The market for books on
spirituality has grown considerably in the last twenty years. Even bookstores which are not particularly
religious carry growing sections devoted to titles on prayer or
meditation. Mysticism is big. Growing interest in Kabbalah or Sufism or
even the Eastern faiths suggest a spiritual hunger. People want to tune into something beyond
themselves.
In the Christian Church, we too
see a longing for the spiritual. People
are sampling from a variety of traditions.
Even Protestants are considering the iconography of the Eastern
Orthodox. Others are walking labyrinths
supposedly born from Medieval Roman Catholicism. It is helpful to be reminded that the world
is much bigger than we experience. However,
our spiritual practices are too often treated as an escape from the
ordinary. We get caught up in the
moment, but then we still have a job we don’t like or some bad habit which continues
to bother us.
The Christian faith is
unique. Instead of us reaching new
spiritual heights, God comes to dwell with us in our everyday life. Jesus Christ does not provide an escape from
our lives, but he achieves victory over it.
We are transformed in such a way that our daily efforts are understood
as part of God’s realm. A spiritual
practice which is truly Christian must remind us of God’s gift and then send us
back into the world to serve.
In Matthew 6, Jesus discusses
spiritual practices. Two are familiar,
even if we don’t practice them, prayer and fasting. However, he mentions a third--our gifts. The giving of our money, our time, and our
talents are spiritual disciplines. Our
checkbooks may unfortunately speak more about our spiritual lives than our
prayer journals.
Stewardship is not something that
occurs once a year at a budget drive.
Instead, our giving to church, to neighbors, and to the least among us reminds
us of God’s giving. Moreover, God uses
our giving to transform us and the world around us.
Christ is Lord of everything…including
our hard-earned resources. I have always
been amazed at the generosity of the members of the Ardmore Presbyterian Church. May God use that generosity to draw us closer
to him.
Grace & Peace,
James
