Month: January 2020

⁸ Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

Philippians 4:8

I would describe my beliefs broadly as “progressive Christian.” That means a lot of things. Today, I’m thinking on two of the principles listed on the Common Call site, which were basically lifted from https://progressivechristianity.org/:

• I believe that following the path and teachings of Jesus can lead to an awareness and experience of the Sacred and the Oneness and Unity of all life; and
• I affirm that the teachings of Jesus provide but one of many ways to experience the Sacredness and Oneness of life, and that we can draw from diverse sources of wisdom in our spiritual journey.

These are two principles that are somewhat in tension, but that tension is part and parcel of my faith. Basically, I’m saying that I believe Jesus is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, but due to God’s immanence, Truth has broken through and been revealed in many places, cultures, and times.

My morning routine includes a daily reading from the Bible in One Year app produced by Nicky Gumbel, Vicar of Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB, an Anglican church in London) and pioneer of Alpha. When I mentioned that on a progressive site recently, someone asserted that Alpha, in their experience was anti-progressive. My experience of it has been that it is reminiscent of Mere Christianity: it focuses on the very basics of the Christian faith.

Recently, I saw that First Baptist Church of Rolla ran an Alpha course. A couple years ago, I ran one through Common Call (not exactly a failure, but far from a success). Now, do I think First Baptist approached it the same way I did? Absolutely not. But just as we read the same Bible, we share certain beliefs in common, chief among them that Jesus is Lord.

Because of my affiliation with Common Call, I am also active in the Campus Ministries Association. Beliefs of my colleagues in CMA range from Catholic to Mormon to Pentecostal. I think most of us would disagree on a lot of theological issues. But we all believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, and that students are better off being engaged in a faith community.

Not all paths lead to God. But many paths can lead us to a deeper awareness of the Holy Spirit that binds all humanity. We are not meant to live solo lives. We are meant to live in community with each other. Whether that community is Presbyterian, or Catholic, or Buddhist, or atheist, I believe the Holy Spirit is there connecting our hearts.

So I’m OK with interfaith dialogue. I’m looking forward to a time when I can go on a Jesuit spiritual retreat. I’ve encouraged non-Christians to seek out a Unitarian Universalist congregation. God is too big to squeeze into a doctrinal box. God is in everything–we are simply limited in our awareness of God’s presence and our ability to describe it.

⁴ Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant ⁵ or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; ⁶ it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. ⁷ It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7

I am an engineer—by training, by profession, by temperament, and as an identity. It’s core to who I am. Broadly speaking, engineers solve problems by applying logic, reasoning, and knowledge.

The incentives in the world all are biased towards the individual. People are paid for work completed, and those who do the best or most work generally get ahead. Being single with no commitments would, in principle, facilitate being more successful. If all you have in your life is work and more work, you should be able to accomplish more and be more successful.

From that perspective, marriage is a bad deal. You promise that you will sacrifice yourself for the sake of someone else, expecting little or nothing (of material value) in return. “In sickness and in health” sounds glorious when everyone is healthy. When poor health (or poverty, or worse) comes along, it would sure be convenient to treat the marriage like a business arrangement that can be painlessly terminated. Parenthood similarly asks for a tremendous investment of time and money, and a complete re-ordering of your life, with a huge amount of uncertainty.

I don’t really know how love works. Love defies logic and reason. Relationships aren’t problems that can be solved, but rather works of art that are created together. The value of marriage is that it forces the pair to seriously address the ugliness that can arise in any relationship, rather than abandon the beauty that remains.

Marriage is logical, but the love that undergirds it is not. That is, love is an irrational premise, but from that premise, marriage follows logically. Similarly, religion is logical. Every religion has rules, rituals, and ways of being that have a certain internal logic. This structure keeps a religious community together through the hard times, and keeps an individual engaged when God seems absent. Yet the Spirit that supports it all is beyond our understanding.

A common phrase these days that people use to describe themselves is, “spiritual but not religious.” What they really mean is that they accept the premise of God, but not the structures that (other people think) logically follow. I think this is like accepting the premise of love, but not marriage. Being in love, or believing in God, can only get you so far. Relationships, with other people or with God, require commitment, a promise to stay in the relationship when things get hard. It is when you go through those hard times, together, that you realize what matters most to you.

Program Notes

My apologies for this being a bit rough, but I wanted to get some thoughts out. I’ve had several interesting conversations this week that touch on love, commitment, community, and spirituality. I will almost certainly return to these themes again sometime.

I am preaching somewhat regularly now. I preach periodically in my home church, First Presbyterian Church of Rolla, when the installed pastor is traveling. I also preach about once a month at First Presbyterian Church of Cuba. I will continue to post my sermons, both written and recorded. Those sermons will typically be based on the lectionary or else on a topic given to me by someone else.

My intention is to also post blog posts like this on weeks when I don’t preach. Blog posts will generally cover other topics, separate from the lectionary, but related to something in my life.

In addition, I’ve been reading a lot (well, mostly listening to audiobooks while I run or drive) and will post a list of books that have impacted my life. As of this writing, I’m listening to The Second Mountain by David Brooks.