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There’s a lot of good work being done today within religious fellowships in an attempt to be make them more relevant. A lot of time has been invested in being more entrepreneurial regarding meeting places, styles of worship, etc. And I applaud it all.
But I don’t want – on a regular basis – to be a part of any of it.
It’s not because I’m against such things as much as it is that I’m no longer for them. The day when it once did something for me has passed (and I’m guessing, by dropping attendance and membership roles that it doesn’t work for masses of others as well). And being told I need to forget about myself and think of how my presence might influence others, etc., etc., does nothing but confirm why I left church to begin with – it had become a burden, a set of rules all in the name of the Jesus of history who I never really much connected with at church anyway.
From my vantage point, there’s great gain in awakening each day with the anticipation and excitement of knowing that I am part of the Unnameable and that at some point during my day the realization is going to hit me that, yes, this is indeed the case. The moment is unknown, but it is coming. The depth of such a realization may not be long-lasting, but it will occur. The veil between the known and the unknown will be lifted, maybe for a mere moment – perhaps longer – but it will lift and I will clearly see. And when this epiphany bursts into my consciousness, wherever I am I will be surrounded with the ‘community’ of the divine.
It may be at a restaurant as I sit with a close friend, a coffee shop as I rub elbows with strangers and new friends, but it is coming. It always does. And when it does, it is one of the most profound and deep realizations of life. It can’t be scheduled. It cannot be forced. It cannot be predicted in any way… and when I’m not programmed to think that these sacred moments only happen on specific days at specific places and times, it cannot be missed, either.
Look around, look inward – open yourself to the Numinous, the Presence that is beyond words – and at some point today you just might discover yourself in a deep and profound place: experiencing sacred community with the One who is all in all.
18 comments to “Post-Christian Community”
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Tim,
Good stuff. Glad to see you in the blogosphere.
Blog on,
Ira
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Great post Tim…I know that you are correct and these experiences will continue. I think that Maslow got it way back when in his “Religions Values and Peak Experiences” …you describe the experience of a peaker, one who has religious experiences by mystically connecting to the divine in ordinary circumstances. My problem is that I have a hard time being tolerant of the intolerant and, the amount of intolerance in the name of Jesus these days is widespread…when will I realize that my reaction is just my ego wanting its way? Hopefully, I am gaining ground, thanks again…good read!
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Yes, yes, yes. My experience exactly. Thanks for putting it all into words.
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“And when this epiphany bursts into my consciousness, wherever I am I will be surrounded with the ‘community’ of the divine.”
Why yes! AND, ‘where can we go where we are separate from God.’
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I attended a Congregational church in my youth. Moved to the Episcopal church in my 30s. And was confirmed in the Catholic church less than 10 years ago. Two years ago I began a brief search to find yet another community. During my second visit to a Unitarian fellowship it became clear to me that the ties that bind are also the ties that separate. I can count on one hand the number of times I attended church in the past year. Today I no longer search for community “out there.” My search has ended because I have found what I have sought. I am, always have been and always will be a member of the communion of saints and the Body of Christ. I count all people, of all creeds, as my brothers and sisters. And I look to my personal relationships with family and friends for my identity. I am son. I am father. I am fiance. I am friend. I am coworker. I am neighbor. And I am child of God.
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hey Tim, I realy enjoy reading your thoughts. I just wanted to share something that happened last night at work.
There were maybe 3 or 4 guys sitting around a table{at my job we do a lot of sitting}. One guy asked another : then what do I need to do to get to heaven? The other responded: Well how often do you attend church? The answer was “well the last time was about 4 months ago”. In the past if I were to hear a conversation such as that I probably would have been right in the middle of it, but now my attitude toward that sort of conversation has changed very dramatically. I just simply kept my mouth shut and walked away. My attitude now is one where I just don’t see the need to try to convince others that the way I view things is how they should view things. Now I just say to each his own. God is God and to me our view on what matters to God probably in the whole scheme of things doesn’t matter anyway……..Andy -
Tim, I relate to a lot of what you said. I haven’t been attending church in the past several months, and I don’t miss it really. At the silent prodding of friends and family, I went to one of those “new, relevant” churches here in Nashville yesterday, and granted, it’s a lot easier to sit through than the small backwoods churches are, but my wife and I still found ourselves rolling our eyes at several points during the morning. (In the most loving and respectful way possible, of course.
Hmmm.I don’t believe I need to go somewhere and sit for 2 hours every week in order to be a good person or a child of God. And I don’t think God created humanity with the intention that they would do that. Nor do I think that God created humanity so that they could spend their lives in study and meditation trying to find him. He created us so that we could further create — to each be our own I AM.
I think I’ve had those random leaps of consciousness — those sudden epiphanies that remind me of my oneness with all. And I believe in my oneness with God apart from any institution or fellowship, which is why I quit torturing myself on a weekly basis.
But I think something in life is constantly trying to pull you down from those higher levels of consciousness — that I AMness.
I can’t spend my whole life in study and meditation — and DEFINITELY not sitting on a church pew — and that’s not what I was made for. So I guess I just wonder how I can experience I AMness more often without all that?
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I sympathize with your quest, but the point of church, as I see it, is to connect with fellow believers in community. I don’t go to church to have doctrine shoved down my throat, but rather to learn along with others on the journey. It’s very fashionable nowadays to say “Jesus didn’t intend to start a Church.” Certainly he didn’t intend to found something that would lead to Crusades and Inquisitions, but clearly his early followers did see great value and meaning in coming together as a community to partake in the Eucharist.
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Oh I didn’t miss church for 20 years. In fact, every time I thought of church I would get a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach: dread. Ugh. *No way.* I was against it for myself and for lots of other people too.
Along with the above came lotsa guilting and shoulding. Which eventually became even more reason for me to stay away from the shoulding p.l.a.c.e…..
It’s interesting that I went out of the church to the world and the person who impressed me most not to go to church, despite being an admirable Christian herself whose example should have encouraged me to attend church, had ironically come from the world to the church. In a sense she had a clearer vision of the essentials because her early life hadn’t been religiously sullied by church attendance (in my opinion). And she was far past the first blush of conversion and into deeper things that I had not mastered myself (haha.. an understatement if ever there has been one). Incidentally, she’s the only person among my Christian family and friends who finds the thought of fulfillment theology intriguing and plausible.
I grew from that influence —not toward church attendance— but closer to mysticism.
Just a li’l part of my paradoxical journey to share with you. Hope you enjoy.
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Tim, what do you think about this?
I’m thinking “church” means authority structures, official memberships, a corporate treasury, and rituals. If so, then I’m going to be fashionable
, and say that I don’t think Jesus intended to start a church, in the first century or otherwise. The way I read it, Jesus opposed all of that.I’m thinking his first-fruits body was a powerful movement and collective kind of extended family, meant to showcase fully egalitarian relationships between people of different races, classes, and genders.
I have Christian friends who do hi church, friends who do lo church and friends who do no church, as well as friends from nonChristian traditions. And I have tried to, as you say Tim, “stand under” them all that I may both better understand them as well as more deeply understand myself.
Back in the old days, I was the Henry Potter (It’s a Wonderful Life) of the community, Chairman of the Board of the bank and also on the Draft Board (the Selective Service System). There was fairly extensive & ongoing training involved of draft board members because we had to know, for example, how to distinguish between the true conscientious objectors and the Klingers (MASH #4077th). Although few, other than my Quaker acquaintances & some Catholic friends, are true pacifists, this is a position affirmed as Gospel-informed and wholly acceptable in my denomination, which has also developed highly nuanced just war principles, which recognize some wars as necessary evils.
If there is any principle I wholeheartedly affirm, it is the subsidiarity principle, which per my interpretation means, unless it is absolutely necessary, all things being equal, we should not institutionalize (i.e. via coerced socialization processes) any human activity such that we co-opt the prerogatives, curtail the freedom and thus offend the dignity of any individual. This is to suggest, then, all things being equal and in a perfect world, one might with John Lennon more easily:
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace
For all the hoopla, recently, about that bogey-man socialism, a hoopla I stand-under because of my own subsidiarity bias, people seem to ignore the reality that, for a couple of thousand years or so, there have always been people living in different communities who each give according to their abilities and take according to their needs, communally, whether in convents or monasteries or at home in our families. There is nothing intrinsically evil in such an approach. We simply recognize that, because of our human finitude and sinfulness, it’s impractical to expect humankind, at this stage of its collective intellectual, affective, moral and social development, to overcome its tribalistic tendencies and embrace an unqualified transkin altruism. As Richard Rohr and Brian McLaren would urge, we haven’t figured out how to be tribal but not tribalistic.
Truly, all things being equal & in a perfect world, there would (and SHOULD) be no government, no law enforcement, no military, no judiciary, no legislature, no compulsory education & insurance (including auto health) and no motorcycle helmet or seatbelt laws. Might we not also “imagine” that, as humanity DOES develop & coercive institutions DO properly fold in succession, organized religion(s) might very well lead the way? With the advent of such de-institutionalized religion(s), wouldn’t structures become progressively more de-clericalized, much less hierarchical & juridical?
Our ecclesiastical institutions and ecclesiological approaches are precisely to be about fostering such intellectual, affective, moral and social development (or conversion per Lonergan) and such orthopraxes authenticate our orthodoxies. Thomas Merton speaks of the humanization and socialization processes that thus form each persona (false self) early on our journeys. Unfortunately, there is a great tendency for most to equate this with the end of the journey. This persona enables us to function in society and it is necessary, but it is not sufficient, for there is much more beyond humanization and socialization and it is known as transformation (realizing our True Self).
Richard Rohr notes how our churches are quite good at socializing people but we might all recognize that the results are decidedly mixed when it comes to their fostering of authentic transformation. I’ve met folks from every great tradition as well as no tradition who seem to me to be utterly transformed, yes, whether hi church, lo church or no church, whether following a myth, true myth or amythia. Just food for thought.
My friend, Kevin Beck, recently tweeted: “Either these are not the gospels or we are not Christians.” (Thomas Linacre, Henry VIII’s dr, said this after reading gospels.)
This is a devastating critique, in my view, of our society and our churches, something with which my spiritual sister, Simone Weil, would resonate. I have suggested her as the patroness of the de-institutionalized church. I look at our institutional structures and can only characterize them, per my reading of subsidiarity, as necessary evils or, more sympathetically, as pastoral sensitivity loopholes to what are otherwise clear and unambiguous Gospel-imperatives?
I hope there will always be those among us who, by their very manner of living as eremitics, hermits, monastics, pacifists and aeclessiastics (my neologism) will be voices of prophetic protests, beckoning us all to come to the desert to confront our temptations to pride, power, pleasure, possessions and mediocrity, challenging us all to take the Gospel radically and seriously thus invoking fewer loopholes and rationalizing fewer escape clauses.
Our tradition has room for pacifists and soldiers and can hold this contradiction, albeit painfully, even as we withhold harsh judgment of these widely divergent paths. I think it has room and must make more room for the aeclessiastics, who are unchurched by our visible institutional structures while, paradoxically, the paragon of Kingdom living and integrally belonging to the invisible Mystical Body.
Life is too short to proofread. Besides, I have to go get ready for church. (Who I am kidding? The Saints are on!).