Many crowns?

[Louie Crew <lcrew@andromeda.rutgers.edu>]

Aside from a few queans I know, why would anyone want more than one
crown?
 
The Jesus of Scripture showed not the slighted desire for even one.
 
Yesterday I belted out "Crown him with many crowns" as fervently and
joyfully as I could.  I also sang 'oh what rapture, oh what
rapture."  The songs stayed with me into the night, and trouble me on
waking.
 
Too frequently we Christians impose on Jesus' second coming the same
mistaken grandiose expectations that Israelites imposed on his
first. 
 
In his 1987 Christmas homily at St. James Cathedral, the Bishop of
Chicago shared an experience from the previous summer.  He had spent
a week with his spiritual director in a parish outside his
diocese.   He stayed near the parish and came to the sessions in
jeans, taking a short cut by the river.
 
On the first day, after the session, he had lunch with the homeless
in the parish soup kitchen.   A guy next to him said, "I am Harry. 
Who are you?" 
 
"I am Frank," he replied.  Harry introduced Frank to a couple of
others sitting with them, and they showed Frank where to get some
cobbler.
 
"They're taking me for another homeless person. Should I tell them
who I am?" Frank asked his spiritual director.
 
"Why not just go with 'Frank'?" the director advised.
 
The same thing happened on the second, third and fourth days.  He met
several other homeless by name.  On the fifth and final day, +Frank
felt he should come clean to Mother Superior as he came for cobbler.
 
"Hello, I am +Frank, Bishop of Chicago."
 
"Hello, I am Mother Mary, Frank, Bishop of Chicago.  And when you
finish your cobbler, I'd like it if you would take this bucket and
mop up the mess I've made behind the counter."
 
Perhaps I should boycott public worship on the Sundays designated
"Christ the King" and join Jesus hanging out with Harry, Frank and
Mother Mary.
 
Louie, L1 Newark
Louie Crew, 377 S. Harrison St., 12D, East Orange, NJ 07018
973-395-1068
http://queereye4lectionary.blogspot.com/  Queer Eye for the
Lectionary