Leadingchurch.com

Spirituality comes Naturally

Despite what newbie atheists say, there is nothing so natural as spirituality. Humanity has always been spiritual. You can’t possibly do any digging into history, especially everything before the enlightenment to see that we are a thoroughly spiritual animal. Getting beyond spirituality is something of an achievement only mastered by a few Greeks and now the secular modern world that feels itself to be the pinnacle of human civilization. Some have even gone so far as to suggest that spirituality and religion will evaporate like morning fog leaving us to recognize are pure animality and rationality even though some like Sam Harris are either backsliding or indulging in spirituality for purely recreational purposes.

We are spiritual because we are ardent opportunists and the world is a devilishly dangerous place. As a pastor I ask people sometimes “can I pray for you” and I very seldom get a “no” for an answer. Even if people don’t believe in God or much “spirituality”, from their point of view what could it hurt if I say a few words into the air. What’s the downside of me leveraging my foolish belief?

Our focus in our journey through the Bible has obviously been on the Ancient Near East between Egypt and Mesopotamia in the land the Egyptians called “Canaan”. What you find in Canaan before 1000ad is what you find everywhere else on the planet, a world full of “spiritual” people.

We as modern, wealthy, Western middle-class people feel ourselves to be in control of our fortunes, at least until a drought, a hurricane, an earthquake, or other forceful human beings disrupt our plans, but the ancients took a lot of stock in working the spiritual forces of their environment in order to secure for themselves successful agriculture, breeding, mating, business and warfare.

Spiritual Freestyling

The best thing about spirituality is that it always feels authentic, whether you’re doing it alone in a group gathered together because of their shared experience. Spirituality can be fun, wild, exciting and sometimes dangerous. In our individual culture it tends towards individualism. In a tribalistic culture it tends towards tribalism. Spirituality is like a mirror, it can reflect back to us our “best” most aspirational self. We might be a nobody in regular life, but via spirituality we are gods, goddesses, queens, kings, filled with power and beauty and horizonless possibilities.

Last week we talked about the “nones”. Many nones aren’t necessarily atheists. Many are “spiritual but not religious”. Spirituality is a libertarian dream. Do whatever you want, think however you feel, no one can judge you, critique you, or try to fence you in in any way. You can be spiritual any way you want to. What could be better? Religion is a downer of rules, other peoples limiting ideas, “no”, and stuff you don’t have time to go into or explore. Spirituality is fresh every morning, always authentic, always “just in time”, always perfectly and uniquely you.

Settling Into the Promised Land
Continue reading →