Of religion and spirit
22/04/16 05:17
Here is a fragment of a sermon I doubt that I’ll ever preach:
When you say that you are spiritual, but not religious, I have listened carefully and tried hard to understand what you mean. Quite frankly the not religious part is pretty easy to discern. You don’t participate in a formal religious group. You don’t attend church regularly. You don’t have a discernible spiritual discipline. You don’t aspire to a particular creed or doctrine. Your criticism of religious institutions is familiar to those of us who are a part of religion. You are quick to point out cases of corruption and abuse perpetrated by church leaders. You can cite occasions in history when the church has, through political manipulations or through silence, perpetrated violence. You point out how religious fanaticism and fundamentalism have led to violence. These criticisms are not new to us. We understand them. In fact, we in the church are very good at self-criticism. We have a history filled with divisions and reforms and differences in institutional policy. We have been frustrated with the institutional church. We get your criticism of institutional religion.
What is less clear, looking in from the outside, is your claim to being spiritual. Of course all human beings are spiritual by nature. Without imposing our theology on you, we believe that every human being is born of God and loved by God. We have discovered, however, that nurturing the spirit is not something that occurs randomly in the midst of a busy life, but rather something that grows with attention and practice. Spirituality is not, primarily, a set of beliefs or a certain kind of intellectual assent. But we know that much of the interiority of a person is not visible to those who are looking in from the outside and we are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
We have a closely held theological concept that is called incarnation. You’ve heard us speak of it because you’ve allowed yourself to be dragged to church at Christmas time. Being one who attends at Christmas, however, you may believe that we apply this principle only to Jesus of Nazareth, who was God in human form. What you might not know is that we see God’s presence in every person. We see God’s presence in you. You, too, are the divine in a human body. Our question for you is this: Will you become totally embodied? Will you open yourself to fully experience grief? Will you risk loving enough to have your heart broken? Are you willing to be fully alive? Will you show up and be physically present?
We don’t know the answers to these questions because from our point of view it appears that you are constantly in motion - defined by doing rather than by being. You fill every awake moment with activity and impose that level of activity upon your children as well. We’ve seen you run from event to event and activity to activity. We are aware that your time is consumed to the fullest, that you are short of sleep, that you are involved in so many activities. We don’t always understand why you drive your 10-year-old thousands of miles to participate in an interstate hockey league. We don’t always understand why your teen’s soccer became such a priority that you invest two out of every three weekends supporting that passion. But we know that you are constantly in motion and that you have structured your life to be as void of free time as possible.
You see, from our point of view, you appear to be religious. Your religion is not a conventional one. It is sports or work or a particular recreational activity, but you are willing to dedicate a huge portion of your life to that activity. It does confuse us. You say that you are spiritual but not religious, but it appears from the outside that you are religious, but not spiritual.
So I will tell you something about our religious practice that you probably already know at some level. We take that whole incarnation theology very seriously. Not only do we see the divine embodied in human form so much that we seek to encourage everyone to be aware of that embodiment, we also believe in the form of embodiment that takes place in groups. You know the word: corporation. It comes from the Latin word for body, corpus. A corporation is a body. It is a group of people sharing a common task. You’ve experienced this in your work and in many of the recreational activities you pursue. You enjoy being a part of a group with similar goals and interests. It isn’t just your children’s sports that you enjoy. You also enjoy the culture of other parents who pursue the same goals and interests.
We believe in the concept of incarnation so much that we have come to the conclusion that there is more to life than a single individual. The spiritual is embodied not only in individuals, but also in groups of people. We call them congregations. For us a creed is not some document that every individual has to endorse, but rather a statement of faith that is so expansive that it takes all of us to embody such a belief. It is more than we could believe on our own. It is what we believe together. Just inhabiting the world is insufficient. We feel called to display a willingness to be found by the world we inhabit.
We gather with others not because we feel some kind of superiority over those who do not, but because we have discovered that being spiritual requires practice. Some things are not easy the first time you try. Being quiet is a challenge. Our minds try to wander the first time we try to be fully present. We feel disconnected in the early stages of attempting to experience the spirituality of the group. The prayers and songs that connect us with the flow of history - with generations past and future - have to be repeated again and again.
Still, we have not connected well with you. We need more practice at that task. So we will listen more carefully. We will observe more closely. We will speak less often and open ourselves to you. We know you are right. You are spiritual. The spirit does occupy your body. We hope you will help us discover who you really are.
When you say that you are spiritual, but not religious, I have listened carefully and tried hard to understand what you mean. Quite frankly the not religious part is pretty easy to discern. You don’t participate in a formal religious group. You don’t attend church regularly. You don’t have a discernible spiritual discipline. You don’t aspire to a particular creed or doctrine. Your criticism of religious institutions is familiar to those of us who are a part of religion. You are quick to point out cases of corruption and abuse perpetrated by church leaders. You can cite occasions in history when the church has, through political manipulations or through silence, perpetrated violence. You point out how religious fanaticism and fundamentalism have led to violence. These criticisms are not new to us. We understand them. In fact, we in the church are very good at self-criticism. We have a history filled with divisions and reforms and differences in institutional policy. We have been frustrated with the institutional church. We get your criticism of institutional religion.
What is less clear, looking in from the outside, is your claim to being spiritual. Of course all human beings are spiritual by nature. Without imposing our theology on you, we believe that every human being is born of God and loved by God. We have discovered, however, that nurturing the spirit is not something that occurs randomly in the midst of a busy life, but rather something that grows with attention and practice. Spirituality is not, primarily, a set of beliefs or a certain kind of intellectual assent. But we know that much of the interiority of a person is not visible to those who are looking in from the outside and we are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.
We have a closely held theological concept that is called incarnation. You’ve heard us speak of it because you’ve allowed yourself to be dragged to church at Christmas time. Being one who attends at Christmas, however, you may believe that we apply this principle only to Jesus of Nazareth, who was God in human form. What you might not know is that we see God’s presence in every person. We see God’s presence in you. You, too, are the divine in a human body. Our question for you is this: Will you become totally embodied? Will you open yourself to fully experience grief? Will you risk loving enough to have your heart broken? Are you willing to be fully alive? Will you show up and be physically present?
We don’t know the answers to these questions because from our point of view it appears that you are constantly in motion - defined by doing rather than by being. You fill every awake moment with activity and impose that level of activity upon your children as well. We’ve seen you run from event to event and activity to activity. We are aware that your time is consumed to the fullest, that you are short of sleep, that you are involved in so many activities. We don’t always understand why you drive your 10-year-old thousands of miles to participate in an interstate hockey league. We don’t always understand why your teen’s soccer became such a priority that you invest two out of every three weekends supporting that passion. But we know that you are constantly in motion and that you have structured your life to be as void of free time as possible.
You see, from our point of view, you appear to be religious. Your religion is not a conventional one. It is sports or work or a particular recreational activity, but you are willing to dedicate a huge portion of your life to that activity. It does confuse us. You say that you are spiritual but not religious, but it appears from the outside that you are religious, but not spiritual.
So I will tell you something about our religious practice that you probably already know at some level. We take that whole incarnation theology very seriously. Not only do we see the divine embodied in human form so much that we seek to encourage everyone to be aware of that embodiment, we also believe in the form of embodiment that takes place in groups. You know the word: corporation. It comes from the Latin word for body, corpus. A corporation is a body. It is a group of people sharing a common task. You’ve experienced this in your work and in many of the recreational activities you pursue. You enjoy being a part of a group with similar goals and interests. It isn’t just your children’s sports that you enjoy. You also enjoy the culture of other parents who pursue the same goals and interests.
We believe in the concept of incarnation so much that we have come to the conclusion that there is more to life than a single individual. The spiritual is embodied not only in individuals, but also in groups of people. We call them congregations. For us a creed is not some document that every individual has to endorse, but rather a statement of faith that is so expansive that it takes all of us to embody such a belief. It is more than we could believe on our own. It is what we believe together. Just inhabiting the world is insufficient. We feel called to display a willingness to be found by the world we inhabit.
We gather with others not because we feel some kind of superiority over those who do not, but because we have discovered that being spiritual requires practice. Some things are not easy the first time you try. Being quiet is a challenge. Our minds try to wander the first time we try to be fully present. We feel disconnected in the early stages of attempting to experience the spirituality of the group. The prayers and songs that connect us with the flow of history - with generations past and future - have to be repeated again and again.
Still, we have not connected well with you. We need more practice at that task. So we will listen more carefully. We will observe more closely. We will speak less often and open ourselves to you. We know you are right. You are spiritual. The spirit does occupy your body. We hope you will help us discover who you really are.