The Rev. Dr. John Tamilio III, Pastor

© 2024, Dr. Tamilio

Here we are: a new program year for our church.  There are so many opportunities for us: opportunities to think outside the box, opportunities to grow.  I do not mean that we have to do things differently for the sake of doing them differently, but each new year gives us an opportunity to pause — to think about what we have done in the past and how we can improve upon it, how we can be more faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ that lies at the heart of who we are and what we do.  How can our worship reflect the love we have for God?  How can our outreach reflect the love God has for us, for our community, and for the world?  How can our education offerings (for children and adults) help people grow in their faith?  All sorts of questions.  All sorts of opportunities.

Each New Year’s Eve, people make all sorts of resolutions.  They are going to quit smoking.  They are going to exercise more.  They are going to lose weight.  (Losing weight has been my New Year’s resolution for a long time, and after seeing myself on 20/20 the other night, it is now my new program year resolution!)

 We all have an opportunity to grow this year, to grow spiritually.  I know I have preached about this in the past.  I have talked about spiritual growth being contingent upon reading the Bible more, praying more, and being more committed to the church.  All of those practices still ring true.  All of them will help all of us grow in our relationship with God.  No need to reinvent the wheel today.

Maybe the question before us today, though, is why.  Why are we looking to grow more spiritually?  We come to church each week.  Isn’t that enough?  Why is it always more?  Isn’t where we are good enough?

Spiritual growth does not suggest that you are in some way deficient.  All of us can grow spiritually.  That is what the life of faith is all about.  We never fully arrive, at least not in this life.  God continues to reveal himself to us each day, in ways we cannot imagine.  We are always works in progress.  You never stop making New Year’s resolutions.  Hopefully you fulfill those resolutions and do not have to make the same ones the following new year.  But maybe you do.  Maybe you haven’t reached the goal.  We all fall short.  The Christian faith, for example, is not just about trying to get it right, failing, and trying again.  It is more of a way of being — and it is, by its very nature, on-going.  I had a professor in seminary whose basic theology was that we bring our lives to the faith, and that faith challenges us to change so that we can live a new life.  But it’s not a one-shot deal.  Faith is more circular.  We find ourselves returning to familiar places with new perspectives.  Age and time do bring wisdom.  Faith is not a contest.  It is a journey that is never complete, at least not on this sphere of existence.

Someone recently told me, “I’m spiritual, but not religious.”  I cannot tell you how many times I have heard that expression in my life.  I am sure you have, too.  Such a person saying is basically saying, “I do not go to church or follow any particular religion, but I am very aware of my spiritual nature and am trying to become more connected to God, or nature, or the universe.”  I stumbled upon a spiritual growth website this week that said something quite interesting.

Spiritual growth is a profound journey of self-discovery and inner transformation that goes beyond the material world.  It involves deepening your connection with your spiritual essence, exploring your beliefs, values, and purpose in life, and evolving towards a higher state of consciousness.[1]

That is a pretty good definition!  And the beauty of the word “beliefs” enables people to relate this definition towards whatever faith they practice.  All religions encourage their followers to explore what they believe, to develop a sense of moral value, and to find their purpose in life.  All religions encourage us to be deeply connected to our spiritual essence, and yes — to reach a level of higher consciousness, to be more self-aware.

One of the books that I kept returning to this summer was A History of Christian Spirituality by Urban T. Holmes, III.  I love the opening to this book.

Human beings are spiritual creatures.  The word “spirit” comes from a word meaning “breath.”  The presence of life, and therefore God, has been associated with breath through much of humanity’s evolution of consciousness.  [There is that word “consciousness” again.]  After all, when we die the breath goes out of us, we exhale, never to inhale again.  God, as the life-giving presence, lives in us — or so humankind has thought.  So, to say that human beings are spiritual creatures is to suggest that they are capable of possessing the presence of the life-giving God.[2]

There is a lot to unpack here, which is one of the reasons I am having a hard time getting beyond the first page of this book!  Think about breathing for a moment.  Take a deep breath and let it out.  Try it.  Don’t you feel better when you do that?  So often our breaths are quick and shallow.  We puff ourselves through the day.  Puff.  We rarely stop to take a deep, cleansing breath.  Whether or not we are breathing in the essence of God, “God’s life-giving presence,” as Urban calls it, whether or not that is happening, we are taking stock of ourselves when we pause.  As the Psalmist wrote, “Be still and know that I am God.”  Maybe this is also about taking a deep breath.  But that stillness is not about resting as much as it is about reflecting — reflecting on how each breath we take sustains us, how each breath reminds us of our frailty as well as our power: the power of God moving in us and through us and around us all the time.

A lot of people talk about different movies or movie-series that have Christian overtones.  The Chronicles of Narnia is one that is often cited, being based on the work of the theologian C.S. Lewis, but I think the Star Wars series has as much to offer in this regard.  I love how Yoda describes the Force to Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back (the best film in the Star Wars saga, I think).  He says — and I am tempted to try this in my best Yoda accent:

…my ally is the Force.  And a powerful ally it is.  Life creates it, and makes it grow.  Its energy surrounds us and binds us.  Luminous beings are we…not this crude matter [point to self].  You must feel the Force around you.  Here, between you… me… the tree… the rock… everywhere!

Is that not how we understand God?  To me, the Force (as it is used in Star Wars) is just another term for the Holy Spirit, at least I think that is what George Lucas means.  It is in us, around us, uniting us, challenging us, correcting us, comforting us, inspiring us, blessing us, loving us.  The Spirit of God is the very life force that infuses every aspect of who we are as individuals and as a community.

It’s a new program year for our church with many opportunities.  May your New Year’s resolution find you more connected to the Congregational Church of Canton and, more importantly, more connected to our God.  Amen.

[1] Taken from theelightenmentjourney.com

[2] Urban T. Holmes, A History of Christian Spirituality: An Analytical Introduction (Harrisburg: Morehouse Publishing, 2002), 1.