May 19, 2013

Glynn Cardy

Pentecost Sunday     Acts 2:1-21     John 14:8-27 

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

I have favourite stories and the following by Anthony De Mello is one of them: 

After many years of labour an inventor discovered the art of making fire. He took his tools to the snow-clad northern regions and initiated a village into the art – and the advantages – of making fire. The people became so absorbed in this novelty that it did not occur to them to thank the inventor who one day quietly slipped away. Being one of those rare human beings endowed with greatness, he had no desire to be remembered or revered; all he sought was the satisfaction of knowing that someone had benefited from his discovery.

The next village he went to was just as eager to learn as the first. But the local priests, jealous of the stranger’s hold on the people, had him assassinated. To allay any suspicion of the crime, they had a portrait of him 'the Great Inventor' enthroned upon the main altar of the church; and a liturgy designed so that his name would be revered and his memory kept alive. The greatest care was taken that not a single rubric of the liturgy was altered or omitted.

The High Priest himself undertook the task of compiling a 'Life of the Inventor'. This became the Holy book in which his loving kindness was offered as an example for all to emulate, his glorious deeds were eulogized, his superhuman nature made an article of faith. The priests saw to it that the book was handed down to future generations, while they authoritatively interpreted the meaning of his words and the significance of his holy life and death.

Caught up as they were in these religious tasks, the people of this tribe completely forgot the art of making fire.

This story uses the metaphor of fire to refer to spirituality. Like fire spirituality provides light, illumination and vision. Like fire spirituality gives warmth, comfort, and nurture. Like fire spirituality gives energy, power, and vitality. De Mello's story encourages us to 'make fire', to engage with the spiritual life, and to encourage and show others the same.

It is no wonder then that at Pentecost the symbol of fire is used by Luke. It dances on the heads of the 120 disciples. It is no wonder too that in the Hebrew legend about receiving the law at Mt Sinai - a legend that Luke drew upon - 70 flames for the 70 nations of the earth were allegedly present. Both biblical stories are pointing to the truth that spirituality is not something that can be contained. Wisdom, compassion, and creativity - the manifestations of spirituality - are potentially present in every time, culture and religion.

De Mello's story, like in the best of the Progressive tradition, is a subversive one for it suggests that spirituality is out of the control of the priests and their religion. You don't have to come to church to 'make fire'. You don’t have to agree with the preacher to 'make fire'. You don't have to swear allegiance to any creed, canons, or bible to 'make fire'. Instead worship, liturgy, Bible study, and ministry all need to be evaluated in terms of how useful they are in promoting a spirituality of wisdom, compassion, and creativity. What we do needs to be evaluated in terms of how we help 'make fire'.

So lighting a spiritual ‘fire’ is not dependent on coming to a church and getting a bit of flame to take home, or having a minister come to your home to light it, or undertaking years of study to be an expert yourself. Rather lighting a spiritual ‘fire’ is something that can be learnt in many places from many different people.

In my experience spirituality is fostered when children are seen as teachers; where interaction with animals is encouraged; when music and art and people are valued more than profits and buildings and performance; where our earth is seen as physically part of us; when boundaries of class, race, gender, orientation, or physical ability are dismantled; and where kindness, generosity, and forgiveness are recognized as the foundation stones of any faith.

Making spiritual ‘fire’ can happen alone or with others - in homes, workplaces, outdoors, or in churches. Anyone can learn to make ‘fire’ – though humility helps. Children and the marginalized often innately know it – the rich and powerful often forget it and lose their bearings.

At its best Sunday church is a ‘fire’ that encourages the outbreak of lots of little ‘fires’. The role of clergy is to encourage and teach spirituality, and in the week to go to those places where spirituality is thought to be absent or struggling and work with people to make their own ‘fire’ in that place. The role of the laity is similar – to make and feed spiritual ‘fire’ in all the contexts you find yourself.

Christians and the Christian God have no monopoly on spirituality’s ‘fire’. Keith Ward provides this helpful explanation: 

“The uniqueness one can properly find in Jesus is something like the uniqueness one may find in a great work of art. It provides an insight into the deepest nature of things that nothing else can provide. It relates us to the [experience] of God in a way which is rather different from that found elsewhere… But it would be crass to hold that it is the only, or obviously the best, work of art in the universe.”

Christian’s need to be careful in extolling their spirituality or their beliefs as the best, or the only, or the truth. Wisdom, compassion, and creativity are not restricted by our Christian expectations and experience.

This is not to say though, to use Ward’s metaphor, that all ‘art’ is equal. All spirituality and religious faiths are not equally true, or worthwhile, or useful… just as all expressions of Christianity aren’t.

Without the filter of the Enlightenment, namely the application of free and critical reason and the centrality of human welfare, religion almost inevitably – like in the story of the inventor – tends towards repressive authoritarianism. The priesthood impose their views on others. Freedom of thought is hung out to die. It becomes more important to have the correct beliefs than to change the world and humanity for the better. 

We should however not be blind to the Enlightenment’s fallacies. Reason, individual happiness, and freedom to do what one wants have not created a flourishing, just, and healthy global community. As Ward says, “the noble knight of truth who had unbound the chains of religious authority was in turn overthrown by the blinder, more visceral demon of desire.” 

We have seen in recent decades disillusionment amongst many in Western democracies with the Enlightenment’s exaltation of the individual and the mythology of self-fulfilment, and how corporate interests manipulate ‘desire’ in order to increase both their profits and power. This disillusionment has not usually led to re-entrance into formal religions, with their priesthoods, creeds, and certainties, but often, surprisingly, an interest in spirituality.

It is the old stories, like De Mello’s, that do not claim to be historical truth but do claim to point to what is true, which resonate. It is spirituality’s vision for a world of justice and peace; it is spirituality’s ability to nurture the individual and communal soul; and it is spirituality’s energy that can fuel the passion for transformative change. This is the ‘fire’ that is sought. This is the ‘fire’ that you and I have skills in kindling. This is the ‘fire’ that can light up a new inclusive Pentecost.