WHY AM I HERE AT SANCTUARY CHURCH?
My sense of the world – of the nature of all: nature, man and the spirit – does not flow from faith, at least not in the Christian sense of the word. If that’s the case, then why do I keep coming to Sanctuary? Even if I like the people individually and the feel of the community at large – which I do — why go to a Christian church if not to be closer to God in Christ? Good question. Hmmm…, I’m thinking…
I have not historically gone to church, yet I do now. Since that qualifies as a change, I suppose an answer would have to touch on both of the following: what about the progression of my life brings me to this new choice, and what about Sanctuary draws me? Answering both in a way, I come to Sanctuary – through the portal of the Green Bean coffee shop incidentally – to share the intertwined strands of friendship and community, spirituality in some broad sense, and the urge to co-create a better world.
The part about the progression of my life, in its shortest form, might simply be about moving from the importance, in my early life circumstance, of maintaining a wary separateness, which was both self-taught and unwitting, to…, not simply the importance of creating connectedness between individuals…, nor simply of moral and ethical codes for individual guidance…, but of living as an individual aligned with the sense of connectedness –with the spirit of “us” as humans itself – that animates our being. This progression and this “arrival” – a personal journey if I were more hip, that was wittingly self-directed I suppose – was not as easy in the doing as it is in the saying. It has a lot to do with spirituality as I have come to see it and feel it.
After raising my two children not far from here near Carkeek park, I find myself in a new life phase and circumstance, needing to design and then press some reset button for entering the next phase of my life. The Greenwood neighborhood is a natural landing for me in this, in which I found the Green Bean, encountered friends old and new in the general community, and encountered the Sanctuary crowd. I appreciate the openness and acceptance I have found here, and I wish to thank you one and all for your friendship and support. I am lucky to know you all as I go about this reset.
Thus arrives the part about what draws me to Sanctuary. I guess I already touched on the friendship and community I find here. These are immensely valuable to me; reason enough to attend service I suppose, if thin by itself on the spiritual side of things.
Yet, these are at one with, and intertwine with the spiritual; with the spirit of “us” as I so inelegantly strive to put it. I have trouble with the holy trinity aspect of Christianity, and similar trouble with other of the world’s great religions in the specific descriptions of God and how He is honored; of the nature of the spirit, where it comes from, and all the rest. But I know that the spirit exists. Also troubling, is that people will fight, and even go to war over their religious views. I’m not a big fan of that approach to God; it seems to miss the point. But the bustle, and sometimes chaos of individual daily life, does not draw one’s attention to one’s spiritual center all that well. It seems important to intentionally connect with that – with God if you will. And despite my difficulty with the holy Trinity, it is valuable to me to listen to the sermons (and do a little translating, a regular mental gymnast) to reflect on the truths I find described there. So, ignoring all precedent, I attend service.
Intertwined, yet again, with these and flowing from these is the urge to co-create a better world; to create a space for God, as I have heard it said, and for our common humanity and connection in “us” as I might put it to flourish and grow. It seems to me that any human interaction works to create what comes next, a co-creation since there is more than one person involved; this, from a chance encounter on the street, to the sum of all human activity on a planet beset by any number of troubles. There is a choice to be made here. In its simplest form, it is between, acting as adversarial or at best disinterested individuals, or acting as interconnected individuals in common cause in the spirit of our common humanity: acting as “us.” This works out, more or less, to a choice between, denying or withering the spirit, and living by it; which in turn works out to a choice between increasing or minimizing human misery. At least, that’s the way it seems to me. The choice seems clear to me as well. I attend Sanctuary because this commitment, this urge to create a better world by act of the spirit, however described, I find here as well. I am honored to be a part of that.
Thank you.
0 Comments