Interreligious Wisdom

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas

June 2, 2013; 2 Pentecost, Proper 4, Year C

Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

(1 Kings 8:22-23, 41-43)  Then Solomon stood before the altar of the LORD in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread out his hands to heaven. He said, "O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath, keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart.

"Likewise when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a distant land because of your name -- for they shall hear of your great name, your mighty hand, and your outstretched arm -- when a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, then hear in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and so that they may know that your name has been invoked on this house that I have built."

(Luke 7:1-10)  After Jesus had finished all his sayings in the hearing of the people, he entered Capernaum. A centurion there had a slave whom he valued highly, and who was ill and close to death. When he heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to him, asking him to come and heal his slave. When they came to Jesus, they appealed to him earnestly, saying, "He is worthy of having you do this for him, for he loves our people, and it is he who built our synagogue for us." And Jesus went with them, but when he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to say to him, "Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you. But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed. For I also am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, `Go,' and he goes, and to another, `Come,' and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this,' and the slave does it." When Jesus heard this he was amazed at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, he said, "I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith." When those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the slave in good health.

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Our first reading takes us back to Jerusalem, 957 BCE, where we listen in, hearing King Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the first Temple in Jerusalem nearly three-thousand years ago.  Solomon faces the altar of presence and says, “O LORD, God of Israel, there is no God like you in heaven above or on earth beneath.”  He exalts God as God is known by his people Israel, the God revealed to Abraham and Moses centuries before. 

Then Solomon praises God’s great character – “keeping covenant and steadfast love for your servants who walk before you with all their heart.”

After praising God and recalling God’s nature, Solomon speaks a petition:  “When a foreigner comes and prays toward this house, then hear (listen) in heaven your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls you to do.”

A little sidebar:  Note that Solomon has followed a pattern that is just like what we use in our Collects.  I’ve already prayed two of them this morning – the Collect for Purity and the Collect of the Day.  Each collect has a three-fold pattern:  (1) an opening ascription to God; (2) praise for some aspect of God’s nature; and (3) a petition related to the nature of God’s being. 

Solomon’s petition:  Dear God, honor the prayers of the foreigners who turn with respect toward this Temple of the Jewish people.

Fast-forward almost a millennium.  Jewish elders approach Jesus as he enters Capernaum.  They make an appeal on behalf of a Roman army officer.  Interesting.  A Centurion commanded a hundred soldiers.  Their job was to occupy this foreign land of Galilee and to impose the will of Caesar upon them. 

It seems that this particular occupier has developed a relationship with the locals and has contributed significantly to the building of their place of worship, their synagogue.  Maybe he is among those called “Godfearers,” non-Jewish Gentiles who study the wisdom of Jewish tradition and appreciate its ethical teachings.  It is obvious that the Centurion knows something about the Jewish laws of purity, for he sends word to Jesus not to enter his house.  He knows that would render Jesus ritually impure to his fellow Jews. 

The Centurion speaks respectfully of the odd Jewish customs of purity.  “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; therefore I did not presume to come to you.”  That’s the language of respect.  Then the soldier acknowledges the authority of Jesus, and the Centurion makes his petition, “But only speak the word, and let my servant be healed.”  He sees Jesus’ authority as his comparable to his own.  He speaks and his soldiers and slaves obey.

Jesus does what the Centurion asks, and the slave is healed.  It is a genuine event of interreligious exchange.

Fast-forward another two millennia.  In 1984, Father Thomas Keating, a Benedictine Abbot of a Roman Catholic monastery in Snowmass, Colorado, convened an on-going interreligious dialogue of spiritual leaders from many world-religions:  Buddhist, Tibetan Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Islamic, Native American, Russian Orthodox, Protestant, and Roman Catholic.  They started with silence.  Simply meditating together.  They shared their personal spiritual journeys.  For a few years they took no notes and wrote nothing of their meetings.  They let trust and friendship grow.  After a while, they discovered some points of agreement and published an initial list of eight points that spiritual leaders from diverse religious traditions could all embrace.  I want to go through those with you briefly.

1.  They acknowledged that the “world religions bear witness to the experience of Ultimate Reality.”  We have a lot of names for that Ultimate Reality.

2.  “Ultimate Reality cannot be limited by any name or concept.”

Their third point I find deeply interesting and compelling.  “Ultimate Reality is the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization.”  Fascinating.  They have created something of a definition of God.  “The ground of infinite potentiality and actualization.”  What might a quantum physicist say about that?  Actually, we mused on this concept last week, Trinity Sunday.  God the Father (infinite potentiality), God the Son (divine potentiality actualized), God the Holy Spirit (the ground between the potential and the actual).

Having offered a framework for acknowledging God, the group found a way to describe faith.  (4) “Faith is opening, accepting and responding to Ultimate Reality.”  I like that – opening, accepting and responding. 

And what does faith lead to?  (5) “The potential for human wholeness,” which they said “is present in every person.”  Each of us has in our being the potential to be whole.  Different traditions use different words – “enlightenment, salvation, transformation, blessedness, ‘nirvana.’”  Human wholeness is the fulfillment of our human potential.  We can know ourselves, and we can know God.

These spiritual leaders acknowledge that there are many paths for knowing God.  (6) “Ultimate Reality may be experienced not only through religious practices,” (what we are doing today) “but also through nature, art, human relationships, and service to others.”  “Church in the woods,” as well as in the concert hall, the museum and art studio.  Church in feeding others; the experience of the divine as we help others in any way; and knowing God within all sorts of human relationships.  These experiences can be moments of faith – moments of opening, accepting and responding to God.  There are so many ways of connecting with the divine.  There is so much that is right in the world.

But everything is not right with the world, or with us, is it?  So how did this group of spiritual leaders speak about what’s wrong?  (7) “As long as the human condition is experienced as separate from Ultimate Reality, it is subject to ignorance and illusion, weakness and suffering.”  Our brokenness:  ignorance, illusion, weakness and suffering.

What can we do about that?  Their final guideline offers this:  (8) “Disciplined practice is essential to the spiritual life; yet spiritual attainment is not the result of one’s own efforts, but the result of the experience of oneness with Ultimate Reality.” 

That list of eight guidelines is a strong summary of the collective wisdom of the human spiritual tradition:  Spiritual practice is essential to our movement toward wholeness.  But we aren’t in control.  We don’t achieve oneness with God.  The divine blesses us with the experience of union, oneness with Ultimate Reality.  It helps to be open to that possibility.  So practice.

That sounds pretty abstract, doesn’t it?  But they also added a few practical muscle and bones by describing some examples of disciplined practice common to all of the religions.  The first is compassion.  The “practice of compassion.”  The call to compassion is at the core of all of the enduring religions.  Their second practice is “service to others.”  Compassion acted out.

They embraced the ethical life of “practicing moral precepts and virtues.”  They endorsed “training in meditation techniques” and regular practice of prayer.  They raised up attention to “diet and exercise” and the practice of “fasting and abstinence.”  They praised the “use of music and chanting and sacred symbols.” 

Every religious tradition represented offered a discipline of “practice in awareness (recollection, mindfulness) and living in the present moment.”  I think that is so central to our health as human beings.  Awareness and living in the moment.

Finally they mentioned the practice of “pilgrimage” and of the “study of scriptural texts and scriptures.” 

In an important addendum, they noticed that “humility, gratitude, and a sense of humor are indispensable in the spiritual life.”

On a Sunday when we hear Solomon ask God to listen to the prayers of foreigners, and Jesus heals the slave of a respectful Roman soldier, I’ve shared with you some core understandings, values and practices that show up across the whole religious spectrum today. 

In a way, these Guidelines for Interreligious Understanding seem a bit like Solomon’s prayer, or one of our Collects.  They take the form of ascription to God, praise of God’s nature, and a petition related to God’s nature. 

So let me close with a Christian collect inspired by this wisdom from the world’s religions. 

Let us pray.

Holy Trinity, Ultimate Reality, the ground of infinite potentiality and actualization, we praise you that every human being can experience oneness with you and that we can know our own wholeness through Christ our Savior:  Help us to grow in your Spirit through faithful practice; enable us to become more open, accepting and responsive to your presence, as we live lives of compassion, service and moral virtue, awake and aware in the present moment, living in union with you, O Father, who with the Son and Holy Spirit are One God, Ultimate Reality, now and for ever.  Amen.

 [The Guidelines for Interreligious Understanding, by Thomas Keating are available online at this link.]