You Can't Renounce Your Belly Button

I'm old enough to remember the TV show, All in the Family (just barely).  The show takes place in a part of the world that I have never been familiar with - a working class neighborhood in the eastern US.  And it dealt largely with issues that I was practically immune to as a kid growing up in a family segregated from the social troubles of the world.  Issues like race and politics, changing gender roles, emerging post modernity, and religion.

That last one seems strange to me now.  Because for as long as I can remember, I have been a purveyor of religion.  My family always went to church...all of us - even dad.  And we were involved.  My parents ushered, and went to meetings.  They brought hot-dish to potlucks and took the youth group on ski trips.  I sang in the youth choir and attended Vacation Bible School.  I got my "First Bible" in 3rd grade and had my first communion when I was 10.  I still have the picture of Jesus that hung on my bedroom wall...the one with all the little kids of various skin colors gathered around Jesus.  (See, at the time I didn't even know that was remarkable.)

I didn't know when I was 6 and 7, watching All in the Family, that its portrayal of religion in America would resonate in my life and career 40 years later.  I didn't know that the swell of social anxiety that has become today's lament, "What's happening to the Church?" was being whispered by the likes of Archie, Edith, Gloria, and Meat Head (aka, Mike).

There was one episode that I still go back to.  You can watch it on YouTube here.  It's the one where Archie argues with Mike, (his liberal, godless, never good enough for his daughter, son-in-law) about getting the new grandchild, Joey, baptized.  Archie is adamant that the child's parents should get off their hippie butts and have Joey baptized.  It's the thing to do.  Joey needs religion just like everyone else…even if Archie himself hasn't darkened the door of the church probably since his own daughter's baptism.  (I think I remember that Gloria and Mike eloped.)

The conflict is set up when Archie insists that Joey needs God because he needs to belong to something – to a people.  Meat Head declares that he renounced his own baptism years ago, and Archie retorts, "Go renounce your belly button...You still got it!"

In the end, Archie decides to baptize Joey himself, because even the priest at the church insists on inquiring of the child’s parents about their own wishes.  The priest acts in exactly the same way I would (and have) were I in that position.

But Archie is a rebel out of his time and portrays a wisdom that transcends the conventions of societal norms.  When Archie secretly baptizes Joey he conveys a truth of sacramental theology - that it matters not one iota what we say or do, or think or believe...but that God's grace is a pure and holy gift from God and God alone.

Recently someone shared with me a concern that people at church who are not “true believers” were receiving communion.  Don’t they have to understand?  Aren't they being hypocrites?  What does it say about us that we let them come to communion?

To this concern I respond with some questions of my own.  Who among us understands and is a loyal believer in the mysteries of God?  Is there a certain age at which one attains this understanding?  Does a certain sincerity of prayer guarantee status as true believer?

In truth, none of this matters.  Because, as Archie (misguided as he was about religion and so many other things) knew, Communion – like Baptism – is a one way road from God to us.  God gives.  We receive.  And the result – the blessing – is that we belong to God…not that we are card carrying Christians in good standing – but that we are beloved members of God’s family.

If someone less intelligent than I comes to receive this gift from God, should I withhold it?  If a child, still unable to speak in full sentences, holds out a hand, should I deny the morsel of bread that is holy?  If one who questions the existence of God or the fathoms of universal truths appears (for whatever reason – even to appease her religiously principled mother) at the table where Jesus Christ is the host, should I decide that this one is not beloved by God?

What does it say about us that we let these, and all people, come and receive the gift of God?  I am certain that it says we are part of one family in God.  And that is as true as the belly button on each of us.