Pucker up
A kiss conveys the force of love, and where there is no love, no faith, no affection, what sweetness can there be in kisses? St. Ambrose
What an awesome retreat this past weekend! Those who weren't there missed out on something special (even if you had a really good reason for missing).
So, I've been reading Leonard Sweet's Postmodern Pilgrims and the introduction in particular struck me. He talks about kissing; not PDAWT kissing, but rather the significance of the kiss in Christianity. Sweet indentifies "two great kisses in Christian theology": God's kiss of life in Adam and Christ's "kiss" that breathed the new life of the Holy Spirit into his disciples.
Sweet argues that kissing was adopted as an early Christian practice (possibly from Christ himself) to symbolize the passage of the Spirit. William Klassen agrues that the early believers "saw themselves as 'in Christ.' That new level of reality was being affirmed in the freedom of quite innocently greeting each other with a holy kiss. They risked the slander of those who were outside looking in."
Think about Judas' betrayl of Jesus with a kiss. Others betrayed Jesus (Peter, Thomas), but Judas did so with a kiss. It's doubtful that Jesus needed to be identified; everyone knew who he was. When Paul instructs us to greet each other with a holy kiss, he reminds us that we are all loved by God. Sweet relates:
In Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov there is a tale in which Jesus comes back to earth during the Inquistion and the Grand Inquistor puts him on trial for all of his failures. After the Inquistor makes a full and complete case against Jesus, filled with canny arguments and shrewd charges, it is Jesus' turn.
Jesus' only response is to go over to the grim and menacing attacker and kiss him. No dazzling reasoning, no wonder-working displays. The essence of Christianity lies in this simple but profoud act.
Am I saying that we should go around kissing each other? Not really, I'm not comfortable shaking hands with some people. I'm asking the question: why don't we?
What an awesome retreat this past weekend! Those who weren't there missed out on something special (even if you had a really good reason for missing).
So, I've been reading Leonard Sweet's Postmodern Pilgrims and the introduction in particular struck me. He talks about kissing; not PDAWT kissing, but rather the significance of the kiss in Christianity. Sweet indentifies "two great kisses in Christian theology": God's kiss of life in Adam and Christ's "kiss" that breathed the new life of the Holy Spirit into his disciples.
Sweet argues that kissing was adopted as an early Christian practice (possibly from Christ himself) to symbolize the passage of the Spirit. William Klassen agrues that the early believers "saw themselves as 'in Christ.' That new level of reality was being affirmed in the freedom of quite innocently greeting each other with a holy kiss. They risked the slander of those who were outside looking in."
Think about Judas' betrayl of Jesus with a kiss. Others betrayed Jesus (Peter, Thomas), but Judas did so with a kiss. It's doubtful that Jesus needed to be identified; everyone knew who he was. When Paul instructs us to greet each other with a holy kiss, he reminds us that we are all loved by God. Sweet relates:
In Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov there is a tale in which Jesus comes back to earth during the Inquistion and the Grand Inquistor puts him on trial for all of his failures. After the Inquistor makes a full and complete case against Jesus, filled with canny arguments and shrewd charges, it is Jesus' turn.
Jesus' only response is to go over to the grim and menacing attacker and kiss him. No dazzling reasoning, no wonder-working displays. The essence of Christianity lies in this simple but profoud act.
Am I saying that we should go around kissing each other? Not really, I'm not comfortable shaking hands with some people. I'm asking the question: why don't we?
posted by Michael | 8:49 a.m.
9 Comments:
Haha. PDAWT... golden!
I suspect it's mostly cultural, but what do I know about the culture surrounding early Christians? Not much, let me tell you. People do other things though, some people are wild about shaking hands. Watch for it.
That wasn't really what I wanted to post, though... I wanted to ask, are we allowed to post stuff up here, too? I've got something I wanted to put before the jury. If so, I think you can add peeps to the 'members' section somewhere in the blog's settings...
were aren't going to all start kissing are we?
I find it definitely cultural, especially since it's what is done in the south/central american cultures. Kind of like our smiles, that's not something people do everywhere. But I think the kiss was a sign of humility and respect towards a teacher or something.
So much innocence has been lost in these first ideals of the church, I just do no see the possibility of re-implementing them, unless the church is completely purified and there is a long way to go. Technically in the kingdom of God, we should be able to greet one another with a holy kiss though, if we want to overlap post comments here.
woah.. it's revolutionary
i think, in the culture we live in, with the cognitive narrative that we all have, it would be very difficult to give somebody a holy kiss and have it be meant as a pure and holy kiss, not linked with things other than that of the "holy" variety. i think we'd be kidding ourselves if we thought we could do it. though, hollywood gives those fakey kisses (dahling!!). but that's something completely different. plus, if we were being true and pure, guys would have to kiss guys, and i'm not really about that. but, there are some african cultures where guys hold hands, so, that's interesting eh? anyways, culture does change and meanings of expressions change as well. maybe the handshake is our holy kiss...but it sure doesn't seem the same. i can see the value in it at that time. perhaps more accurately is the hug. i am so down with the hug. my family is a very huggy family. we hug whenever we see eachother, and whenever we leave, from seeing eachother. and then you have Bible school where everybody and there dog got a hug at least 5 times a day. yes, i endorse the holy hug. that is of course if people are comfortable with it. you wouldn't want to hug someone who didn't want to be hugged. maybe the non-huggy people could wear a button that said, "don't hug me" or something.
oh, tommy, feel free to post stuff. this blog needs to be a place where people feel free to post spiritual discussion-type stuff.
I dunno. I find it interesting that so many people (and not just people here) attribute this one to "culture."
So, maybe I am just looking for kisses ;)
(Currently taking a break from preparing a dissection presentation on Dogfish shark)
Interesting topic. I think the "holy kiss" has lost what it once was...and not that that's a bad thing, perhaps it has just morphed into something else, a la the handshake. Although what does a handshake symbolize? To me it's a "Hi there, I'm glad you're here!", not a transferring of the Spirit. Though do I think of kisses the same way? I pretty much think of kisses as "It's so nice to see you, I love you!".
What, if any, symbol do we have today of a transferring of the Holy Spirit? Hmm...better yet...do we need a symbol when we all have the Holy Spirit in us from the time we first believed? I think it would be good to have something symbolize that..not to make it an idol, but to help us remember how important the Spirit is in our lives through Jesus Christ.
Story wihtout much bearing on the conversation: When I was teaching ESL, there was a stunningly beautiful girl freash from El Salavador in the class. At the end of the day I was packing up my books and I noticed a group young men (mostly Korean) sort of lining up in front of her. I was a tad curious and walked over. Turns out she was kissing them all, once on each cheek. They looked at me, a little sheepish, and said, "That's how she says goodbye in her country." What struck me was that so many of them lined up, and for what? Okay: yes to be kissed by a pretty lady. But more then that, I think what they craved was the feeling of of some sort of intimacy (not really sexual imtimacy mind you) and familiarity, of belonging.
Well the culture thing is an easy out, of course. Our first reaction is 'whoa, that would be totally weird, I don't wanna do that!'
...or in Mike's case maybe 'I don't want everybody to know that I wanna do that!'
Heehee. Kidding. But seriously, from position of ignorance it's easy to believe that culture has merely changed around us, and difficult/unpleasant to think that perhaps we have become a less loving church, repressed and cold.
I don't claim to know which one it is, but I suspect the greater likelihood lies with the former, convenient as it may sound.
I don't think it's meant to actually transfer as much as remind of that the Spirit's been kissed into us. It's like communion: a way to remember visually
I think we can have more of the spirit in us definitely, I'm still working out the how in my own life, so good question Kimberly
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