An epiphany...

I am, what many people would describe as a "liberal" christian. I do not like the classification, I think I am different from what many people think of as "liberal". I guess I look at scripture with an awareness of mythology, metaphor and the whole cultural background to the writing. This type of interpreting of scripture is often associated with liberals. I also try to be inclusive and non-dogmatic in my practice and I do believe that people of other faiths have insight into and experience of God.

I was at a meal at the Salvation Army hall in Christchurch. I got talking to two Baptists and they asked me what I would do if a homosexual minister wanted to join my ministers' association? Or, they said, someone who did not believe in the virgin birth, or who had questions about the bodily resurrection? I bit my lip and said that I would let them in. We went on to talk about divisions and difficulties within the church. I avoided getting into an argument about homosexuality or biblical literature etc.! Was I chicken? Was I not prepared to stand up for truths I believed in? I hate arguing about the faith!

I read letters to the editor in the paper. There are often religious people expounding in dogmatic terms their interpretation and running down other's belief or lack of belief. I often cringe! Even if I believe what they believe, to me believing the right things is not what the faith is about! Such arguments, such dogmatic expounding distorts the "Way". It does not give a true expression to the path Jesus gave us to follow.

The other day while preparing a sermon I had an epiphany. I could not include it in the sermon, but I have been stewing on it ever since. Here it is. In John's gospel there is the story of Jesus meeting the woman at the well. (John chapter 4...I suspect the details of the story and conversation have been greatly adapted by the author of John... but he is making "Jesus points" or passing on the spirit of Jesus in the story.) Jesus a Jewish male, breaks all sorts of conventions by spending time talking with a Samaritan woman! In public too! Anyway the woman asks Jesus; "My Samaritan ancestors worshipped God on this mountain, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place where we should worship God." She presents Jesus with a dogmatic problem. Who is right? Who is "in" and who is "out"? What ritual is "proper"? The question sounded very like the question the two Baptist guys asked me. It is just like the letter writers to the paper... scoring religious brownie points in a debate. Jesus answers something like this; "Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. ..... the hour is coming, and is now here, when true worshippers will worship the father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such as these to worship him. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth."

My epiphany is this... The woman comes with dogma and differences and when Jesus responds with "God is Spirit" he is saying, "Such questions are irrelevant, God is bigger than such religious arguments and differences... he is greater than your various interpretations of him... switch on to his bigness!" In her introduction to her book "The Case for God" Karen Armstrong says, "One of the things I have learned is that quarrelling about religion is counterproductive and not conducive to enlightenment. It not only makes authentic religious experience impossible but it also violates the Socratic rationalist tradition." .. A little later she points out... "Religion is complex; in every age, there are numerous strands of piety. No single tendency ever prevails in its entirety. ... But a deliberate and principled reticence about God and/or the sacred was a constant theme not only of Christianity but in the other major faith traditions until the rise of modernity in the West. People believed that God exceeded our thoughts and concepts and could only be known by dedicated practice. We have lost sight of this important insight..." We miss out on connection with God when we are wrapped up in dogma and certainty. We discover the reality in practice and "walking as Jesus walked".

My comment to the two "dogmatic Baptists" was that I found it useless trying to discuss differences with fellow Christians. But when Christians get together to express love for others (as we were in Christchurch or as they do in Habitat for Humanity) God, or the sacred is experienced in their midst!

My epiphany was, and I am still stewing on its implications, that the expression of love together with others, is worshipping God in spirit and in truth. When we experience God in this way, in our heart of hearts religious dogmatism is exposed as irrelevant, small minded and out of tune with the nature of "God". Our hearts, our minds and affections are expanded to incorporate so many "others" who are different.

This Jesus saying says to me that God is bigger than our various interpretations of him. Don't get wrapped up in your dogma, but experience and participate in the love, the spirit of God.

On this passage I love this monologue.