Looking for the Center of Your Faith

faith beyond the scaffolding

There is a lot of discussion today about religion. Is it relevant anymore? What is its purpose?  If you look at the central role religions have played in human history you have to concede that this is a topic that can’t be ignored, regardless of where you stand in the debate. I was struck by a comment that Rev. Schanker made in his introduction to the Lasting Imprint (watch here). He said:

“Religion didn’t make me more narrow. It didn’t make me more sure that I am right and others are wrong. Any genuine study of truth or a spiritual path should make you more aware that God is bigger than any religion and can’t just fit into one religion. That doesn’t mean that our religious faith is wrong or bad. It just means that God is bigger than we can grasp. In any genuine path of truth, the more you learn the more you are aware of how little you know.”

It made me reflect that we limit God because we are trying to fit Him into our box and label it so that it’s neat and tidy. But God wants to live outside the box and in reality so do we!

Looking beyond the scaffolding

This past week I listened to an interview with a Jewish Rabbi. The Rabbi was a woman who had struggled for many years to find her place and voice in her faith community. She is an Orthodox Jew and so her quest to be a Rabbi was not easily understood or accepted by members of her community. Nevertheless, she felt called to something. She wanted to make the Orthodox tradition relevant to the next generation of Jews but wasn’t sure how to do it as she saw young people leaving the faith in droves. As always, old ways didn’t seem to fit into the lifestyle of the young adults she knew and loved.

One day, she had an epiphany of sorts. She realized that all the traditions and the heart of her faith was locked inside the scaffolding created by religion. It think that this isn’t just true of Judaism but all religions. We erect scaffolding in order to build our religion; make it bigger and stronger, but in the end it defeats the very thing it was protecting. We start to focus on and argue over the color of the scaffolding, how high or wide it is or who can go on which floor. We become lost in its hierarchy rather than focusing on the ideal and vision at the very center of the religion. This young Rabbi determined that she wanted to reveal to people the very core of her faith tradition, and pass that on to the next generation rather than worry about the unwieldy scaffolding that overshadowed the beauty of the ancient traditions she loved.

I appreciated her imagery as it provides a clear picture. Yes, we get so caught up in the external trappings of our religion that we are in danger of missing what matters most. We end up worrying about the order of service, what scripture comes first or last, did I pray the right way or wear the right clothes? We get lost in the scaffolding.

Reflecting on what matters most

scrubbing floorAs we celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of Rev Moon’s ascension into the spiritual world it’s a great time to reflect on what matters most; what is at the heart of what he taught. To honor his life a collection of stories was published under the title “I Remember.” They describe reflections and encounters with Rev. Moon. Dr. Kathy Winings, Dean of Students at the Unification Theological Seminary, shared the following story.     

Life Lessons While Cleaning

The Manhattan Center facility had just been purchased and the members of the Performing Arts Department were asked to help restore the building. I was working on the 6th Floor Mezzanine trying to scrape decades of dirt and gum buildup off the floor, tile by tile with just a hand held scraper.

As I was toiling away, a pair of shoes appeared on my right. Without looking up, I told the person to just grab a scraper and they can start to scrape a nearby section of flooring. Next thing I heard was Father Moon’s voice saying, “Well, if you say so.” He then knelt down and began to scrape the floor.

I was so embarrassed. I apologized over and over again and stammered, “I am so sorry, I didn’t know it was you.” He then looked at me and chuckled as he saw my embarrassment and the look of utter shock on my face. He started talking and compared us with the floor. He told me that just like the floor has all this buildup of dirt, so too, our original nature becomes hidden under the many layers of dirt and build up from our life. He said that everything we take in and everything we do that doesn’t come from or reflect God is like dirt and gum that sticks to our spiritual heart and mind. His conversation was peppered with “Don’t you think so?”

He then stopped and looked at me and simply said that if I studied the Divine Principle and worked hard like I was doing at that moment, then in time, my original nature would be revealed, just like the original floor was being revealed. He pointed to an area of the floor that had been cleaned and an area not yet cleaned. He looked at me and asked me, “Which do you want to be?” He put the scraper down, got up and simply walked on to inspect other parts of the building. Though it lasted just a few minutes, I have spent a lifetime trying to follow Father Moon’s timeless guidance.

Faith that Works

This story reminded me that a life of faith needs to be about what matters most and that a life of faith is a life-long quest to discover and reveal our original nature. It should be practical. Ceremonies are important as reminders of what is at the core of our faith tradition. They can function as steps on a ladder toward the goal but they are not the goal. They are in support of the ideal around which all the scaffolding has been erected. Any religion will lose its power and relevancy if it loses touch with the ideal that is at its heart and center.

The prophet Habakkuk had some timeless advice:

“Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it. For still the vision awaits its appointed time; it hastens to the end—it will not lie. If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come.”

Once you are clear about what you are trying to achieve you can run with it. Sure it’s going to take time to achieve but you are moving forward in your spiritual life. That is what religion is meant to do for you, if you don’t get hung up in all the scaffolding.

God’s big idea

So what is God’s big idea? It can’t be a temporary thing only meant for one point in time or for a certain people. Could there even be such a universal thing? It would have to be able to span different religions and ideologies while honoring a diversity of cultures and personalities. It would have to be so big that everyone could love its essence and allow for the fulfillment of each person’s potential. Could such a big idea even exist without limiting people?

I think that the big idea that is behind the creation of the Universe is too big for the scaffolding of a particular personality, religion or ideology. It simply can’t fit which is why you see the development of different religions over time.

God’s big idea has been expressed in many ways so that people can run with it. In the book of Genesis in the Bible it is described in Gen 1:28:happy couple

 “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

The Divine Principle describes these Three Blessings in greater detail; grow to spiritual maturity, receive the Blessing of Marriage and create a family and culture of heart that reflects God, and use your gifts and talents to take responsibility for the world around you. Ultimately, all of creation can receive God’s love through you. This is God’s big, beautiful idea. You can read about it in more detail in the Principle of Creation. There are many reasons why it’s not so easy to achieve but the first step is being clear about the vision.

This same vision is reiterated in many faith traditions because it is indeed God’s big idea. We can understand more about God’s third Blessing (dominion or right relationship with the Creation) in Native American religion:

The sacred hoop of any nation is but one of many that together make the great circle of creation. In the center grows a mighty flowering tree of life sheltering all the children of one mother and one father. All life is holy. People native to this land have long lived by the wisdom of the circle, aware that we are part of the Earth and it is part of us. To harm this Earth, precious to God—to upset the balance of the circle—is to heap contempt on its Creator. Therefore, with all our heart and mind, we must restore the balance of the Earth for our grandchildren to the seventh generation. – Black Elk

Our traditions simply exist to foster our inheritance of God’s ideals.

This is why we, as Unificationists, have the beautiful ceremonies that correspond to the three Blessings referenced in Genesis. We celebrate each new birth with the Eight Day Dedication ceremony whereby parents pray over their child and promise to raise him or her as God’s representatives, to support the child in their growth to spiritual maturity. In adulthood we seek the Marriage Blessing so that we can live in harmony with our spouse and reflect the fullness of the love of God as couple, expressing our Heavenly Parent’s masculine and feminine nature to the world. Through a lifetime of creativity and service to others we come to fulfill the three Blessings and prepare for our ascension into the spiritual world, having successfully achieved our purpose on earth. This final ceremony known as the Ascension ceremony releases us into the spiritual world, our eternal home. Because these beautiful ceremonies are part of God’s ideal, they don’t belong to any unnecessary scaffolding of religion but are at the heart of our tradition.

This is what the Jewish Rabbi is trying to do through her ministry – take the big idea and essential traditions of Orthodox Judaism and live them in her life without the scaffolding that gets in the way.

Making faith part of every part of your life

God is trying to embed his big idea in everyday life. Part of his ideal is the ethic of living for the sake of others. God doesn’t want to be stuck in just the realm of religion. That box is way too small for God who is huge! God’s ideals will inevitably break out of the confines we put around them. You can discover them in the lives of people around you.

soldiersFor example, I uncovered God’s sacred ideal of living for the sake of others in a Youtube interview I watched of a Navy SEAL. He was asked about the almost impossible training they undergo. He described how the training takes you to the edge of your ability. You are simply too cold, too exhausted and too beaten to continue. The interviewer asked him how he survived these various challenges. The SEAL said there is only one way through and that is to look at the person to the left of you and the person to the right of you and continue for their sake. The moment you start to think about just yourself you are defeated. God’s big idea wants to infuse itself into every aspect of your life so that you can be victorious no matter your circumstances.

All of us matter

It’s easy to feel that we don’t matter to God and then inevitably God ceases to matter to us. For God to realize his precious ideals he needs each one of us. The realization of God’s ideal is dependent on each one of us fulfilling the three Blessings in our lives.

 “Because people to this day have been put in such a lowly position, we have not understood that God’s love, ideals, happiness and peace cannot be attained or perfected without each and every one of us.  Though we are not enough, we are beings of a high order of value, capable of completing the love of God, of completing God’s ideals, and of completing God’s happiness and peace.”  – Sun Myung Moon

We all have a piece to play in building God’s ideal that is at the heart of the Universe. I hope that you can build a personal vision for how you can contribute. Rev Moon once said:

 “You must not be like a crowd which only moves when it is pulled by someone. Once you know the Will (God’s ideal), you must pioneer your own path, asking God to give you purposes which center upon the Will.”

Take time this week to think about what you want to do to build God’s dream. What part can you play? It doesn’t have to be grandiose. You don’t have to make a movie or rise to the top of your profession. It could be as simple as owning the Birthday ministry or trying to love the relatives no-one else likes! You may feel you are too old to make a difference but I challenge you to think outside the box!

Just like Habakkuk, please write your vision on a tablet this week and take God’s ideal out from behind the scaffolding and into your life. This is the meaning of Faith that Works.

  

 

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