Sermon 2007
Lectionary texts:
1 Kings 19: 1 to 4 and 8 to 15a – Elijah flees to Mount Horeb
Galatians 3: 23 to 29 – the purpose of the Law
Luke 8: 26 to 39 – Jesus heals the Gerasene demoniac
I want to make three quick points, and then state some personal views.
First, these are ancient texts. They need to be studied and discussed among us as ancient texts. In some way they may inform our lives. But our lives are also informed by the serious thought of the modern period, thought which challenged during the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries the presuppositions, the traditions and the certainties of all earlier versions of Christianity. These challenges came from both self-described Christians and from those who could not abide by some of Christianity’s suffocating traditions.
Second, in our progressive Christian tradition, the question “what does your denomination believe” is actually unanswerable in the traditional manner and is hardly helped by most of our ancient texts. Our tradition as it has emerged provides us not with certain answers but with the opportunity for development toward better individuals (in a Christian and we might say a “Christlike” context), with the opportunity to express our reasons for living, acting and believing as we do, or as we may wish to do. What we believe is that we must seek what is right in our actions and relationships, and that to know what is right involves a lifetime of effort and paying attention to both ancient and to more modern wisdom. Ancient texts as sources of guidance are problematic.
And third, to the degree we consider ourselves Christian, our church involvement provides an opportunity to form our character and our lives in ways that are not likely in other areas of society. The church is a community setting unlike family, work, or the street where we live. The progressive church, while it’s not the source of clear, lifelong rules in the manner of more traditional churches, is a unique place for experiencing both the challenge and the comfort which are precious in our lives. Our points of reference are likely to be caring, compassion, justice or love. Sometimes these are reflected in ancient texts, sometimes not at all.
I’ve been asked what I think is fundamental to Christianity, and my best answer to date, I think, has been the Great Commandment, to love the divine completely and to love your neighbor as yourself. And it seems to me that loving neighbor, the immense challenge of our lives, is really the same thing as loving the divine. Put another way, how do you actually love an entity that is greater than the cosmos? We are humans, and capable of love on a human scale. Reaching for love of neighbor might be thought of as reaching toward what is divine.
So three points: first, our texts need to be read in context their ancient origins; second, our tradition involves a faith in questioning and a faith in the incompleteness of our knowledge and wisdom; and third, the church is a unique place for both challenge and comfort and for our personal maturing, what could be termed spiritual formation or ethical development. The choice of what we call it is ours, but understand that ancient texts are only a starting point, and a starting point that many Sundays might be replaced by other texts with other views of this world and of reality. Always clothing our reference texts in the allusions of the ancient world doesn’t seem to me the most desirable way of addressing the questions of the 21st century.
Now, a few personal observations. I want to offer these observations to suggest that the terms of dialog at Rock Spring should be broadened in the interests of inclusiveness.
Personally, I seek to practice a religious faith which does not recognize a supernatural or a realm where humans dwell after death, or where a ruler of the universe sets on a throne (metaphorical or not) like a Mesopotamian emperor.
Personally, I seek to practice a faith which is lived between birth and death, in an imperfect and imperfectly understood universe unimaginable in size or characteristics by those who wrote the 66 books of the old and new testaments.
Personally, I seek to practice a faith which informs my relations with other persons and groups, and which moves to remove barriers between those in and those outside churches.
Personally I seek to practice a humanist faith which recognizes the need to honor others as persons simply because they are persons. I call my faith religious humanism, and this faith seems to incorporate elements ranging from Progressive Christianity to ethical atheism.
It is an inherently experimental and developing faith which knows no finality and which chafes at some of baggage of tradition and scripture as it impedes discussion and understanding. It is an individualistic faith which is not comfortable with traditional formulas.
I’m extremely fond of the study of ancient literatures including the 39 books of the Hebrew Bible and the 27 books of the New Testament. They are windows into the complexities of life and thought in other times.
But ancient literature is only one of many places to root our discussions. There is a lot to discuss. Let’s make sure we have the place and time for the discussion.