The Experience of Miracles and Faith Don Badgley - October 12, 2014 My topic today is miracles and experiential Faith, the sort of Faith that transforms lives. After all, what good is faith if it does not at least do that? It is my hope to inspire conversations; a conversation with yourself, with your loved ones, with this faith community and with others in your lives. I speak today as a life-­‐long Quaker, a member of The Religious Society of Friends. I do not speak for the Quakers. No one Quaker has that authority. You may not agree with all I say. Those of you familiar with the works of retired Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong may recognize his influence in some of this message. Theological topics are fraught with risk but I offer these words with faith in this gentle Episcopal congregation. I will welcome comments and conversation after worship. First, let’s begin in consideration of what I mean by “Faith.” When I speak of my spiritual “faith” I don’t mean my religion or my belief system, conviction, trust or hope. These can each exist without Faith. They can each be the product of Faith but they are not Faith. Belief is not faith. Faith is an inward transformational experience that is uniquely human and is often found in the presence of Grace. It is my belief and my experience that faith cannot be engendered by religion or by its dogmas, creeds, scriptures or human leaders. Those who would teach you how to have faith are as likely lead you away from it as toward it. On the other hand, those who would help you discover faith do best by pointing in its direction and especially by making an object example of Faith as it orders their own lives. It is my conviction that living Faith can only arise as the result of a direct experience of the Divine. Now, let’s consider this experience of the Divine that engenders Faith? For me, and in part, Divine awareness arises in the recognition of ordinary miracles. This short poem will give you a sense of what I mean by miracles. What is not a miracle?
Must I look to the stars or holy books,
Or measure my poor understanding
By the infinite unknown?
Must I witness the healing of the lame or blind,
Or the raising of the dead?
Is the air I breathe not wonder enough,
And is my own clear sight an insufficient gift
To perceive the falling leaf,
Or sunlight captured by the dew?
Should I discount the scent of rain in spring,
Or the music of spoken love,
Or the fullness of the universe,
Just beneath the petal of a rose?
Phillipians
8
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is
right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is
excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned
or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of
peace will be with you.
Miracles are as common as sunrise and sunset. But, if they are common then why do I call them miracles? Aren’t miracles unexplainable and supernatural? That is what most would assume but let’s broaden the view. Consider for a moment the universe itself, the entire physical universe. There are 400 billion stars just in our rather ordinary galaxy. It takes 120,000 years for light to travel from one end of our little galaxy to the other. How many galaxies are there? We don’t know. Estimates go as high as 500………… billion. Miracle? Here we are, gathered in fellowship. Every atom in our bodies was created in a star. Where did all this begin? Where does it end? In all of this infinite creation we are profoundly insignificant in mass and in duration. On a dust speck circling a dust speck we are less than a speck of dust. That realization tends to humble one into a sense of profound insignificance. However……….. The universe has been expanding for billions of years…. we think. It’s all part of a perceived reality of time and space and matter. Both the alpha and the omega are beyond our knowledge. So, here is a miracle: Over those billions of years in the fires of creation the universe has arranged its atoms into sentience. Of this we are 100% certain! We think! We consider. We wonder. We know. We love. We are aware. To put that into other words, the universe has become aware of itself and each of us is a manifestation of that Truth. “And God saw that it was good.” MIRACLE #1! Awareness! Throughout human existence that awareness has led us to posit a Master Plan and a Master, God. With great wisdom the first Hebrews said that their God was unnamable. Chinese wisdom teacher Lao Tzu said, “The Tao that can be named is not the Tao.” It seems to me that that is the right and only place to begin, and to end when considering the Divine. Of course awareness does not guarantee wisdom. As humanity has evolved, the god we have tended to describe sometimes looks a lot like us and if the Old Testament stories are to be believed this god has been every bit as nasty as we humans often are. The Divine that I seek in the stillness of worship is not the anthropomorphic, spiteful deity of Abraham. The God I experience is the Love emanating from the Oneness of All. The ancient symbols and tales found in scripture are useful, but only to the extent that they may inform our understanding of that which came before and also may point us in the direction of the original enlightenment that inspired the words. The EXPERIENCE! From Buddhism we have received this wisdom: “Do not mistake the pointing finger for the moon.” Many Christians claim that their scriptures are the absolute and inerrant word of God. This theology is a relatively new phenomenon. For me, scriptural and doctrinal literalism may actually obstruct the way to a living and growing faith. When I read scripture, whether it is Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Hindu or Taoist, I strive to discern the spirit and read it in the spirit in which it was originally conceived and experienced. These are the thoughts of those who have come before but they are not in and of themselves holy and for me to treat them as such may be idolatry, a golden calf. I believe that only the Source of scripture is holy and I know that not all scripture is divinely inspired. Many religious bodies also claim to be the only right way to God and salvation. They claim exclusivity and sadly, when they become exclusive they often exclude Divine Love. I believe that absolute doctrinal certainty guarantees violence and war. “Do not mistake the pointing finger for the moon.” Only the Divine Source is holy. Jesus’ ministry confirms this. The 17th Century poet Basho once said, “Seek not to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought.” Jesus of Nazareth understood this. His was a ministry of revival and in the precious little we can ascertain of that ministry and amid myriad contradictions, it seems clear that he was sharing his experiences of the Divine in a way that could be understood and felt by those around him. The essence of those simple teachings is a constant inspiration to me as they affirm and encourage my own experience of God. The Truth of his Faith and of mine is the same Truth. If it is Truth, it has to be the same. His ministry was never about him. Truly, if the Divine Source “spoke” to Jesus then that Source will also “speak” to us, as he promised. If it exists, The Divine Source must, by nature, be infinite, eternal, unchangeable and accessible to everyone who asks. This Holy Spirit is eternal, transcendent and immanent, outside of space, time and matter. Jesus’ ministry was always about the experience of Divine Love that could alter one’s life. Sadly, in a few short years after this enlightened ministry, the Faith of Jesus became a religion about Jesus and the theological and doctrinal results sometimes repudiate what he taught, lived and died for. In Mark 10:18 we hear Jesus say, “Why do you call me good? Only my Father in Heaven is good.” In John 15:15 he says, “Call me Friend.” His message was simple and accessible to people of all stations. I summarize it in a single word: Love. He counseled Love. He ministered to everyone, be they Roman, Jew, Samaritan, rich, poor, man or woman, old, young, educated, ignorant, good and evil. He held up a standard for living that is as vital and right today as the moment he spoke it -­‐ because Divine Truth is unchangeable. It belongs to no one and no religion. Jesus understood that. He also understood that his audience needed to hear words to which they could relate such as, “Kingdom of Heaven”, “my Father in heaven” and he spoke in a way that conveyed authority. It conveyed authority because his experience of faith as manifested in his manner and in his ministry was so powerful as to lead others to their own experience of Divine Faith. They felt God present within him and so too within themselves. By this experience they were transformed and “healed.” We read in in Luke 17:20: Once, on being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of
God would come, Jesus replied, “The coming of the kingdom of God is not something that
21
can be observed, nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of
God is within (or among) you.” It seems clear that Jesus meant that the “Kingdom of God” was not in the future but was right here and right now. In Truth, if it exists at all it cannot be otherwise. Those who premise their religion on a future promise of heaven or future threat of Hell and only after death have missed that point and may miss the immediate and eternal opportunity to experience heaven; as God is ever within and ever among us! What a miracle! The universe has become aware of itself and the arc of human evolution bends ever toward Love, greater and greater Love. For want of a better term I call this Love “Divine” and within the experience of that Presence I find my Faith. I know that it is sometimes difficult to infinite Divine Love as we also experience the daily reality of living hell, actual evil; mass killings, poverty, starvation, disease, suffering and war. Just remember, this too belongs to the One and Divine Love calls to everyone. It is our commission to live our lives disciplined and ordered by the imperatives of that Love, living lives of compassion and forgiveness -­‐ even toward our enemies. That is plainly and absolutely the will of God for humanity and the true ministry of Jesus Christ. It is also the behavior that Jesus called his followers to. His ministry was never about doctrine or dogma or even what one had to believe. It was entirely about what to do and why we should do it. Read Matthew 5 again with that in mind. Because the Divine is present within me I am able to look over this sanctuary and see and feel the presence of God within each of you and to feel God present among us. Please enter with me now into a brief period of silence and prayer and in the stillness simply be aware of the Love that unites the Universe as you love your brothers and sisters here in this beautiful space. After a few moments in this aware and loving silence, I will add a final thought in poetry. Please be still with me now. From William Wordsworth: And I have felt A presence that disturbs me with the joy Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime Of something far more deeply interfused, Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns, And the round ocean and the living air, And the blue sky, and in the mind of man; A motion and a spirit, that impels All thinking things, all objects of all thought, And rolls through all things. May peace be with you.