rich’s blog

Another in a series that asks what Christianity has to say things going on in the world.  All these messages are posted online at www.srbc.info, if you happen to be a listener and not a reader.  Peace with us all. rh

Christianity & Spirituality: Opportunity Knocking

 

Preface:

So last week we talked about postmodernity, postmodernism, which is the label given to the grab-bag of ideas and presumptions and values that shape the way our society currently thinks about how the world works.  A simple example would be the way postmodern people don’t believe science and rationality will solve all the world’s problems, right. We explored some ways that postmodernism differed from what came before it, and talked about the ways we Christians can interact with a postmodern world.  And honestly, it was a pretty big thing to condense into a tiny chunk of time; I gave it a shot, but it might have been confusing.  So if you’re interested in discussing it more, let me know and we can chat and I can direct you to a number of resources. 

 

That message was another in the series we’re rolling with, that’s exploring what Christianity has to say about things that we all care about: Sex, Money, the meaning of life.  Today, we’re talking about something else: Spirituality.  It’s a loaded term, and much of what we discussed last week stands behind this week’s discussion, though we won’t reference much directly.  Now, Christianity has a lot to say about “spirituality”–but before we look at what we have to say, let’s pray. 

 

Prayer:

Father; thank you for your Spirit, who guides us into all truth.  Spirit well up inside us–and shut me down if I guide us away from truth.  Receive my words as an offering; honor the fact that we’ve come together here again.  Use this time for your purposes; and let our purposes align with yours.  In Jesus’ name we pray.  Amen. 

 

Introduction:

So Spirituality.  Loaded term, right?  I mean what does “spirituality” mean?  How many of you have met someone whose let you know that they’re very “spiritual”…just not “religious?”  This is a common sentiment; I’ve run into it over and over and over again.  Oh you’re a Christian?  I’m not really all that religious; I consider myself spiritual.  

 

Religion=Evil:

Religion should be just a label, a word that help us talk about organizing the beliefs and practices that a particular faith has.  Right?  A word that helps us summarize the way a faith takes shape and form and organizes itself.  But today “religion” isn’t just a word; it’s a bad word, an immoral word.  

 

Our postmodern society has realized how many really nasty things have happened in the name of one religion or another, and people have generally given up on religion because of it.  Fewer and fewer people believe religion can answer the deep questions of life; instead, religion seems to take life, and bind life, and shrink it until life isn’t worth living.  It dominates people, and isn’t so much a system of organizing and expressing faith as it is a system of domination over people.   

 

And this sort of attitude makes it a little tricky for us to talk about about what Christianity has to say to the world, right? 

 

Spirituality=Great!

But spirituality–that’s totally different from religion.  Spirituality is relevant and beneficial.  Nearly everyone I meet (and talk to about this sort of stuff, right?) claims to be spiritual; claims to care about their souls, and to believe that life is more than the material, physical world around them that they can see and taste and touch.  People all over America claim to have beliefs about life and how it works, claim that they are guided by their beliefs.  Oprah is the spiritual director of a million people’s souls.  

 

Spirituality is “religion’s” contemporary replacement.  Does that makes sense?  Religion has been replaced, it’s been re-made in the image of the world around us.  And the world around has created a pretty interesting thing.  

 

This morning, we’re going to look at popular “spirituality,” what Christianity has to say about it, and one way we can engage well with people when it comes to spiritual stuff.  

 

So we’ll start by making some big fat generalities (I’m asking for trouble, here, right?) about current popular spirituality.  Is that alright?  If we look at some attributes that the current spiritual interest has.  Want to? Let’s go!  (Now, I’m not commenting on the morality of any of these spiritual claims that our society is making.  I’m just sharing them.  We’ll talk about what Christianity has to say about them in a bit.)

 

Attribute One: “Genuine, grade-A interest”

Contemporary Spiritual Interest is genuine; they aren’t faking. People around us desire a “word from on high.”  Interest in magic, interest in UFOs, in supernatural stuff–this is genuine interest borne out of a genuine desire for wisdom and insight into what it means to be alive.  People are realizing that humans don’t have all the answers–that answers may very well be “out there,” which means we have to go “out there” to find them.  

 

We’ll talk about what Christianity has to say about this soon, but first let’s look at another characteristic of the current spiritual scene. 

 

Attribute Two: “For the money, you can’t beat a buffet!” 

Contemporary Spirituality, postmodern American spirituality–is less concerned about plugging into an already existing system of belief than it is grabbing bits and pieces that are spiritually interesting from all sorts of places, in order to satisfy a person’s own desires and needs.  The spiritual life is basically buffet-oriented, right?  As long as we leave full, who cares what we’ve really eaten.  So it’s perfectly reasonable to have a person who is mostly Buddhist, but prays the Rosary and works with Tarot cards.  

 

Imagine having 12 different puzzles, and taking a handful of pieces from each of them, and making them fit somehow–maybe you trim a little here, add a little there, throw away what doesn’t work–so that you can get them to fit together okay.  You may not even care that they fit together all that well; you may not even care that the picture you’ve created makes sense to anyone but you. What matters is figuring out something that works with whatever pieces you think are helpful 

 

Our Buddhist-Catholic-Pagan friend is incredibly “spiritual,” genuinely concerned with his or her inner life, and works to figure out a way to live a spiritually full life; but, doesn’t care at all what you think–or what some institutionalized religious system, like Christianity–thinks about the way the picture that they’ve pieced together looks.  They like the picture; they’re doing okay with it, and that’s good enough for them.

 

We’ll talk about what Christianity has to say about this soon. But let’s look at another attribute of America’s contemporary spiritual interest.

 

Attribute Three: “You’re not the boss of me.” 

Another quality about contemporary spiritual interest–which I’ve already mentioned, but fits here–is that it is anti-institutional and explicitly suspicious of Christianity, especially European and American versions of Christianity.  This isn’t random–it’s because of the hard things done in the name of religion–but it’s also because of this postmodern belief that no one story is large enough to include every single person, that no narrative exists that every unique, important person can fit into.   The only story that’s large enough is the one I create for myself, the one I write about myself.  So there is this personal investment in the whole spiritual development process, right?  A person who claims to be spiritual–if they aren’t just blowing you off so they can end the conversation about Jesus that they know you’re trying to get started–feels a lot of personal responsibility to take care of their spiritual selves.  

 

Christianity has a lot to say about this: and we’ll talk about it in a little bit.  But let’s look at another quality popular spirituality has. 

 

Attribute Four: “The intangibles of life”

Contemporary Spiritual Interest emphasizes spirituality as emotional and intangible.  It emphasizes achieving sort of “states of emotional experience” that help carry people through the hard times of life, help them handle stress better, help make them friendlier people and win favor with others.  This highlights something else, which is that…

 

Attribute Five: “Therapy”

…Contemporary Spirituality has a hugely therapeutic interest.  It is largely interested in self-healing, self-care, self-everything.  (Now, let me say: I haven’t met a Christian who couldn’t use a little biblically-informed therapy, alright? We’re fools if we think we’ve got it all together–I guess that’s a prejudice, but it’s mine.  So I’m not dismissing therapy.) 

 

But much of the spiritual emphases in our culture emphasize “self-actualization”–are you familiar with that term?  It’s the drive to be all you can be, to realize your dreams and hopes, and be true to what’s most true about yourself.  To “live your best life now,” and “become a better you” is what’s important.–So spirituality becomes about personal transformation for your own self’s sake–and unfortunately, it also becomes an exercise for those people who have the resources–time, treasure, opportunities–to engage in the practices of spirituality.  

 

And in many ways, this therapeutic concern could be generalized into a desire for control.  To be in control of my interior life–my emotions, my experiences, my choices, and my thoughts–is critical.  Spiritual practices and behaviors exist to help people gain control over their lives in every way.  Which highlights how…

 

Attributes:  “Practice makes me perfect.” 

…this sort of spiritual interest is characterized by all sorts of habits, and practices, and exercises that are drawn from all over the place, that are brought together in order to help people achieve the spiritual goals they’ve decided are important to achieve.  Fasting from certain things, exercising in certain ways, praying certain prayers–spirituality in America explores behaviors as ways to achieve inner peace and all the other goals of the spiritual life.  

 

And because of this concern to engage in practices–even though there is such an emphasis on personal development, personal needs, and intangible states of emotion–spirituality in our society often, oddly enough, results in careful living and engagement in social concerns and social action.

 

Christianity has a lot to say about all this stuff!  So much; and we’ll look at it soon.  In fact, let’s look at it right now.  And let’s start with something really basic. 

 

Really Basic: 

What we need to know, and own, and communicate really well, because it’s really basic, but really important for us to claim in our current context, is that Christianity has always, always claimed to be incredibly spiritual.  Whatever else we have to say about the “spirituality” going on around us and all it catches up inside itself, the first thing we want to own is that Christianity is spiritual. Our faith has always cared about the interior life, always cared about inner change, emotional well-being, soul-care, and becoming what we are meant to be.  We’ve got to say that; but we’ve got other things to say, too. 

 

What we have to say: 

Our Christianity affirms the genuine interest those around us have in spiritual things, in attending to the spiritual parts of themselves.  We say to people “Yes, you were created with a spiritual life; with an inner life, and a soul that longs to be fully alive and fully expressive.  You were made to seek “wisdom from on high,” made to fulfill your potential and have your life transformed from the inside out.  This is good stuff.  And yes, “religion” has done some horrible things in its own name; Christianity has failed its  own ideals.”  And yes, “we do need a picture, a story that engages us and provides us with meaning and personal responsibility is so important; we must each of us engage with the spiritual reality of who we are as people.”  These things are true and good to declare. 

 

The story you piece together is too small…even for you: 

But the picture of the world you have pieced together out of bits of spiritual insight from all over the place?  It’s simply not large enough.  It’s too small even for you.  You strive to piece together on your own strength a picture big enough to provide meaning for your small perspective; but there is a picture already made–a story large enough–that will give you access to not just more wisdom, so that you can get more of what you want–but will demand that you give access to your soul to its transformative power.   

 

Spiritual formation has a goal…and it’s beyond you:

Christianity says that there is a story that is true, that is larger than all of us, that tells us we aren’t supposed to simply attend to the spiritual parts of who we are, transform into more emotionally stable versions of ourselves, but we are supposed to transform into someone else, from the inside out.  We are supposed to become like Jesus; and in our becoming like Jesus, we find out who we truly are, we find out what we are supposed to do with ourselves, find out what is most fulfilling and perfect for us.  We aren’t to self-actualize, so much as Christ-actualize, realize Christ’s goals for us, and in so doing become who we were meant to be.  

 

Spiritual concerns are relational, not intangible:

Christianity says that being spiritual is about more than personal transformation, more than transformational–it is relational.  The deepest thing about the interior life are not bits of intangible emotion and thought and concern–though those are there.  But below these things there is a person, an agent, who touches that spiritual, inner part of our souls, and guides us, and counsels us, and comforts us and joins with us–the Holy Spirit, the God who is Spirit–who gives us the power to not simply fulfill our dreams, but dream bigger than we could make up in a thousand times. You work to meet and master your emotions, to channel your experiences into positive energy, but your perspective is too small because you haven’t chosen to deal with the creator of emotions and the maker of positive energy.  

 

And we say that we know who God is, and have been met lovingly by God and we are God’s people.  This is claim that can’t be too softened, can’t be too nuanced. 

 

Practices are good and for everyone:

Christianity says that practices are good; the meditation, the prayer, the reflection and fasting and all these things are good; but they too are misguided because they are not aimed toward this Spirit who is real, but aimed toward ourselves, or worse, lesser manipulative, self-serving spiritual beings who don’t care about your good, but care about their own.  But we also say that the Spirit behind Christian Spirituality is given not just to one or two special spiritual masters but to everyone who chooses to join into God’s people, and the practices we do, the habits we develop, are done along with this Spirit–our fasting, our praying, our giving, our singing, all our deeds.  We are all called to them, not just a special few. 

 

We say that we have not escaped pain or escaped suffering through our Christian Spirituality.  Spirituality for us is not mastering the self, not gaining control over all things that go on around us, ensuring our emotional peace and our emotional well-being–but rather, spirituality is a sustained effort at giving up control over all things, giving up control not to intangible emotions, but to personal love that will see us through all things.  And we have been sustained through all things, and our hope is strong, and when it is weak we have others to carry us because we are not alone.  And we will never be alone; because while your spiritual interest and mastery of your emotions may last for your whole life; ours will last beyond it.  

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  

We say this, with Paul, one of our spiritual teachers,  knowing that the one who raised Jesus from the dead will raise our bodies as well.  Our spirituality starts in our souls, like society’s spirituality; but it ends in us standing upright, on our feet, on the other side of death, and is wholly concerned with the bodies we have right now being what they were always meant to be, and this stands in contrast to almost every hope of the “spiritual” concerns of those who are around us. 

 

Should we share this? 

But if this is what Christianity has to say about the “spiritual interest” that’s going on around us, how can we share it well?  Should we bother?  I think we should, of course; I think we’re called to.  And I think the passage that was read to us earlier can give us insight into how we can take the opportunity we have to engage with the spiritual interest all around us.  

 

The Texts: Acts 17:16-34:

 

While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the marketplace day by day with those who happened to be there. A group of Epicurean and Stoic philosophers began to dispute with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others remarked, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection. Then they took him and brought him to a meeting of the Areopagus, where they said to him, “May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting? You are bringing some strange ideas to our ears, and we want to know what they mean.” (All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas.)

 

So Paul is here in Athens.  Athens was to Philosophy what Wall Street is to Stocks, right?  A place where people just want to talk and discuss and seemingly don’t care all that much about landing somewhere

 

Paul starts with Jews and the Gentiles who hang around them; and then these Epicurians and Stoics show up–and it’s worth noting that they were sort of philosophical competitors.  They didn’t agree with each other; they didn’t agree with Paul…but they like to talk about things.  And Paul is being vocal, right? He’s not mincing his words, not hiding from what he has to share: but because people love talking about things, they invite him to Areopagus–they give him a venue to share “this new teaching” with them.  And not any venue, but the Athens venue, right?  This is like inviting Paul to speak in the Horseshoe at OSU.  This is great. 

 

So we see a bunch of people who disagree with each other but love to talk about philosophical ideas, inviting Paul to speak to them, letting them hear him out.  He has gone to a place to be there, and to engage these people, and they have pulled them into their place, right? 

 

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “Men of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you.

 

And Paul Goes!  He is invited, and he goes.  And he has spent time wondering around their town, he’s engaged with their world, and he’s found an in, right?  An in.  The Athenians are so interested in religion that they’ve covered their bases; they don’t want to offend some sort of God, or miss a chance on a blessing.  They’re arms are wide open, right?  Just in case.  And Paul says, look, you seem interested in this stuff, I’m going to set you straight.  But he does it well.  He does it incredibly well.  Let’s read.

 

“The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘We are his offspring.’

 

Paul begins by at the start of the story of creation, a story big enough for everything.  He attends to their religious expression–the temples, the acts of service–this is all stuff that made up their religious lives, their spiritual lives.  (Do I need to tie this situation Paul’s speaking into, to our current situation more explicitly?) Paul is saying here, “Look, you’re wrong; but you’re close.  Your close; let me share with you how close you are–I’ll even use language you’re familiar with, I’ll quote your sources of wisdom and insight.  And if any of us has ever listened to anything on the radio or watched anything on tv then we have access to a thousand of our society’s poets, and can quote any number of insightful things that are not “Christian” but are ways to connect our faith with our society’s spiritual understanding.  And Paul continues, bringing he and his audience together in this shared thing they have as “God’s offspring.”  He says, 

 

“Therefore since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone—an image made by man’s design and skill. In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead.”

 

I love this, because Paul is brilliant here.  He aligns himself and his audience together, he continues to address the way they express their spiritual interest, their convictions, but he is very frank about how they are misguided, and what is required of them, and what they as humans should be thinking about–judgment, and resurrection–which was as weird then as it is now, as odd a belief then as it is now.  And

 

When they heard about the resurrection of the dead, some of them sneered, but others said, “We want to hear you again on this subject.” At that, Paul left the Council. A few men became followers of Paul and believed. Among them was Dionysius, a member of the Areopagus, also a woman named Damaris, and a number of others.

 

Look at this: A few people believed him; some men, at least one woman.  Some people want to hear some more.  Some people think he’s cuckoo; dead people stay dead, forever. 

 

What has Paul taught us? He’s taught us so much, right?  Reference the poets of the day; use the “ins” you have; be frank, and honest, but in a way that can be heard.  Figure out points of connection your Christian spirituality shares with the spirituality of the world.  Talk about Jesus, about repentance, about judgment, about resurrection, about things that are important. And, of course, don’t expect to win over everyone.  

 

But I want to end on one note:  We don’t have the horseshoe.  We haven’t been invited to speak straightforwardly into some large group of people’s lives.  This sitting and listening to somebody talk about spiritual matters for a while, is frankly weird; it’s unusual. 

 

Our Chance to talk about “spiritual” things: 

But we do have a context to share honestly and be heard.  It is not usually quickly offered to us; it takes immense work, and needs time and patience and God’s mercy.  To get this context, this one “in” that I know that consistently works takes time and prayer and requires more vulnerability than we are in the habit of giving.  It asks us to be intentional in a way we are unaccustomed to. 

 

It’s real friendship.  Friendship–the sort of friendship, the sort of relationship in which people trust one another and are invested in one another’s lives–the relationships we say we have with God, with the Spirit who lives in us that defines all our spiritual pursuits–is the only context I know, the only venue, in which you are always heard. 

 

I will listen to anything from anyone if I know that they are for me.  I will hear them.  Maybe not initially, because I am a weak insecure person sometimes.  But I will hear them.  Won’t you?  If you know they are for you? 

 

This is the only “in” I’m aware of that nearly always allows someone to really hear and talk about spiritual things in the world we live in today.  The prerequisite, the required thing, for engaging with a person about about what Christianity has to say about what society thinks about spirituality is a trusting, invested, two-way relationship. 

 

And some of us need to do remedial relationship work with people before we ever bring up spiritual things with them. 

 

And some of us simply need to start engaging with people.  It might help to remember that we have the Spirit of God living inside us, transforming us into people who are more and more like Jesus, that we have an authoritative story that is more complete and nourishing than any other story, and we are part of a Spirit-filled community that will help us as we give control of our lives up to God. 

 

Conclusion?

So, we’ve talked a lot about what we have to say to a spiritually interested, spiritually-invested, spiritually-misguided and misunderstanding world.  And we really have two choices.  We can choose to engage that interest, honor it as part of what it means to live, and seize it as an opportunity to redirect people to God.  This means us being as ready as Paul was to talk about the hope we have, and prepared in all seasons to discuss our Christian Spirituality, how it is unique and different from society’s. 

 

We could enter into relationships that we work hard to make safe ones, real ones, honest ones, and so gain credibility and access to the valid concerns people have.  

That’s an option; to prepare ourselves to engage the deeply spiritual society we live in, and see the opportunities it holds for God’s Kingdom.

 

Or we can dismiss the world around us, dismiss the opportunity that is knocking on the doors of our homes and our churches and our offices…and, in so doing, mirror the world’s condemnation and dismissal of our Christian spirituality, which just happens to be their only hope for the wholeness and the meaning they long for.  And we can take what Paul shows us is a very public thing, and keep it a secret.  

 

I’d like to believe–pray–that we can help each other to engage well.