Does Religion Do More Harm Than Good?

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SERMON:  AUG 18, 2013  “Does Religion Do More Harm Than Good?”   

Luke 12:49-56            

The Rev. Laura Adelia   

Proper 15  Pent. 13

In my Religions of the World classes that I have taught over the years at Mesa Community College, I like to begin the semester with a class discussion to get the students intrigued and thinking… 

·      Why do we humans have religion? 

·      How did we get so many religions in the world? 

Inevitably, someone will ask, ‘with all the divisions and conflict religion seem to cause, wars and acts of violence done and all the other not so lovely things done in the name of God…. Does religion do more harm than good?’ 

In some ways, it certainly can seem so. 

In today’s Gospel passage in Luke, Jesus says he came to bring fire, not peace but division and conflict, to set father against son…mother against daughter… and so on.  This is not Jesus as the Prince of Peace we thought we knew! 

What did Jesus mean by this passage?   This seems to go against everything he taught and stood for!

If you are perplexed by this passage, you are in good company.  For centuries, theologians and religious leaders and scholars have themselves argued and have been divided over the meaning of this passage!

Perhaps for some of us, we can relate to this passage, especially if we have family or friends or neighbors of another denomination and have endured painful and ridiculous arguments on who is right, which is the true faith, and so on!

We don’t like tension.  We like to understand and to resolve things. But perhaps this pericope is not meant to be totally resolved, at least with literal words and understanding.

In his book Falling Upward, A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, Roman Catholic Franciscan priest Richard Rohr explores what he calls the ‘two halves of life’.   Perhaps this can help us to make more sense of this troubling gospel passage.

Rohr says in the first half of life, we are taught to value, our traditions, respect for authority, civil and church laws, a sense of goodness, do correct rituals, the special importance of one’s ethnicity, country, and religion.  In this half, we are in the pursuit of success, happiness, security, looking good to others…. and pursuing things of merit such as degrees, awards and other types of external validation.  As well, we are mostly ego based.

Interestingly, Rohr says most of organized religion tends to live inside of these first half of life issues …. but not only organized religion, but also our culture and society, and most cultures and societies in the world!

Richard Rohr says that as a priest of 40 years, he has found that much of the spiritual and pastoral work done in churches is often about keeping status quo and keeping people content… not so much about challenging people to real transformation and spiritual growth. 

In short, he says, we have not found a way to do incorporate both first half and the deeper spirituality and issues of the second half of life into religion.

So, how do we get there?

Inevitably, for some of us, we get to that place in life where we begin questioning… wondering….  A sense of uneasiness comes over us, there has to be more to the picture … the things that used to make sense and satisfy us no longer seem to work.   

If you are questioning or wrestling with your faith, or wondering why we do certain rituals and prayers and say certain creeds … then I say, good for you!    This is a good thing!  Really!

For some of us, we are pushed by a major and unexpected life event that can many times be very painful.  We usually don’t or won’t leave our little comfort zones willingly!

And for each of us, that life event, or events may be different, but the experience rocks us to our core.  It jars us awake. 

But not for everyone.  We all have known people who have been through horrific life events, or have lived many decades, and still remain unchanged, asleep.  So, the “second half of life” deeper spirituality is not necessarily attained just by chronological age. 

Rohr says true and deep spiritual growth does not come by memorizing bible verses and doing correct rituals, or by our own willpower or moral perfection…it comes by making mistakes, and or going thru the dark night of the soul.  It comes by going thru the fire.  It changes us.

Suddenly certain scripture passages that never seemed to make sense before, now make sense!  “The first shall be last and the last shall be first”, and “when I am weak, I am strong”.  We begin to gain spiritual maturity.  Our eyes are opened to things we could not see before.   

All those rules we learned, all those bible quotes, all those correct prayers and rituals… the things that gave us a basic structure can seem to go right out the window when we get to the second half of life!

But we would not have gotten to this point of spiritual growth without having gone thru learning all those rules, correct prayers and rituals in the first place!  And with second half of life wisdom, these time tested rituals, prayers and creeds now bring much deeper meaning to our lives.

So, getting back to where Jesus says he came not to bring peace but to bring fire, conflict and division…

Perhaps, this passage is better understood in the totality of the gospel story, the bigger picture and the interplay between the ways of God and the world of human history.  In this light, we could say that this passage is descriptive, rather than prescriptive. 

It is not Jesus’ purpose to set children against their parents, or to create conflict and division.  Rather, it seems to be the way of human nature.

When I was in seminary, I remember a discussion I had with some fellow students.  We wondered what would Jesus say if he came back today and saw all these denominations that have evolved over the centuries in his name, and all the arguing, fighting, wars, etc. done in the name of God and his teachings,  Jesus would say to us, “Guys, this is not what I was talking about!”

What does this passage mean?  Contemplate this Zen Buddhist story:

”When I first set out on the spiritual journey, mountains were mountains, rivers were rivers, the forest was the forest, and the ocean was the ocean.  But then, as I travelled down the road of life, mountains were no longer mountains, rivers no longer were rivers, forests no longer forests, and even the ocean was no longer the ocean.  But then, even further along the journey, much further… mountains once again became mountains, rivers once again became rivers, forests were again forests, and the ocean was once again, the ocean.”  

Let us pray.  Oh Lord, open our eyes.  Help us to grow and see, help us to see what we cannot see.    

Amen.

Lord Teach Us To Pray

SERMON   July 28, 2013  “Lord, Teach Us to Pray”  Luke 11:1-13   The Rev. Laura Adelia

In the spring of 1995, I received a call and invitation from my sister to come and visit her and her husband in Greece for a couple of weeks in the summer.  My sister and her husband used to rent a condo on one of the Greek islands during the summers.   Coincidentally, this was also my first year of seminary.  Needless to say, upon receiving my sister's call, I jumped at her invitation!

I flew to Athens and we visited the sites; the Acropolis, the Temples, Plato's Academy.... and then we flew out to the island where they stayed.

On the islands of Greece we visited, I noticed that many houses had their own little chapels in their backyards.  Little tiny prayer chapels…they were everywhere, and each little chapel had its own charm, painted white with Mediterranean blue trim.  Each one was about the size of a large garden shed, and could possibly hold up to about 6 or 8 people inside it.

I was intrigued and asked one of the the locals about the tiny chapels in people’s backyards.  She was a little old Greek lady, with just a hint of a bit of a mustache.  She responded to me in English with her heavy Greek accent, “Well, one has to have a place to pray!”

Do you have a favorite place to pray? 

Notice in Luke’s gospel, it says, ‘Jesus was praying in a certain place’.  In fact, Jesus is always praying.  The scriptures describe him going to the desert, to places away from the crowds, to be alone, and pray.   

Garden of Gethsemane

We do not know exactly where he was praying at this certain instance, but it was known that the Garden of Gethsemane was one of his favorite places to pray.  The Garden of Gethsemane is actually a grove of olive trees at the base of the Mount of Olives, just east of Jerusalem.  It is a very peaceful place. 

I am sure for many of you have found that a quiet, beautiful place in nature is a wonderful place to pray and feel the presence of God.

Prayer… it is central to all spiritualties and religions.  There probably have been more books written about prayer than any other topic.  Needless to say, there are many different ways and styles of prayer!

Prayer is a communication with God, it can be both a thought and an act. Prayer can be a solemn request, or an expression of gratitude.  Prayer can be done individually, or communally.  It can be done as a ritual, as in worship.    

Notice too when we say, Let us pray, many pray with hands folded, heads bowed, or downward.  But in Jesus' day, people prayed with hands raised upwards, and looking upward.

Prayer can be verbal or silent.  Prayer can be listening…such as in a contemplative meditation.  Prayer can be done sitting, kneeling or standing.  We can pray as we work, pray as we drive down the road, pray while doing chores, pray working in the yard, and pray as we take a walk!

Prayer can really be done just about anywhere!

Prayer can be danced and prayer can be a sung!   The book of Psalms is actually an ancient prayer-song book.   “Psalm” means “song” in Hebrew.  So when we say or sing the Psalms, we are singing / saying prayers and songs that were sung and chanted 3,000 years ago! We could say, these song-prayers are ‘time tested’!  As St. Augustine once said about music and prayer, “One who sings, prays twice!”

So when the disciples ask Jesus to teach them to pray, Jesus teaches them what becomes, as we know, the most well known and prayed prayer in all of Christianity, the “Lord’s Prayer”.

We all know it well.  Notice the prayer as we say it today begins with the words, “Our Father”.  In Luke’s gospel it starts out with “Father, hallowed be your name…” .  It also is in the gospel of Matthew, and begins, “Our Father in heaven…”   

Have you ever heard the Lord’s Prayer in other languages?  “Our Father”, is “Padre Nuestro” in Spanish.  In Aramaic, “Abwoon”.  In German, “Vater Unser”.  Greek, “Pater Hemon”.  In Swahili, “Baba Yatu”.  And on it goes!

In either version, or whatever the language, Jesus teaches us to pray by at first focusing on God. 

In many ways, the Lord’s Prayer is similar to the Jewish prayer hymn, the the Kaddish that praises God, “hallowed be thy name”. ‘Kaddish’, by the way, means ‘holy’ in Aramaic.   

In fact, the Lord’s Prayer has many similarities to Jewish prayer.   “Lead us not into sin (temptation)” is in the morning blessings of Jewish prayer.  And there are many other parallels.

And go figure!  Jesus was Jewish!   So, it would probably help to better understand Jewish prayer to go deeper with the Lord’s Prayer.  Let’s take a look…

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner, author of many books on Jewish Spirituality, says of Jewish prayer….that a person is like a shofar, (the ram’s horn, blown on Jewish New Year as a ritual of awakening).  A shofar sounds only when breath is blown thru it.  When we pray, God moves thru us!   God’s essence or energy needs hands and mouths to give prayers voice and melody.  People are the instruments that transform prayers into music and words and movement.   We become God’s instrument!

Prayer connects us to God and joins us all to creation.  And that, says Rabbi Kushner, is the essence of Jewish prayer, to become closer to God…to awaken, to see the Holy everywhere…

I think this is what Jesus was always trying to teach his disciples…and us.

Another thing Jesus teaches is about persistence in prayer.  To ask, to search and to knock…and to persist.

Does this mean that Jesus telling us to ask over and over until we get what we have asked for?  To search until we find what we are looking for?  And to knock until a door has been opened?

Authentic prayer is not about getting everything we ask for.  Rather, persistence in prayer is perseverance in prayer.  To pray without ceasing.  In other words, to just pray! 

Remember, prayer is not only words and us talking.  In fact Jesus teaches against long, wordy verbose prayers.  Prayer is listening too.  Listening for God, giving time to feel God’s presence. 'Be still and know that I am God’, as Psalm 46 says.

Yes, we can ask, we can search and we can knock….and yes it is wonderful when our prayers are answered.  Many times though as we know, our prayers are answered very differently than what we had envisioned.

There is an old saying….God answers our prayers in three different ways.  One answer is, “Yes!”.  Another answer is, “Yes, but not now.”  And a third, “No, because I have something much better planned for you!”

Thus prayer is not so much about us receiving what we ask for.   Rather, it is more about relationship with the Holy, being open to what God may be trying to offer or teach us.

Prayer is powerful....and prayer goes beyond the boundaries of religion or denominations.... 

As a chaplain in the Air Force and Air National Guard, over the years I have prayed with people of just about every denomination of Christianity.  I have prayed with Jewish people.  I have prayed with Muslims.  I have prayed and meditated with Buddhists.  I have prayed with people of many religions, even those with no religious preference!

Prayer heals, prayer teaches, and prayer transforms! 

Lord, teach us to pray! 

Amen!

The Good Samaritan

The Good Samaritan

SERMON:  July 14, 2013 Proper 10, Pent. 8, Deut. 30:9-14, Ps 25:1-9, Col.    1:1-14, Luke 10:25-37    The Rev. Laura Adelia

“The Good Samaritan” 

Mercy.  Kindness. Compassion. 
The parable of the Good Samaritan at its root is about love, mercy and eternal life.  It is probably one of the most well known, if not THE most familiar parable in the New Testament.   

A lawyer asks Jesus, what must I do to inherit eternal life?  Jesus answers with a question, what do the scriptures say?  The lawyer quotes Deuteronomy, “Love God with all your heart, all your mind and all your soul...and love your neighbor as yourself.”  Jesus tells him he has given the right answer, and ‘do this and you will live’.  But the lawyer continues to question, “And who is my neighbor?”, and Jesus tells the famous parable of the Good Samaritan.

Mercy.  The Greek word for mercy is eleos.  Interestingly, it is related to the Greek word for olive (eliá) and olive oil, (elaiólado).  Olive oil has been used for hundreds of years for healing and anointing.  Notice too, when the Samaritan finds the man left for dead, he pours olive oil onto his wounds and then wine, and then bandages him up.  Wine was good for disinfecting wounds.  Oil to soothe.

Think of the countless kind people who have helped you along the way of life.  Our family, our friends, relatives, neighbors, doctors, teachers, professors, and sometimes, absolute strangers, and many of the invisible people who have helped us in life that we do not even know of!

The story is ingeniously told, and there is much symbolism in the parable.  The dangerous road from Jerusalem to Jericho, twists and turns and descends over 3000 ft in altitude, can be a symbol of our lives and our spiritual journeys, with all its twists an turns, ups and downs, and dangers along the way.    

Let’s look at the characters in the story.  Who do you most relate to?  

The Samaritan?  The outsider, perhaps a bit misunderstood, not liked by Judean Jews…but the quiet, kind and invisible helper to the man in need?

Why did the Jews not like the Samaritans? 

Well, they practiced a different version of Judaism.  Samaria is a region just north of Jerusalem, the hill country.  You see, back in the 700'ds BC, Assyria invaded Samaria and deported them.  Other people were brought into the region.  So Samaritans were ethnically and religiously a little different from Jerusalem, or Judean Jews, which led to antagonism as time went by.  
Ironic, because in the present day the geographical region of Samaria is now known as the West Bank, Palestine.

I guess the more things change the more they stay the same.   Judean Jews and Samaritans….  Neighbors that well, did not get along so well.

Or perhaps you most relate with the man who was robbed and beat up?  The victim in the story, but also the lucky recipient of a stranger’s kindness and mercy…waking up and wondering how you got here and who helped you? 

And what about the priest or the Levite?  The ones who walked by but did not help?  So stuck on religious law, rules and regulations, (“Canon Law” in the Episcopal Church!).  Religious law stated if the priest or Levite had touched the injured man, they would have become ritually defiled.   Then they would not be able to lead worship, as they had to be in a religiously pure state.  So they walked on by…

But eternal life does not come from laws and regulations, but by living in love, for God is love … Lord have mercy! 

Or perhaps you relate to the innkeeper.  The person who observed an incredible act of kindness…but not only that, the innkeeper witnessed someone bring in and care for an injured man and even paid out of his pocket for his lodging and care!

Mercy.  Kindness.  Love.   

And what about the robbers?  Well, I thought about not talking about the robbers.  The road from Jerusalem to Jericho was a very dangerous road.  What drives people to criminal activity?  Probably the same things that lead people to a life of crime today…  Desperation… anger…evil.    In those days, many wealthy landowners would buy up or take over many small pieces of land owned by the peasants, and then they found themselves landless, with nowhere to turn…

Well everyone, I have been here at St Peter’s now for nearly 2 months, and I already love you!  But, I have hit a threshold, I feel like I am preaching to the choir here!  For, what I see, is that many of you are practicing much kindness and mercy!  You visit each other, you check up on each other, you take each other to the doctor or hospital when needed...  

So I know I am not saying anything new here, you are already practicing much kindness!   I really feel the need to get to know you all better.  And so look forward to doing so!

In closing, I wanted to share a story with you that reminds me a lot of the parable of the Good Samaritan.  It is from another religion, so bear with me here! 

As you know, I teach World Religions classes at Mesa Community College.  One day awhile back I was preparing for my class, and that day we were on the Buddhism unit.  So I thought I would read a Buddhist story to tell in class, rather than just lecture about what the textbook covered. 

So, I picked my book to read and came upon the story of the Buddhist monk who wanted to achieve enlightenment.  

By the way, sitting on the floor next to me was my little dog.  He was convalescing from a big surgery, back surgery.   I began reading the book and my story…

A Buddhist monk decided he wanted to achieve enlightenment and see the Buddha, so he began to meditate.  He figured if he meditated and meditated, he would eventually reach enlightenment and see the Buddha.

But to no avail.  So he decided to go to monastery up on top of hill, and stay there and meditate until he reached enlightenment.  And he meditated and meditated.  Twelve years went by, but to no avail!  Naturally, the monk was getting disillusioned.  So he decided to leave the monastery.

The monk was walking down a windy road, and on the way he spotted a small dog lying on the side of the road.  It had been injured and left for dead.  Moved with compassion, the monk went over to the dog and began to clean his wounds.  As he cleaned the last of the little dog’s wounds suddenly the dog began to stir…and then, POOF!  The dog turned into the Buddha! 

The Buddha said to the monk, “For twelve years I have been waiting for you to get over yourself and actually do an act of compassion!”

At that point, I looked down from my book, at my little dog sitting at my feet, wiggling with happiness and looking up at me!  I looked back at the book about the dog and the Buddha.  I had just spent lots of money on my little dog’s back surgery. 

I then looked back to my dog, paused, and said to him, “I know who you are!”

So many have been merciful and compassionate to us and us to them; friends, family, absolute strangers, and others unknown and invisible to us, our neighbors… and our animal friends!  

Mercy, kindness, compassion and love.   We never know who will be our "Good Samaritan".

We learn from everyone, you know!
Thanks be to God!

Amen.