Feb 6

Spirituality revolution

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The following is text that appeared recently in the religion column of the ‘Advocate’ newspaper, a periodical from Tasmania.  It is re-printed here with permission.

I have been reading a book called “The Spirituality Revolution” by David Tacey,  one of Australia’s leading thinkers on spirituality. David calls on the church to recognise that “if God is alive and active in the world, then God will be creative in the world, beckoning us to new transformations”.

Perhaps God is calling us to befriend the emerging questions of our time, and listen to those who feel disillusioned with the institutional church in its various forms, I believe that we in the church often diminish God in people’s understanding by sounding as though we are the custodians of truth. God is much bigger than any of our institutions and stated beliefs and forms of worship. Words are icons that can encapsulate some of the truth, but not all of it. One day we will see Truth face to face, and there will be no more need for words. As St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 13, “Now we see through a glass dimly; then face to face”.

When Jesus came into this world, he did much of his work outside the religious institutions of his day. As is the very nature of institutions, they restricted people’s access to, and understanding of, a Presence that permeates all of creation, and is a part of every living form and every human being. Jesus said “God’s kingdom is like a seed”. A seed in creation. A seed in us.

In Jesus’ famous story of the Good Samaritan, the man who has been attacked wakes up in enemy territory, realizing that he has been loved by the very one who is supposed to hate him, and the one he is supposed to fear. They come from different religious traditions.

Is this the kind of transformation our world today needs? An acknowledgement of the fear that is at the root of our suspicion of those who are different from ourselves.

Could this be the seed? This love that seeks to go beyond hatred and fear and suspicion by recognising that we all fall short of Truth in its purest sense. And we all belong equally.

It is when we acknowledge our own limitations and our fear, personally and institutionally, that we open ourselves to the transforming love of the God who is in all and beyond all. And the seed of love can then grow in us, and bring light to the world.

Rev. Adelene Mills
Devonport Uniting Church