Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made an enlightened National Day Rally speech this year. He targeted race and religion and outlined four basic rules in dealing with them. Peter Goh in his email to the Council stressed that FCC must bear in mind this speech as we chart the future of FCC.

Allow me to draw your attention specifically on religion and politics. We often hear that we cannot mix religion with politics. Those who hold power will state this when religious values are in conflict with the policies of the political party. However, religion can mix when it agrees with the politics of the governing powers.

It is true that in a multi-religious society, no one religion must dominate at the expense of all other religions. We cannot have ayatollahs, archbishops. and abbots to rule the state by virtue of their religious office. This is where religion and politics must not mix.

PM Lee said that religious individuals informed by their faith can participate in politics. We need to recognize and respect different beliefs, social and moral views. They were expressed on the national issues of abortion, integrated resorts, organ transplants, 377A, homosexuality.

In the secular space the participating religions may want to claim absolute truth with reference to the Bible or the Koran and other sacred writings. But to implement policies we have to depend on reason or reasonable considerations, public interest and what makes sense.

There is the tendency to separate also the sacred from the secular. The common belief is that God is in charge or sacred space and Satan is in control of secular area. Correspondingly heaven is where God is and earth since the Fall is where Satan rules.

But we affirm that God is the Creator of all – the heaven and the earth. We also separate matter from the spirit and we have difficulty in understanding spirituality.

We attempted to share different perspectives in our long sermon series “The Spirit Lifted Me.” I have listened attentively and sometimes with perplexity the sermons delivered. I missed a few of them.

I am also mindful that this series on spirituality is in response to the unconvincing excuse that those who have been with us for sometime have left because they are not spiritually fed. Do they point fingers at the sermons or worship or just the people here? As a result they either go back to the other churches or none at all. They have fallen away or retiring back to their closets.

Taking off from this year’s NDP theme song: “What do you See?” I want to explore with you my take on Spirituality.

Let me begin with theology. What do you see… in theology?

FCC is uniquely different from other churches around us. We proclaim “Welcome Home”. We often say that All bar none are welcomed and accepted. This is home where you are affirmed and embraced. Even Church of the Saviour will welcome but they will condemn when you do not change or engage in same-sex acts. Our uniqueness is not just our positive affirmation of homosexuality. We are beginning to formulate what is known as Queer Theology for all – a theology from the perspective of the faith and witness of the rejected, oppressed and marginalized. We have done so in Black Theology, Feminist Theology and Liberation Theology. We embrace inclusivity about our faith and that means we dare to dialogue and agree to challenge one another - allow the spirit to lead us to new insights and understanding of the new life in Christ. Inclusivity involve interactions not isolation from one another and at most tolerate our differences. It is the willingness to be open in spite of our differences. We are people who embody difference and we are peculiar and queer. Out of who we are and where we are, we draw out the implications for Christian faith in all aspects of our Christian life in this unique context that God has placed us. Miak for the next two years at Pacific School of Theology where they have a good Centre for Gay and Lesbian Studies will have to concentrate to research on Queer Theology. We expect him to come back and provide leadership in our this theological explorations. .

Why do we expect to receive nourishment only from the one kind of spiritual food that we are familiar with. Paul talks about spiritual milk when we are young and spiritual meat when we grow in maturity in faith. We often cling to the old and fearful of the new. But let me refer you to the words of an old hymn “New occasions teach new duties, Time makes ancient good uncouth.” What is old is not always good and relevant. Ancient good can become bad today. We are in a new context and challenged to learn new responses.

In this series you have heard about the varieties of religious experience. In 1902 William James wrote the classic book: “Varieties of Religious Experience.” We now have greater variety in the 21st century. We have dealt with the different spiritual disciplines including meditation, contemplation and silence. We have considered quiet time and the reading of the Bible. We engage in regular prayer and worship. Through all these pious acts and religious practices we still feel undernourished spiritually. The problem is not on the part of God but on the human part whether we have the proper motivation and the right approach to develop our mind, body and spirit. Often we leave to God entirely to transform and we resort to waiting for God to respond.

What do we see in prayer?

Do you stop to realise that in the words of our prayer we often pray as if God does not know our need. As I reflect upon my own prayer life in my earlier years I have more needs. I will list them all out and petition God with my long wish list. I just name them one by one and there is no time for me to be still and know God, allow God to speak to me and feel God lovingly embracing me. When you pray, take note that God whom you address is listening and what will God think about your prayer requests. I suspect that most of the time they are self-centered and superficial. God knows your needs before we even utter a single word about them. Need I quote the many Bible texts about the all-knowing God? Pray as if God knows already.

There is a story of someone leading the prayers in church. He had to list the different names of different people to pray for. He came across a name that he just couldn't pronounce and he kept stumbling over it in the prayer and it was very painful. You could feel the tension in the congregation rise. Finally he said, “Oh God, you know what the woman's name is!” Everybody just sort of laughed and we all realized, of course, God knew that!

In the story of Jesus praying in Gethasame, he was accompanied by Peter, James and John. I don’t need to read it for it is familiar to most of you. This story is recorded in all three of the Gospels. We see Jesus sorrowful, distressed and troubled with his impending death and finally seeing him saying with resignation “Not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

So often our prayer tries to bend the will of God to our private and personal will. We pray “Thy will be changed” instead of “Thy will be done.”

In prayer do you see as if God does not know or remember?

What do we see in worship

We worship as if God is waiting for our praises. Does God need us to magnify and praise the Creator of the heavens and the earth? Will God be pleased only with our words and melodies? What is the theology undergirding the lyrics of our songs?

I have lots of trouble with one of the hymns:

There is a fountain fill with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s veins;

And sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains.

The dying thief rejoiced to see the fountain in his day;

And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.

What horrible image of washing in a pool of blood. What a bloody mess!

John Newton was a slave ship captain and later became a clergyman. He has been called hypocritical by some modern writers for continuing to participate in the slave trade while holding strong Christian convictions. They must have found it difficult to sing his hymns. In 1788, after he retired from the slave trade he broke his silence in publishing a pamphlet: “Thoughts Upon the Slave Trade.” He confessed: “It will always be a subject of humiliating reflection to me, that I once an active instrument in a business at which my heart now shudders.” With this confession we can sing and appreciate many of his hymns including the evergreen “Amazing Grace.”

The evangelical revival in 18th century England which birthed Methodism was sustained by the Wesley brothers who wrote hymns with theological importance at that time. John Wesley was preaching through the words of Charles Wesley hymns. They were like a textbook on Methodist theology. We must learn more about God through the lyrics of our hymns and our contemporary songs.

Just examine another familiar story of the Transfiguration of Jesus for guidance in making our approach to God. Peter’s immediate reaction of the transfigured Jesus talking with Moses and Elijah on the mountain-top was to build three booths one for each one of them. This sentiment must have been shared by James and John down to many followers of Jesus today. We want to build a sanctuary just to worship God. But Jesus expected something much more than they realized. Not a booth, an edifice to commemorate that extraordinary moment. Christ called us not to erect a monument but to execute God’s mission. It was not to do something that we want but what God wants. God has entrusted us with a mission high fulfilling, a way of life demanding. So Jesus led them down from the mountain to the valley where the people were gathered waiting to receive their ministry of love and service.

In worship we just do not get a good feeling and feel that we are spiritually fed and we go away and keep on chewing the cud and basking in the sun or relaxing under the shade of a tree. We are to be up and about God’s work in the world to be the salt and light in the transformation of people and community.

As we worship do we use empty phrases or sing praises only with our lips

What do you see in your self.

We try to run away from our problems and indulge in activism. We need to stop running and try to find and know and accept ourselves and not what others and society perceive who we are demand us to be. We are aware that we wear different masks and participating in different kinds of activity – religious and secular. We are fearful of facing our true self, do not recognize our psychological condition. When we do, we enter into depression or mental disorder. There are many traumatic experiences that lead to that troubled state of mind which require professional help. A psychological condition is not because we have been infected with a virus. There are unresolved precipitating factors that cause it. It may or may not include sexual orientation in every case. Is there space and concern for FCC to serve specifically such wounded people? Can we find means and resource for such wounded to come together to support one another and come to terms with their authentic self, the one they see before the mirror in their private space. We want to love God but we must be able to accept and love our true selves and then only that of the other. Often we find all this more difficult and we go back to engage in the easier task of involving in more activism.

As we look at ourselves do you see our selves as if they are of no value and or no use?

What do you see in Christianity

We concentrate upon our religious beliefs. We define God, Christ and the Holy Spirit. Religion is reduced to a system of beliefs.

Brian McLaren in his latest book “Finding Our Way Again” recounted a meeting of pastors when a well-know theologian asked a bookstore manager as to what are the popular books these days. The most popular are the “how to” books that will bring riches and success.

In the Straits Times we have the list of popular books from Borders. This morning the top of the list is “Outliers” by Malcolm Gladwell who wrote “The Tipping Point, “Blink” and others. They are books which offer recipes for success.

The second most popular are books about spirituality and in particular about Buddhism. Why is that so? The explanation is that because Buddhism presents itself more as a way of life and Christianity presents itself more as a system of belief. That statement stuck in MaClaren’s mind. Those who reject religion he concludes are those who reject a dry system of ideas or beliefs or a rigid system of ritualistic praise and worship.

When Peter Goh was preaching on that Sunday he was spot on in drawing out that distinction even in the friends whom he invited to share in delivering the message. Buddhism presents itself as a way of life. Christianity presents itself as a system of beliefs.

Can we re-discover our faith more as a way of life? The issue is not either/or. It is both/and. We spent too much energy and time in defining and refining our beliefs. We have lost the way of our faith.

Teaching is important and beliefs are basic. But we cannot spend all our time in these religious activities with the hope that when we know God we will then live the religious way of life. The temptation also is that when we worship and praise God we may feel that it is more important than works of mercy, compassion and justice which is certainly more difficult and demanding

It is accepted that what we know now is not complete and we want to know more about the truth about God and God’s relationship with all that God has created. That cannot come about by study alone or by worship alone and also not even action alone. It is this dynamic interaction between faith and action, belief and praxis that we are moving towards genuine spirituality.

Our Christian tradition has placed far too much emphasis and importance upon the words believing it is the word of God and we codify them in doctrines and dogma and we make verbal confessions. No wonder my Japanese friend Koyama, an influential Asian theologian, who died recently commented that Christianity is a “ noisy religion.” Listen to the songs we sing and the sermons we preach. There is much less quietly living out of the word. There is much more noisy assemblies in our churches.

We do not want to draw a line between the sacred and secular. We believe that God is the Creator of everything that is around us. God is present in everything and we believe that nothing is secular. It is regarded as secular space when people do not acknowledge God. God is present there unacknowledged. There is therefore a coming together of the sacred and the secular. There is the spiritual in the material. All is of God. This is spirituality in the thickest sense.

Spirituality needs to be understood as the sense or awareness of the presence of God. It comes to us as human beings through the acts of love, mercy and compassion and through our religious acts of study, prayer, worship, meditation and contemplation. God reveals Godself in our moments of rousing worship and quiet prayer in all its forms as well as in the busyness and quietude of living out in the world. God’s presence is everywhere and God’s relationship is to all of creation.

We sense God’s presence when we believe that what we do is in accordance to God’s will and purpose. We affirm we are created as individuals in and for community. We accept God’s gift of freedom to choose and it is not a curse but a blessing. We live by the grace of God to be present with Christ who stands alongside especially to those who suffer in this world.

Do we see God as if God is seated up in Heaven and looking at us down on earth?

MaClaren gave us his take on spirituality which I resonate: It is “living in an interactive relationship with God and others as a daily way of life.”

So what is the essence of spirituality? It is to know God whom we worship , to know ourselves as created by God, and translating what we know and believe into something that we do, that is a way of life of sacrificial love for one another and for all of Creation.

What do you see…in spirituality?

May you see the Spirit lifting us up to this higher level of spirituality.