Times of Tumult and of Turning
How fitting that the shape of the calendar of American public life means that we our seasons of political transition always start in early Kingdomtide.
In the United States, the first Tuesday in November is fixed as “election day.” As such, it will always fall in early Kingdomtide, indeed, shortly after (or even in!) Hallowstide. So our celebration of the life of Christ in the Church and of his present and coming dominion, is always to be met and balanced with this moment of intensity in our public life and rhythms.
It is important to be circumspect about this civil liturgy. Because our true citizenship is in heaven (Phil 3:20), our participation in national rituals and identities that comprise our public life must remain ambivalent, resisting the urgent imposition of ultimacy hoisted upon us by our especially polarized moment. What an early Christian observed in the Epistle to Diognetus should be true of us as well:
Christians are distinguished from other people neither by country, nor language, nor the customs which they observe. They neither inhabit cities of their own, nor employ a peculiar form of speech, nor lead a life which is marked out by any singularity. The course of conduct which they follow has not been devised by any speculation or deliberation of inquisitive men; nor do they, like some, proclaim themselves the advocates of any merely human doctrines. But, inhabiting Greek as well as barbarian cities, according as the lot of each of them has determined, and following the customs of the natives in respect to clothing, food, and the rest of their ordinary conduct, they display to us their wonderful and confessedly striking method of life. They dwell in their own countries, but simply as sojourners. As citizens, they share in all things with others, and yet endure all things as if foreigners. Every foreign land is to them as their native country, and every land of their birth as a land of strangers.
Elizabeth Wang’s depiction of Christ among us, distinguished by an interior light, not exterior signifiers.
That said, because we truly and fully share in the customs of the land in which we live, and in sympathy and compassion bear the burdens of our neighbors, this moment can potentially a source of major stress and anxiety for some or much of the faithful. But what a fitting season to face this problem! We remember Christ, whose “Kingdom is not of this world” (John 18:36); whose Kingdom is “at hand” regardless of whether or not “our guy (or gal)” ends up in positions of power. The words of Jesus are most useful in this season: “Do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble” (Matt 6:34)!
There are additional prayers not composed for this moment, but that apply especially well — this prayer from Compline, for instance, seems especially appropriate in Election Night:
Be present, O merciful God, and protect us through the hours of this night, so that we who are wearied by the changes and chances of this life may rest in your eternal changelessness; through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Or this prayer, appointed for Proper 26 — incidentally, this Sunday:
Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
Guy Fawkes Night
Corresponding to the election-induced anxieties of this time is Guy Fawkes Night: “Remember, remember, the fifth of November!” Fawkes is famous for his involvement in the famous foiled “Gunpowder Plot” to dynamite Parliament in 1605: a plot hatched in retaliation for anti-Roman Catholic policies enacted by King James. He became ritualized in English folk memory through a national holiday of thanksgiving established shortly afterward in commemoration of this “near miss.”
A simple setting of the traditional Guy Fawkes day poem to sing and strum along!
Celebrated to this day in certain reaches of the Commonwealth, Guy Fawkes night is marked by bonfires, fireworks, and the burning of (countless) effigies of Guy Fawkes … and once in a while, other figures as well. Think, 4th of July with an anti-terrorist tinge — except the terrorists in this case were Catholic rather than Islamic radicals, and the incident was hundreds of years ago. Never forget!
Indeed, the custom of buying these hastily crafted “Guy” dolls by the 19th C caused the word to be expanded to apply to any poorly dressed individual; and soon thereafter lost its negative connotation to refer to … well … “guy” in the sense we use it now, as a slightly masculine, but effectively gender-neutral synonym for “person.” Hey, you guys!
In the mid-19th C, W. H. Ainsworth’s series of Guy Fawkes novels inverted the popular image of this legendary figure: transforming him from a treasonous terrorist to a heroic, romantic, even revolutionary rebel: the “last man to enter parliament with honest intentions.” This adolescent “comic book anarchist” version of Guy Fawkes persists down to the present day, most recently popularized by the 2005 film, “V for Vendetta.” Propelled by that notoriety, Guy Fawkes masks and symbols have lately been appropriated by the hacktivist group Anonymous, and are now recognized as a particular symbol of technoanarchism. Go figure!
