A New Way
The atmosphere is abuzz with “New Year!” There is an aroma of hope mixed with desperation in the air. Hope for a fresh start, for a newness of life and purpose, and then there is a desperation to leave behind a pandemic stricken, static society. Which raises the question on whether these baked together will actually create a…
New
Way
Forward.
I have been swimming in the collection of Abraham Joshua Heschel’s insights compiled in the book, “I Asked For Wonder,” and it never fails in stirring my heart and provoking my soul. The section on Religion is incredibly relevant for reimagining an active life of faith.
So, let’s listen and then riff off the wisdom and challenge.
“Religion is not “what man does with his solitariness.” Religion is what man does with the Presence of God. Mankind does not have the choice of religion and neutrality.
Irreligion is not opiate but poison. Our energies are too abundant for living indifferently. We are in need of an endless purpose to absorb our immense power, if our souls are not to run amok.
We are either ministers of the sacred or slaves of evil.
Little does contemporary religion ask of man. It is ready to offer comfort; it has no courage to challenge. It is ready to offer edification; it has no courage to break the idols, to shatter callousness. The trouble is that religion has become “religion” — institution, dogma, ritual.” (The end of page 61 into 62).
Friends, the same energy that infused this brilliant, provocative writing, is the energy that summons each of us to a life of dynamism.
I have never been content with religion as mere doctrines and dogmas, creeds and creaky pews. I grow weary of programs that merely occupy attendance, and I’m simultaneously bored with simply being disgusted with the church and endlessly deconstructing the institution.
It’s beyond time for a New Way Forward. The Presence of God is not arguable, it just is, so what then will we do with it? Whether or not you and I believe or disbelieve does not make Presence appear or disappear, both of those proposals are mad arrogance.
Our challenge is what we will do with the sacred and evil that stands before us, today. If the answer is attendance at religious services then I am already bored, which also means that arguing about whether people can or can’t be in the same building at the same time is a giant exercise in missing the point.
What will we do to serve the sacred? What will we do to cultivate the core of the soul in order to craft a life worth living?
I asked my sons over Christmas break how they feel about my job as a pastor and whether they view it as a good thing or if it is bothersome. My thirteen year old said, “Dad, I love that you don’t ask people to believe in God, you teach what people have done and will do with their belief in God.” Whoa. About an hour later, my ten year old followed by responding to the same questioning with, “The Bible is full of such crazy stories, I don’t understand why people think it’s boring. You teach with excitement because the Bible is so exciting, right dad?”
I am in a puddle of tears at how my boys communicated my vocation back to me.
The church is people who act on what they say they believe, people who respond to Presence by being present to the pain of world by offering and being peace.
Sons, I’ll take that job, and I can give my life for such a calling. That feels like…
A
New
Way
Forward.
Ancient theatre in Aspendos (Turkey)