Blink
Don't Fret Imaginary Dangers
The modern run of Doctor Who has introduced a few new “baddies,” but the most terrifying creatures of the entire Doctor Who universe were first introduced in the 2007 episode entitled Blink. The weeping angels appear to be stone statues of angels. We learn the angels can only move in complete darkness or when you blink. In other words, they can only move when unseen. As they close in, the angels become more and more grotesque and frightening looking. The weeping angels can move through any medium that allows vision. They can come through monitors, cameras, and other electronic devices. But when they arrive, they can move quickly toward the person who is in darkness or blinks. When the angels touch you, they feed upon the temporal pain caused as they push you into another time and place. The angels induce fear and anxiety as they close in, which causes victims to blink more frequently through fear. The weeping angels are, of course, fictional; but they are frightening none the less.
I believe that the gatekeepers in our denominations act as if the weeping angels are at their gates. This is because of the amount of angst filled language and warnings. They are afraid to blink lest they lose control, or more frightening, let someone through their gates that they wish to exclude. The work of gatekeeping is exhausting and so the gatekeepers attempt to enroll others to become gatekeepers by warning of the dangers of blinking. Blink, and those people might get in; blink and you might find yourself losing cultural control; blink and your political team may lose; blink and you lose everything.
But all that warning of blinking is based upon something that is no more real than the weeping angels. While the warnings can bring fear, just like a fictional TV episode, there is no real danger of harm or even the fears of the gatekeepers. Although there is one danger that the gatekeepers have missed when they blink; that is the danger of being found out. The more dire predictions become, the more urgent the warnings, the easier for the person who examines these claims closely to discover that there are no weeping angels creeping up on the gates. In fact, the very gates of the gatekeepers become known as false gates as they are impediments for people to find the true gate who is Jesus the Christ. I might think back to the idea that Jesus is the gate who needs no keepers. Purveyors of fear do not want people to see the falsity of their gates or of the absence of the dangers they say are creeping up on them and the church.
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The gatekeepers use the myth of scarcity to prop up their own control and feed on the fears of others. They tell us that if they blink, someone may get through who takes the place of someone who is more deserving of going through the gate. They see the way to Jesus as a limited resource. If they blink, less of Jesus’ grace is available to those who are worthy of crossing through the gates of the gatekeepers. However, Jesus’ grace, as a reflection of God, knows no bounds. There is no peak grace, because grace is unlimited. God does not mete out grace within a framework of the market economy; grace flows freely from the God who is with us, luring us toward a transformative relationship.
Blink and the via media tension are more acceptable than the bounded and restrictive desires of the gatekeepers. Like grace, the tension of via media frightens the gatekeepers because they need fixed and definite boundaries to guard. If they blink and take their eye off of those boundaries, the boundaries may shift and become more broad, or even worse, people may see how much better it is to be centered rather than bounded. The urge to blink must be incredibly frustrating.
Blinking will not lead to disaster regardless of the claims of gatekeepers. Instead, I hope you feel free to blink and relax. There are no weeping angels sneaking up on you or your church. Find the beauty of living in the tension of via media which is not a simple walk down the middle, but a way to find the tension of existing outside the fears of extremes. Weeping angels are good for creating an anxious fear when watching a television episode, but they do not exist in the real world. The perceived dangers the gatekeepers warn of are not typically real, either. Find peace in the tension where there is no need to prevent ourselves from blinking.