Give up email for Lent
by Bishop John E. Privett
Dear Friends,
A few years ago an Episcopal priest and Professor of Church History, William Stafford, wrote a book entitled "Disordered Loves — Healing the Seven Deadly Sins." He gives a refreshingly modern perspective on what is often considered an old or outdated view of Christian spirituality. He notes that the language of "sin" is disappearing not only from our common language, but it is even becoming lost in our theological language except in a few Eucharistic prayers or the Baptismal service. In most people's minds "sin" has been reduced to petty moral failings if it is part of our consciousness at all. What Stafford was striving for in his book was a renewed way of thinking about the nature of sin and its effects upon us. The season of Lent is traditionally a time to consider our own faith journey and to examine the state of our spiritual lives and so this is as good a time as any to think about sin.
In Christian thought sin is that state of being separated from God. God is God and we are children of Adam. The word Adam in Hebrew has its roots in the word "adamah" — which means "earth" — we are children of earth or as the Ash Wednesday service reminds us we are made of dust and to dust we shall return. For those sensitive to the gender specific language of "children of Adam" it may be interesting to note that while Adam is a masculine noun, "adamah" is feminine! And so we are separated from God, from the source of our being, by the virtue of our creation. While acknowledging that, we also need to remember that human beings were created in the Image of God, so that there is also the divine element to human life. Jesus who has been revealed as fully human and fully divine is the perfect image of humanity and of human wholeness.
Stafford calls his book "Disordered Loves" because he understands sin as love gone awry. We were made to love God and love one another, and instead we fall in love with the wrong things, we become attached in unhealthy ways to habits and conditions that leave us less than fully human. Lent is the perfect time of year to consider what it is that we are attached to, what it is that takes our time and energy and what things get in the way of healthy relationship with God and with others.
In an electronic age, we can spend an enormous amount of time being in touch with people in different ways. I heard recently of a young teen who over Christmas sent 4000 text messages to friends — an activity that would have taken hours and hours! Sometimes the method of communication becomes more important than the communication itself. It made me think of how much technology drives us, rather than it being a tool for modern communication. In a conversation recently, the staff of the Synod Office noted how much time email takes in our daily routines. It was suggested that it might be a good thing to give up emails for Lent. Further discussion acknowledged that email is an important means of communication, but to reflect on how much it can dominate our lives we have decided to give up emails for one day a week during Lent as a Lenten discipline. And so we will not send or receive emails on the Friday’s during Lent. Maybe we'll find time for something else, perhaps we’ll find more balance in the day, maybe there'll be more time for prayer. We'll miss using the send/receive button, but it just might help to re-order one part of our lives during this season of spiritual reflection: In my view that would be a very good thing.
Faithfully, +John
