Shake, Rattle, and Roll

As the story goes...

Ann Lee was born in 1736 in Manchester, England.  She was born and raised in the Friends Church (Quakers).  When she was 16 she got involved in a sub-sect of the Quakers that taught complete celibacy and that practiced ecstatic trembling during worship.  They claimed that the trembling was the Holy Spirit purging sin from their bodies.  That is why this group of people came to be called "The Shakers."  According to these eccentric folks, if you never had sex and trembled enough in worship you could get pretty darn close to reaching perfect purity. Another distinctive characteristic of this sub-sect of Quakers was that unlike all other forms of Christianity at the time, they believed and taught the complete equality of men and women in all areas of church leadership. They felt that once you took sex and childbirth out of the equation there really isn't a difference between men and women.  This idea was way, way, way "out in left field" at the time. As a result of this way of thinking, young Ann was able to rise to prominence as a leader in the group.  She preached, shouted at people about the imminent return of Christ, danced around at strange times and in strange places, and spoke of having visions.  She even spent some time in jail for her behavior.  In 1774 she said a vision told her to take a group of believers to the American colonies, which she did.  Her husband went with her but apparently it all got a little too weird for him (not to mention the celibacy thing) because he bailed on her right after they got to America.  I'm all for trying to make marriage work, but I can't say that I blame the guy as there came a point when she considered herself to be the female counterpart to Jesus Christ and that she might just be the Second Coming of Jesus.

The Shaker communities spread out from New York, popping up throughout New England as well as in Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.  They made a lot of really cool stuff--buildings, furniture, and clothing.  One Shaker song has spread into other Christian communities.  That song is "Simple Gifts."  It's the one that goes: ""Tis a gift to be simple, 'tis a gift to be free" and so on.  Their progressive ideas on the equality of genders are important and interesting, but weighed down by all the strangeness that came with those ideas.

My favorite story about Shakers comes from right here in Ohio.  Apparently the people in Lebanon, Ohio were jerks to the Shaker community, while the people in Dayton were very nice and welcoming. Because of this, the Shakers rode through Lebanon pronouncing a curse on the town.  Then they rode through Dayton pronouncing a blessing.  At the time Lebanon and Dayton were about the same size.  To the superstitious, the old Shaker curse is why Dayton prospered and grew while Lebanon stayed a little town.

Secret Lovers, That's What We Are

As the story goes...

sometime just before the year 300, the Roman Emperor Claudius Gothicus signed an edict prohibiting soldiers from marrying.  Supposedly, he felt that a soldier who had a wife and kids back home was never fully invested in what was happening on the battlefront; all the soldier wanted to do was put in his time and get home. If soldiers just wouldn't marry then they would give themselves fully to the battle and be willing to risk their lives with more abandon for the empire.  All you have to do is watch the movie American Sniper to see that logically speaking the emperor had a point.  The pull of home is a very, very strong pull even for the most disciplined service-person. It is also interesting that the Apostle Paul actually made the same argument in 1 Corinthians 7 regarding Christians.  He felt that because the end of the world was upon them (most early Christians were convinced of this) single people should stay single so that they could give themselves fully to the (spiritual) battle and be willing to risk their lives with more abandon for the Kingdom of God.  Anyway, as the story goes, the emperor declared that soldiers could no longer get married.

The Christian Church viewed marriage as sacred (and still does) and sexual relations between two unmarried people as sin (and still does).  So the emperor's edict causes a problem for the small minority of soldiers who were Christian.  They cannot get married but they are romantically involved with women back home.  They want to make an "honest woman" of their beloved but they are prohibited by their emperor from doing so.  They are unwilling, however, to give up their relationships with their significant others and we all know that when a man and a woman are in a romantic relationship that eventually it is going to become physically intimate.  The Christian is to wait to become completely physically intimate until the covenant of marriage has been made between the two and God.  But what if marriage was not allowed?  That puts a Christian in a real pickle.  

In steps a Christian priest named Valentinus.  He doesn't want these soldiers and their girlfriends to have to give one another up and he doesn't want them to live in a sinful way outside the covenant of marriage.  So he says, "I don't care what the emperor says.  I answer to God in Jesus Christ.  Come to me, and I'll do your wedding."  Father Valentinus officiates at several secret weddings for soldiers until somehow he is ratted out.  He is arrested, imprisoned, and beaten. You simply do not thumb your nose at the emperor and get away with it. He refuses to budge on his stance in favor of the sacredness of Christian marriage and is sentenced to death and considered a martyr for the Christian faith.  Sometime later the Pope declares a feast day to give thanks for the Christian witness of St. Valentinus.  The day that is chosen is February 14.  

Nobody knows if any of that really happened, but it is a pretty old story and I really like it.  In our current time, when some folks want to get married so badly that they're marching and fighting in court about it while other folks increasingly refuse to get married, I think it is important for us to remember the importance of that covenantal bond.  Marriage can be difficult and sometimes one or both partners get so self-absorbed that they make marriage downright impossible, but the story of Father Valentinus (factual or not) shows us how serious and powerful that bond is.  Those soldiers who were Christians loved their significant others and wanted to do the godly thing by sealing their love within the covenant of marriage, but their government wouldn't let them.  So a brave Christian stepped in and risked it all for love.  It kind of gives new meaning to Paul's words, "These three remain--faith, hope, and love.  But the greatest of these is love."  

Happy (Early) Valentine's Day!

Pastor Everett 

Those Crafty Christians

As the story goes...

Julian, the nephew of Constantine, became the Roman emperor in 361.  Several decades earlier his uncle had caused a seismic shift in history by favoring Christianity although it had previously been a suspicious and sometimes persecuted faith.  Constantine's decision seems to have had way more to do with politics and power than it did with genuine spiritual experience.  It also took a simple faith and way of life that was often concentrated within the poor and neglected portion of the population and turned it into a cultural/political/economic/military machine.  Much of the simplicity and spiritual power of the gospel was lost.  Regardless of Constantine's motives, Christianity became a big deal throughout the empire and even among the ruling elite.  Julian thought this was a terrible anti-Roman development.  When he became emperor he was determined to undo that which his old uncle Constantine had begun.  

Interestingly enough, Julian was raised as a Christian.  A great problem, however, was that this Christianity was "rammed down his throat" by his very zealous Arian Christian (didn't believe in the Trinity) cousin Constantius II.  Julian grew up watching his older cousin order the deaths of non-Christians and even had to endure his cousin having a good number of Julian's family murdered. Julian grew to hate everything Christian so when he became emperor he decided he would choke the Christian faith by making it very, very difficult to live in Roman society as a Christian.  He doesn't seem to have cared whether or not Christianity continued to exist, he just wanted it back the way it used to be: a strange little religion made up of the poor and uneducated on the margins of society.  Also, it appears that Julian was nostalgic for a time he'd never experienced himself.  He wanted to live in a Roman Empire that was strong and pagan like in the "good old days."  

Julian made edicts that forced churches to give back the assets that had been seized from pagan temples.  He re-instituted the worship of Roman gods and lowered the status of Christian bishops. He also wrote quite a bit about why he thought Christianity was not only superstitious but toxic. Calling Christians by the name "Galileans" he argues that they use offensively manipulative tactics in converting people to their dangerous faith.  The most famous criticism that he fires out is, "These impious Galileans not only feed their own poor, but ours also; welcoming them into their agape, they attract them as children are attracted with cakes." To Julian the fact that Christians were feeding both the Christian and pagan poor could only mean that these Christians were pulling a bait-and-switch.  Hungry people came for food and then they were hit over the head with a bunch of nonsense about some crucified peasant.  Julian felt this not only showed how conniving Christians are but it also exposed something about his own adopted Roman/pagan faith: the pagans weren't caring for their own poor.  It was the pagan lack of care for their own poor that made hungry pagan folks reliant on and susceptible to those manipulative and ignorant Christians.  He says, "While the pagan priests neglect the poor, the hated Galileans devote themselves to works of charity, and by a display of false compassion have established and given effect to their pernicious errors."  If the pagans would just feed their own hungry, then the Christians would have no appeal.  I have to admit that it's pretty sound logic.

What this reminds me of is the fact that when someone doesn't like you you're just going to lose no matter what.  If you don't feed the poor you're criticized for doing nothing to help those in need. If you do feed the poor you're accused of having ulterior motives.  No matter what the Julians of the world think of us, however, we "Galileans" are commanded time and again by our Lord Jesus to provide food both for the belly and for the soul. I'm sorry that Julian's experience was so terrible. The Christians around him bear much of the blame for his later disdain for the faith.  That is also true for the large number of folks in our current culture that feel the same way as Julian. That being said, though, neither Julian nor our culture will be our ultimate judge.  Our ultimate judge is the one who said, "Whatever you have done for these least of these brothers and sisters of mine you have done for me."