Victorious Living through Christ pt5 "Looking for the Sacred in the Secular", First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY

Victorious Living through Christ pt 5
“Looking for the Sacred in the Secular”
By Rev Steven R Mitchell
First Congregational UCC, Rock Springs, WY 2/20/2011
Based on Matthew 5: 43-48 & 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23


What do the “Simpson’s”, “South Park”, the singing group “U2” and famed rape artist “Kanye West “all have in common? One of their commonalities is they are all considered to be a part of the arena we call secular entertainment. Another commonality with these and other secular groups is how much they deal with the concepts of “spirituality” and “sacredness”.
This past week, Paul and I attended what is called the annual “Pastor/Spouse retreat”, but it was what I refer to as a working retreat. We were at 9,000 to be closer to hear God speak; at a place where God’s creative nature provided natural hot springs to help keep us warm as well. As a person who was on the planning committee, I was very pleased with the speaker that we were able to bring in for this retreat, Jim Luck. Jim is a reformed Southern Baptist minister, who is now in the UCC family in South Carolina, as well as holding a degree in Psycho-therapy.
The focus of this working retreat was to explore the sacredness that is being discussed in the secular world, a discussion that is being handled by and for people who are not connected to a traditional faith community; that which we call, church and through the act of “worship.” One of the groups that were presented during these discussions was a group known as “U2”. This group has spent its entire existence staying away from the religious world, yet has a growing number of churches using their materials within the context of worship, with specific focus at the communion table, being labeled “U 2cherist”. (Just a warning, I now have been supplied with resources to where we will be observing a worship that will be a U 2cherist in the not so distant future, that not only featuring U2, but also a speech by Bishop Desmond Tutu, as well as a homily delivered by Bono, lead singer of U 2, at the 2007 Presidential prayer breakfast.)
Just a little back ground on U 2, it is a group that comes out of the turmoil of the Irish Protestant/Catholic war that lasted for generations. The groups background is 3/5th Catholic, 2/5th Protestant. A part of the Christian world looks to U2 as presenting the Christian message, while another part of the Christian world rejects them as “not having the answer” and the group U2 does not identify with any faith community that uses the word “Christian” in its name. Yet, their words and music speak to millions of people at a very deep spiritual level. Let me share some of the words of the song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking for” as one example.


“I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For”
Vs 3….I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for


I believe in the Kingdom Come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
But yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds
And you loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Oh my shame
You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

The discussions at this retreat that Jim Luck asked us to focus on were questions such as: Why do singing groups, movies, and T.V. programs have such impact on millions of listeners concerning spirituality; How is it that discussions of “the sacred” are occurring with such frequency outside of the church; Without the wisdom and guidance of religious teachings, what will the answers look like, with only secular input?
I think there is a huge assumption with many churches, who are struggling to keep their doors open, a conclusion that those on the outside are not interested in “spiritual” matters. I recall in one of my very early sermons asking how many of you have heard the phrase: I’m Spiritual, not religious. The answer in itself speaks volumes to how the church has failed society. We have failed to speak to people at an honest level. An honest level about the hardships that come in life, giving platitudes that like: this is God’s will; you’re not praying hard enough; there must be something wrong in your life to be experiencing all these troubles. We have failed to address the evil that happens in the world. We feel that we must have all the answers to spiritual questions and use formulated words at sacred moments in order to show the power and the “omnipresence” of God.
The Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians, “The Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they are futile…” The church continues to think that it has all the answers to life’s questions. That unless you come to us, you on the outside, will never know the love of God. Jesus, warns us about this type of conceited thinking by telling us,” This is what God does. He gives the Parental best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty.”
We, meaning the human race, are standing at the threshold of a new paradigm of understanding our connectedness to God. This new paradigm started with teachings such as those that Christ taught. It comes through many other prophets such as Mohammad, Buddha, and others, teaching us about our interconnectedness with one another, with our environment, and with God. It has been moving forward for several thousand years. But if all we can do is look through the lens of our arrogance, we will be misplacing our energies; to resist this new shift and will not be a part of the next level of reality in truth, but will become extent as an ancient teaching that has no value to it. We will not be around to help minister to folks as they continue to ask those most intimate questions of God, we will not be around to help people celebrate those most sacred moments in their lives.
As a church, as a people who profess to know God, we are not the only source of comfort and help or knowledge of God. Organizations like AA have filled the vacuum that the church left when it chose not to address the issue of alcoholism. Current estimates say, AA has around one and a quarter million members. They do not talk about God directly, but they do address spirituality and sacredness of life at a level that the church has not.
One of the purposes for my doing this series of Victorious Living through Christ, which is based on AA’s twelve step program is to help us as Christians renew our connection to God for spiritual growth that is based on a program that has been super successful in the secular setting. Another one of the steps that we need to take and work, not only on an individual basis but as the church at large is to: Admit to God, to ourselves, and to humanity the exact nature of our wrongs. As people of God, we must admit our arrogance and our tendency to “exclude, diminish, and marginalize” those we believe do not fit within our image of what God wishes for. The greatest sin of the Christian Church has been and continues to be in our arrogance and self-conceit that we have all the answers.
You see, it doesn’t matter if you believe in a God or not, as human beings we all are asking the questions of life. Questions about why does evil exist, why do others seem to be luckier in life, while I try to do good, but get dumped on all the time? Why did I get cancer when I did all the healthy things that you are suppose to do, yet Joe Blow over there, drinks a case of scotch a week, smokes a carton of cigarettes a day and has no health issues. Why does John Doe who has thousands of dollars in his investment portfolio win the mega millions lotto, while I am in bankruptcy, losing my house and will have my children living on the streets, because I can’t find work? Where is the justice I hear that God is so interested in?
There is sacred and spirituality outside of the church. We as the church have been failing humanity by thinking we have all the answers. We continue to fail humanity by expecting them to conform to our church language, to conduct their experiences of the sacred in the way that we understand the sacred. We are guilty of “institutionalizing” God instead of making God accessible.
In reality, God is always accessible to all; we in the church have forgotten this. I think we are the ones, who sin against God the most, and we need to recognize this and go and confess this, not among ourselves, but with those we have excluded and to those that are marginalized by society. Let us not exclude the secular but rather embrace what it has to offer and see how we within the church can enter into the conversation that is going on outside of these walls. Amen