Sermons from Moorpark Presbyterian Church

What is True Spirituality?

By Dave Wilkinson

1 John 2:6, Colossians 3:17

February 25, 2001

Let me tell you about a man. Then I want to ask you a question.

He liked to hang out in bars drinking beer, smoking a pipe and arguing loudly with a his friends. He was over weight and rather unkempt. He had the ability to make a new suit look rumpled within minutes of putting it on.

Maybe this was one reason he stayed a bachelor for much of his life. Finally he married a divorced woman. a former Communist, in a civil ceremony for no other reason than to allow her to stay in the country. It was a true marriage of convenience.

This man had a quick mind and a sharp tongue. He excelled in debate. He relished demolishing an intellectual rival.

The question is this. Is this a person in touch with the mind and heart of God? Is this a spiritual person?

Now let me tell you about another man. He was raised in a poor family and pulled himself up by his own hard work. Now he is a student in a seminary. He has received a special prize for a paper on what it means to "abide in Christ."

Is this a person in touch with the mind and heart of God? Is this a spiritual person?

The point is, you can't always tell. You can't take a few facts at random or freeze a person at a certain point and say, "Yes, he or she is spiritual" or "No, he or she isn't spiritual." You can't always tell from the outside.

In fact, the first man I described is C.S. Lewis -- author of books like Mere Christianity, The Screwtape Letters, The Problem of Pain and The Chronicles of Narnia. The second is Joseph Stalin, the author of untold amounts of suffering. Just a year after winning his prize for writing about abiding in Christ, Stalin was kicked out of the Russian Orthodox Seminary for revolutionary activities. He went on to a career as the worst mass murderer in the history of humankind.

Lewis did have a quick mind and a sharp tongue. He and his friends -- people like J.R.R. Tolkein the author of the Lord or the Rings did hang out in bars -- they called them pubs -- and argue about theology and literature and whether or not Tolkien should send what he called his scribbling to a publisher. Lewis was overweight. He was unkempt.

Yes, he did enter into a marriage of convenience with a divorced ex- communist named Joy Davidman simply to allow her to live in Britain and study with him. Later he fell in love with her and had their marriage solemnized before God in the church. He faithfully stayed by her side in the long illness leading up to her death.

For Lewis' walk with God was not just of the mind. It was of the will and the heart. As a British soldier in France in World War I, Lewis made a promise to look after the mother of a friend if he was filled. The friend was killed and Lewis kept his promise. It was a hard to keep because this was a bitter, depressing, grasping, ungrateful, impossible woman. But Lewis kept his word. As he wrote in Mere Christianity: "The rule for all of us is perfectly simple. Do not waste time bothering whether you love your neighbor; act as if you did."

What is true spirituality? Is it just part of our makeup? Are some people naturally more spiritual than others?

An article about a year ago in the Los Angeles Times had the headline: "Study Suggests Brain May Affect Religious Response." The article talked about researches at the University of San Diego who isolated what they called the "God module" in the brain's temporal lobe which may affect how intensely a person responds to religious belief. They aren't at all suggesting that faith is simply a matter of chemistry but do suggest that the human brain is somehow hard wired to hear the voice of heaven -- which is something the Bible supports.

Now that was a fascinating article that got me to thinking. I suspect that compared to some people, my God module is relatively small. I am not by nature a religious person. I'm not into religion. I am deeply into God, fascinated by God and in love with God. But I'm not spiritual as some people define and model spirituality.

For if spirituality is defined as someone who walks with a deep, ongoing even sensuous awareness of God's presence, then I am not a spiritual person. If spirituality is defined as the ability to let myself go in joyful praise without my mind adding a constant running commentary, then I am not a spiritual person. If spirituality is defined as having a special joy in contemplation for hours on end then I am not a spiritual person.

It's not that I haven't tried to experience what they experience. Not long after Carol and I moved to Moorpark we attended a denominational gathering in Santa Barbara called Rainbow Days. One of the seminars we chose to attend was on "Finding Our Spiritual Center." I went in hopes of giving my God module a jump start. Instead, it went into arrest.

There were about forty of us in a spacious room. The leader, an American Baptist pastor, had us make a large circle with enough space between us to raise our hands. Then we closed our eyes. The leader told us to visualize a light traveling through our bodies through all the organs and the muscles and the bones. We were told to imagine this light seeking out all of the impurities and waste products in our systems and carrying them out to the tips of our fingers. Then he told us to raise our arms and get rid of the waste products. "Flick 'em off! Flick 'em off."

We flicked.

He then told us to open our eyes and said, "Now do what you feel like doing."

I did. I walked out. There were too many flying waste products in that room for me. If that was what I had to do to find my spiritual center, I wanted no part of it.

All of this was one reason I was delighted to discover a book called Sacred Pathways by a man named Gary Thomas. It is an excellent, well-written book which argues against a "one size fits all" definition of spirituality. In this book Thomas describes nine different ways people can experience the presence of God in their lives. He also gives a simple test to help you discern your normal approaches to God. In you small groups this week, you will have the opportunity to take this survey to help you discover spiritual temperament what this says about you and what you can do to grow closer to God in the way He has created you. If you're not in a small group shame on you. But Karen Bryan might be talked into slipping you a bootleg copy of the material and I can probably be convinced to loan you my copy of the book. Better yet, join a small group. It's not too late.

Thomas identifies the spiritual types as the Naturalist who feels especially close to God in the beauty of the out of doors, the Sensate whose experience of God is heightened by arts and smell of incense, the Traditionalist who tends to experience God in rituals and symbols handed down through the life of the church, the Ascetic who most experiences God is solitary prayer and meditation, the Activist who most encounters God in social action, the Care Giver who finds God in the needy, the poor, the sick and the imprisoned, the Enthusiast who encounters God is active worship -- sometimes very active worship, the Contemplative who seeks to relate to God primarily in the emotional realm, and the Intellectual whose experience of God is first of all of the mind.

Thomas' test informs me that I am a combination of Naturalist and Intellectual. This means that if I can learn something new about God from a book that I'm reading by a clear mountain stream, I'm in heaven. Incense, however, doesn't bring me closer to God. It just makes me sneeze. I'd make a lousy priest. I'd also make a lousy Pentecostal pastor. My white shoes always get dirty and my arms lock about shoulder high.

The point isn't that they are wrong to be what they are. I am also not wrong to be what I am. What is wrong is for any of us to insist that we are doing it the way God likes best - as if Paul never told us in Ephesians 3:10 that God partly designed His church to display the wide range of stuff He's willing to bless. Every true spiritual path has Christ as its center, but in Christ there are many ways for us to express our faith.

Why is it important to know this?

So we will not try to impose our way on others.

So we will not allow others to impose their way on us.

So we will reflect the mind of Christ which is the goal of all of us as believers no matter which path we choose to take.

As 1 John 2:6 tells us: "Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did." To pursue spiritual life however we pursue it mans that we seek to know Jesus so intimately however we get to know Him that we live our lives as if He were in our place.

But that happens in different ways. And part of "walking as Jesus walked" is to accept that.

About six years ago I preached a sermon on the raising of Lazarus called "Martha the Presbyterian." The same message speaks to us today as we ask the question: "Which kind of spirituality does Jesus prefer? Who get's Jesus' response?

About twenty years ago, in Mobile, Alabama, a number of the churches sponsored a "Miss Christian" contest where they were represented by young ladies from their college age or high school groups. Among the participants were "Miss Luvenia Lucas as Miss Prayer Tabernacle, Miss Janice Thompson as Miss Apostolic, Miss Christine Chatman as Miss Carver Avenue, Miss Virginia Davis as Miss Nazaree Baptist, Miss Judy Thomas as Miss Brown Street Holiness, and Miss Phyllis Riley as Miss Apostolic Pentecostal."

That's an interesting idea that I pray will never catch on here. I'm not sure how "Miss Christian" was chosen -- hopefully not through a swimsuit contest -- but it's interesting to note that Jesus is not interested in choosing Miss Christian between Martha and Mary.

In John 11 John tells us that Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha is deathly ill. Mary and Martha send a message to Jesus saying, "Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick."

After a two day delay -- after He knows that Lazarus has died -- Jesus begins the two day journey to Bethany. And Martha, when she hears that Jesus is coming, goes out to meet him on the road.

In many ways, Martha would fit in very well in most Presbyterian Churches. In fact, she would probably feel very much at home in our own congregation. Martha possesses many Presbyterian characteristics.

Martha is a practical person. She wants things done and done right. Her mind is on the job. Martha is more an intellectual than an emotionalist. She works on the right side of the brain. She has faith but she also has questions. She has a good deal of reserve and dignity. You will not see Martha approaching Jesus in tears -- despite the anguish and hurt she feels inside.

Martha comes up to Jesus, as John records, and says: "Lord, if You had been here my brother would not have died. And even now I know that whatever You ask God, God will give to you."

And Jesus says to her: "Your brother will live again."

Then Martha does a very intellectual thing. In spite of her affirmation of faith of a moment before, she retreats from Jesus into theology.

She says: "I know that my brother will rise again in the resurrection on the last day."--In reference to the prophecy in Daniel 12:2.

But Jesus will not allow Martha to hide from Him behind a theological concept. He says in effect: "Don't worry about a future resurrection. Not today. I'm talking about a resurrection right now. Look at me! I am the resurrection and the life. If anyone believes in me, even though he dies, he will live. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. You've told me that you believe in the prophecy of Daniel. That's cool! But do you believe this? Do you believe me?"

With the question put to her so directly, Martha replies with the most complete affirmation of Jesus' divinity to be found in the gospels before the resurrection: "Yes, Lord, I have believed that you are the Christ, the Son of God, even He who is coming into the world."

Beautiful! But just a little while later, as they stand in front of the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus gives the command: "Remove the stone." And Martha turns and says to Him, "Lord, by this time there will be a stench; for he has been dead four days." "You are the Christ, the Son of God, but wait you don't know what you are doing."

But Jesus says to her, "Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?"

It is instructive for us with our theme to note how Jesus interacts with Martha. Martha approaches Jesus on an intellectual, theologically sophisticated level and Jesus responds to her on the same level while keeping her attention focused on the immediate moment. Despite Martha's combination of vital faith and shrinking doubts, Jesus does not shut her off. He takes her hand and leads her to greater faith. The only time we find Jesus rebuking Martha is in Luke 10 when she will not allow her sister Mary to be herself. For we see again and again in scriptures that Jesus refuses to allow one person to define the way another person should express worship.

As Gary Thomas writes: "We can get so excited about certain concepts and approaches to the Christian life, we imply that everyone must experience this or that, or something must be wrong with their faith. Please don't be intimidated by other's expectations. God wants to know the real you, not a caricature of what somebody else wants you to be. He created you with a certain personality and a certain spiritual temperament. God wants your worship according to the way He made you."

In many ways, Martha and her sister, Mary are almost opposites. While Martha is reserved, Mary is impulsive and demonstrative. It is difficult to picture Martha poring costly perfume on Jesus' feet and wiping them with her hair. But, as we see later in the gospel, it was very much in character for Mary.

When Mary comes to Jesus, she comes with almost the same words as her sister. But they are words spoken from her heart, not from her head: "Lord, if you had been here my brother would not have died!"

When Martha approaches Jesus on an intellectual level, Jesus responds to her on that level. But when Mary comes to Jesus, she comes on an emotional level and Jesus responds to her on that level.

John writes that when Jesus saw Mary weeping and the tears of the Jews that came with her, He was deeply moved in spirit and was troubled. And then, in complete identification with the sorrow of Mary and out of His own grief at Lazarus' death, Jesus wept.

Do you see the point? Jesus isn't going to choose Miss Christian between Martha and Mary. Jesus lets Mary be herself and Martha be herself. He meets them where they are and helps them grow from there.

Jesus expects that same from is if we are walking as he walked. He gives acceptance and He expects growth. He loves us equally no matter how we come to Him. And we need to love each other the same way because we need to learn from each other.

Can we, in Christian humility, encourage others even our spouses and our children to nurture their souls in ways that are most effective for them so long as they remain true to sound teaching in the historic Christian faith. I'd hope that we would all answer yes.

For Jesus is not interested in choosing between us. All that He asks is that whatever we are Naturalists, Sensates, Traditionalists, Ascetics, Activists, Care Givers, Enthusiasts, Contemplatives, Intellectual or any combination thereof is that we seek to know Him better and love each other while we are doing it.

In your small groups this week you will have the opportunity to take a step in that direction in a way that fits who you are.