Below is the manuscript version of my sermon from Sunday...
Article 18: Christian Spirituality – growing closer to God through spiritual disciplines
February 27, 2011
BMC- Gal. 5:22-26 & Rom 8:35-39
Introduction: The Stats
I have heard it said that much of our culture has no interest in being "religious" but that many if not most consider themselves to be "spiritual." “Such are the key findings in …data from the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life's U.S. Religious Landscape Survey of 35,000 Americans… conducted May through August 2007. This … installment focused on 60 questions about participants' religious beliefs and social and political views. The survey found U.S. adults believe overwhelmingly (92%) in God, and 58% say they pray at least once a day. But the study's authors say there's a "stunning" lack of alignment between people's beliefs or practices and their professed faiths.”[1]
For instance, “78% overall say there are "absolute standards of right and wrong," but only 29% rely on their religion to delineate these standards. The majority (52%) turn to "practical experience and common sense," with 9% relying on philosophy and reason, and 5% on scientific information.”[2]
And according to the National Study of Youth and Religion, “Despite an 8 percent decline in the number of American 12th graders attending weekly religious services over the past 20 years, the number of U.S. high school seniors who say that religion is "very important" in their lives has actually increased slightly. These findings suggest that the importance of spirituality in the lives of young people continues to increase, while at the same time the importance of participating in religious organizations has declined somewhat.”[3]
Within our own tradition, we find some interesting parallels on pages 101-103 of Conrad Kanagy's book "Road Sings for the Journey: a profile of Mennonite Church USA." This study tells us that only 75% of Mennonites pray daily and only 32% read the Bible daily. Moreover, only 53% attend Sunday school, only 77% in the Midwest attend worship on a weekly basis and only 38% participate in small groups. While some of these numbers are higher than in other denominations, participation in Sunday school, weekly worship, and small groups are each a significant decline from previous surveys in 1972 and 1989.
What then are the markers of Christian spirituality? Have we allowed our cultural context to water this down to some sort of generic "good feeling" or overarching belief that "there is a god out there somewhere?"
Our View of Spirituality
Clearly much of our culture believes in being spiritual. And certainly much of mainstream Christianity and Anabaptist Mennonites would also identify with being spiritual; but given these numbers, I wonder what we really mean when we say this. It seems to me that most people would see spirituality to mean nothing more than a generic openness to something beyond ourselves or a positive emotional experience.
Certainly, Christian Spirituality includes a belief in something beyond ourselves; but as our article names for us, it is clearly defined by Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. It is not generic. It is particular.
And certainly, Christian Spirituality involves positive emotional experiences. Our article names that our practice of spiritual disciplines helps us to get through the tough times, but it is more than this because it is about more than just us. Christian spirituality isn’t just about what we get out of it, because it is about a relationship with God and relationships are mutual. Moreover, healthy relationships mean that we sometimes have to sacrifice our personal desires. This is especially true in Christian Spirituality because as our article describes it, this relationship is about our transformation.
As we grow in our relationship with Christ through the Holy Spirit, we are changed. We are shaped into the image of Christ and conformed to his likeness. We experience his love, a love that Romans 8 tells us we cannot be separated from. “In God's love, our whole life is freed, transformed, reordered, and renewed.”
And God grows within us the fruits of Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. But as our Galatians 5 passage tells us, these do not magically appear, they come through the intentional work of crucifying the flesh of it’s passions and desires. They come through the work of staying in step with the Spirit.
Christian Spirituality is an experience of the love of God that calls us to a transformed life of discipleship in which “our outer behavior matches our inner life.” Christian Spirituality is a commitment to a relationship with God that calls us to conformity with Christ and walking in step with the Spirit. Christian Spirituality is a process of growth that happens primarily through the practice of Spiritual disciplines.
Prayer and Reflection on God
When I started as a freshman in college, I like many freshman believed that I pretty much knew everything that I needed to know about a lot of things, including faith. I saw going to college as more of a necessary next step and a chance to learn job skills. I did learn some skills, but I also came to realize how much I didn’t know and still don’t know for that matter.
One area in particular that I discovered I knew very little about was the Spiritual Disciplines. In taking a class from Randy Keeler, I learned a lot more about disciplines. I was aware of disciplines such as prayer and study of scripture, but I was also introduced to new practices like fasting and silence and solitude. Through this class, I also came to realize that I had pretty much plateaued in my faith and that spiritual disciplines were the tools that I needed to be able to continue my growth.
Our article names several important spiritual disciplines and notes in the commentary that this is not an exhaustive list. But it includes prayer and meditation. We know that prayer is important, but we tend to focus on using prayer to ask for what we need. This is a part of prayer; but prayer should also be a conversation in which we open ourselves up to hear what God has to say to us as well. We should meditate on God as a way of opening ourselves up to God’s transforming power in our lives.
There are many methods for prayer and some work better for some of us than others. While I don’t use it as much as I should, I have found the Anabaptist Prayer Book to be a helpful resource for times of extended, regular prayer. It uses scripture to provide a form or structure to move through when I don’t have the words or am finding myself distracted; but it also provides space to offer up requests, thanksgiving, and confession. And it creates space for mediation on God.
Study of Scripture
Study of scripture is another discipline named by our article. When we approach scripture, we tend to look to it to give us something that we need. We are looking for a particular answer or for inspiration. These are important components of what scripture is for us, but we should also come to scripture at times just to dwell with it, soak it in, and be formed by it.
The last two Sundays, many of you have had the opportunity to meet Beth’s younger brothers, Joel and Micah. They both have down syndrome and so they spent some time with us while Beth’s parents were away on a cruise. Joel is 30 and he is able to read and write. Micah is 26 and he is not able to read. He can write letters but isn’t really able to communicate by writing a note like Joel is.
I mention this because while Micah was staying with us, I was impressed by his commitment to spending time with the word on a daily basis. He can’t read and yet everyday he would grab his Bible, his pens and markers, and his CD player with headphones and he would go off by himself to spend time with scripture, underlining the words as he went over them.
Now we could choose to say that since he can’t read, he’s not really getting anything out of it. But I don’t think that’s the case. Rather I think that Micah modeled the discipline of dwelling with the word. He wasn’t going to it to get some answer out of it or fulfill an agenda. He was simply placing himself in God’s presence and allowing God to shape him through that.
Bible study is important, but so is dwelling with the word and allowing it to wash over us. That is why I appreciate the practice of Lectio Divina like we do at the beginning of some of our weekly prayer meetings. It is also why I memorize scripture. The time that I spend memorizing a passage isn’t an academic exercise. It is a dwelling with the world, a marinade for my brain that also conforms me to Christ in a deeper way that reading or study alone can’t do.
Simplicity (& Fasting)
Another discipline that our article names is simplicity. Our lives are so cluttered with stuff that it can distract us from seeing God in our very midst. And even when we do practice simplicity, we tend to hold it up as a badge of honor or to be legalistic or judgmental about it. We look at others around us who have more and lift ourselves up as living a more righteous life because we are living more simply.
I affirm the discipline of simplicity, but wonder if we should look at it more as a form of fasting. When we fast from something, we remove something from our lives for the purpose of focusing our attention in on God instead. Many times this means giving up some type of food or drink for a while, other times it may be giving up some form of technology.
The absence we feel from not having whatever it is that we gave up reminds us to look to God instead. And the time, energy, and resources used for whatever we have given up can then be redirected toward God.
Many of us fast from something during the season of Lent in preparation for Holy Week and Easter. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on March 9th. Perhaps you are being called to practice the discipline of simplicity or fasting during Lent this year. Perhaps you are called to practice one of these other disciplines in a more intentional way during the season of Lent.
Corporate Worship and Singing Hymns
Our article also reminds us of the disciplines of corporate worship and singing hymns. We live in a culture in which regular worship attendance is in decline. When we do go to worship, we tend to come to it with a consumer mentality that is only concerned with what “I get out of being in worship.” And certainly, we should encounter God in worship and be touched by that experience, but we should keep in mind that there is more to it than this.
First and foremost, worship is not about us but about the God that we serve. We come to worship to praise God, to honor God and to dwell in God’s presence. Ultimately worship is for God’s benefit not our own.
Second, we should keep in mind that most Sundays, we are only going to get out of worship what we put into it. If we spend our whole week focused on ourselves and our agenda, only to plop ourselves down in worship for the allotted 1% of our hours in the week, expecting to be suddenly transformed, we are usually going to be disappointed.
If instead, we spend our week and especially our weekend opening ourselves up and preparing for how we might meet God when we come to worship, I believe that we are going to be amazed by the ways that God will meet us here. The Jewish practice of the Sabbath teaches us about preparation and it shifts the focus from “What do I get out of this” to “How do I open myself up to God.”
Witness and Service
Finally, our article names the disciplines of witness and service. We tend to look at these disciplines as how do we fix people’s broken lives and how do we provide for their physical needs. And once again, we should be able to share the gospel message with people and we should be helping people who are down and out or have been affected by a natural disaster.
Yet there is a difference between going in to fix them and being a listening ear. There is a difference between being the answer man who has it all figured out and being a sign post that names the ways that God is already working in another person’s life when they may not even realize it.
Likewise, there is a difference between giving a hand out from a position of power and giving with a willingness to receive. There is a difference between seeing a need someone has and going in to fix it our way and developing relationships with people in which we can work together to assist them in the ways that they identify.
Conclusion
Christian Spirituality is more than a good feeling and it is more than a belief in a generic god. Christian Spirituality is about belief in Jesus Christ and keeping in step with the Spirit. It is about a love that transforms us and growing closer to God through spiritual disciplines.
Through practicing these disciplines, we turn our attention away from ourselves toward the God that we serve. In the process, we are conformed to Christ rather than to the world. May God foster the practice of these disciplines within us and may we be transformed as we do so.
Amen.
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