I am not religious, I am spiritual.
If I had a nickel for every time I have been told that.... and what exactly does it mean anyway? If you looked it up in the dictionary you would find that “Spiritual” means; of, relating or pertaining to spiritual or religious values. While the definition of “Religious” is: related to or pertaining to religious beliefs and practice. There is not much difference there....
Of course, I know that when people tell me they are spiritual they are actually saying that they have no need to go to church.
“I find God when I walk in the forest, or do Yoga, or Meditate, or listen to the Dalai Llama...” they tell me. Well of course you do; so do I. I would even take it further and say you could find God while taking out the trash, bathing the kids, driving to work...
Unfortunately, God is not a one on one experience. Sure, we have moments of connection with God, we feel the presence of God, but God is made manifest in community. Which is a fancy church way of saying, you find God in church.
There is not a single person in the Bible who has an experience of God while they are all alone and then immediately is ‘faithful.’ Every single one of them goes to the Temple and checks it out, or speaks to the elders, or finds God revealed in the group.
Paul saw Jesus on the road... but it was not until he went into town, stayed in a Christian House, and met with a holy man that he was actually converted... then the scales fell off his eyes and he knew what God was like.
Even Abraham, who is reported to have had more one on one conversations with God than anyone past or present, and who was really a minority because at one point he might have been the only one on the planet following God, worked these things out with his family as he went.
We never fully find God alone.
Here is why: God is greater than the sum of the parts. God is everywhere, in everything, and working through everyone. If you wanted to move a fridge you could possibly do it alone – it would take a while, you might get a hernia, and you will certainly scratch the floor. With two people it is easier, with four it is a cinch.
God is like that – and although we always use it to justify small churches, the phrase, ‘where two or three are gathered’... well, it originally meant the opposite of what we now mean by it: God is only fully present when there is more than one person; when there is a relationship; when love is exchanged.
Pentecost is sometimes called the ‘birthday of the Church’ because it is really the first time that things got organized. Before Pentecost was a period of figuring things out, of wondering what to do if Jesus was not actually leading on a day to day basis. There were encounters and holy moments a plenty, on roads and at the seashore... but no one really knew what to do.
Then they all gathered in Jerusalem. If you follow the story, this is the first time all of them have gotten together since the days after Easter when they were locked away in the upper room. And not only are all the disciples together in one place, there is a multitude of people out and about – some of them listening to the disciples.
And – the presence of God is made manifest... Have you ever had one of those moments where time and space seem to strip away, where there is a sense that there is more going on than meets the eye? I often have them at Christmas Eve services, with the darkness and candles, I get a real sense that God might just be being born into the world again.
Well, here, Peter and the whole gang suddenly get it, they suddenly begin preaching with power, they suddenly reach out across the barriers of class and race and language and everybody understands them. Everyone who walks by realizes that God is at work in this moment – it is almost visible as tongues of fire... it is the Holy Spirit.
And by that we mean it is the presence of God in and around and through everything.
God is suddenly known in the sum of all the parts that are gathered together, and the power of God is so much more than people imagined... it is more than the beauty of a sunset. It is more than the feeling of peace as you walk beside the still water. It is more than the power of the ocean waves crashing on the shore... it is more than spirituality.
It is church. It is God made manifest in the life and work of God’s people. The possibilities are endless for us, and that my friends, is the good news.
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