Sacramental Missiology: McDonalds, the Table, and the World PART 2 – Dr. K. Nicholas Yoda

AND I THINK FRANK AND JUSTIN GET THIS!

Never intending this to actually be an insert within this reflection, in light of who they are and where they had been found in the months since my return from Rome this past June, they remain persons that cannot go without mention. As great as it was to be at Papal Audience in my time across the pond merely feet away from the “Holy See”, how refreshing it was to hear about the first visit of Archbishop Justin (the new Archbishop of Canterbury, leader of the Anglican Church) and the new Pope Jorge Mario Bergoglio otherwise known as Francis.

Gathering over lunch (there is that “breaking of bread” again), these two men, in attempts to show that the church does in fact have its teeth in the culture, sought to have an outward agenda on which to  circumnavigate their faith traditions. It was actually human trafficking and the world problems of specifically women and children being exploited in all forms of slavery that was their point of missional clarity that the church should infect be living into.

Archbishop Justin stated that Christians must: “reflect the self-giving love of Christ by offering love and hospitality to the poor, and love above all to those tossed aside by present crisis in the world…It is only as the world sees Christians growing visibly in unity that it will accept through us the divine message of peace and reconciliation.”[1] Pope Francis would follow with similar thoughts as he said: “If we are not their advocates in the name of Christ, who will be?”[2] The zenith statement thought though was a final sentence in a public letter from the Archbishop of Canterbury to the Roman Church: “Let is travel the path toward unity, fraternally ordered in charity, and with Jesus as our constant point of reference.”[3] Not surprising, it is pointed out that the host of the table is in fact the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the one, who on the road to Emmaus, met the disciples and in the breaking of the bread, caused their burning eyes to open and see.

Since this, Pope Francis has gone to claim what I would call a universal truth for the modern church. He states that the church has grown “obsessed” with such things as abortion and gay marriage leveraging a position in society where dogma has been placed about love and moral doctrine has taken priority over the church’s call to “love thy neighbor”. “We have to find a new balance,” the Pope claimed, “otherwise even the moral edifice of the church is likely to fall like a house of cards, losing the freshness and fragrance of the gospel. This church with which we should be thinking is the home of all, not a small chapel that can hold only a small group of people. We must not reduce the bosom of the universal church to a nest protecting our mediocrity.”[4] The Archbishop Justin has kept the pace as well as he has continued his firm stance that the order of the day is in fact unity under the weight of centuries of the church’s fraught history.

Two of the top leaders in the Christian Church recognize what has been needed in the world for centuries: a community that will claim and live what they are for verses “circling the wagons” in opposition to what they are against. The church universal must come to the table and recognize what was lifted up at the Lambreth Conference (assembly of bishops in the Anglican tradition) in Chicago in 1930. In committing to a quadrilateral of points used by Christ and ordered by the church, these bishops reiterated the doctrine of the “expression of the Sacraments in the Gospel and the rites of the Primitive Church as set forth in the Book of Common Worship.”[5] 5 In this expression though, “various local adaptations” of sacramental theology were assumed. One setting of the table is not going to resemble nor practice like another. Yet, all of these tables share the same host (again, it is not about theological table practices), who shares the same invitation to the world: “Come to me, all you who are struggling hard and carrying heavy loads, and I will give you rest. Put on my yoke, and learn from me. I’m gentle and humble. And you will find rest for yourselves. My yoke is easy to bear, and my burden is light.”[6]

Again, in order for the body of Christ to proclaim and live the gospel message, the Christ of the table must be freed from the theology of the church in order that all may be seated and dine.

McDonalds: “I’m Lovin It!”

And they are. Way beyond just the items on the dollar menu and the next Happy Meal prize, persons love McDonalds for reasons beyond just the fast food that they sell. In his book The Speed of Trust, author and keynote speaker Stephen Covey writes: “In late April of 1992, the Rodney King trial sparked riots that resulted in the burning and looting of entire city blocks in Los Angeles, California. The devastation was immense; the loss to the businesses was in the billions. Amazingly, all the McDonald’s restaurants within the devastated area were untouched. They stood as unscathed beacons in the midst of blackened ruins. Obviously the question arose: Why would the McDonald’s buildings be left standing when nearly everything around them was destroyed? The responses of local residents carried a common thread: ‘McDonald’s cares about our community. They support literacy programs and sports programs. Young people know they can always get a job at ‘Mickey D’s.’ No one would want to destroy something that does so much good for us all.’”[7] Ironically, in the those same riots in Los Angeles, the church did not fair so well.

There is no evidence to suggest that persons were targeting or damaging churches during the six days of the riots. One must question though how the church chooses to respond in such situations. Marc Brown, a news anchor in Los Angeles, recalled his experience of the day the riots broke out in reaction to the Rodney King verdict: On the day of the verdict, my assignment was to go to the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza Mall and interview people about the verdict. Next, we went to First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, where a community meeting had been planned for 7 p.m. on the night of the verdict. The place was packed and hot, and people there were angry.

“It was very, very tension-packed, informed by an incredible degree of disbelief that justice was sought and denied,” said Mark Ridley-Thomas, a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors who was a city councilman at the time. Ridley-Thomas was one of many civic and community leaders, including Mayor Tom Bradley, who took to the stage that night expressing outrage at the verdict and calling for a proper, non-violent response.

They seemed unaware of the violence at Florence and Normandie avenues and that fires were breaking out close by. I tried to get their attention with my portable TV monitor.

“I was about to give my remarks and you had the monitor in-hand,” Ridley-Thomas recalled. “I remember saying, ‘What is he saying?’ And you were quite demonstrative in trying to get everybody’s attention, as if to say, ‘You all are in here talking, but outside, this city is on fire.’”[8] 8

“You are all in here talking, but outside, the city is on fire.” Perhaps it is anecdotal, but this is a harsh indictment (or confession) of the church. These riots, that broke out in the city of Los Angeles (the “City of Angels”) on 29 April 1992, have been described by some as one of the top ten worst riots in history. As described by one website:

On 29 April 1992, a jury acquitted two white police officers of charges stemming from the videotaped beating of black motorist Rodney King. As a result of this verdict, thousands of citizens rioted for six days. Mass amounts of looting, murder, arson and assault took place. 53 people died during the riots, including 10 shot dead by the army and police, with as many as 2,000 people injured. Estimates of the material losses vary between about $800 million and $1 billion. Approximately 3,600 fires were lit, destroying 1,100 buildings, with fire calls coming once every minute at some points. Stores owned by Korean and other Asian immigrants were widely targeted, although stores owned by Caucasians and African Americans were as well.[9]

And in the midst of this devastation, the “Golden Arches” stayed open, in business, with no damage. The church, meanwhile, gathered in the typical “holy huddle” of safety within the sanctuary doors talking about what was going on just outside their view. Again, in the thoughts of Marc Brown, “You are all in here talking, but outside, the city is on fire.” What is wrong with this picture?

Recently, in an attempt to challenge the church to address the root of this problem, church consultant Thom Rainer, in his article Autopsy of a Deceased Church, lifts up eleven observations about churches who have remained inside the safety of their sanctuaries while the world just outside their doors changed drastically. Of this list of observations, the top two state:

1. The church refused to look like the community. The community began a transition toward a lower socioeconomic class thirty years ago, but the church members had no desire to reach the new residents. The congregation thus became an island of middle-class members in a sea of lower-class residents.

2. The church had no community-focused ministries. This part of the autopsy may seem to be stating the obvious, but I wanted to be certain. My friend affirmed my suspicions. There was no attempt to reach the community.[10] Rainer’s examinations point directly to the reality that too many times within our societal constructs and contexts, the church remains in the posture of fear, inward focus, and death. When the community of faith that claim to follow the Christ refuse to embrace their community, be with and for their community, look like their community, and minister within their community, then that community of faith is in fact not a community of faith, not following Christ, and will never have their eyes opened and their hearts burning in the breaking of the table bread as they walk the Emmaus Road. Beyond this, one can complain about the “McDonaldization” of church and society all the want, but at the end of the day (at least in the most hard hit areas of the Los Angeles during the 1992 riots), there are many communities that are turning to McDonalds and beyond instead of the church because their perception is that those places actually care.

Remember, they are really “lovin it”.

Conclusion:

I have heard many pastors and theologians say something to the effect that the church is always a generation away from extinction (If you have seen any major research in this reality as of lately, you might be inclined to not only agree but argue that this generation is amongst us here in the “west”.). At the same time, I hold this in tension of the crass observation of Augustine who is credited as stating, “The church is a whore, but she is my mother.” Noting that there are all sorts of theological issues with this statement, my mention of this is intended to point to the personal reality that while the church as we know it is in a state of extreme distress, I have not given up on her; in fact, I love her. This is why I would develop (in the same form of consultant Thom Ranier) my own list of observations (all three of them)…

The church must move from what is next to what matters:

In their observations, I would agree wholeheartedly with Whites and Yeats about the church’s need to make a monumental movement in their focus. I depart from their reasonings though and intersect directly with Pope Francis in his statements that have been previously mentioned. The church desperately needs to turn its “energy, intelligence, imagination, and love”[11] 11 to our neighbor lifted up within the second greatest commandment. It is no mistake that the Christ was able to take the 613 laws given to Moses and narrow it down to two: Love God… love neighbor. The purpose of the church needs to be reminded that our call is to remember that we are the lost and gloomy persons on the road to Emmaus that has their eyes opened and their heart set on fire with the reality of the Christ that not only breaks the bread, but invites all to dine at the banqueting table.

From that reality, a new identity is given where hope abounds and a radical love is translated in the praxis of lived faith. In other words, persons that come and dine with the Christ cannot help but leave in the  middle of the meal in order to find others to come and join in the feast. This is what matters. Again in the words of Pope Francis, “We must not reduce the bosom of the universal church to a nest protecting our mediocrity.”

The church must move from the cross to the table:

To be honest, there is nothing left to say that I have not stated before. If you really need reminder, I would point you to what I have written before…

The church must move from the table to the world:

The term “Ibid” comes form the Latin term “Ibidem” that translates “the same place”. Its usage within the footnote world of papers is to show that the writer of the paper used the same source of information as listed previously within their writings. As I stated before, concerning any information concerning my observations and their reasonings behind them, I would point you to what I have written previously in this paper. In other words: Ibid.

Ok…the real Conclusion…

The church as we know it is perhaps a generation from extinction if she remains to be huddled in the safety of her walls and not directly engaging the community outside her doors. If this is the case, let me be the first to announce that the church is in fact already dead and this is not surprising if the cross is to be our central symbol. No matter, the community outside those doors of those empty buildings with “For Sale” signs in front of them continues to ebb and flow and have their being. No matter the fate of the church as we know it, I would argue that there is always going to be a McDonalds on the corner somewhere.

We really are at a crossroads are we not? We really are walking down the road with our eyes to the ground in the despair of death. Ironically, the risen Christ desires to meet us there in order that dining can happen, eyes opened, hearts set ablaze, and a new community is transformed with the charge to get back on the road with a new story of feasting transformation. This reverberates not from the cross of death, but from the table of life -not from the church of the “holy huddle” but from the community of the risen Christ – not from the fundamental need to rid the world of McDonalds but from the prophets and professional lovers willing to embrace the needs of the world around them and be agents of change within those paradigms. Again, directly from the holy writings of the Christian narrative: “When they came to Emmaus, he acted as if he was going on ahead. But they urged him, saying, ‘Stay with us. It’s nearly evening, and the day is almost over.’ So, he went in to stay with them. After he took his seat at the table with them, he took the bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to them. Their eyes were opened and they recognized him, but he disappeared from their sight.”

Their eyes were opened and they recognized. Their lives were changed and went with a new story. Their mission was different and they now ran into a new world in order to the ones who would invite all to the celebrational banquet of our Lord where all are invited an there is always room at the table and enough for all to be fed plus more. This is sacramental missiology.

I depart with this narrative written in a sermon from some years ago that perhaps expressed the launching point of this entire theological journey that I have been on for over a decade. It was nothing less than a moving experience and a challenge for a lifetime of theological reflection and practiced ministry…

Having only been married a mere three days, I was still on my best behavior at trying to be a loving husband. Christa and I had checked into our hotel and my lovely spouse looked at me, told me she wanted to take a nap and asked if I would go on a mission for her. Gladly accepting my task at hand, I was soon wandering the streets of San Francisco in search of McDonald’s french fries. And there it was…the “golden arches”. I was about to be the best husband in the world.

As I opened the door to enter, I took note of the homeless man sitting on the curb asking not for a monetary donation but a meal. Ignoring his plea, I took my place in line and scanned to menu. It is moments like this that morality can get on your nerves. I was on vacation and the last thing that I wanted to be on my honeymoon was a pastor! I started to think about the horrific amount of money that we had been spending on plane tickets, hotel stays, gourmet food, tours through the wine country, wedding souvenirs and the rented convertible. All this guy was asking for was a simple meal. I found my conscience getting the best of me so I decided to strike a deal. I would purchase a McDonald’s value meal (a Big Mac, large fries, and a large drink) and tell the McDonald’s employee to pack the fries in a separate bag for Christa. I found that I could be a great husband and a great pastor at the same time! My ego elated, I stepped out of the restaurant to present this man with his meal.

As I handed this man the Big Mac and drink, he looked me in the eyes and asked my name.

“Nicholas. And yours?”

“David. Thanks.”

David got up from where he was sitting and started to walk off. A little startled, I asked him if he was going to eat. He turned and said, “I have a friend who I am going to share this with.” I wept all the way back to the hotel.

In a world where billions and billions are served, we still inhabit a world where there are “haves” and “have nots.” It took David, a “have not” to remind me, a “have”, of the brutal reality that our world faces concerning scarcity, abundance, and distribution. There I was in a position of extraordinary abundance not willing to distribute. There was David armed with a Big Mac and a Coke more than willing to distribute with those in need because of the abundance that hehad been given. I saw the golden arches…I am convinced that David saw the table of Jesus.