Spiritual or Religious?

How many times have you heard the phrase, “I’m spiritual but not religious”?  If you’ve listened at all to the culture around us, this is a slogan that has gained a lot of traction over the years.  Heck, I used to say the same thing myself back in my college days.  Having had enough of all the religious hypocrites in church who spoke words of love without actually living them, I became the poster child for being spiritual but not religious.  Even in seminary, I put down those who were “religious” presuming that those who claimed to be religious automatically saw themselves as better than everybody else.  While there are some religious Christians who wrongfully elevate themselves by judging the lives of others, I am beginning to see that being religious is not such a bad thing.  Being religious might be a more faithful following of Christ than being spiritual.

As we know, the word “religious” is “religion” dressed up as an adjective.  “Religion” comes from the Latin, “religare” which  means “to bind together”.  In other words, “religion” implies a communal identity.  Or as the Methodist pastor, Roger Wolsey puts it, “giving a damn about the well-being of others”.

Contrast this to being spiritual.  To be spiritual is to be connected to God. Though being connected to God is a really good thing, what happens when this is all we focus on?  Spirituality becomes just a “God and me” kind of thing.  Sure Yoga, meditations, exercise and clever Facebook posts might imply that we’ve got the goods on being spiritual and that we’ve arrived on our spiritual faith journeys, but is that what the baptized life looks like?  Am I really just a spiritual free agent seeking to walk with God to improve myself, or is there more?

Enter organized religion.  Yup, I said it organized religion.  What keeps our spiritual disciplines from becoming selfish practices of isolationism is organized religion.  Where else can we come together from all walks of life to be nourished by a God whose barrier-breaking son has been poured out in love for the world?  Where else can we gather together to pray for one another as well as the world?  Did you know that when we pray the Lord’s Prayer, we never pray it for ourselves?  It’s always prayed for the neighbor beside me in the pew.  My prayer for “daily bread” is always for you as yours is always for me.  Jesus was pretty brilliant in giving us that prayer.

Speaking of daily bread, where else can we gather together to add our meager coins with those of other ELCA folks in helping wipe out Malaria in Africa? 

Still don’t think that organized religion is a good thing?  Tell that to those religious communities instrumental in ending slavery, promoting Women’s Suffrage, and furthering the Civil Rights movement.  The fact remains that random acts of kindness just aren’t as effective as the organized ones.

I’m not saying random acts of kindness are bad, nor am I saying that we’re not called to be spiritual.  We certainly are.  But so too are we called to be religious:  to be in community loving one another and the world God has given us to care for.

What we do here in church on Sunday morning is important.  We don’t come here to be seen by others.  We don’t come here to get right with God.  We don’t come here to become better people. We don’t even come here because we have light bills and salaries to pay.  We come together here because that is how Jesus connects us to God.  Being active in a congregation is how we are connected not only to the heart of Christ, but to the entire Body of Christ as well.  It is here on a Sunday morning where lives of faith are nourished as we do life together.  It is here where we pray and play together; where we grieve and celebrate together; where we love and serve our neighbors and God together.  Not a bad way to spend a Sunday morning. 

So am I spiritual or religious?  Yes.

Peace and Love,

Pastor Doug

Pastor Doug's Maundy Thursday sermon

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”

These words come as no surprise to us do they?  We’ve heard them before.  If you’ve ever been to church on a Thursday night in Holy Week, you’ve heard these words before.  In fact, the very name of this day “Maundy” comes from the Latin “Mandatum”, meaning “command”.   This is the day Jesus commands us to love.  It’s what we’ve come to expect isn’t it?  No surprises are there?  Jesus’ command to love one another is so old school for us that we could write the book on love.

Or could we?  Do we really have this love-concept down? 

I think if we’re really honest with ourselves, we’re going to acknowledge that Jesus’ command to love isn’t so easy.  We’re going to admit somewhere in the deepest recesses of our heart, that we just don’t get it.  We just don’t get why Jesus would give such an unreasonable command as to love.

But isn’t that what Jesus does so well? 

Just when we think we have him all figured out…

Just when we think that we have tamed him…

Jesus throws everything into disarray and confusion.

Just when I think I have him all figured out, I discover that Jesus isn’t who I thought he was. 

Like Peter in this evening’s gospel story, who can’t imagine that Jesus the Messiah would come to suffer and serve in the most demeaning and self- emptying way, I find myself baffled and crying out in protest that this isn’t how God is supposed to do things.

I don’t know about you, but the more I try to follow Jesus by taking his words to heart, the more I realize how much Jesus takes me out of my comfort zone.

He tells me to love and to serve the least of these…

 Yet I want to judge others who are different from me.

He tells me to love my enemies and to forgive those who do me wrong…

 Yet I want to hold a grudge.

He tells me to feed the hungry and clothe the naked…

Yet I want to store up my own treasures in heaven taking care of me and my own first.

Maybe I’m not the only one who has problems following Jesus.  Maybe the Church finds it just as difficult to follow Jesus as I do.  And maybe that’s the problem.  

Stuck in old habits of survival, I wonder if the church has lost its imagination for love.  Hearkening back to another era when pews used to be full…

Have we become so obsessed with church survival that we have retreated to safe places failing to see the Kingdom of God all around us? 

Have we become so obsessed with survival of our congregations that we have failed to see Jesus has moved into the neighborhood and is inviting us to join him there? 

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

Could it really be that simple?

Who else could command us to love, than the One who on this night was put on death row?

Who else could command us to love, than the One who was tortured and executed on a cross of death the next day all the while pleading “Father forgive them”?

Who else could command us to love, than the One who did not stay dead conquering death once and for all?

A recent story on National Public Radio tells the tale of St. Albans Episcopal Church in Davidson, North Carolina which recently erected a statue of Jesus on its property in an upscale neighborhood not too unlike the one here around Incarnate Word.

This is not an “old school” statue of Jesus for it depicts him not with arms outstretched looking down on us from above, but huddled under a blanket with his face and hands obscured; only the crucifixion wounds on his uncovered feet giving him away.

As you can guess, the reaction was immediate. Some loved it; but many did not.  Thinking the statue was actually a homeless person, one woman from the neighborhood called the police the first time she drove by.  That’s right, someone called the cops on Jesus!  (As if that’s never happened to him before).

Another neighbor wrote a letter to the editor saying that the statue “creeped” him out.  Many more complained that such a depiction of Jesus was insulting to God and that it demeaned the neighborhood.

So what would Jesus think of a statue depicting him as a homeless man?  Would he be insulted or would he tell us that how we treat the least of these is how we treat him?  Would he take his toys and go home claiming we had disrespected him or would he tell us to love one another (especially the marginalized and those at the bottom of the heap) as he has first loved us?

Clearly, St. Albans Church has stirred up its neighborhood by challenging folks to not only see Jesus in a new way – but to love in a new way as well.  Could Jesus be issuing this same challenge to us?  What would you think if we commissioned such a statue at our East Avenue entrance?  ( By the way, I know the name of the sculptor and where he lives). 

What would the neighborhood think?  What would this statue say about us?  What would this statue say about Jesus?  Perhaps it would say that Jesus takes this love-thing seriously – and so do we.

A Letter from Pastor Doug

 

“Lord God, you have called your servants to ventures of which we cannot see the ending, by paths as yet untrodden, through perils unknown.  Give us faith to go out with good courage, not knowing where we go, but only that your hand is leading us and your love supporting us; through Jesus Christ, our Lord.” (Lutheran Book of Worship p.153). 

                                                                                                            April 2, 2014

 Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,

Once every six years voting members from around our synod gather together in assembly to pray, discern, and vote in the election of a synodical bishop.  At our upcoming Synod Assembly in June, voting members of the assembly will do just that.

Two months ago, I was approached by a colleague from the Niagara Frontier Conference of our synod and asked to consider allowing my name to be put forward as a candidate for bishop.  After a great deal of prayer and discussion with Joanne and the kids, I agreed to allow my name to go into nomination.   In my twenty years of ordained ministry, I have never entertained the thought of serving the church in this capacity.  I may or may not be called to this servant office, but if this is a call of the Holy Spirit, I must be open to the discernment process.  This being said my first love is and has always been the parish.  I continue to give thanks to God for you and for the ministry we share here at Incarnate Word. 

There are a number of very qualified individuals who have been nominated for bishop this year, any one of whom would serve our church with faithfulness and integrity.  I am honored and humbled to have my name counted among theirs as those who might serve the congregations of our Upstate New York Synod as bishop.

As we journey together in the coming weeks, I would ask you to pray not only for all who are nominated for positions of synodical leadership, but for our Upstate New York Synod as well.  These are challenging times for the church.  No longer can we count on a culture to know our story of a God who has become one of us in Jesus Christ.  Now more than ever, all expressions of the church are called to be a relevant presence in the world.  As Lutheran Christians, we have a unique take on a God who not only becomes flesh and dwells among us, but who does so out of an abundance of amazing grace.

We are a church in mission.  No longer is the mission field located on the other side of the world.  It is right outside our church doors.  May we as a congregation and as a synod, let our holy imaginations loose as together in Christ we bear God’s creative and redeeming word to all the world.  If you have questions or would just like to sit down over a cup of coffee and chat, please let me know.  These are indeed challenging times, but what an exciting time to be the church!

Peace and Love,

Pastor Doug