Thursday 10 August 2017

Christianity - a progressive faith (part 3)

Members of the Progressive Christian Network express their beliefs in a series of 8 points

We are people who
  1. Seek God, however understood, guided by the life and teachings of Jesus 
  2. Affirm that there are many ways to experience the Sacred and that we can draw on diverse sources of wisdom on our spiritual journeys.
  3. Recognise that following Jesus leads us to act with compassion and to confront evil.
  4. Place hospitality at the centre of our communal and worshipping life and see the sharing of bread and wine as an expression of our common humanity.
  5. Seek to build communities that accept all who wish to share companionship without insisting on conformity.
  6. Know that the way we behave towards others is the fullest expression of our faith.
  7. Gain more insights in the search for understanding than we do in certainty.
  8. Work together within and beyond the Church to achieve a just, peaceful and sustainable world.
In this third blog I wil reflect on the second point 'We are people who affirm that there are many ways to experience the Sacred and that we can draw on diverse sources of wisdom on our spiritual journey."

I write this blog looking out through picture windows to a magnificent view across the Trossachs. The sun is shining, and because it is still early the songs of the birds are stronger and more melodious than  the extraneous sounds which the world will emit later in the day The Lochs and mountains of Scotland are just one part of God"s world which overwhelm us with their beauty and awesomeness. 

More people,have said to me that it is in such surroundings that they feel they presence of God more  than in Church or other holy places. That is not to say experiencing God in Church is not valid but such comments indicate that we, as regular Christian worshippers, are tempted to encage our faith in certain buildings and liturgies. There are indeed many and varied ways in which we experience the sacred and we can exclude none of them on our spiritual journey.

I began with a common experience, that of wonder that the earth and seas and sky are so inexplicably beautiful  that it is impossible to imagine all this existing and evolving, over millions of years, without the hand and eye of a power beyond human understanding, a power we call God. The unseen creator has created all we see around us, and it is ours to treasure or to plunder. If we see it as treasure, then it is also sacred and we should reverence every particle and praise the Creator. If we only treat our environment as a resource to be plundered and despoiled because of our greed, then it will not be sacred to us.

Many primitive religions worshipped all or part of the natural world and their ceremonies and liturgies reflected this. In some parts of the world this still happens. Whilst some Christians would label this as pagan, it does show us that the world was sacred to them and they were servants in the world rather than expecting the world to serve them. We still retain this recognition of the holiness of creation at times such as Harvest Festival and Rogationtide  but this aspect of our worship could be broadened. It is clear that Jesus did experience the world as sacred; read the sermon on the Mount where he described the lilies of the field for example.

The life of a human being is also sacred or holy. If the power we call God is the source of all holiness, then, because we are made in his image, we too must be holy. We see far too many examples today of the lack of worth we attribute to one another. 
Lives  are destroyed without thought or care about what effect this has on families or wider society. Only when every human being  is seen and treated as sacred will God's will be done.

The bible is the Christian's principal source of wisdom because there we find the stories, the myths, the poetry, the prayers and the history of the development pf thefaith of God"s people. Not all we read there is literally true but reflects the different levels of belief of each generation. And because the bible writers shared their faith by writing it down, it is a source of wisdom, and a resource as we try to carry forward the traditions of our predecessors. 

But wisdom is not found exclusively in the bible. There are many sources of wisdom, both religious and secular, which are open to us in our time and culture. Each generation leaves behind a wealth of wisdom and knowledge which enriches subsequent generations. God is constantly at work helping us to find the pearls of great price which lie undiscovered or unnoticed. 

Believing that the bible is the only source of wisdom for the Christian is to deny all human achievement and to accept that nothing that has happened since the death and resurrection of Jesus  is furthering the Kingdom  of God.

God has given us a world where the sacred can be found in diverse places and ways. And God has given us the ability to exercise wisdom and to recognise it..

No comments:

Post a Comment

35 years as a priest

On Sunday the 1st October I celebrated the 35th anniversary of my ordination as a priest. I also decided that was a good pointmot step do...