8 Pentecost, Proper 11B
18 Jul 2021
I have spent the summer in the kiva, the metaphor Steven Charleston uses for a place of darkness but also a holy place where one can rest, meditate, and experience the Holy and then be prepared to climb back into the light and the world, one rung at a time. Very purposefully he has us climb: faith, blessing, hope, community, and now action.
Faith opens our hearts to the Spirit and when our hearts are open we can receive blessing, which is the infusion of love that gives us what we need to do what we otherwise could not. Together they bring us hope. With hope we are able to create community, a unified family of humanity. Now we are challenged to take everything we know and put it to work. This is the fifth rung, the rung of action.
When someone says they are spiritual but not religious I see a disconnect between their faith and the world. We speak of Christianity as an incarnational faith, one that believes God came as dwelt among us as one of us. For some that is too incredulous to accept, for some the whole foundation of Christianity is missed, lost in cynicism over the failings of its adherents. Our failings are many; our attempts to overload our faith with unneeded or downright dangerous baggage is very true; it is true of virtually every religion. But those people who stay spiritual but not religious miss the great mystery and wonder of Christianity and of Jesus. I climb to the rung of action through my faith in Jesus and his teachings, not through any other religion nor secular humanism, even as they teach and practice love and justice.
We have a penchant for viewing action like it occurs in a classical Western movie or super hero movie. Christian action is not about who has the quickest draw. While I sometimes wish wrongs were made right as quickly as Wonder Woman could do it, I know that is not the path that Jesus chose for us. For us, as Christians, action may paradoxically look like inaction. It may be more about asking questions and looking for truth than anything else. Remember how the children were the only ones who stated the truth that the emperor had no clothes? Action maybe speaking truth to power; it may be the willingness to continually ask questions, many of which do not have answers, or at least not easy ones. Regardless, action is inspired by, and sometimes pushed by, the Sprit.
We all hear our call in a different way. Charleston refers to indigenous religion as disorganized. Beliefs are not at the core of what binds people to the community. Communal celebrations do not revolve around dogma but around the shared needs of the community. Diversity is celebrated.
How does the spirit call you to prayer and to community? I am often called by natural beauty to prayers of joy. Music can call me and lead me to prayers of thanks and of awe. We respond to different things; we are moved in different ways. God made us to be different; the world would be the worse if we were all the same. I like the way he phrases it: “celebrating what we hope for together is better than fighting over what we believe separately.” We need less dogma and more diversity. Queen Elizabeth the 1st, the first truly Anglican monarch, said "There is only one Christ, Jesus, one faith; all else is a dispute over trifles." She also declared that she had "no desire to make windows into men's souls". We use a Book of Common Prayer, for that was the intent.
Action, then, does not mean a project; it means discovering and raising up our shared identity as humans and as children of God. When we come to the communion table we may believe that this is truly blood and flesh or we may believe it is a memorial celebration, or we may hold a belief that is in between. Beliefs are not what matters; receiving the sacrament in community is what matters. It takes at least two people to celebrate communion.
I said that action does not mean a project but rather celebrating in community, yet it does mean going into the world.
The disciples had gone out with only a staff and one cloak, that is one set of clothes, and had taught and healed many.
“Wherever (Jesus) went—villages, cities, or farming communities—they would place the sick in the marketplaces and beg him to allow them to touch even the hem of his clothing. Everyone who touched him was healed.”
Jesus was teaching and healing. He didn’t stop to question the worthiness of the people he healed; he didn’t ask to what sect of Judaism they belonged, of for that matter if they were even a religious Jew. They flocked after him and he had compassion.
This is what action as a Christian should be. We don’t ask questions about worthiness; if we did who would remain? We ask Jesus to teach us and to heal us. Think about the power he wielded!! He inspired people to leave everything and follow him; not really based on belief but on compassion and need.
We know that after Jesus was executed, followers could not hold on fully to his way of being. After all he was God incarnate and clearly they, and we, are not. But he did leave us with the possibility of ushering in the Kingdom of God in a way not thought possible.
We so often think we must agree before we can cooperate. For years the ecumenical movement looked for a common set of beliefs to tie together different Christian denominations. Nothing really happened. Not the emphasis is not on “what do we believe in common?” but rather what can we do in common?
I would like to envision what a meal in Jesus’ household would have been like. I am thinking it would be something like a real potluck; you eat whatever shows up. My parents always argued about the best way to have a family picnic: decide who will bring what or eat whatever is there. I generally like my father’s laissez le bon temp roulez spirit; surprises are good.
Maybe Thanksgiving is, in its best sense, like that. Thanksgiving is the theme of one episode of Northern Exposure (one of my all time favorite TV shows). If you remember the show, you know that the characters include a resentful Jewish doctor trapped in a tiny Alaskan town, an assortment of misfit Anglos, and a number of quirky indigenous Americans. They hold a variety of beliefs and opinions, but for Thanksgiving they all share a feast together. Diversity and community in one.
Then let us think of action as climbing to the place where we can sit together and work for what is the common good of all. After all, we all need a good crop and good rain. It does not matter if you are an atheist, a Muslim, an Orthodox Christion, or an Episcopalian. The Spirit rests on all of us and we can do our dance together.
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