Blessings

            Oh, how God can surprise us! Just when we’re relaxed, looking the other way, Jesus appears right in front of us. If you don’t want to be bothered, you won’t recognize Jesus. But…if you’re open to the Spirit, God will smack you right in the face and give you one of those WOW moments.

            I’ve been visiting Occupy Tampa at least weekly. This past week, as I entered their encampment, I was greeted by several people I already knew. As I stood chatting, a young man came up whom I hadn’t met before. He introduced himself as “Seth,” and I introduced myself. He asked me if I was Christian and I replied affirmatively (passing up the possible opportunity for a good theological discussion!). Then he asked me if I would bless him. Surrounded by several of his Occupier friends, I laid hands on him and prayed over him and with him. He was deeply appreciative and he joined in conversation with myself and others most of the rest of my time there. By the time I left, I knew that I had received the greater blessing.

            I think it’s a hallmark of our faith that when we minister to others we are even more richly blessed. Think about times when someone has given of themselves to you, with nothing to gain. That kind of selfless giving can’t help but be deeply meaningful to you, and deeply peaceful. You have been warmly welcomed into that person, creating a new bond out of our common humanity.

            Seth was Jesus for me that day. When I blessed Seth, I blessed Jesus: “Just as you did it to the least of these my friends, you did it for me.” (Matthew 25:40) And I was more greatly blessed. Who will be your Jesus today? Who will need your blessing? Will you be out there in the world with your blessings ready, or comfortable at home watching TV? Are you available to the stranger who needs you? The blessings you may give are without price, the blessings you receive eternal.

NOTE: Seth was arrested on Sunday, January 29, while participating in a march in protest against the violence which is recurring in Oakland, CA.

“Recovering from Seismic Collapse”

“American spirituality is in seismic collapse.” After a lecture earlier this year, I asked Celtic spiritualist and theologian John Philip Newell for his assessment of the state of American spirituality. He paused and thought for a moment before softly replying.  A cataclysmic answer from the normally mild-mannered Scot.  Strong language from the theologian who has been lecturing across the United States this year, following a period of residency at a New Mexico center of spirituality. He is more than a distant or detached observer of the American religious scene.

            The strong language gets one’s attention, yet the metaphor strikes much more of a chord of truth than many leaders of the American Christian church would like to admit. Some more astute observers of the American religious landscape would not fundamentally disagree with Newell. Pastor and author Tony Robinson has written the obituary for the “civic church” of the first half of the 20^th century, and noted an emergent yearning for a spirituality seeking a deeper, more meaningful relationship with God and others. The faithful are leaving the church in increasing numbers and the young are not entering the church in their parents’ footsteps. This earthquake has been happening in slow motion for a half-century and religious leaders either haven’t noticed it, haven’t believed that it is permanent, or think that more of the same will fix it. “It” is generally defined as declining membership.

            To press the analogy a bit further, the buildings in which the church has so prided itself are collapsing, spiritually speaking. In my native New England, the white Congregational church on the town green was the very image of the community’s life, and similar indigenous images are available throughout America. We said, “Come and see what a beautiful church we have….and, oh, by the way, we might talk a little about Jesus.” We pine for the good old days when the church was important and the prominent people in the town were also the prominent people in the church. The community was knit together in the church.

            It is indeed ironic that a longing for deeper meaning in the lives of Christians was discovered by individuals long before it came to be acknowledged by the church; indeed, it has not yet been acknowledged by many congregations. It had nothing to do with the guru movements of the 1970’s or the mega-church boom of the 1980’s and 90’s; Christians were not giving up on their faith and were, by and large, unwilling to embrace the over-sized, impersonal, feel-good approach of the mega-churches. The profundity of this growth of individual seeking is that it has been just that: individual. By the hundreds, then thousands, then millions, people began to enter their own private transformation. There is a sacred place in each human heart that needs to be filled with God, and people were finding that place slowly being emptied, resulting in a new spiritual hunger.

            Sadly, much of this hunger is undirected. As in the earthquake’s wake, the faithful are wandering aimlessly. Some drop out of church, some never attend. Some seek to numb their hunger in drugs or alcohol. Teen suicide is at an all-time high. I-pads and ear-pods remove us to a different place and separate us from community. The “Me Generation” rules. Not only have church buildings spiritually collapsed, but, like an earthquake, the human toll is enormous and tragic. As in Haiti and Japan, this spiritual earthquake has left millions homeless; a quarter-century may pass before those two countries are fully restored. Can the American church afford that length of time to rebuild in ways that will bring the gospel of Jesus Christ afresh to a new day?

            I believe it can, but the work must begin soon. We begin by a deep acknowledgment that God is at the center of our lives; here, the new Christian spiritualists are far ahead of the church. God is the foundation upon which we build, as we co-create with God. Second, the church must be crystal clear in its mission, which I believe to be the transformation of lives into the image of Christ. Transformation takes place in community, and all that church leaders and laity do must be directed at this end. Third, the church must recognize that it, too must transform itself, together with seminary education; new leaders must emerge who understand that the Christian Spiritual Age is dawning, to the glory of God. And today’s church leaders must engage themselves in personal transformation.

            We must also develop a coherent Creation-based spirituality and theology, for a North American context. It is mystifying that Celtic spirituality lay dormant for 1,200 years before emerging from the ashes a little more than a century ago. Based on themes of God’s creation of the universe and continuing holy presence therein, humanity conceived in the goodness, image and likeness of God, a pervasive seeking of unity in all creation, the profound truth of the Incarnation of God in Christ, and the sacredness of community, Celtic spirituality also turns new light on historical church doctrines seen as damaging to humanity, including original sin, substitutionary atonement, creation ex nihilo, and the virgin birth. Celtic spirituality, claiming authority in the Gospel of John and many Christian mystics throughout the centuries, calls us toward a higher and deeper unity with God.

            Celtic spirituality does not necessarily transplant well to America. In this regard, I believe the American church can and should avail itself of Diana Butler Bass’ notion of “re-traditioning.” Bass suggests that we need not toss out all of Christian tradition in order to respond to the growing need for an American spirituality. Instead, we need to claim anew ancient Christian practices in creative and dynamic ways. Bass suggests that throughout history Christians have retraditioned their practices when old patterns decline into irrelevance, and that we can do so now. In her work, she reports on Protestant congregations from coast to coast which have found new life and meaning by reconnecting with Christian tradition and practices of faith. In my own ministry in the Universal Fellowship of Metropolitan Community Churches, I have noted that Celtic themes resonate with many people; they have a “ring of truth” to them and draw people closer.

            I do believe a new Spiritual Age is dawning in the Christian church in North America and that the church must respond in gratefulness and in leadership if it is to regain the prophetic and moral voice which it must provide in the new world of the 21^st century.