NOT MCDONALDS HERE
Author: Fr. Michael Byron
May 22, 2021
A few days ago I was watching
the National evening news on TV and there was a reporter delivering a story
from China. Perhaps it is significant
that I don’t even remember what the story was about, because I was fixated on
the visual image on the screen. The
reporter was standing on a busy city street, and there in the background was a
McDonald’s. That image had nothing to
do with what he was reporting about, but there over his shoulder were The Golden
Arches. Think about the fact that right
now I didn’t have to explain to you what the word “McDonald’s” means. Everybody knows what it means – not just here
in Minnesota, but in Asia and Australia and the ends of the earth.
It has long been known that
one of the biggest keys to the success of McDonald’s is its branding. The stores all have a very recognizable
common look no matter where you are. And more importantly, with very few exceptions,
the food is the same on every continent, country and town. It may not be the finest dining experience to
be had, but that’s not the point of McDonald’s restaurants. The point is that
people everywhere know what they are going to find when they walk into a franchise
– what will be on the menu, how it’s going to taste, and about how much it’s likely
to cost. McDonald’s genius is in its
same-ness. People don’t expect to be
surprised by an eating experience there, and for the most part they aren’t. The food is decent enough; the price is okay;
and you’ll have roughly the same experience in Beijing or Houston or Nairobi.
Often people are happy to trade
quality for predictability. I always
remember the time that I was in Vienna, Austria when I was in college. After a
few days I was looking for something familiar to eat, rather than the local
European cuisine and I happened across a McDonald’s. I was so proud of the German phrases that I
had learned that I sidled up to the counter and placed an order for a “Viertal
Pfunder mith Quese and Parme Frites.” The person taking my request asked me very blandly – and in English – “Do
you want that a large or small fries?” I was appropriately humbled – or humiliated – but at least I knew what I
was getting into. That was definitely
not the case with many of the local restaurants there even the really excellent
ones.
Sometimes it’s just
comforting to know what to expect. That
seems to be human nature. But as today’s celebration of Pentecost reminds us,
it’s not the Christian Nature. To be commissioned
by Jesus for mission, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to engage the task is
not the same thing as to know what that responsibility means or demands either
now or in the future. In baptism,
confirmation and Eucharist, we Christians sign on for a commitment, not for a
plan. I haven’t any idea what faith will
require of me in a year from now, or 20 and you don’t either, and if we think
otherwise, then we don’t understand Pentecost. And we can do a lot of damage to ourselves and to others when we mistake
the Holy Spirit’s gifts for a predetermined program. It’s always been this way.
When the Acts of the Apostles
records the outpouring of the Spirit upon the founders of The first Christian churches
it does not describe their reaction with works like “satisfied” or “serene” or “ho
hum.” Instead it uses the words “confused” and “astounded” and “amazed.” Even though Jesus promised the arrival of the
Holy Spirit just before he died, his followers didn’t really have a clue what Pentecost
would be and mean. And when it happened
they were disoriented, not calm. Can we
still say the same for the church today? Or do we presume to know just a little too much about how God always has
and must operate in the world and in our own lives and communities? How can it
be that many people associate the word “church” with “boring”? That’s the opposite of the Holy Spirit, of
high adventure, of risk-taking and sometimes even danger.
In today’s gospel of John,
Jesus extends his blessing of peace to his disciples, as well has his command
that they be sent out to the work of building up God’s reign. But he doesn’t tell them exactly what that is
going to look like or what is will call out or us/them. And in fact, back the 1st Century
the mission wasn’t just the same in Galilee as is was in Mesopotamia, Judea,
Asia and Cappadocia. Nor is it today the
same in Minnesota as it is in India or Israel or Afghanistan. The reason that those early followers of
Christ were so bewildered by the arrival of the Holy Spirit is that their
presumption had been either that they were the only ones who would have
received that gift or the anybody else would speak and behave just like them.
Today we have a word for that
kind of disposition; it’s called Tribalism. Catholic Christian faith is the opposite of tribalism. It is the welcoming and thanksgiving for anywhere
and everywhere that God’s Spirit moves in surprising and unexpected ways. In the Acts of the Apostles, the response to
realizing that the gifts of God are greater and more generously shared that we
thought possible…was joy and welcome. So
why today can that reaction be harsh judgment, cruelty and exclusion? We live in an often deeply divided church and
world and the Summons of Pentecost is to name that and to resist it, not to
contribute to it even more deeply.
The church that the Holy
Spirit founded on Pentecost is not a version of McDonald’s, where everybody is
or must be the same across time and space and culture in order to truly
belong. The local church is not a
franchise of corporate center. We follow
the same God and acknowledge the same Lord and Savior, but that is not to say
that we all serve up the same, predicable menu regardless of who and where we
are or what is happening outside our door. The real God is not quite that boring, predictable or indifferent to the
lives of real people which makes it our responsibility on this Pentecost day to
ask out loud and together, for whom and where and how are we needed to be Christ
bearers now, today? What stagnant ways
of believing and behaving must be called out as merely personal preference
rather that gospel and therefore must be left behind? Is there risk in all that? Is there a bit of confusion and
amazement? You bet there is.
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