Proper

I recently worshiped with some Episcopalian friends. There's an unfamiliar solemnity to me about the Episcopalian tradition, and this was particularly evident when we had communion.  Or, perhaps more formally in this circumstance, I should say when we celebrated the Eucharist. Partook in the Lord's Supper. Whatever language you use, this felt like a significant occasion.

I was reminded of this when I was standing in line, waiting to get my sip of wine, when I heard a quick exchange between two people behind me.

"I'm going to take communion by intinction," the one man said. Sure enough, he was still holding his tiny piece of bread, waiting to dip it in the cup of wine we were all sharing.  

"You can't do that," indignantly replied the other man, "It's not proper!"

I was glad after hearing that to feel free to take communion in a variety of settings, whether it is reverently with tiny wafers and cups of grape juice, or with gold fish crackers on a hillside.  Being proper seemed like an Episcopalian concern.  I was beyond that kind of overblown seriousness.

But as I thought about it more, I knew how often I try to be proper, just in my own ways.  I want to earn respect, especially in the church.  I wear black blazers that go against my colorful personality and more than anything I try to tame my wild curly hair.  I try to enter great giant sanctuaries with a piety beyond my own.

When we get so caught up in trying to be proper, many times we're just trying to pay proper tribute to a great, majestic God.  We are the subjects entering before the throne of the the most High God.  Why wouldn't we want to know the proper protocol?

God is proper.  But God is also on the loose.  Through the anger of Jesus crashing through the temple, through the Spirit hovering over the chaotic waters of the deep.  God is a dead man walking.  God is the dancing of mountains and the applause of thunder.  

We can respond to that in quiet ways, in familiar rituals.  But it makes sense that occasionally we would open ourselves in bold and dramatic ways.  Communion that isn't just wonder bread, but hearty grains and loosening alcohol.  Church clothes that reflect the creativity of the person instead of societal pressures to look put together at all points in time.  Laughter in a sanctuary.      

It would only be proper.