July 19, 2009

John Salmon

Bible Sunday     2 Timothy 3:14-4:5     John 5:36b-47

Video available on YouTube, Facebook

Religion’s back on the agenda.

It’s certainly back on the agenda internationally, with our awareness of the political power of both Islam and Christianity.

At the more personal level it’s spirituality that beckons many people. Institutional religion isn’t the thing so much as a search for spiritual awareness and a source of values.

In this context, how do we ‘progressive Christians’ shape relevant personal spiritual lives and a vibrant form of Christianity? Beliefs are something we need to focus on as we consider this.

Both our readings today speak about ‘believing’ [these are the readings set for today as Bible Sunday, and they raise some interesting issues about the way we use and understand texts, and their relationship with spoken words]. And core beliefs are often seen as the defining mark of a religion, and the cause of conflicts between religions. And beliefs easily get in the way of a more open spiritual outlook as well.

For both religion and spirituality the force of ‘what you believe’ has to be confronted and thought-through.

1. Origins of Faith – Beyond Belief

It was in 4th century Christianity, under the pressure of the Roman Empire, that set beliefs – understood as ‘doctrine’ or ‘true teaching’ – became the mark of a genuine adherent of the Christian religion.

But the earlier layer didn’t see it like that: I’m sure Jesus didn’t see it like that. He’d be horrified to think we had to believe he was the Son of the Father of the Trinitarian God! Such beliefs are not what Christianity is about – as either a religion or a source of spirituality.

Language is part of our problem. The word ‘believe’ has come to mean “ideas you agree with” – an intellectual assent. That’s pretty recent, and doesn’t reflect earlier usage. What’s more, English doesn’t have a verb for the more open concept of ‘faithing’, and doesn’t speak of ‘faithers’. ‘Believing’ and ‘believers’ suggest adherence to defined ideas presented as ‘truth’. In the first verse of the Timothy reading and the last verses from John the word translated ‘believe’ comes from the Greek root usually translated ‘faith’.

It’s faith that’s central to the earliest Jesus-followers – and that sense of ‘faith’ more akin in our thinking today to spirituality than to structured religion, and is helpfully the mark of ‘being Christian’ today.

2. Components of Faith/Spirituality

But faith and its contemporary expression as spirituality are tricky ideas to unpack.

Years ago, when I was working with children in the church, some of us asked what might help the development of ‘faith’ in pre-school children, and encourage them to remain part of the Christian community as they grew older. We didn’t think it was learning Bible stories – but what was it?

We came up with 3 ingredients:

First, the young child needs to feel safe, to be confident that this place and its activities are OK – that’s about trust.

And they need fun: they’re not going to hang around or see the value of something if it’s boring – and the heart of fun for young children is about exploring their world.

Above all, children need to sense they are valued, that they belong – they need love.

Trust, fun, and love: core components for children to want to be part of any group or activity. Might they be relevant as we consider Christianity today?

3. Trust

Think about trust and faith. In its everyday usage, faith means that we trust despite direct evidence – like having faith the floor will there when we put our foot out of bed in the morning.

Faith is about trust, not certainty. In fact, faith exists where certainty cannot. The moment we’re certain in our beliefs, we’ve moved outside of faith. So, contrary to what we’ve often been told, certainty – not doubt – is faith’s opposite. And that’s so with spirituality, too. If we think we have the answers, or the perfect set of spiritual exercises, we’ve lost it. It’s become rigid, bounded by certainty rather than trust.

It’s my view that that sense of trust, not certainty of belief, is the core of faith, significant for spirituality today, and a relevant emphasis for contemporary Christianity.

4. Fun

The young child needs fun – and finds it in exploring the world. That fun component continues to point us towards exploring our world and the ideas that help us live it it, and to thinking carefully about the world and its core needs. In traditional faith, that includes doing theology – not simply receiving its teaching. In spirituality, it includes openness to new insights – not simply relying on a guru or a set of rules.

“Why?” is the child’s basic tool in exploring their world. To which the most helpful response is, “why do you think?” A closed answer shuts down curiosity. It’s the next question that keeps explorative openness alive.

Fun as a component in spirituality and faith is about openness and curiosity, about keeping on asking questions of what we have been told or have discovered. It pushes us away from reliance on specific beliefs; towards the next question, the next possibility, the next exciting adventure in faith or spiritual experience.

5. Love

Love, in this setting, speaks of our lifestyle, the way we act to care for others and our planet. Contrary to “faith is what you believe” or “spirituality is what goes on inside you”, I’m saying that Christianity is not simply a set of ideas to believe – things in the head – but a way of living. The core of Jesus’ teaching – if you give a bit of distance to John’s Gospel and Paul’s theology – is about what we would call ‘ethics‘. How we live and relate and act express our faith as nothing else can, and form the goal of spirituality.

In this, we might not be all that different from other people – with different religious traditions or none. And we’re not that different.

Today – in this newly international religious and spiritual environment – that’s a critical insight, if we’re to stop fighting over our different religious traditions or styles of spirituality.

Both religious faith and spirituality are shown most clearly not in our stated beliefs but in our lives and actions.

Conclusion

In our current environment, with religion back on the world’s agenda and the search for spirituality a contemporary interest, I think that those of us in the Christian religious stream who seek to be ‘progressive’ do best to abandon concern for secure beliefs. We hardly even need to debate such things!

Instead, let’s open ourselves to a spiritual awareness that explores our world openly, trusts where there is no certainty, and acts out love, justice, and hope in the world.