OPEN

I preached today at the Unitarian Universalist Church ofLexington. I have known their pastor for a number of years and when she called to ask me to fill in, I was delighted. I had not been to a Sunday morning service there---just a funeral and a meeting in their Fellowship Hall. I wasn’t sure what to expect.

My clergy friend asked me to speak about my faith journey. I’m not even sure she knew how much my faith journey and my extraordinary life journey are so entwined. I think she just wanted another female clergy person to share her experience with the congregation.

The first perception I had was during the preparation conversations with the folks who would be leading worship. To every one of my questions are suggestions, their answer was “We’re open to that.” It was refreshing. There was an openness to doing things differently, to experiencing someone else’s faith tradition, to welcoming the visitor.

I used Robert W. Fuller’s book, Somebodies and Nobodies for the Opening and Closing Readings. They were open to that. I used a couple of paragraphs from my own unpublished memoir for the Reading that led into the Mediation. They were open to that. And I shared as much about my life journey as I did about my faith journey because in my mind the two cannot be separated. They were open to that.

I give thanks today for my friends in the UU tradition who are on the journey!

Spiritual but not Religious

Photo by John Lynner Peterson

Some reports have indicated that Spiritual but not Religious (SBNR) is the fastest growing faith group in the U.S. The fact that the Pew Forum now lists Spiritual but not Religious as a faith choice says much about the segment of our population that want to be identified as people of faith but don’t express their faith within the confines of a church or organized religious group.

How do you define spirituality—especially in contrast to religion? For me, spirituality is the transcendent connection to God (fill in your Higher Power) that lifts me beyond my skin, bones and brain existence here on earth. How have I experienced this transcendence? Through music most frequently, but also through relationship with another that is so intimate you know that your souls have touched, through reading that forces me to move past my intellect and even past my emotions. And, yes, I have experienced spirituality through sex with my beloved.

Religion by contrast has taught me theology, doctrinal beliefs and love of certain institutions. Religion has taught me a great deal that I have discarded, i.e., belief in the literal virgin birth, literal resurrection and literal interpretation of the Bible. Religion has also taught me transcendent metaphors that still mean much to me, i.e., communion and the symbolism of the table, the bread and the wine. I have distaste for the meaning of such words as resurrection, redemption, salvation, heaven and hell as taught in my religion and yet, I want to reclaim these very words for the spirituality that fits me now. If you wash the literalism from these words, they can be used effectively to describe transcendence that I know to be real from my own experience.

So what does this mean for our nation? For Christianity? For our churches? One result that some of the surveys and articles point out is that people are attending a variety of churches rather than committing to one. Obviously, this behavior adds to the precipitous decline in membership being reported by all denominations of Christianity because many who would describe themselves as SBNR just stay home from church.

Perhaps you have heard sermons in which SBNR has been disparaged from the pulpit. Of course you have, because SBNR persons do not fund budgets which pay the light bill, the pastor’s salary and insure the institution is perpetuated. What would these preachers say we are giving up by not being religious? One argument they might make would be the loss of community if you practice your spirituality only in isolation. I agree with this line of reasoning and must admit this is why I am still a member of a congregation. The community I have found in churches has raised me, sustained me and comforted me through the highs and lows of my life. I am who I am because of church communities.

Another argument might be that we enact social justice as a faith community not as individuals. I’ll let you make your own case for or against that claim. I would also make the case for church being the place where I most frequently access God/spirituality through music. It is not the only place I can or have experienced God through music but it certainly has provided the most frequent access. What are other reasons you or your minister offer for why we need to stay religious?

Are you spiritual but not religious? Do you still attend church? Why? Why not?

My favorite poem of faith

Photo by John Lynner Peterson

Counterfeit

By Roberta Dorr

Sand is the water of the desert.

It can bear the traveler on its billows,

Or wash her cups

And clean her hands.

But when her body’s

Racked with thirst

No counterfeit will serve,

And one would trade

One’s kingdom in the sand

For one clear cup

Of sparkling, liquid water.

One faith is quite as good

As any other

Until the heart in thirst

Cries out for what is true.

Why I Do What I Do

I off to Louisville today—no, I’m not going there to gloat over the University of Kentucky’s victory over University of Louisville—although that is tempting.

Husband John and I will both be volunteering our services to the Academy of Preachers event called Preachapalooza. A friend of mine commented in the last few days, “What are YOU doing at an event called Preachapalooza? It sounds like conservatives?”

I agree it sounds more like terminology the conservative mega-churches would use. We liberals tend to eschew anything that smacks of stadiums filled with dancing fans unless it’s Kentucky basketball.

But the Academy of Preachers is not a conservative organization AND it is not a liberal organization. Therein lies the reason John and I will be giving our skills to the event. The Academy, founded by Rev. Dwight Moody and led by Rev. Lee Huckleberry, brings young people from a vast area of denominations--the entire conservative to liberal spectrum. They come together, preach to and for each other, become friends and share their faith.

It’s the “becoming friends and sharing their faith” that draws me to this organization. It is the first and only organization I have heard of in a long time that is bringing the extremes of our faith into conversation. And it's not like we haven't looked. John and I have both done a great deal of ecumenical and interfaith work. Somehow, the organizations are not doing a good job of bridging the gap. We live in our separate worlds, attend our separate churches, vote for our separate candidates and have our separate agendas for America. It’s not a healthy situation for anyone.   

So we’re heading to Preachapalooza today. And I hope you will spend some time talking with someone whose faith you disagree with. Who knows, we might learn something from each other.