Terry Paul Choyce
January 28, 2007 Brunswick Street United Church
Last Sunday afternoon I went to the World Religion Day Celebration at St. Matthew's United Church.I enjoyed presentations by many religious groups that are in Halifax, including the Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Zoroastrians, Baha'is, Native Canadians and Christians. Most of these presentations featured the talents of the children. It was a wonderful event, which I highly recommend to everyone next year.
The third Sunday in January is now officially World Religion Sunday, all over this planet. You can go to the website www.worldreligionday.org to find out more about the services, and the commonalities of all the religions. I would love to see many more opportunities for people to come together to share their love of God, and each other.
Our reading from Luke today was very profound. (10:25-37) Not only did it have one of the most important quotes from Jesus in it, which is "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind; and Love your neighbour as you love yourself," it also had the story of the Good Samaritan. The Jews and the Samaritans had religious and political hatreds that went back for centuries. In this story it was not the rabbi, or the Levite (who was from the tribe which the Jews said was chosen as the special servants of God), who rescued the beaten man. It was a Samaritan, a man who was the enemy of the Jews. At the end of the reading Jesus asked "which of these three acted like a neighbour toward the attacked man?" The teacher of the Law said "the one who was kind to him." Jesus replied, "You go, then, and do the same." Jesus is telling us to be kind to those who are different than us. This includes those who have different faiths than we do.
Paul is now taking a course on Love at Mount St. Vincent University. One of the articles in his text is on spiritual love, and it is written by Stuart Rose. He interviewed people from many different religions and asked them their concept of spiritual love. He got the following responses:
- Buddhist - A warmth and solidarity with all living beings - as unbiased as possible...Unselfish service to others, self knowledge, and wise activities...
Relatively, spiritual love is a deep, impartial care for all beings.
- Hindu - The experience of seeing everything and creation as part of the whole...It is the peace within and the appreciation of every part of the universe...I feel great happiness in serving God. So much so that it sometimes makes me dance....Life is nothing without spiritual love....To be one with God and to experience peace, harmony, and silence with the inner soul is the experience of spiritual love.
- Islam - Peace of mind, respect for others, and respect for the law of the land.
My spiritual love is in thankfulness to Allah for the favours he has bestowed on me. My existence is made easier by my knowledge that I am being looked after by Allah. I am not alone but in the hands of He who knows everything.
- Jewish - It is warmth and certainty that God is with me, no matter what... Every day we pray "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might" ( where did we just hear that Quote?).....Prayer helps us to direct and channel our devotion to the enhancement of our altruistic association with the Divine.
- Christian - Spiritual love has to begin with an understanding that God loves us... I have a sense of being valued for who I am - someone created uniquely by God for his purposes. I have a sense of Christ within, and a companion on the journey. The presence of Spirit - empowering, bringing courage, challenging, comforting.
These definitions of spiritual love are very similar, and compatible. Yes, the practices and some of the beliefs of different religions vary greatly, but generally, the principles and values of all religions are the same. All advocate compassion, forgiveness, generosity, prayer or meditation, and the deep love God has for each of us. If we were to concentrate on all of our similarities instead of our differences, this would be a much more peaceful, just and loving world.
In India there is a very wise humanitarian named Amma. I will be doing a whole service on her later. Amma gave an international speech and she said "Religion and spirituality form the path that helps to transform the anger within us into compassion, our hatred into love, our lustful thoughts into Divine thoughts, and our jealousy into sympathy.....The main objective of religion and spirituality should be to create compassionate hearts."
Amma compares the world's religions to a rainbow, with each religion being a different colour. Each colour on its own is lovely. But when they are combined in a rainbow, they create beauty and wonder. We all need to see that each religion has its merit, and that the blending of the religions is one of God's gifts to us.
I believe there is a part of every human being that yearns for God. Every person wants to feel loved, wants to feel that their life has meaning, wants to know that there are basic rules that govern all of us, wants to have assurance that there is life after death, wants to reach out to others with love. Every religion helps people with theses needs. Just as every culture has foods it prefers, different ways of dressing, different languages, different customs - they also have different ways of expressing their love and beliefs in God.
Imagine your life with no pizza, no donairs, no egg rolls, no bagels, no corn, no yogurt, no bananas. All of these foods came from different cultures, and we have gladly incorporated them into our way of eating. We now can communicate easily with all parts of the world. We import and export goods with many countries. We are a global society like we have never been before. So I believe it is past time that we learn to appreciate beliefs from all over the globe as well.
Stuart Rose wrote that "all religions are vehicles or frameworks through which an individual may encounter God or Ultimate Reality. The endeavor to reveal spiritual love has to be undertaken by the individual alone. The authorities (religions) can only act as guides." You may have heard the quote "there are as many paths to God as there are people." It is time in our history for people to embrace their faith, but also to honour the right of everyone to have their own path to God. Because, no matter what you believe, we are all a part of God. And virtually every religion will tell you that God loves you, and you are to love God, and you are to love and be good to each other.
Praise be the Lord
