Two
Rivers Pastoral Charge
Sunday May 10 – 6th Sunday of Easter
Scripture Readings: Acts 17:22-29 and
John 14:15-21
This week, as I was driving to a meeting in Rothesay, I heard an interview with
author Yann Martel. He is probably best
known for his book, Life of Pi, but he was being interviewed about his
newest book called Son of Nobody.
Part-way through the interview he started talking about faith, and
though he speaks of himself as someone with no specific religious faith - he talked about growing up in a world post-silent revolution where religion was actively discouraged at home and within his family - and yet he had some very
interesting things to say about spiritual curiosity.
The whole interview was fascinating, and he has a lot to say about art and
writing and faith, but then towards the end he says:
“Why, in an age of computers and vaccinations, do some people still have faith
in these un-provable entities called gods?
But I’ve switched around 180 degrees in my thinking, and I don’t see the
point of acting like a computer. Yes, I still disdain organized religion, but
the quest for the divine, this idea that there’s more than just this material
reality that surrounds us – it’s not a question of finding the answer, but why
don’t you at least ask the question that there might be something beyond this?
“And once you start exploring that question of what might be beyond the
rational, while still using the rational, you can still use your computer to
analyze the sayings of Jesus, there’s nothing wrong with using rationality, but
use it to go beyond the rational.
Because we’re not computers… You
want to make those leaps of faith, not that are violent, not that hurt anyone,
but why not believe in those things if they make life more of a dance than a
shuffle. So my faith now is why wouldn’t
I believe that there is more than all this
“I find that very act of faith, that leap, that investigation into the beyond,
completely transforms the today. It makes it easier to let go, it makes an
aspirational kind of life easier. It is
easier to be loving in a framework where love actually matters.”
*****
Because I heard this interview on Wednesday afternoon, as I was pondering
today’s sermon, my brain connected it right away with the reading we heard from
Acts this morning. Yann Martel might
have been the perfect audience for the Apostle Paul as he was speaking in
Athens!
Paul has been on a couple of preaching tours around the Mediterranean, finding
openings to tell people about Jesus.
Usually the first place he would go in any city was the synagogue –
after all, Jesus was Jewish, Paul himself was Jewish, and both of them were
interpreting the Jewish scriptures. And
that is what Paul did when he arrived in Athens, just before the story that
_____ read for us today.
But in Athens, after visiting the synagogue and speaking with the Jewish
community there, Paul goes out into the public square and takes an opportunity
to preach to the non-Jewish residents of Athens, and that is the story that we
heard.
And Paul begins by commending the people of Athens for their spiritual
curiosity. He talks about all of the
statues to different gods that he has seen around the city, including a statue
to an unknown God.
And into this context of a pantheon of gods, Paul tells them about the God that
he worships. He never tells them that
they are wrong, but is rather presenting his God as another option.
And in contrast to an unknown God, Paul tells the people that the God that he
worships is a very present God. The God
that Paul worships isn’t a statue, but is present in every place and in every time. The God that Paul worships created everything
in the universe. To borrow Yann Martel’s
language, this Divine Being is who is behind the material reality that
surrounds us.
But not only that, the God who created the material world chose to become part
of the material world in the person of Jesus.
God didn’t just create the world and walk away – God became present in
the world. On Christmas morning, I
shared the image from author C. S. Lewis that it is as if an artist paints a
landscape, then finds a way to step into the painting and become part of what
they created.
And even though Jesus lived 2000 years ago, and died, and was resurrected, and
then ascended into heaven, God is still very present with us by the Holy
Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God working
in every atom of creation, in every person, in every rock, in every tree,
drawing us all into the dance of God.
And so today, I invite you to embrace your spiritual curiosity. I invite you to look beyond the material
world and embrace the quest for what is in and through and beyond the material
world that we see around us. For God is
very present, if only our senses are tuned in to notice.
God is present in the bread and the cup that we will share in a few minutes –
every crumb of the bread and every drop of the juice is God saying to us, “I
love you.”
God is present in all of the love that we share with one another and with the
people in our lives.
God is present when we make an offering to help another, whether we are
offering our time, our talents, or our treasure.
God is present when the sunlight sparkles on the water of the river. God is present when the bird sings on the
branch of the tree. God is present when
a piece of music speaks to our heart.
God is present when space is created so that those without a voice can
be heard.
We aren’t computers. We aren’t
robots. We aren’t driven by artificial
so-called-intelligence. We are living,
breathing human beings, created in the image of God and given life by the
divine breath.
And so let us embrace our spiritual curiosity!
Let us keep our hearts open to perceive that which is beyond the
mechanical and material, and let us keep our hearts open to love.
And may it be so. Amen.
“Cloud of
Unknowing”
Kelly Latimore
Used with Permission.
No comments:
Post a Comment