Faith

It’s “in” to be Spiritual.   (And in my opinion, it’s even more “in” to say you’re spiritual, particularly “spiritual, but not religious”)    

But for sure, being spiritual is not a bad thing.     I think for this “spiritual-ness” to make sense in one’s life, for it to have some meaning, I think your spirituality has to have some sort of “root”, or base, on which it’s founded.   You need some kind of structure to build on.  

Some find meaning in an already established tradition – like Buddhism, Eastern Philosophy, Native American spirituality, or something like that –      

Or… the tradition might end up looking like a “crazy quilt” – one that’s pieced together from a variety of sources (bits and pieces that “work” for the person, pieces that seem to make the most sense for them).       

Or…   maybe the foundation is pretty much constructed from one’s own individual culture and life-experience.   Sort of like an original work.  

These foundations are made up of stories – stories told and re-told, stories held to be true, stories that tell of deeper meanings, that make sense of who we are in this world.   As a result of all this – and more – these stories end up being sacred.    They are sacred because they inform our lives in the present.   They provide some kind of guidance, they help us understand who God is, or what God might be… and how this God relates to us…  and who we are in relation to this God, and to others around us. 

These stories already have some kind of inherent meaning to the person.  They already have become “Myth” in the most classic and healthiest sense of the word… they hold “Truth”.   I mean the deep kind of truth, the truth that is deeper than any doctrine or ideology; like “who am I?”  or  “Who am I in relation to the world?”       “The two most important days in your life are the day you were born and the day you figure out why” – Mark Twain.     And if you figure out why… would that not be a Sacred Story??   And wouldn’t that put the rest of your life into some clearer perspective?  

Sacred stories – they make for sacred lives.       

But to many, Christianity is seen more and more as an irrelevant foundation… a foundation with little to no personal value.    We either end up losing the stories, they fall away with disuse.  Or we actually jettison them out of our lives.    Either way, the stories provide less and less meaning, and they dissipate.    

I remember about 20 years ago, around this time of year (more towards an early Easter), Chris and I were in a Blockbuster video store preparing for a snow storm.   We were getting the important things, you know… bread, milk, toilette paper, and a video.    And as I waited in the line to rent the VHS tapes   (“Daddy, what’s a VHS tape?”)   I was near one of those cardboard cut-outs of Jesus, and a whole display of Jesus movies there with it.   Remember this was near Easter.   

As we got closer to this display, I heard one of the kids in front of me – a young boy – asked his mother when Jesus died.    She sort of hemmed and hawed, and then said, “Sometime around the 12 century I think.”  Then she turned to her husband who was coming to the line and asked him if she was right, that Jesus died in the 12^th century.   He said no _ it sounded like he couldn’t believe what she was saying – and told her part of the story right there.    (I got the feeling Christianity and Jesus weren’t much of a topic in their house).   

Here’s a pattern that’s played out more often that we think:  Parents take their children to church and Sunday School.   The kids learn the stories of Moses, of Noah, of Jesus, of Paul, etc.   And they learn them in a manner appropriate to their age and development.    Meaning the faith is pretty simplistic; it’s not too deep, not too nuanced, too challenging, too tedious, (usually).   Things are usually pretty black and white – if you do “this”, you’re a good person, and if you do the opposite you’re a “bad” person.   Usually teachers and parents don’t want to nuance this too much since it might confuse the little children, so they keep things pretty simple.    God is (usually) a loving grandfatherly figure – sort of like John Walton, the leader of the wholesome Walton clan.   This God offers children blessings, instructs them on how to live well with all the other little children, etc.    And for the most part this works when you’re a child…   so long as you have parents that can make the more important decisions about life on your behalf.   The more mature and responsible the parent, the better, of course.

But as we grow up, this image and idea of God and the faith seems to offer less and less solace and meaning.     Life ends up showing more shades of gray, but the child-like faith, that worked for us when we were children, doesn’t really allow for that nuance of shading… so it becomes at best an annoyance, and at worst a hindrance to our maturity.    It ends up making less and less sense.    So, often, young adults – somewhere between High School, College, and/or the beginning of their professional lives – end up turning from this faith – usually because it’s irrelevant.    And they leave, if not the faith, then for sure the church – which is often seen as a purveyor of that same simplistic, child-like idea of God.  Whether this is true or not, it’s often seen that way.

In this kind of faith, clergy can easily fall into the trap of becoming museum tour guides, showing people the artifacts of a dead or dying religion.    Showing them things that have stories to them – we sure know the stories, but the stories themselves no longer inform the visitor to the museum.              

But what brings these young people back to church more than anything else?   Their children.    They often say they want to raise their kids with some spiritual foundation, and they feel they can’t do this on their own… so they look for a church; a church with kids programs, like Sunday School.   And if they can grow in the faith as well, well that’s a plus.   And the beat goes on…

 But I wonder how many of those young parents are expecting to be able to grow in the faith?   And what does “growing in faith” look like to them?    I wonder how many of those young parents are trying to grapple with faith issues on their own?    Alone, afraid to speak out, out  of fear of being called a heretic – or of being kicked out of the church.  Or maybe they aren’t really afraid of this, but out of respect for others - of not wanting to hurt other's faiths, they just remain quite.  

But nonetheless, we still search for meaning to our faith as adults.  We search for a faith with relevance to us.    Sometimes in spite of the faith as taught in church.   We look for meaning – we look for stories with deeper meaning.    What are my important Stories?  What do my “Stories” tell me about life?  About who I am in this life?  

Many feel as if they have out-grown the church faith.    I wonder though, have they outgrown the faith they learned as children… but have yet to encounter the grown-up faith of an adult?   Can Jesus, can God, can this faith grow up as well?   And what would this grown-up faith look like?