A sermon by Senior Minister John B. McCall, April 11, 2010
John 20:19-31
John 3:5-8
“The wind blows where it will,” Jesus said to the Pharisee Nicodemus, “and you do not know where it comes from or where it’s going. So it is with everyone who’s born of the Spirit.”
I’m grateful we have these verses in the Gospel of John because they remind us that there has always been spiritual ferment in God’s realm. And here on this Sunday after Easter, still exhilarant from the energy and music and crowds of people, we need the assurance that God is at work on low Sundays like this one, too.
I begin here because I want to explore the increasingly familiar phrase, “I’m spiritual but not religious;” spiritual but not religious. This has become the mantra of young adults in their 20’s and 30’s who are seeking a connection with the holy, but don’t believe there’s any reason to look inside the sanctuaries of any formal religious group. This is also a more and more common refrain from older generations who have grown up in the church and who have given up on it for various reasons.
“Spiritual, but not religious…” Amy Hollywood, professor of Christian Studies at Harvard Divinity School wrote in the Harvard Divinity Bulletin (Winter/Spring 2010):
Most of us who write, think and talk about religion are by now used to hearing people say that they are spiritual, but not religious. With the phrase generally comes the presumption that religion has to do with doctrines, dogmas, and ritual practices, whereas spirituality has to do with heart, feeling, and experience. The spiritual person has an immediate and spontaneous experience of the divine or of some higher power. She does not subscribe to beliefs handed to her by existing religious traditions, nor does she engage in the ritual life of an particular institution.
At the heart of the distinction between religion and spirituality, then, lies the presumption that to think and act within an existing tradition – to practice religion – risks making one less spiritual. To be religious is to bow to the authority of another, to believe in doctrines determined for one in advance, to read ancient texts only as they are handed down through existing interpretative traditions, and blindly to perform formalized rituals. For the spiritual, religion is inert, arid, and dead; the practitioner of religion, whether consciously or not, is at best without feeling, and at worst insincere. {pg. 19-20}
There’s some truth to these claims. Religion can be a burden that imposes authority, expectations and harsh judgments; crowding us and conflicting with our inner sense of the holy and divine.
At many points in our history, we must confess the Christian Church has been harsh, militaristic, even violent in protecting and extending its influence: from burning heretics, to launching the Crusades against Islam, to witch hunts, to defending slavery and segregation, to marginalizing women, gays and lesbians, to modern-day violations of sacred trust in clergy sexual abuse.
Just as true, many within the Christian Church are religious but not spiritual, following the form but not experiencing the essence. Many come to worship but do not pray. Many can repeat a catechism but no longer read scripture. Many read scripture but no longer tithe or serve, or minister to others in need. Religion can become an empty habit of rote repetition.
We also know there are different ways of being Christian. As Episcopalians become more open and inclusive, many congregations leave to join the Anglican communion so they can hold on to traditional values. We here in our own church realize some people will feel pushed away and some will feel drawn in as we emphasize that Christian discipleship is both about conforming ourselves to Jesus’ example, and about addressing injustices that hurt and oppress God’s people all around us.
Old assumptions are disappearing in other ways. Four decades ago atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hair struck fear into Christian hearts. She drove the case challenging to constitutionality of prayer in public schools, and won. The media portrayed her as mean-spirited and eccentric and then played up the stir when she mysteriously disappeared.
Today’s Atheists, such as Christopher Hitchens and Richard Dawkins are articulate, highly educated speakers and authors who boldly proclaim their own beliefs through books and lectures by stubbornly claim their truth that there is no God, no higher power.
Then again, just as we whisper that the age of religion is passing and the age of spirituality is arriving, we look at Africa, Asia, and South America and see that fundamentalist and conservative Christianity are exploding, so the locus of power is no longer North America and Europe, but rather places half a world away that we used to call “Third World.”
Here in our own communities polls show us that fewer people attend worship – especially here in the Northeast. Fewer people conform to the teachings and disciplines of Christianity. More people are unaffiliated and more people describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”
How do we make sense of this?
First, recognize that we’ll continue to see a great shaking-out in the role and power of religion in our society. The drift away from church coincides with the drift away from lots of other organizations – the bowling league, the Masons, the service clubs and more.
Why? In part because we don’t want anyone telling us what to do. We like to think of ourselves as self-made and independent. Remember the word “religion” from the Latin “religio” comes from the same root as “ligament.” It means to tie together and to hold in relationship. Religion also means giving myself to a community and belief system through thick and thin, and giving up some of ,my autonomy in order to gain community. That’s not as popular as it used to be. Look at marriage statistics, and see that making covenants and hanging in is less popular than it used to be.
Spirituality, on the other hand, fits well with our North American cries for freedom and independence. Rather than belonging to a community and conforming ourselves to their ways, we demand our freedom to create our own spiritual amalgamation with a little bit of Christianity, a little Buddhism, a few Pagan elements, laced together with Yoga, and so on.
Religion puts God at the center and asks me to conform to a system and tradition. Spirituality puts me at the center as I pick and choose what suits me and pleases me.
Second, many of us who are Christians no longer claim that our path is the only path to encounter God. We need only look to the story of Nicodemus in John 3, where the Pharisee came to Jesus under cover of darkness, afraid he would be found out by others. He seemed to recognize that life under the law wasn’t the only way to encounter God; that the Holy is not easily confined to a cubbyhole and neatly labeled. Jesus affirmed that saying: “The wind blows where it chooses, and you hear the sound of it but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.” {John 3:8}
While Christians in generations past might shout “heresy,” at the suggestion that one may take this path and one may take that path, today we recognize that you and I can encounter God in many places. One of which is through the life of the church. We also know that many non-religious people are still moral people, good people, people who contribute to the common good.
I believe that all good, decent, moral people reflect God’s spirit even if they don’t choose to name it in that way.
Thirdly, while I readily acknowledge that others may connect to God through Talmud or Koran, mandalas or chakras, crystals or candles, my path is through Jesus. St. Augustine said it simply and well: “”My soul is restless, and it will never be at rest until in finds rest in Thee.”
Remember – you can’t really follow Jesus in isolation. Being a Christian is a community experience. We need each other to help keep us on track and in relationship. Our Gospel reading from John 20 is likely familiar, as it appears on the Sunday after Easter every year. Most of us doubt as Thomas doubted. We can’t believe unless we have proof – something tangible and incontrovertible. Prove it to me beyond a shadow of a doubt!
Then we, too, like Thomas, often pull away in our doubts and isolate ourselves from the very community that embodies the intangible truth of faith. By its nature, the community of faith shares the story. When I trip and stumble and doubt, you lift me up and remind me of the bold faith we share. When you grieve or wander or doubt, I am here to walk beside you and witness to the faith we share. We have agreed mutually that Jesus is the one in whom we find our pathway to a full, rich, and vital encounter with the living God.
Fourth, we who are religious, and part of worshiping communities, need to pay attention to those who point out that we may have lost our spiritual vitality. Empty habits and lifeless traditions don’t serve God. Jesus spent a lot of time and energy challenging those who just kept the tradition. “The law kills, he said, “but the Spirit gives life.”
The changes we see all around us remind us that we’re living in yet another brave new age. The old assumptions about the place of religion in the marketplace are changing. But that is no reason to be discouraged or to fall silent.
If anyone asks you whether you are spiritual or religious, be ready to show them that you are both and that the Spirit is alive and at work in your life.