What would you think if you
discovered a priest, minister, or rabbi who is an atheist? Impossible? Not at
all; such clergy have existed here and there for generations, their atheism
usually unknown to their congregations. Some are serving right here in
Connecticut.
I met my first ordained
atheist in the 1960s; he was a priest in the Episcopal Church. I asked him if
he still celebrated the Eucharist; he replied that he did. For him, portions of
the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer had become psychologically useful; the
liturgy functioned to inspire, comfort, challenge certain values, and to bond
people in positive communal relationships. The "Godtalk" was but part of the
poetry which worked beneficially in people's lives. In his own heart and mind,
he had graduated from a belief in God to a more sophisticated understanding of
reality. On another occasion in the 1970s a United Church of Christ minister
began and ended a meeting I was attending with prayer. Knowing of his atheism,
I asked him privately whom he was praying to. He responded that it was a nice
tradition to use these words; it set a congenial tone for the meeting.
Elsewhere, a rabbi has founded a movement called "Humanistic Judaism." Without
belief in God, his congregation gathers to celebrate the human values implied
by many Jewish traditions.
There are, of course, some lay
counterparts to these clergy. Soon after my arrival as a new vicar of a small
parish, a member of the vestry informed me not to expect to see him in church
very much. "I don't believe in any god or “man in the sky,” but I
like to be active in community groups like the church; they do good things, and
it's good for my business."
In a large New York City
church it was made quite clear by some regular members of the Sunday Evensong
congregation that they attended for the Service's artistic or soothing
qualities; liturgical references to God were no more credible than children's
utterances about their invisible friends.
None of the atheistic
convictions I've mentioned is compatible with Christianity.
A number of people who say
they believe in God have specific understandings of what that means. Some speak
of their induced, unconscious trance-like moments as experiences of the
Sacred; others label their oceanic feelings of at-one-ness with the
universe as God. For some individuals, loving emotions is God. A
few years ago, "the Force" of a science-fiction movie became many young
people's notion of deity. And, for some others, "God" is the word for general
goodness, the highest values by which we should live. Some scholars think of
God only as Being Itself, or as non-Being, or as the God-Beyond-God, or as the
Prime Mover. By contrast, you might recall the episode from the popular 1970s
television program "All In The Family," in which Archie Bunker explained God to
his son-in-law. God is white, male, has five fingers on each hand, and is
Protestant, just like Archie! God is just a big man "up there" who "helps yiz
out now and then." Certainly, none of these gods is the God of Abraham, Moses,
and Jesus, none to whom we would sing "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord .... "!
In the early centuries of
Christianity, it was natural for the Church to formulate its own experience of
God. Mixing some alien philosophical concepts with Christian experience,
classical doctrines of the Trinity emerged. However, today those
interpretations of God's ways of being God seem to be inadequate portrayals of
the God of biblical folklore and history.
A recently popular slogan in
many universities has been "all theology is anthropology," that is, we human
beings simply invent all gods to make ourselves comfortable in the world. To
talk about God is simply to talk about the human imagination; to pray is to
talk to ourselves. A year or so ago at an informal university reception, I
asked a distinguished, ordained professor of theology a question that would
seem odd to many a church-goer. I inquired, "Do you believe in God in the
theistic sense? Do you believe in a personal Creator?" He replied, "Yes,
I do, but I think I'm in the minority these days!" For that scholar, theology
is neither the human imagination creating invisible friends, nor mere
psychological language pointing toward an inexpressible, impersonal Oneness.
I am convinced that the most
significant issue yet to be faced by the contemporary Christian Church is NOT
who should or should not be ordained, NOT whether additional liturgies should
be created, NOT whether Christianity must have bishops, and NOT how many good
works we can complete. I suspect the most crucial matter that we might take up
is a reexamination of the Christian experience of God. Without judging the
destiny of those differing from us, Christians can acknowledge that not all
gods, not all alleged experiences of the “Sacred,” and not all
beliefs fit within Christianity.
You will be relieved to know
that I'll not attempt to resolve the issue at this moment! However, I am bold
enough to suggest that a doctrine of the Trinity expressed in terms of what God
does rather than what God is would reflect more accurately the
historical, mainstream Christian experience of God, even though similar
attempts failed in the third and fourth centuries. Indeed, the Bible itself
focuses on God's actions, not on God's substance. The mysterious
"is-ness" of the Sacred is not pertinent to the art of human living!
Other than in the Nicene
Creed, a fallible vehicle which may need a tune-up, most of the words we use
about God in this very Service speak over and over again of God's activity
among us. The holy Subject of our faith is an awesome, majestic, sovereign and
vital Someone: God as Father artistically designs and creates; God as
Son reveals the ultimate meaning of life and embraces us in the New Covenant;
God as Holy Spirit loves, strengthens, comforts, heals, and inspires us.
The great gift from the Triune
God is that you and I are made in that very three-fold image; we are creatures
who in limited and imperfect ways may, with grace, artistically design and
create, embody God's purposes, and love, strengthen, comfort, heal, and
inspire. Like God, you and I are individually someone able to make
choices, not a totally programmed something.
Trinity Sunday is set aside to
reflect, more deliberately than at other times, upon God as Holy Trinity. I
truly hope that a re-visioning of the God of Abraham, Moses and Jesus will be
on our agenda; otherwise, the ultimate focus of any evangelism, as well as our
image of human nature, will remain an unnecessarily strange and uninviting
potpourri, not to be taken seriously by anyone seeking heartfelt Truth. When
you and I gather, when we go forth to make disciples, to baptize, and to teach
what Christ has commanded us, and when we pray for the healing of human lives,
as Christians we do so ONLY in the Name of the one, true and everlasting God
- the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.