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December 11, 2005
Searching for a spiritual meaning?
Listening to the radio recently, I was reminded that it is 25 years since John Lennon was shot. What surprised me was that there are still people out there who make an annual event out of remembering him, that they arrange special "remembrance events" such as the one to be held here in the UK which will see the release of hundreds of white balloons with "messages to John" tied to them. This is on a par with the annual sackclothe and ashes performance of the press (whose smoking gun is still smoking!) and the Diana Cultists who gather to revile the Prince of Wales and other Royals while indulging in a display of grief at their loss of the "Fairy Princess".
I am constantly amazed at the cult that has grown around Elvis Presley as well - there really are people out there who believe he will make a "second coming" and return if only his fans remain faithful. Then we have also just seen the huge outpouring at the funeral of George Best, a man the press were reviling only a few months ago for having had a liver transplant and then returned to his alcoholism. Anyone would think that we had just witnessed the burial of some truly remarkable person, a saint perhaps, certainly someone of the stature of a head of state or possibly even a leader of a religious movement - not an alcoholic footballer who, however good he was on a playing field, was destroyed by the trappings of his success.
Look around at the various "fan clubs" that gather around pop-stars, film-stars and sportsmen, many of whom have real problems dealing with reality and many are also very poor examples for young people to model themselves on. Strangely, this is the modern "culture" we have created - or allowed those in power to create - based on secular "values" which are founded more on a set of "ethics" and "moralist" principles which one could be excused for thinking, are based on no particular religious teaching, yet borrow from many. In fact they are the atheistic "Humanist" moralist ideas which assume that the human being is the ultimate creation, the pinnacle of life "born good, but everywhere debased by evil". For "evil" in this thinking read any form of Judeo-Christian teaching.
I find it increasingly difficult to come to terms with the mindset that preaches "religious freedom", but restricts Christianity, while promoting other religions in schools, universities and in all matters cultural. A recent example being the school which excluded a teenager for refusing to take off her crucifix - she is a practicing Christian - on the grounds that it is NOT a religious symbol as it is not "required symbolism". Sikh scholars, on the other hand are allowed to wear all the religious jewellery including a small dagger and Muslims are allowed to wear the Hijab and any other mark of their faith at the same school. Surely this is an assault upon the girl's faith and upon her "Human Rights" as well? The wearing of the cross is not a requirement of any Christian denomination as a mark - I wear it anyway as it is marked on my forehead from my Baptism and Confirmation even though it is invisible to the human eye - but it is a matter of religious freedom to do so if I, or anyone else, wish!
Even stranger is the fact that more and more of the sort of activity that the Lennon fans seem to be engaged in is attracting more and more of a following. It is almost as if the medieval attraction to pilgrimages and the visitation of "shrines" has been recreated. I find myself wondering if it is perhaps a manifestation of a deep human desire to believe in a life beyond this rather short, frequently difficult and - if you are poor and starving - often miserable existence. Look back in history to pre-Christian times, almost from the very dawn of civilisation there is evidence of a search for "spiritual" life rather than the reality of the everyday grind. Is this new creation of the cult of stardom perhaps concealing something that our politicians and "thinkers" have overlooked? Could the spirit of God be breaking through in a new way and stirring people to look again at the secular creation which promotes the idea that there is no life beyond this one? If so, can we, in our beautiful and emptying churches, afford to ignore what is happening?
I do not suggest that we jump on any of these bandwagons, frankly the thought of canonising John Lennon, Elvis Presley or George Best is enough to drive me out of the church, but surely we, as people who claim to be spiritually seeking through scripture and worship, study and prayer for the truth of God and the life to come, should be looking at how we have failed to preach the gospel effectively, to show it in our lives in ways that would provide those who seek reassurance in their present search for the spirit or essence of their heroes, how to come to Christ and find what they really seek? Where is the St Paul to go out among them and proclaim as he did to the Atheneans, "I come to reveal to you the Unknown God to whom you have erected an Altar in your temples".
It seems to me that there is a desperate search among our young, our not so young and even among the elderly who have never been given the gospel or the spiritual understanding that goes with real teaching of the Christian message, and the Churches really need to look at why they are failing to get the message of the Gospel across. It is a question I will be taking back to my congregation and it is one I will keep teasing with them until we find a way to answer it.
"Feed my sheep", said Our Lord, and He wasn't talking food for the stomach but food for the soul. Are we doing it? The signs seem to indicate that we are not getting the spiritual food to the spiritually starving! We had better look carefully at why this is so!
Posted by The Gray Monk at December 11, 2005 10:01 AM
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