Other sermons

When asked to provide a title for this little story I settled on
“A SIMPLE CASE FOR BELIEVING.” In this complicated world of ours perhaps we should give simplicity another chance. I had also thought I might call it
"DOUBT: No time for Doubt…no place for Doubt…no reason for Doubt, or maybe I would just treat Doubt as a sub-title…or maybe not…

Tennyson – Alfred Lord Tennyson - had a couple of things to say about BELIEVING that appeal to me. In his classic In Memoriam Tennyson had this to say about BELIEVING. The lines of the opening stanza are these:

Strong Son of God, immortal Love,
            Whom we, that have not seen thy face,
By faith and faith alone, embrace
            Believing where we cannot prove

And he goes on:

We have but faith; we cannot know;
           For knowledge is of things we see,
And yet we trust it comes from thee,
           A beam in darkness: let it grow.

“BELIEVING WHERE WE CANNOT PROVE…”

“Cannot prove” and “cannot know”, as used by Tennyson do not mean “doubting” to me. It simply means accepting and trusting - “BY FAITH AND FAITH ALONE, EMBRACE…” In his words we find no reference to doubt.

Now, leaving you to savour the richness and simplicity in Tennyson’s words, I’m off on a curious tangent, with a curious question: Have you ever heard the expression, “Do or Not Do, there is no Try”? Do or Not Do, there is no TRY.

This expression recently fell to my wandering gaze, tagged on to a weekly newsletter distributed by my local Barbershop Harmony Chapter. The editor of the weekly rag is an energetic young graduate student at American U. The expression seems a little far out but it seemed to appeal to him, and I had to agree that it piqued my curiosity as well.
He tells me it is a quote from a Star Wars episode! Imagine that!

So, I ask myself, Does a statement like this translate as:

It’s black or white, there is no gray? Or…

It’s yes or no, there is no maybe? Or…

I BELIEVE, or I do NOT BELIEVE. There is no room for doubt?

On the way to addressing that let me tell you about my little adventure into the world of SPIRITUALITY, a world about which I know very little. Maybe the connection between Spirituality, Believing and Doubting is a little tenuous; and maybe not. But I could not have undertaken this discussion without that adventure.

The bait that lured me into the world of SPIRITUALITY was an article in a May 2006 issue of CCC NewsNotes. It was under the major heading of SOCIAL WITNESS HAPPENINGS, under a sub-title of SENIORS. There I found a short paragraph which starts with, “The Senior Adult Committee is interested in addressing the topic of “Spirituality and Aging.”

It goes on to say “because we’re not sure what form this topic might take, we would like to talk about how to best address it.”

This was interesting to me:
Here is a committee who would like to talk about how to talk about a topic they are dead sure they would like to talk about but don’t know how to talk about it. [I wondered if there was ever the option that the topic they would like to talk about maybe wasn’t the best topic to talk about after all. No, I don’t think there ever was an option.]

There seems to be some latent power inherent in the word AGING. Couple it with almost anything and you can count on a sympathetic response… from whom? If from no one else then at least from that dynamic, dedicated and growing segment of our population - THE SENIORS.

The article goes on, I quote, “Should we begin by simply discussing ‘spirituality?’ what is it? I don’t feel very spiritual! Am I a spiritual being?”

Well, therein was the hook, a double barb if you like. An uncertainty about knowing where we want to go but not knowing how to get there…and yet being willing to talk about it. I say to myself, “I don’t know if I agree with your committee's topic but you seem eager to discuss it and willing to listen. I found that attractive; refreshing. Being willing to listen is not always the case. And there seemed to be no long term commitment expected! Now that’s a draw!

Secondly, and a bigger draw, was the idea of defining SPIRITUALITY. A word which, at the time, I didn’t think I could define – accurately – for myself, although I had been hearing it for most of the 25 years I have been coming to this place, I never really felt that I understood it, as I heard it used. Turned out that “accurately” has nothing to do with it.

So we met.  We talked about what to talk about. We did a little research. We looked for definitions of SPIRIT, SPIRITUAL, AND SPIRITUALITY.  From 3 or 4 sources we came up with 58 definitions of those three terms. That’s a total of 58 choices! If you happen to be looking for an appealing definition perhaps we can help.

As I pondered these terms – and the broad spectrum of SPIRITUAL definitions, it seemed to me we usually talk more about SPIRITUALITY and a whole lot less about SPIRIT - the Holy Spirit. I wonder about that. In my view, the HOLY SPIRIT is central to our faith,  the essence of our FAITH, the pathway to BELIEVING, indeed, the pathway to GOD. And we don’t talk about it very much. I wonder why...or maybe, why it seems that way to me.

Incidentally, you may wonder if, out of that list of 58 definitions, I found anything that appealed to me. I am pleased to say that I did. They are two very simple thoughts that I’m quite satisfied to accept as my personal definition of spirituality.

The First: [Spirituality is] “The Divine influence working in the human heart.”

And the second, simply, “the Third Person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit”
Quite obvious, but I never thought about it until, …until I thought about it.

Back to the original “advertisement” in News Notes, and I’m repeating here,
“Should we begin by simply discussing ‘spirituality?’ what is it? I don’t feel very spiritual! Am I a spiritual being?”

From time to time, over the years, I have heard references to spirituality made by people who will say, for example:
“I would like to become more spiritual.” “I would like to increase my spirituality.”
“How can I become more spiritual?”
Is there not then, implied in these queries, something against which spirituality can be measured? Some kind of “spirituality scale?” Wouldn’t you have to know where you are when you start in order to measure any progress?

I have no idea how we might measure spirituality. Could we perhaps turn to that Universal Modern Measuring stick? I refer of course to “The Scale of One to Ten.” On a scale of 1 to 10, how spiritual are you? Do you really think you can answer that question? And if you did answer it and you were not satisfied with it, then what would you do about it? And how would you measure your improvement? In all of those 58 definitions I personally did not find any hint of scale or measure of the quantity, quality or dimension of spirituality. Not even any good-better-best! Not even a hint.

So, if we have doubts about our spirituality, do we have doubts about our faith? Is it the same thing? On a scale of 1 to 10 how strong is your faith? On a scale of 1 to 10 how deep is your doubt? If I have made any case at all that we cannot apply meaningful measures to spirituality, then will you accept also the suggestion that we cannot measure how strong is our Rock of Faith or how broad and how deep is our River of Doubt?

It seems to me that, if we are BELIEVERS, believers in “the Divine influence working in the human heart,” believers in the Holy Trinity as it includes the HOLY SPIRIT, then we have all the SPIRITUALITY we need. As Tennyson says, “We have but FAITH, we cannot know;…And yet we trust it comes from thee…” If we are BELIEVERS how could we want any more, expect any more, or need any more SPIRITUALITY.

And yet, we may still find ourselves adrift. Adrift in our boat of Faith on a mighty River of Doubt. The shore on one hand is the land of BELIEVING. The other shore is that of NOT BELIEVING. We may not be able to measure the depth, the width and the current on this River of Doubt but we cannot drift forever. We must make the obvious choice. We turn our boat of FAITH toward the firm and friendly shore of BELIEVING…and never mind how fast we’re going, or how far we have to go, or how swift is the current,  let us settle-in to a steady rhythm, and keep a steady pull on the oars. The land of BELIEVING is not very far away.

Amen.