HEROISM AND LEARNING TO SAY “NO”

Ascending the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s (MMOA) magnificent central staircase, one can see even from a distance Jacques-Louis David’s masterwork:  The Death of Socrates.  Having been accused of “irreligion” (denying the gods) and corrupting the youth of Athens, Socrates was given the choice either to renounce his teachings or be sentenced to death by drinking hemlock.  The painting shows him surrounded by his friends (including a grieving Plato at the foot of the bed) with his right arm in the air discoursing on the immortality of the soul, while receiving in his left hand the poisoned cup from the jailor.  How unusual in this day and age that the depiction of the most famous martyrdom in history would occupy such a conspicuous spot in one of the world’s most famous venues of art.  Could the MMOA be telling us that the USA has lost its sense of self-sacrifice?

Perhaps coincidently, longtime Yale historian Edmund Morgan has just published a book of his essays titled American Heroes, although with few exceptions, Morgan’s idea of heroism is not quite what most Americans conceive. For Morgan, our real heroes are the martyrs:  the men and women whose integrity existed in their ability (like Socrates) to say “No” to the pressure to conform themselves to the demands of the world around them – men and women “for whom the Bill of Rights was written”.

Morgan for instance upholds as the “Unyielding Indian’s” overarching attribute his “fierce unwillingness to assimilate to the civilization, religion, and customs of the colonizers… [along with] a genuine scorn for the riches of the world”.  Another essay extolling the heroism of Salem witches Giles Cory and Mary Easty relates how they (again like Socrates) “took their religion seriously enough to believe that if they confessed to a crime they had not committed, God would hold them guilty of the lie.”

Christians are called to be in the world but not of the world, and the world does not hesitate to continue to beckon every moment of our lives.  The world says, “Obey me, or you’ll die; take my riches and bathe in my glory, i.e.:  Obey me, or I’ll kill you.  Christian heroes respond to such threats as did our Lord with:  “Then by all means, kill me; take my life.”  While we need not physically die, our call to spiritual martyrdom demands our own unqualified “No” to the world’s temptation that we compromise ourselves and become one with her.  If our highest ideals represent in a sense who we are and what we’d like to be, then to compromise or turn a blind eye to those ideals is to die another type of death, one which Socrates would call suicide.

He and the heroes mentioned in Morgan’s book, not to mention Jesus Himself, share the belief that in the words of Plato scholar A. E. Taylor:  “Real atheism would be to disobey the divine command [to say “No” to the world]…and that the death with which [one] is threatened if he does not disobey may, for all he knows, be the greatest good.”

Christianity never hesitates to challenge us to become servants of Christ through our own spiritual martyrdom:  to deny the temptation to compromise our Christian consciences and ideals, with the appreciation that possession of the world’s wealth (however we might metaphorically describe it) does not produce worth.  Rather, again in Taylor’s words, “Worth makes wealth and all else good.”

Could this in fact be the MMOA’s message to our world by hanging David’s masterpiece in such an unavoidable location:  to remind us that martyrdom means to die when we could escape death, if we would but compromise our conscience just a little?  If so, the museum has given us one of the greatest gifts that all of art in whatever form might render:  the knowledge that martyrdom (like Christianity) makes life; and that the opposite of martyrdom is not life, but suicide.  FAB

HAIL AND FAREWELL

Congratulations to our graduating seniors: 

From Brookwood
Laurel Shea - Georgia Southern
 DJ Grooms - LaGrange
 
From Thomas County Central
Melissa Funk - University of Georgia

 
PLEDGE UPDATE

The Vestry is delighted to report that the response to the anonymous pledge to match any new financial pledge (plus any increase to any 2009 pledge) has been quite gratifying, with a little over $46,000.00 in new or increased pledges at this time.
The Vestry urges everyone who has the ability but as yet has not taken advantage of this wonderful offer to help our parish in these difficult financial times, to please examine one’s conscience and if able, to help us reach the “50,000.00 mark.  With your help, we believe we can see the parish safely through 2009, and perhaps through some of 2010 as well.

Brad Jackson, SeniorWarden                                                                  
Chip Bragg, Junior Warden     

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

HELP FOR THE NURSERY

As we enter the summer months, we really could use at least one other adult or husband and wife who would be willing to be available to staff the nursery when our regular attendants need to be away, or take a vacation.  If interested, please speak to any vestrymen or the clergy.  FAB

SUMMER OFFICE HOURS

Please note that the office will close at noon on Friday during the summer months.                    

Brad Jackson, Senior Warden

FROM DEACON LOUISE MUENZ

A Thought.  Please pray for those people who come to our church seeking help, and for our staff in their ministry with them.

 
 USHERS FOR JUNE

June 7      
Charles Deal

June 14
John Glenn
Ben Grace

June 21     
C.B. Grubbs     
Paul Gurley     

June 28
Chip Hancock
John Hand

TRANSITIONS:

Happy Birthday in June to:

John Brigham Daniel   6-1-07
Russell Therrien    6-1-88
Branden Therrien   6-5-92
Christopher Sanford   6-12-88
Henry Leverett    6-30-01
Anna Kelly    6-18-97
Nicholas Hagan Womble  6-21-07
DJ Grooms    6-27-90
Olivia Kavouklis   6-27-92

Happy Birthday in July to:
Lois E. Mason    7-1-88
Emma Hutton Daniel   7-7-05
Michael Mirocha   7-21-91
Madeline Claire Bruhn   7-22-98
Andrew Raney McMullian  7-26-07

From the Parish Register

Requiescat in Pace:
Margaret Humphrey Bindhardt departed this life May 20, 2009

Helen Girardeau Kaufmann (Kathy Buechner’s mother) departed this life
May 20, 2009

Leo Williams Fort (Janie Deal’s mother) departed this life May 31, 2009

May their souls, and the souls of all the faithful departed, through
the mercy of God rest in peace. Amen.
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In Whitsuntide.

 To thee, O Christ, O King exalted, we offer up our due praise and unfeigned hearty thanks for that thou hast sen5 down and dispersed abroad thine own Holy Spirit to restore and renew the spirit of men, to be the first dedication of thy Catholic Church on earth and the first publishing of the Gospel to all l1nds, the bond of unity, and giver of light and life; to whom with the Father and thee, one blessed Trinity, be ascribed all might, majesty, dominion, and praise, now and for ever.  Amen.

For the Church.

 O God, most glorious, most bountiful, accept, we humbly beseech thee, our praises and thanksgivings for thy holy Catholic Church, the mother of us all who bear the name of Christ; for the faith which it hath conveyed in safety to our time, and th mercies by which it hath enlarged and comforted the souls of men; for the virtues which it hath established upon earth, and the holy lives by which it glorifieth both the word and thee; to whom, O blessed Trinity, be ascribed all honor, might, majesty, and dominion, now and for ever.   Amen.

                                                                   from After The Third Collect