Our Gospel
lesson about Jesus' baptism
is downright peculiar viewed from the angle
of spirituality and religion today.
It is
currently a popular notion that spirituality
is best done privately, by the
individual,
using his or her own critical
thinking.
That is a
very attractive way to go about spirituality.
I get to
figure it out for myself.
Knowing that
I am smarter than St. Thomas Aquinas,
holier than St. Athanasius, and
humbler than St. Francis,
I can devise a better spirituality
than Christianity.
I can invent
better rituals than the ones practiced by millions
of lesser people over the millennia.
I can make
up better stories than the Bible and craft a better Creed
than the Council of Nicaea.
The most
convenient thing about private spirituality
is that I basically get to make up
my own God.
And that is
great.
The God I
create will not ask for any of my money,
or even any time I do not already
want to give.
The God of
my making will not infringe on my political convictions
with Biblical social morality.
The God I
invent will never ask me to take up my cross.
No, the God
of my creation will be the shield and sustainer of my ego.
There are a
few problems with my private little God.
First, as I
say, he works for me because he works for me.
He is the
shield and sustainer of my ego.
But all the
name brand religions – Judaism, Christianity,
Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and the
rest say
that my ego is the problem.
My ego is
the prison of my soul.
So my private
little God is on exactly the wrong side
of the spiritual project
that should dismantle ego,
not fortify its prison walls.
Second, when
I die, the God of my creation dies with me.
In the world
of private individual spirituality,
I am the Alpha and the Omega.
So when I
turn the lights out, that’s all she wrote.
Third, the
God of my own creation won’t connect me with other people.
Worshiping
my own God in my own way in my own place
at my own time is convenient, but
lonely.
St.
Augustine said what we all know from experience.
The joy of
life is found in human friendship.
We don’t
make friends in a private spirituality.
So let’s
flash back to 30 A. D.
If anyone
had the qualifications to do private spirituality,
it was Jesus.
But he
didn’t do it.
He prayed
and studied at synagogue,
worshiped in the Temple,
and was baptized by John.
He wasn’t
too good for the faith of his ancestors
or the seekers of his own day.
Jesus didn’t
have his Holy Spirit experience off by himself.
He had it in
the Jordan River with John.
So John also
saw the Spirit descend on Jesus.
When Jesus
came up from the water,
John heard the voice of God
When Jesus
was baptized, when Jesus had his encounter with God,
it wasn’t just so he could get
himself in the zone.
It was for the
sake of others, including John.
The next
time John saw Jesus, he didn’t say
“Master let’s go off and have a
private guru and disciple chat.
Tell me your secrets so I can be a
spiritual hot shot too.”
Instead he
pointed Jesus out to his friends and said,
“If you are looking for God, go
follow Jesus.”
So they
followed him, and when Jesus asked then,
“What do you seek?”
they said, “Where are you living?”
They just
wanted to be where he was.
So he showed
them his place and they stayed with him.
One of those
disciples, Andrew,
Immediately brought his brother
Peter to Jesus.
They were
forming connections.
Jesus shared
his experience with John,
John passed it on to Andrew
then Andrew brought in
Peter.
They were
all looking for God together.
They weren’t
each making up their own God.
They were
looking for the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
the God of Sarah, Rebecca, and
Rachel.
They were
looking for the God of Moses, Samuel, David, and Isaiah.
Their hope
was grounded in promise made to their ancestors.
Nothing
private about this.
It’s a group
project with the group spread through the centuries.
And Jesus
taught them about the Kingdom of God.
He told them
where to look for it.
In the 1960s
we started privatizing the translation.
(2nd person singular)”
-- meaning look inside yourself to find God.
But actually
Jesus said, “The Kingdom of God is among you
(2nd person plural).”
The Kingdom
of God is in the relational space between you.
It’s about
the relationships.
If you are
on your way to the altar with your gift to God
and you remember you are at odds
with your brother,
stop right there and make peace with
your brother first.
Forgive.
Share. Tell the truth. Give more than is asked.
God on earth
resides in human connections.
All of this
adds up to three things for us.
First, it
makes a difference for how we treat each other
in the Church.
The other
people in Church with are not just fellow consumers
of the sacraments.
They are the
sacraments. They are the body of Christ.
They are the
face of Jesus.
If we want
God the way we want him, we have to keep him private.
But it we
allow the God of Jesus to appear to us,
he will show up in the curious guise
of each other.
Second, if
our faith is relational, we have to share it.
Like John
the Baptist, we naturally point people toward Jesus.
Like Andrew
we go find someone we care about and tell them
where to find Jesus.
We know
where that is. It’s right here.
One of our
parishes recently reported that 85% of their newcomers
found their church through their web site.
But we still
have churches that don’t have web sites.
That may
reduce their chances of meeting a newcomer by 85%.
But it gets
worse.
We have
churches you can’t find on a GPS,
churches that aren’t even in a phone
book,
churches with small signs hidden
behind shrubbery.
I am very
pleased to see St. Christopher’s beginning
to let Boulder City know you are
here.
In one of
our congregations a middle school boy
was listening to a classmate tell
him about her unhappiness.
He said to
her, “You need Jesus” and he invited her to church.
She’s now a
regular at the communion rail.
Maybe you’re
not that bold,
but can you wear a cross?
If you find
anything good about this Church,
could you mention that in a
conversation?
We meet God
in the connections we make with people.
When we
don’t make those connections, we are missing God.
The third
thing about relational faith is that it calls us to care for people
who are not like us, people we don’t
even know.
Like Deacon
Ann Langevin’s project to buy solar lanterns
for our companion diocese in Kenya
so they can have light
in rural villages with no electricity.
We have two
ways to share the light of Christ.
One is the
send people solar lanterns.
The other is
to invite someone to church.
Both ways
are connecting to people in caring ways,
looking for Christ in them and with
them.
That’s the
Christian religion.
It’s often
inconvenient.
It costs
money – like $9.50 for a solar lantern.
It costs time.
It costs attention.
Eventually,
it costs us our whole life.
But that’s
where the love is. That’s where the joy is.
That’s where
we find our hope for all eternity.
