January 13, 7:00pm (Kevin Westling)
To PRACTICE our spirituality, no matter what it is we are practicing, is to be thoughtful, intentional, and engaged… not a lump.
Download
Full Text
Preached at Trinity Buffalo’s
“Trinity@7: An encounter with God without all the religion”
January 8, 2012
There is a real difference
between Eastern and Western religions.
Not better and worse,
at least not in my mind –
any more than Yin
is better or worse than Yang.
And in fact,
many scholars would say that
before the late 20th century
and the advent of Falun gong,
there were no indigenous
Chinese religions.
That in fact,
Chinese Buddhism,
Confucianism
and Taoism are philosophies without deities.
So they would consider Chuang Tzu
(the author of our first reading)
a sage or philosopher
more than a mystic or spiritual guide.
But much ancient and contemporary religion
emerges from the East,
especially in that part of the world
we now call India.
And in academic religion,
there is a distinction created between
various kinds of religion:
“revealed” and “unrevealed”
religious traditions they are called.
Revealed religions
such as the three Western religious traditions
of Judaism, Christianity and Islam,
begin from the premise that
only God can unveil God.
These traditions are clear
that what we know of God
is exactly and only
what which God has chosen
to reveal about Godself.
Further,
that there is nothing
we can do
to attain knowledge of God
if it isn’t revealed by God –
that there is a permanent veil
between us and God…
and no amount of prayer
or study
or meditation
or good works
will ever be able to thin that veil.
On the other side of the ocean,
most Eastern traditions
begin from the premise that
enlightened wisdom
and enlightened being
is achieved by the practitioner
who devotes herself or himself
to the sublime.
Whether the object is
enlightenment,
or godliness
or mystical encounter with God…
such things can be learned
and accessed
by practice --
spiritual practice such as
yoga,
meditation,
Tai Chi,
Chi-Cong,
fasting,
and study.
Rather than being dependent
upon revelations by God
they might say,
we humans can unveil
secrets
and mysteries
and wisdom.
Frankly,
I do not know which is true,
of if they are both true.
Sometimes I think one thing
and sometimes I think another.
Sometimes
I think that I have experienced
both;
and at other times,
grim times,
I think I have never experienced
either.
So whether it is a matter of
non-action,
as with the Tao;
or waiting
for the revelation and renaissance,
as with the very secular Ferlingetti;
or, the lovely
kick-ass God
imagined by Alar-con…
I do not know.
But here is something I DO know:
if we do not
go out on a limb
and make an assumption,
(one way or another);
and if we do not
create a practice
based on that assumption;
and if we do not
give intentionality and energy
to living that practice;
then nothing will happen…
we will be the very lump
we don’t want to be.
Admit it,
no one wants lumpiness.
We could stand to be wrong,
but not a big ole lump.
We could take it
if it turned out God was
revealed and we didn’t know it,
or that God was unrevealed
and we didn’t know it;
but being wrong
in the effort of doing well,
is so much better
than being a lump.
Being a lump
is a technical phrase;
it is a highly scientific metaphor
for doing nothing
to close the gap
between what we cherish in life
and actually living
in accordance with that which we cherish.
In other words,
whether we embark on a spiritual practice
that assumes
we can uncover holy mysteries,
or if we follow a spiritual practice
that sensitizes us
and opens us up
so that we are ready
to receive revelation whenever it arrives…
both are proactive and neither is passive.
To PRACTICE our spirituality,
no matter what it is we are practicing,
is to be thoughtful,
intentional,
and engaged…
not a lump.
“Lumpism”
describes what so many of us are
spiritually,
so much of the time.
We don’t really “do” anything;
but we “believe”
a bunch of stuff instead.
Lumps can believe all kinds of things,
but so what?
So many of us
spend so much of our spiritual energy
on “believing” stuff
instead of doing
or engaging
or pursuing
or even “being” anything.
The emphasis is on “believing”
rather than on practice.
We “believe” the heck out of things,
and the culture around us
emphasizes “belief”
far more than practice.
But PRACTICING our spirituality
does not require a great deal of belief.
A little belief
goes a long way,
but a lot of practice is required
to close the distance
between what we say we value and cherish
and how we actually
live out our lives.
Practice,
spiritual practice,
is what we DO
when we embody our beliefs,
and we live out our values,
and we spend our money and resources
toward the things we say we cherish.
Practice,
spiritual practice,
is the behavior and activity
that narrows the distance
between what we say we value
and how we live out our lives.
And whether our spirituality
is based upon God,
or wisdom,
or a God that is revealed
or is unrevealed,
PRACTICE
is what puts flesh
on that which we believe.
Don’t tell me what you believe,
show me what you PRACTICE
and then I will know what you believe.
That, in my tortured little mind,
is the value of spiritual community:
holding our feet to the fire
to challenge one another
about how our practice is going;
and nurturing one another
in new and deeper ways
to practice our spirituality;
and teaching one another
cool stuff
we didn’t know
or hadn’t heard on our own.
So…this is a new year
and a great time,
not to make resolutions,
but to ask ourselves
about what we practice – about our spiritual practice.
It is a great time
to wonder,
and wonder out loud,
about the more
and different things we can do
to narrow the distance
between what we say we believe
and how we actually live out our lives.
And so,
to make a right beginning,
I invite you to come forward
and light a candle,
in anticipation
of narrowing that gap;
and in commitment
to giving some thought
AND conversation
to your practice.
