Are You a Pharisee or a Publican?

This morning, I am looking at the readings for this coming Sunday.  The Gospel appointed is the parable of the Publican i.e. tax collector, and the Pharisee from Luke chapter 18.  Both are praying in the temple.  The Pharisee is blowing his own horn about how good and righteous he is – fasting twice a week, tithing, and giving thanks that he is not like other men who are adulterers, unjust, and extortionists.  He is especially thankful he is not like the Publican.  The Publican, in contrast, asks for God’s mercy as a sinner. 

Jesus holds up the example of the Publican as being justified rather than the Pharisee.  This is a well-known parable of Jesus – at least in my experience.  It is great fodder for sermons and is a great lesson for those in the pews about being like the Publican and not the Pharisee.  Don’t get too high on yourself and be righteous.  If you ask people sitting in the pews if they agree that the Pharisee should be condemned by Jesus, Likely most would agree – perhaps feeling somewhat uncomfortable about having similar feelings to those of the Pharisee – albeit on a much smaller scale of course.

 However, once you do that – to say thank God I am not like the Pharisee, you are doing just what Jesus was criticizing the Pharisee for doing.  How many of us can say we have never looked at someone and mentally criticized them as being the wrong kind of person, or acting in the wrong way, or dressing inappropriately, or having the wrong kind of hair, and so on.  When we do that, we are letting our inner Pharisee take over.  Rather than looking at ourselves we are focussing on the other out there rather than looking inward at ourselves.  

I invite all of us to pay attention for the next week to where our inner Pharisee takes charge and whenever it does see that we might not be admitting about ourselves. 

 

Reflections on Spirituality and Religion

My last reflection was on Faith, Belief, and Spirituality drawing on the work of theologian Harvey Cox in his book, The Future of Faith.  I want to follow up on that with thoughts and reflections by theologian Diana Butler Bass from an interview on the CBC program Tapestry.   The episode is entitled, Finding god in HGTV: a spiritual revolution http://www.cbc.ca/radio/tapestry/finding-the-sacred-in-unexpected-places-1.3765363/finding-god-in-hgtv-a-spiritual-revolution-1.3765366

Diana Butler Bass looks at Spirituality and Religion as they are manifest today and raises a number of interesting questions and comments. 

Bass first poses the question, is Religion keeping up with the longings and questions of and for the 21^st Century e.g. What are people longing for – compassion and companionship/neighbourliness.  How do we embody compassion?

The God of 100 years ago – hierarchical remote was manifest in the establishment and practice of religion.  This is a God who is a being sitting on a throne somewhere in outer space.  This is contrasted with a God who is imminent, creative, with us; a God who is compassionate.  Do our hymns and architecture need to reflect that?  Is it enough to just reflect this in our theology and sermons and teaching?  A tension between the memory i.e. an idealized view of a golden age of Religion which can be just a few decades ago in some of our lifetimes when Sunday Schools were overflowing and church services were standing room only versus the apparent yearning for something beyond the materialism and competition of Western society today.  

What is missing for the way the 21^st Century does religion?  Concepts of science e.g. the Big Bang – all matter created some 14 billion years ago – we are stardust – what has been happening since is the rearranging of the matter – is this God’s plan?  What might this be leading to us to – perhaps a future like one envisioned by the Omega Point of Teilhard de Chardin.

Is Spirituality opening the door for individualism?  A charge by those who primarily care about religious institutions, that the spiritual movement is a base about self-indulgence.   How does religion connect with what people are longing for?  Does spirituality allow you to sidestep those things that challenge you?  Short answer, yes.  But organized religion is no guarantee that doesn’t happen in a church community. 

Bass proposes that one manifestation of spirituality today can perhaps be seen in the popularity of HGTV.  People are longing for home.   Bass notes that when she refers to her little home in her back yard where she does her writing and puts a picture of it on social media.  She is inundated with requests about where they could get the plans for it.  It is a sign of the desire for a ‘Room of one’s own’ to use the phrase by Virginia Woolf who wrote about it almost a hundred years ago. 

In reflecting on this, I am left with the question of the viability and future of a spirituality that is amorphous and all-inclusive that it means everything and nothing at the same time.  Can region in its structure and practice include and incorporate the aspects of spirituality which will enable people to explore and develop a mature spirituality that will bring them closer to the God which they are seeking.

 

Faith, Belief, and Spirituality

The Gospel reading from last Sunday recounted the story in the Gospel of Mark, where Jesus feeds a multitude with just seven loaves and a few small fish. Interpreting this event invites us to reflect on the concepts of faith and belief.  We also should allow spirituality to sneak into the discussion through the back door as well. 

In his work, The Future of Faith, theologian Harvey Cox outlines three major epochs in Christian history. The first, which he calls the Age of Faith, began with Jesus and the early disciples. Cox describes this as a time when a vibrant and uplifting faith energized the Christian movement from its earliest moments.

Cox then identifies the second epoch as the Age of Belief. This period started when the first generation of Christians no longer had direct contact with Jesus or his disciples. During this time, beliefs concerning Jesus began to be defined and solidified, shaping Christian doctrine for the next fifteen hundred years.

The Third epoch is the Age of the Spirit.  This Age is more amorphous and harder to pin down being identified in many different aspects.  The Age, which is identified with the Third Person in the Trinity, is appropriately like trying to catch a breeze in your hands. 

Cox holds that faith begins with awe which is in response to an encounter with mystery such as a miracle recorded in the bible or the wonders of the natural world.  Cox states that, “awe becomes faith only as it ascribes some meaning to that mystery.”  In this way faith is very much an outcome of experience.

The Age of Belief has resulted in an agreed set of statements or Creeds which Christians are to adhere to.  As the organized structure of the Christian Church emerged, the hierarchy of the church, “distilled the various teaching manuals into lists of beliefs.”  These have been adapted and replaced in some instances due to schisms and disagreements, while in other cases such as the Creeds have basically remained unchanged. 

The differences in the approach between faith and belief was well summed up by Carl Jung in his famous statement in response to being asked if he believed in God.  He stated emphatically, "I don't need to believe in God, I know."  Jung’s response seems to me to be based on his experience of exploring the human psyche in all its complexity and depth.  In effect, his faith gave him the assurance of the existence of God.

It seems to me that it comes down to how we respond to our experience of mystery.  In this way faith and spirituality have much in common - both are based on experience.  How do we understand mysteries today?  Do we try to demythologize them and turn to belief in science and rationality for answers?  Do we awaken the awe that may be buried under the mountains of scientific facts and theories that permeate our culture?  Then there is the convoluted thinking that muddles the distinction between faith and belief.  I believe we would be in a much better place if we just ‘let the mystery be’ – to quote one of my favourite songs. 

I hope that you will be open to mystery in all its forms on your journey.