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I was thinking about questions in the census concerning religious belief and began wondering how we identify ourselves. Many brought up in traditional faiths now no longer want to identify with these belief systems. Neither do they want to dismiss these systems as they recognise them as pivotal in shaping their worldview. So they tick ‘Other’.
How do we name this ‘Other’?
There is a general lament from institutional churches that numbers are down. Immediately we equate this with a loss of the ‘sense of the sacred’, the holy, the profound. I disagree.
Perhaps it is that when we enter a church now, it often feels different, strange, irrelevant, without context, unfamiliar, archaic. The sacred is no longer contained nor constrained within these walls. We now feel free; are graced; to see and experience the sacred in our profane world. Our world is our cathedral.
Consider these every day graced moments…
- a hot mince pie, in a paper bag, given to a homeless man busking on the street … Eucharist?
- the welcome of open doors and smiling faces at the local cafe or tavern, as opposed to the locked doors of multi-million dollar cathedrals … which reveals the hospitality of God?
- the heartfelt generosity of the overweight, unwashed man in black leathers who stands to give me his seat on the bus, compared to the Chanel-scented woman in pearls who berates me for sitting in her pew in church … who reveals the loving-kindness of God?
- the friendly wave of the early morning dog-walkers acknowledging our commonality, and the fellow worshipper, uncomfortable at the human contact of the Sign of Peace … who reflects the incarnate God?
- the succinct, even prophetic messages of bumper stickers …”LIVE SIMPLY THAT OTHERS MAY SIMPLY LIVE” or “AND WHAT DIFFERENCE DO YOU MAKE?” or “INSATIABLE IS NOT SUSTAINABLE” and the long-winded, over-worked exegesis of a tired preacher … who breaks open the word of God in a releveant, meaningful way?
- a woman raising a plastic spoon of pureed food to the lips of her terminally-ill husband … a consecrated act?
- a gentle, loving kiss on a toddler’s sore finger … a holy anointing?
- a hand-written note of apology from a repentant son … reconiliation?
We are blessed to recognise and to name and to experience God in the actions and words and presence of each other. But we have no name for this. No category or box to tick.
How do we broaden the concept of the sacramental presence of God?
How do we invite people to worship in the ‘cathedral of life’?
- Liz Pearce, a mother of three adult children, loves story, writing, and dollmaking www.heartfeltdolls.weebly.com
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