Today is Maundy Thursday, today is the day when many rituals take place supposedly pointing back in time to the festival of Pesach (passover), the seven day Jewish festival. Of course for many of us it points to a specific years celebration, the last Pesach celebrated by Jesus.
On the news today there is much coverage of the Queen performing the traditional symbolic service... well some of it! Historically this would have included the Monarch washing the feet of her subjects - a sign of her service to them - but of course this has been abandoned. One has to question then if this symbol (A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention.) has been abandoned, why has it? Of course there will be voices crying "Security" etc. etc. but has it been abandoned because in our world it's message is simply unpalatable? The idea of the Monarch (or anyone else in power) so visibly declaring an attitude of humility may simply be so counter cultural that it is impossible to even symbolise!? Our society has been so infected with individualism and ideas about personal security - looking after number 1! - that washing feet is deeply uncomfortable for all of us, not just those with visible power!
There is one symbol the Queen will do, she will give 84 (her age) bags of money to pensioners - the purpose of the money is of course intended to be 'symbolic' and not to be spent by the recipients, but is it really symbolic? I'm not sure it is, it is an act which has replaced a real act - the Monarch giving real help to the poorest in society - and as such it represents something which no longer happens, one could even say it assuages tradition but enables the removal of real responsibility to act! It makes one feel secure in the believe that the act is/has been done but in reality it hasn't. So in effect it becomes an excuse for the avoidance of the real meaning, not a symbolic representation of an actual truth. A symbol is not a tradition it is a representation of something real, it points to something bigger, marks it's reality, communicates it. A symbol ceases to be a symbol when it replaces the thing it is intended to represent, when it becomes the act itself.
Note, though I am not a monarchist this is not specifically a dig at the Royals, it is more a reflection of how we all can use the language of symbolism to hide our avoidance of uncomfortable reality. Easter is full of symbols, many of them make uncomfortable demands on us; for sacrifice, for humility, for forgiveness, to allow God to do God's work as God intends not as we want, to become imitators of Christ - living for others and giving our life for others, becoming a servant - a living sacrifice! Not simply making symbolic representations of the above, excusing us from real change, but actually living the reality of Easter. Referring to my previous post, it seems that the last supper was a far more public act than I previously thought, it wasn't a private, personal act, likewise "religion" is not a private affair, nor simply a weekly symbolic celebration, Easter calls us to live our faith & hope in a certain way but it also calls us to live it openly and in public and for it to make a real and radical difference to the world we live in.
Technorati Tags: Bible: Christianity: Church: Community: Emerging Church: Fresh Expressions: Mission: Missional: new-monasticism: Spirituality: theology
Seems to me once again that the place of religion in common life is actually the antithesis of the gospel it claims to be proclaiming.
Posted by: twitter.com/gentlemandad | 01/04/2010 at 12:35
Like your thoughts. When symbols are stripped of that which they originally signified they become empty, self referential, or worse, a smoke screen.
Posted by: Matt Stone | 08/04/2010 at 08:08
Many Christian Ministers do actually wash real feet as part of the Maundy Thursday liturgy.
Posted by: Ben Sirach | 11/04/2010 at 13:50
They do Ben... tbh I was using the Queen's Maundy service as an example, but even if they do it's more often than not sanitised - I once was asked to take part and the Vicar asked me to wash my feet before I came! We wrote a liturgy a couple of years ago called "Scraping off the Shit" trying to recapture something of the reality of the foot wasing - to re-place it in community and service... the point for me is if it simply part of a liturgy and does not point to a real liturgy (i.e. a poetic symbol of a real work of God's people) then it ceases for me to be a symbol and becomes a meaningless ritual.
Posted by: Mark | 11/04/2010 at 18:32
the bigest festival-Christmas day is coming now ,so hurry up to buy the gifts for you love.
Posted by: nike zoom hyperfuse | 21/12/2010 at 03:14
An intriguing post made all the more fascinating by the amgiguous Judao-Christian attitude to monarchy. The issue runs far deeper than Maundy Thursday. My republican hackles rise every time there's mention of the Kingdom of God. But that's tied up with the richness of Christian symbolism. The 'baggage' in the symbolism sometimes sits uneasily with us but I suspect the tension is helpful even if we have a negative reaction.
Posted by: Phil Wood | 06/01/2011 at 11:55