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13 June 2005
Only a Fool Says in His Heart ...
"I think I'll invent Clown Communion."
Others brighter and more current on ecclesiastical news have already weighed in and unloaded on the Clown Eucharist at Trinity Church (Episcopal) on Wall Street, NYC. While it certainly looks like "fun," it certainly doesn't look like "church."
Wanting to understand a bit more what drives people to such abominable liturgical practice, I started reading some of the companion material. IM(not so)HO, the bottom line appears to be using Scripture as pretext rather than normative text. In other words, what we have here is a bad case of eisegesis; that is, Trinity Church's brightest lights (this being a relative term) read their personal ideas and feelings into selected passages. Then they presumed to speak for God without having listened to Him.
Trinity used as a normative document (Lutheran!) minister Floyd Shaffer's If I Were a Clown, an excerpt thereof being posted at their site. Trinity Rector James "Don't Call Me Fennimore" Cooper then illustrates total lack of understanding of what God means by foolishness by totally misinterpreting and misapplying the "foolishness" passages in 1 Corinthians 3 and 4; a companion article quotes him saying that the activity was designed to "'tease out the foolishness themes' of Christianity."
Evidently Cooper et al. became the wrong type of "fools" because they're still "wise in this age." I'm absolutely certain that Paul wasn't clowning around when he declared, "We are fools for Christ's sake." True folly isn't big shoes, red noses, and pantomime: God's folly is the cross.
Paul didn't don a ridiculous costume, honk a horn, or throw confetti. No, he was such a complete and total fool that all he could do was keep preaching, teaching, and writing about "Jesus Christ and him crucified." ¶ 13:07 |
Others brighter and more current on ecclesiastical news have already weighed in and unloaded on the Clown Eucharist at Trinity Church (Episcopal) on Wall Street, NYC. While it certainly looks like "fun," it certainly doesn't look like "church."
Aardclown Writhes Again
Wanting to understand a bit more what drives people to such abominable liturgical practice, I started reading some of the companion material. IM(not so)HO, the bottom line appears to be using Scripture as pretext rather than normative text. In other words, what we have here is a bad case of eisegesis; that is, Trinity Church's brightest lights (this being a relative term) read their personal ideas and feelings into selected passages. Then they presumed to speak for God without having listened to Him.
Trinity used as a normative document (Lutheran!) minister Floyd Shaffer's If I Were a Clown, an excerpt thereof being posted at their site. Trinity Rector James "Don't Call Me Fennimore" Cooper then illustrates total lack of understanding of what God means by foolishness by totally misinterpreting and misapplying the "foolishness" passages in 1 Corinthians 3 and 4; a companion article quotes him saying that the activity was designed to "'tease out the foolishness themes' of Christianity."
Evidently Cooper et al. became the wrong type of "fools" because they're still "wise in this age." I'm absolutely certain that Paul wasn't clowning around when he declared, "We are fools for Christ's sake." True folly isn't big shoes, red noses, and pantomime: God's folly is the cross.
Paul didn't don a ridiculous costume, honk a horn, or throw confetti. No, he was such a complete and total fool that all he could do was keep preaching, teaching, and writing about "Jesus Christ and him crucified." ¶ 13:07 |
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The Rev. Mr. Shaffer clowned in the chapel at Warthog Theological Cemetary when I was a student there. Several seminarians and ovarians emulated him in
surrounding parishes. The theology of some of these was such that they unknowingly did clown ministry even when they were merely preaching an ordinary sermon.
surrounding parishes. The theology of some of these was such that they unknowingly did clown ministry even when they were merely preaching an ordinary sermon.
While I've not had close contact with clowns in the chancel, the Missouri District of the LCMS had one DCE who was part of most of the singles' and married couple retreats for years. Part of his schtick was a solemn application of complete clown makeup and gear. He would show the distinguishing marks of a "Christian clown" and would attempt some of the same foolish connections to divine folly as practiced by Shaffer, Cooper, and their ilk.
Some ELCA clowns also popped in on an evangelism conference held in the metro KCMO area a couple years ago. I know that I don't have the only child suffering from coulrophobia. How "user friendly" is "clown ministry" when a significant portion of your target audience is terrified of you?
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Some ELCA clowns also popped in on an evangelism conference held in the metro KCMO area a couple years ago. I know that I don't have the only child suffering from coulrophobia. How "user friendly" is "clown ministry" when a significant portion of your target audience is terrified of you?
wps+
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