Pastor Jim Clarke Pastor Paula McCutcheon

Jump Shot for Jesus

Pastor Jim

Some of you will remember “All in the Family” with Archie, Edith, Gloria and Meathead.  In one episode Archie is watching Meathead put on his socks and shoes, putting on one sock and then one shoe, then the other sock and the other shoe.  Archie burst out, which was common, castigating Meathead for doing it all wrong.  “Don’t you know you Meathead, you’re supposed to put on a sock and a sock then a shoe and a shoe, not a sock and a shoe and a sock and a shoe!”  Archie wasn’t simply joking around, as if he ever was with Meathead, he was indignant.  For him, Meathead was doing something morally corrupt.  So it often is with our habits.

Habits can be confining but also freeing.  Can you imagine waking up every morning and having to decide whether to put on a sock and a shoe or a sock and a sock and a shoe and a shoe?  If we watch ourselves in the morning we will see many habits, most of which allow us to be efficient and free of much agonizing over decisions.  There’s the freedom (This reminds me of the hymn, Make me a Captive, Lord… and I shall be set free.)

When I studied Tea Ceremony (otherwise known and the “Sado”, Way of Tea… which implies the way to enlightenment through tea) I learned about not only the freedom of pattern and ritual, but the power such practice has to convey meaning, and more importantly, the guidance of the Holy Spirit.  Originally the patterns of Sado were established because they were the most efficient and beautiful – they grew into an art form and as such they carry meaning; not of the discursive kind that we can define and reduce to its parts, but of the mysterious and soulful kind.  They teach ‘body memory.  That is where one’s body “knows” well enough that the mind doesn’t have to think about doing it.  Anyone who plays basketball knows this, even if he/she doesn’t know he/she knows it.  One doesn’t think about how to take a jump shot when one takes a jump shot.  When Kobe Bryant pops one of those unstoppable fade always he isn’t considering whether he is giving the ball enough spin – his body knows it.  (Thus the attractive title of this missal.)

Worship at its core is not simply constitutive of its parts but a whole, a holy habit and sacred pattern, a body memory of the whole community of faith.  The first thing in the United Methodist Hymnal is an outline of the Basic Pattern for Sunday Worship.  Why have that in there?  To remind us that if we change the shape we play with the meaning.

The Christian Year and Holy Week are no different.  They provide us with soulful habits, patterns of sacred meaning that of their own, when we practice them, whether we think about them or not (often it is actually better not to think about them, but just practice them) give our lives a sacramental framework and meaning.  Palm/Passion Sunday – Maundy Thursday – Good Friday – Holy Saturday (a day of fasting, prayer and reflection – and Easter… glorious Easter.  The pattern speaks more than anything that any preacher can convey on Easter Sunday (I can’t believe I’m saying this!)

As you read this do not think about it too much, just come… to worship every Sunday – for t hat too is a holy habit – and to all of the Holy Week services so that your body will know that Jesus’ body was raised from the dead. 

Pastor Jim