Pastor's Message

October 2010 Spirit Steps 

This is my Father’s world.  The birds their carols raise; the morning light lily white, declare their maker’s praise.  This is my Father’s world; he shines in all that’s fair.  In the rustling grass I hear him pass.  He speaks to me everywhere.
This is my Father’s World LBW 554

Confirmation classes began this past week.  We began by talking about “definitions”.  What does it mean to be religious?  What does it mean to be spiritual?  Can you be one without being the other?  These questions led to lively discussion but as happens when one tries to teach, they also led to many more questions.  For me, it led to questioning the purpose of the church; that is, is the role of the church and its clergy to teach religion or is it or is it to promote spirituality.  Obviously, to me anyway, the answer to that question is “both”, in fact it would be difficult to promote spirituality without teaching something about religion. On the other hand, it certainly is possible to teach religion without promoting spirituality.

Maybe before going on here I need to do what we did as a confirmation class and that is define how we are using these terms.  When talking about spirituality here, I am talking about a relationship to God and when I am talking about religion, I am talking about an intellectual understanding.  It seems to me that while the task of the church is both to promote spirituality and teach religion, we have not done equally well in both tasks.  The church seems to be much more proficient in teaching religion than it is in promoting spirituality; maybe because it is easier to pass on information than it is to promote spirituality.

Information is information.  Spirituality is unique to each individual.  Is spirituality hearing God pass in the rustling grass?  For some it is.  Is spirituality hearing the voice of God in all of nature?  For some it is.  Is spirituality a relationship with another person?  For some it is.  Is spirituality quiet meditation and prayer?  For some it is.  Is spirituality a loud rock beat?  For some it is.  An individual’s spirituality is as unique as the individual.  Maybe that is why it is so difficult to talk about and to promote.  Maybe that is why we as a church have chosen to focus our energy on passing on information.  That is far more efficient.

Yet, yet isn’t our relationship to the Divine what this is all about?  Isn’t the fruit of developing our spirituality, service?  Doesn’t being a spiritual person mean that we are “Christ to the world”?

As the confirmation class struggles with these questions, we invite you to struggle with us and may we all develop our spiritual nature that the world may experience Christ among us.  

May you have peace in your day.

Pastor Bob