and creative elision of troublesome passages from the scriptures in the lectionary. The rejections of basic Christian teachings, done with both increasing frequency and volume in the Episcopal Church. The willingness of some to discipline the orthodox while refusing to discipline heresy. I suppose it is just as true that there is also more than one way to burn faithful Christians. "
BB,
Thanks for the audio, it's even creeper listening to such a familiar passage cut short. Wow, sure do get a sence of something missing.
Kevin
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