Some religious experiences are grandiose: miracles, theophanies, resurrection. But the unlikelihood of that model of instant total transformation can make spiritual growth seem impossible. In truth, the more reliable route to achieving our faith goals is through slow, steady work, and patience for incremental change.
During these Winter months between the solstice in December and the Equinox in March, we are asking the question, in worship, “What is religion for?”
What’s the purpose? What’s the hope?
What’s the spiritual goal that comes at the end of spiritual practice?
Athletes don’t practice just to practice, eventually there’s a game. Musicians don’t practice just to practice, eventually there’s a performance.
What are you practicing for?
During the fall months we looked at various kinds of spiritual practices. I hope that many of you were inspired to take up a personal spiritual practice, or perhaps to recognize a spiritual practice in something you already do. And even if belonging to this church and coming to worship on Sundays is your only regular, intentional, holistic, ecstatic, connection to your spirituality, community worship is itself a spiritual practice. So the question for everyone in the room, then, is “Why?”
Why are you here? What do you hope to get from your involvement in and commitment to a spiritual community? And although one way to answer that question might be, to look at a particular Sunday experience: I hope to have a moment of peace in the midst of a stressful week, I hope to be inspired by some beautiful music, I hope to be challenged by an interesting idea in the sermon; I hope that you will also consider that question of “Why?” in the larger, longer sense, of your continued involvement and commitment to this church. Not just Sunday by Sunday. But over months and years. And over your lifetime.
What are you hoping to achieve as you follow your long spiritual journey? Where do you hope to go with this spiritual life? What will be different after you’ve put in the practice? How will you change? How will you grow? Who do you hope to be, finally, on game day, as you step out to that final stage?
More loving? More compassionate? More effective? More composed?
We’ve looked at a few answers to the “Why?” question already these last few weeks. Some people seek a spiritual goal of wisdom. Others seek courage. For others, the goal is joy. Perhaps one or more of those speak to you. Perhaps your goal is one I will get to in coming weeks.
But you might also be thinking, as you heard my sermons on Wisdom, Courage, and Joy, as spiritual goals, “You know, I already am wise, courageous, joyful.” You might be feeling pretty good about yourself. And you should. Because I dare say every person in the room is feeling the same way.
Maybe not wise, exactly, that’s a little much, but I know a lot, I answer most of the questions on Jeopardy. Maybe not courageous in the sense of a fireman running into a burning building, but I’ve got the courage I need to get up in the morning, “courage to change the things I can”. That sort of courage? Maybe I’m not the joyful type, which actually sounds a little annoying, but I’m happy. Fairly happy. I have my good days. I can take a joke and tell one.
You’ll probably find the same is true as we get to the other spiritual goals. For every one, you’ll probably be able to say, “I’ve got that.” I’ve got some of that.
Because here is a spiritual truth, attested by every religious tradition. You already have everything you need. You have what you seek. Buddhism teaches us contentment and the perniciousness of desire. “The kingdom of God is within you” says Luke 17:21.
The spiritual goal doesn’t require acquiring. The spiritual goal is to recognize your inner gifts and let them flourish: to awaken what is already in you. To expand. To flower. To grow. As a child becomes an adult not by becoming a different person but by integrating child experiences into adult maturity
As the Unitarian Universalist minister, David C. Pohl writes, in the words we read as our Opening Words this morning, the goal is “To rediscover the wondrous gift of free religious community;” not to discover for the first time, but to rediscover something we already know within. “To renew our faith in the holiness, goodness, and beauty of life.” Not to find that faith for the first time but to “renew” a faith we knew long ago. To reaffirm the way of the open mind and full heart; To rekindle the flame of memory and hope; and [in one of my most loved phrases in all of our hymnal] To reclaim the vision of an earth made fair, with all her people one.”
You are wise, in some way, a little bit. The goal is not to get wise, but to take the wisdom you have and build on it. You are courageous. I know you are. The goal is to let your little, latent, courage, fill your whole body, your whole life. I know sparks of joy are in you. The goal is to let those sparks light a fire of joy that burns through your life.
Sometimes we hear stories of religious experience where a transformation comes suddenly and spectacularly. Paul knocked from his horse on the road to Damascus. St. Francis receiving the stigmata. Stories of visions and visitations, sudden conversions.
But more often, for most people, spiritual transformation is a long, gradual, even meandering process. Perhaps the journey begins with a dramatic experience, an epiphany, a theophany, a baptism, a “call”, being born-again, but after the drama, we pick ourselves off the floor, we lift ourselves out of the water, we wipe our eyes, we dry ourselves off, and we start the work.
It’s because we know a little wisdom that we want to be truly wise. It’s because we feel a little courage that we want more. It’s because we have had a taste of joy, that we long for the full meal.
I find this spiritual truth comforting, even a relief. Spiritual transformation doesn’t need to be that total, or that difficult. I don’t need to make a radical change in my life in order to pursue my spiritual goals. I don’t need to join a monastery. I don’t need to take vows I don’t want to take. I don’t need to hope for a revolution, just work for progress. I don’t need to hope for a miracle. Or feel cheated because, at least so far in my life, I haven’t had the kinds of transforming experience the mystics have. I don’t need a new life. I just need this life. All I need for this life, is to grow a little more, to expand, to develop, to mature. To take what I already have of wisdom, courage, joy, and so on, and let it blossom. The way that a fully opened rose isn’t a different flower from a partially opened bud, it’s the same flower, just a little more.
That feels doable to me. Even kind of easy. I can do that. It’s only what I already have, just a little bit more. Maybe Ten Percent More.
Ten Percent More Justice
Ten Precent More Commitment
Ten Percent More Connection
Self-Awareness
Joy
Inspiration
Hope
Generosity
Kindness
Humor
Love
Engagement
Courage.
Just Ten Percent More. Not huge leaps. Not giant steps. Not thrilling adventures. Not impossible dreams. Just a partially opened rose opening all the way. With a little care and attention it almost happens by itself. I can do this. You can do this. We can do this.
Today is the Kick-Off Sunday for our Stewardship Campaign. The campaign theme is Ten Percent More… What that means is that we start by affirming that our church is good, our congregation is robust, our programs are healthy, our worship is inspiring, our justice work is effective, our children’s religious education is strong, our staff are solid, our present is secure and our future is bright.
We’re doing fine. Not perfect in every way. But we’re fine. We have our challenges. But what we need is not a radical change to be something different, but simply to activate more of what we already have, and be more of what we already are.
Just Ten Percent More. That’s not even a lot more. A completely do-able expansion. Almost even, a relaxation, into what comes next. Instead of the stress of being confined in a church package that’s a little too small for our dreams, we could give ourselves Ten Percent more room to breathe. Wouldn’t that feel nice? Ten Percent More spiritual space to do what we come to church to do. Imagine, everything we already love about this church, just Ten Percent More.
If your pledge this year is $100 a month, Ten Percent more is only a $110 a month. Could you do that? If your pledge is $50 a month, Ten Percent more is only $55 a month. If your pledge is $73.87 cents per month. And really why is your pledge $73.87 cents per month? Then Ten Percent more is only… let’s see how good you are at math… $81.26 cents per month.
And those little increases, some of us can do even more, if we all do our part, will allow us to fully fund the church that we want. The church that we love, just Ten Percent More…