April 25, 2006

Jackass

All theology is autobiographical. So by theologian I mean anybody who thinks about God even if not all the time and even if they don’t use God language. So, then, that allows me to think of scoundrels like H L Mencken as one of my favorite theologians. Karl Barth, the great Swiss theologian-for-sure, was said to have felt that way about Mozart. And I agree with Uncle Karl, though I rather suspect he’d not agree with me.

Anyhow, early in the merrily month of May, my beloved, dysfunctional diocese (and that includes us all from top to bottom) will try again, more than likely, I predict, unsuccessfully to elect a bishop.

This string of vote-casting experiences which started for us back in March brings Mencken more to mind than Mozart. For in one of Mencken’s revealed theological moments, he defined an archbishop as a “Christian ecclesiastic of a rank superior to that attained by Jesus.” So far as I’m concerned, he could say the same thing about a bishop or a priest, for that matter. Thus it is good to think that this is what we presume to do in a so-called episcopal election and that is to elevate someone to a rank superior to that attained by Jesus. And it is good for us to remember how ultimately silly, then, is such an undertaking. (This is where theology will get you if you let it, and let it, you should.)

I gather that Jesus was never a bishop, let alone an archbishop, maybe a substitute Sabbath School teacher, but episkopos not. In the manner of ekklesia and our stories and not all that long ago, however, rather did we come up with a Jesus riding into Jerusalem on a borrowed jackass. Now if somebody would just come riding in thataway at our forthcoming election and show us up for what we are and what we pretend and presume to do, then my prediction would be of no account.

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