Title: SBNR – Really?
Text: I Samuel 1:4-20
Thesis: Spirituality grows best in an authentic religious community.
Introduction
Some years ago, the toy manufacturer Mattel came up with an interesting scheme to promote the latest version of its world famous doll, Barbie. The new Barbie being brought out was both slimmer and had more movement than her predecessor. In order to attract interest, Mattel said that, for the first time, any girl wanting to purchase the new Barbie would receive a trade-in allowance for her old one. What Mattel did not say was that in trading in her old doll for an improved model, the little girl was learning something about the world in which she was going to grow up in––a world in which even things that you love become disposable. This is actually quite ironic, isn't it? A little girl pours out affection on Barbie for three years, and now even Barbie can be replaced with a better model.
Mattel did that 30 years ago. And since then, most of us have grown up in a culture that has moved increasingly in the direction of the disposable. If we do not like something we dispose of it. Relationships. Unwanted children. Jobs. College classes. Church.
One of the most common comments I hear from people who are not active in a church is this: “I am spiritual but not religious. SBNR!
I’ve read that the phrase, “spiritual but not religious” has its origin in Alcoholics Anonymous: Big Book and the nebulous concept of a higher power. Since it became popular in the late 80’s, 25% of the population has claimed “spiritual but not religious” as the best way to describe their faith.
This cynicism is actually pretty alarming… in 1960, 90-95% of people polled in a Pew Poll, were certain of God’s existence., Today that number is 72%, however when you look at the number in people under the age of 30, that number drops to 44%... in other words, 66% of those under that age of 30 do not believe in God and most of those have never set foot in a church building.
It is alarming enough to know that 66% of the people under that age of 30 are, if nothing else, practical atheists, 25% of Americans claim to be spiritual but not religious… and by not religious they mean uninvolved in a church.
U.S. News published an article citing, Orianna O’Neill, a student at Beloit College in Wisconsin, who comes from a non-religious background, but sometimes prays (spiritual but not religious), said she thinks anti-science, anti-gay rhetoric may be turning young people away from religion.” She went on to say, “…not believing in global warming is contributing to the notion that religious people are not very intelligent.” (Mary Wisneiwski, Young Americans are becoming less religious, Reuters, November 3, 2015)
When Christians are uninformed and unloving, we are neither credible, nor desirable ambassadors for Christ and his church.
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It may feel like a bit of a leap but I believe our text today speaks to how one can be both spiritual and religious… in fact I personally believe that, if not synonymous, being spiritual and religious are not mutually exclusive. I believe spirituality and religion are most healthy when practiced together.
As we look at the text we find a man named Elkanah and his family practicing their Jewish religion and from their example we understand the concept that your church is a place to practice your religious faith.
I. Your church is a place to practice your religious faith.
Each year Elkanah would travel to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord of Heaven’s Armies at the Tabernacle. I Samuel 1:3
Elkanah and his family were religious people: When we think of being religious, most mean a faith that has to do with an institution or organization and that religion in primarily external. Religion is thought to be practiced in the public realm. It is often associated with higher levels of church attendance and a commitment to beliefs and practices.
The family in our text this morning were practicing their faith in the public arena of the Tabernacle. They were there to offer a sacrifice to God and share a sacrificial meal.
A spiritual but not religious person does not practice their faith in the public arena. When a person says they are spiritual they mean something experiential and internal. They may be moved by a sunset. A mountain vista. Listening to the Grateful Dead. Attending the theater. Spirituality is thought to be practiced in the private realm of thoughts and feelings. Spirituality is private and internalized and resistant to organized religion and may have negative feelings toward the clergy and churches.
An example of anti-religious feelings was captured in a cartoon from Charlie Hebdo (a Paris weekly satirical magazine) Saturday morning following the terrorist attacks in Paris. This was the caption:
Friends from the whole world, thank you for prayer for Paris.
We don’t need more religion!
Our faith goes to music! Kisses! Life! Champagne and Joy!
Paris is about life.
(Joann Sfar, Charlie Hebdo Cartoonist)
Unfortunately, one of the reasons people claim to be spiritual but not religious is because organized religion, i.e., the church is not perfect.
II. Your church is not perfect
So Peninnah would make fun of her because the Lord had kept her from having children. Year after year it was the same… Peninnah would taunt Hannah as they went to the Tabernacle. I Samuel 1:6-7
If you are looking… there is no shortage of illustrations of hypocrisy in organized religion.
In light of the latest terrorist activity in Paris, France and some of the subsequent rhetoric I find this story challenging to the Church of Jesus Christ.
A young woman who had grown up in a Christian home, attended church faithfully and was then attending a Christian college where she had many Christian friends and was the leader of a campus bible study group told this story.
Immediately after 9/11 the in her college town was vandalized. The local Imam appealed to the community asking for people to participate in a vigil at the mosque against violence and intolerance. Her Muslim roommate asked her to if she would join her at the vigil.
She went to her Christian community there on campus and asked them to join her at the vigil… she fully expected that her Christian community would join her in this act of compassion as an expression of the love of Christ. No one would go with her and she went to the vigil wondering why Christians would not act out their faith in loving compassion and concern for the Muslim community. Surely the story of the Good Samaritan would affirm Muslims as neighbors. Surely the teaching of Jesus, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” means something. And what of Jesus’ Great Commandment, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself?” Surely the love of Jesus extends to Muslims…
For Hannah the religious community, the institution of the Tabernacle or church if you will, was a place of personal pain and anguish. Her husband found her crying and refusing to eat. Today she might well say, “If that is what church is like, I’m not going back. Any religion that tolerates abusive relationships within the family has no appeal to me. Any church that lets one congregant bully another is no place for me. I believe I will just practice my own version of spirituality.
If you are looking… there is no shortage of illustrations of hypocrisy and hurt in organized religion.
In one congregation we served a woman took it upon herself to tell a 17 year-old high school student attending our church that her legs were “too thick to be wearing a skirt like that.” That young lady decided to practice her own version of spirituality after that experience.
There are many places Hannah could have gone to deal with her sadness. Starbucks, a drive through the mountains, a park bench, a dim lit room listening to slow jazz, a bar… but she went to church.
III. Your church is a place to practice your personal spirituality.
Hannah got up and went to pray. Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. And she made this vow: “O Lord… if you will look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime…” I Samuel 1:8-11
Over the years here at Heritage there have been people who have come during the week to simply sit in this sanctuary. Some simply sit and take in the solitude of this sacred space. Others pray. Some read the scripture and reflect on what God is saying to them. Some thumb through the hymnal, reading the hymns as poetry or singing quietly. But most who come here have come because life is hard and they need to pour out their hearts to God.
Hannah was a broken woman. Apart from the mocking of her “sister-wife” Hannah wanted to be a mother. And though not readily apparent, in her time the plight of a widowed and childless woman was bleak, having no son to care for her in her old age.
The text says Hannah was in deep anguish, crying bitterly as she prayed to the Lord. She was so desperate that she did the unthinkable and bargained with God… “If you give me a son, then I will give him back to you. He will be yours for his entire lifetime.” I Samuel 1:10-11
Her church was not only a place where she could go to pour out her heart… it was a place where she could be encouraged and nurtured.
IV. Your church is a place where you may be nurtured in your faith.
“In that case,” Eli said, “go in peace! May the Lord grant the request you have asked of him.” Then she went back and began to eat again, and she was no longer sad. I Samuel 1:17-18
Apparently Hannah was quite the spectacle to watch… her lips were moving but she made no sound. Eli the priest observed her and assumed she had been drinking so he got after her for daring to come into the Tabernacle soused.
Not long ago a young man rang the doorbell here at church rather insistently. He was intoxicated and wanted to bless this place because when he was a boy he used to come here and climb up and sit on the roof. I confess, my thought was not unlike that of Eli… you are drunk and feeling all sentimental so you want to come here and bless the place?
Hannah could well have taken exception to Eli’s abrasiveness. No one likes a finger-pointing, outspoken and condemning clergyman. She could have said, “If this is how you treat broken people… I can just be a spiritual but not religious person from now on.”
Fortunately Eli heard her, encouraged and blessed her.
It was in the context of organized religion that Hannah sought and found encouragement and God’s blessing. God gave her a son and when the child was weaned Hannah took Samuel to the Tabernacle… “I asked the Lord to give me a boy, and he granted my request. Now I am giving him to the Lord, and he will belong to the Lord his whole life.” I Samuel 1:24-28
After Hannah gave birth to her son, she brought him back to the place she practiced her religion to enter into a religious ritual in dedicating her son to God.
Those who wish to experience the spiritual reality of God’s presence and blessing in their lives will find the church to be the place where that will most likely happen. It is through religious practices of worship, singing praises, prayer, giving, dedications, baptisms, confirmations, marriages, life groups, attending VBS and Sunday School, supporting missions around the world, service to God and others, encouragement and blessing, fellowship with others, welcoming the stranger, and love for God that we find that ideally the best way to define our faith is to say, “I practice my spirituality religiously.”
Conclusion
I began this morning with the Mattel’s scheme to promote their new Barbie doll by inviting little girls to dispose of their old Barbies in exchange for a brand new Barbie. Things are disposable… including religion.
It originated in Germany during the 1500’s…The head of household would bathe first, the wife, then the children, followed lastly by the baby. The water would be so black from dirt that a baby could be accidentally "tossed out with the bathwater.” I don’t know if there is any historic evidence that there is any connection with the practice of several family members using the same bath water, the baby being bathed last but there is no disputing the idiom, “Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.”
We understand “don’t throw out the baby with the bath water” to mean, we ought to avoid disposing of something good in our efforts to get rid of something bad.
The church is not perfect. But our church is a place to belong to a loving community, a place to believe in the truth of God’s Word and a place to become conformed to the image of Christ.
It is a place where you can be both spiritual and religious. Spirituality grows best in an authentic faith community.
