Scripture readings for 10-8-06[click here]

Faith: Between Science and Séance

Black Elk; Dec. 1863-Aug. 17, 1950

Black Elk was an Oglala Sioux wise man from Wyoming, son of a medicine man who followed Crazy Horse. He witnessed the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 and the upheaval that followed the tribe's flight to Canada to join Sitting Bull. In 1886 he joined Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show. In 1889 he returned to the Pine Ridge Reservation, where, as a spiritual authority, he supported the Ghost Dance movement. The movement, built on the belief that ritual observances would cause the white people to leave and the buffalo to return, declined after it failed to protect its followers at the Battle of Wounded Knee.

In 1904 he was converted by a priest to the Catholic faith and took the name Nicholas Black Elk. He was active in converting others to Catholicism.

In Black Elk Speaks(1932), edited by Western epic poet John G. Neihardt, he describes his childhood and early adult life and the spiritual life of the Sioux, saying:

 “it is the story of all life that is holy and good to tell, and of the two-leggeds sharing in it with the four-leggeds and the wings of the air and all green things; for these are the children of one mother and their father is one spirit”

Telling stories of the origins of his people and their sacred practices, Black Elk says:

 “This they tell, and whether it happened so or not I do not know; but if you think about it, you can see that it is true.”

So, does having faith mean you believe the literal truth of scripture? How does God give dictation to His holy stenographers? Is it word by word in some particular human language? Does God speak in Hebrew or Aramaic or King James’ English? Many theologians refer to “the inspired Word of God.” I believe that God continues to inspire writers and artists and ordinary people and ministers of all kinds; that an aspect of God is inspiration, and that the human ‘image of God’ is inspired creativity.

A literal reading of Judeo-Christian scripture poses 2 serious problems: first, it is internally contradictory, since all these inspired writers who happened to have been collected into our canon were hearing different dictation at different times. Second, and more importantly, it contradicts the discoveries of our God-given intellect that creation is much grander and more awesome than those early stenographers could ever have understood. Scriptural literalism denies faith in God’s continuing inspiration that leads us to growing knowledge. God cannot intend for us to be intellectually frozen in Abraham’s late Bronze Age or Jesus’ Roman Empire.

I have faith that God continues to inspire us with a growing understanding of His will and His laws. The excruciatingly detailed strictures of Leviticus regarding diet, sacrificial practice, and personal behavior made sense in a number of ways in the context of their time and culture. Perhaps in the manner of health benefits [though some might question the “cleanliness” of locusts and beetles over lobster and shrimp], but mostly in defining a cohesive and exclusive culture and people, and separating them from their former captors, the Egyptians, or the Canaanites in the land to which they were lead. Those who choose to literally and rigorously adhere to some of those strictures selectively ignore whole sets of rules about burnt sacrifice of animals, priestly diagnosis of leprosy, and certain agricultural practices, among many other details.

There is also the question of faith in the literal interpretation of biblical history. The succession of the rulers of Israel probably has some sound factual basis, allowing for errors that creep in from constant re-telling, and the well-known propensity of winners to slant history. Some stories can also be seen as a sort of mythic history; telling an historic truth in a fictional style or parable. Cain and Abel can be seen as an explanation of the cultural conflict arising from the change from a nomadic herding culture to an agricultural, pre-urban one. God likes Abel’s old-fashion sacrifice, but in the end Cain is protected, quits farming, builds a city (named for his son Enoch, which means “teacher”) and sires a line of craftsmen and artisans.

As Black Elk says, “...whether it happened so I do not know, but if you think about it you can see that it is true.”

Is faith our channel to the power of God? In the Hebrew bible, references to faith are almost all about faithfulness, or loyalty and duty, and trust. The psalmist sings of the people’s faith in the Lord, saying “...those who have knowledge of your name will put their faith in you because you...have ever given your help to those who were waiting for you.” In many other places we hear of God’s faithfulness to His people, and God’s goodness to those who are faithful to Him. In the New Testament we hear Jesus telling his disciples about the power of faith, to heal or to move mountains. In the epistle to the Hebrews [11:1], we learn “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”(Hebrews, by the way, was traditionally ascribed to Paul, but the style is different and some say “more literary.” Some scholars think it may have been written by Priscilla, one of the earliest evangelists after Paul.)

Most of us have felt the power of prayer, but we should beware of confusing it with magic. If we pray to petition God for a favor, and God does not grant that favor, it does not necessarily mean we’re doing it wrong; that if we just had more faith, our wishes would be granted. God is not in the business of granting wishes. God knows what we need. God answers all prayer, but we should pray to understand the answers. Jesus taught us to pray offering thanksgiving and praise, asking only for our immediate needs, forgiveness for our sins and salvation from temptation, and submitting to God’s will. There is nothing about asking for wealth, or saying who should live or die, or changing the laws of nature as ordained by God. The power of faithful prayer is in the strength it gives to the believer, and in the inner silence to hear God’s word and intentions for us.

Some would say that one person’s faith is another’s superstition. Faith differs from superstition. Superstition is attributing cause to coincidence. Dogs are superstitious; if a dog sits by a window and barks for 2 hours, and then you come home and feed him, he will believe that barking caused you to do it. We all have tendency and a desire to believe in luck and try to change it by our own actions. Forms of fortune-telling are found in many, if not most cultures. Mostly beliefs of this kind are at least harmless and offer opportunity for optimism. A positive attitude does in fact help accomplish goals. There are also things about the laws of probability and statistics that we do not understand, and which can perhaps be tapped by some methods of divination. Many believing Christians do not see a conflict between their religion and following the daily astrological forecast. BUT I maintain that wishing and trying to change your luck are not at all the same thing as having faith.

Faith is in fact a gift of God that is part of our intrinsic humanity. Anthropology and the study of prehistory have shown us that all humans, back to our earliest ancestors, have a few things in common. Things that are our defining characteristics. We use tools: but other primates, even other animals such as otters, also do that. We have language: but other social animals also communicate vocally, and the cetaceans appear to have a very complex language. We differ in degree and manner in these things; some tools are very sophisticated and some cultures have learned to symbolically represent language with writing, but we are not unique. We, uniquely, create art and practice religion. Our creative spark and our religious aspiration have been linked since primordial times. We have never seen a human culture that did not follow some religious practice. It is as much a part of our mental wiring as language. We identify it in funeral practices, in the establishment of sacred places, in the creation of sacred art. We are created with a will to reach beyond ourselves. This common trait is the seed of faith built into us by our creator. The seed grows into many forms, based on our always imperfect understanding. It can even be used for unholy purposes. Every culture understands it differently. In every individual, experience changes it. Faith resides in our soul, in some way is our soul. It is the kingdom of heaven within us, and it is God within us.

Does having faith mean that we believe our soul lives forever in heaven? The concept of soul is bound to our questions about death. We recognize that we are animated by something that is more than the sum total of our bodies since at death the body stays the same, but something leaves. Most religions address the question of what happens when the body dies. Is there an afterlife, a heaven or a hell, are we reborn, do ghosts haunt the earth? We cherish the memories of the dead. Ancestor worship or veneration is a very old and common religious practice. It is possible that the Classical pantheon of the Greeks and Romans evolved from memories of tribal founders. Much Sunday School Christianity teaches children that the dead have gone to heaven and that they can “look down on us,” even help us in our lives. Where is that in the bible? Instead Jesus tells us that those who enter the kingdom of heaven become “like the angels” and do not marry or presumably partake of human interests. What about ghosts? The only mention in the New Testament is when the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water and thought He was a ghost. In the one Old testament reference, Isaiah 19:3 says "Then the spirit of the Egyptians will be demoralized within them; And I will confound their strategy, So that they will resort to idols and ghosts of the dead And to mediums and spiritists.” The prophet is separating the people of Israel from the beliefs and practices of Egypt. I do not find any good scriptural foundation for believing in ghosts. Where it exists in Christian practice today, it has been grafted from some other belief system.

Heaven on the other hand is mentioned hundreds of times in the old and new testaments. (Hell gets 13 references in the Gospels only, including 6 in the 2 versions of the sermon on the mount.) But the definition of heaven is variable. Sometimes it means just the sky. Sometimes it is the residence of God, which can be self-defining (heaven is the residence of God; the residence of God is heaven.) Sometimes it means the coming of the final victory of God, as in “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand!” We hear about entering the kingdom of heaven, but it does not necessarily mean that it is a place where our personal identities go when we die. What if there is no heaven? In the sense that there is no place with streets of gold or gates of pearl as in the vision of the revelation. Does this passage need to be read literally? I would say that Revelation is among the least literal books of the bible. The revelation of modern physics tells us that matter and energy are neither created nor destroyed. In a sense every atom in our bodies contains immortal matter-energy. Spirit can be understood to inhabit everything that we can perceive, as Black Elk explained.  We touch Spirit and apprehend it by faith. That faith does not require that we believe that God made our planet in 6 days. It does not require that we literally practice the detailed rules for collecting the blood of sacrificial offerings in Leviticus. It does not mean that we can use prayer like a magic wand to control events in our lives. It does not even mean we believe that we will go to heaven and shake hands with all our ancestors and old friends.

In our Christian faith we do believe in the divinity as well as the humanity of our teacher Jesus, we do believe in the Holy Spirit which is universal and inspires us with truth from God. We do believe in a Creator Force which is the source of all things and which also dwells in each of us. And we know and continually strive for the power of faith, which can indeed move mountains.

If you think about it you can see that it is true.

Amen