Healthy Liberal Christianity Looks at Spiritual Discipline

An old friend of mine, an Episcopal Priest, used to tease me by telling me that I was a minister in “the loose church.” Within Episcopal circles, congregations are categorized by how “high church” or “low church” they are in their worship, but he saw the United Church of Christ (UCC) as being so far off the “low” end of the scale that it must be “loose.” I’m not going to discuss the differences between high and low churches because my point here is about the reputation, implied in his teasing of me, that many if not most liberal churches have no real structure to their worship or theology – that we can do anything in worship and that we can believe anything we want.

It may be that liberal congregations have earned some measure of this reputation, but in my experience the reputation is misleading. Sometimes people tease members of UCC churches by saying that UCC actually means “Unitarians Considering Christ”. Again, while there may be some cause for that characterization, it is not true that “liberal” necessarily means sloppy, frivolous, unchristian, or ungrounded in scripture or tradition.

In any developmental process, the pendulum always swings. Some of the behavior of the liberal church has been a reaction to overly judgmental and strict forms of Christianity. Whether it was inevitable or not, the move to the left in liberal Christianity has begun to expose a different take on the “Jesus message” (or The Good news, if you prefer). Many of us grew up believing that an ongoing relationship with God required “being good”, or if we couldn’t be good, then we at least had to make a proper confession and be forgiven. It was a highly individualized message. As we have peeled away the layers of Christological interpretation, we have discovered in Jesus’ life and teachings a much more challenging message – that the Realm of God comes into being by means of our relationships and by means of how we structure our communities.

Jesus behaved in a way that challenged the injustice of Roman domination and challenged the capitulation to Roman power by the powerful temple leadership. His challenging behavior resulted in his crucifixion. While he certainly invited people into deep spiritual relationship, he demonstrated that one’s religious life could not be walled off from public behavior.

Now, you might be wondering why I have called this blog installment “Healthy Liberal Christianity Looks at Spiritual Discipline.” What I have written already doesn’t sound like spiritual discipline. Some people think that spiritual discipline can only be a private, meditative matter. I am suggesting that spiritual discipline is, in fact, necessary so that we can act with integrity in the world. It does take some careful study of scripture and tradition to ground our behavior in solid spiritual principles. It does take some internal effort to dig through the interpretations that others have put forth as the only way to see Christian Theology. It takes work to follow Jesus, particularly when he reminds us, “Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.”

Our liberal spirituality is not about believing whatever we think is convenient. Our spirituality is based in taking Jesus very seriously, indeed. It is based in listening with all the courage we can muster, and as deeply as we can listen. Ultimately, it is based in finding ways to act publicly. All the while, our spiritual discipline reminds us that we do not have to go it alone. Jesus says: “Wherever two or three are gathered in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” I don’t believe this last affirmation applies only to gatherings for prayer or worship. It also applies to our public actions.

Jesus doesn’t say that he has lived and died to take our personal and corporate responsibility away from us. Rather, he calls us to follow. Spirituality that does not result in “following” is largely useless. And “following” that is not grounded in spirituality cannot be sustained.

What do you think?

Wayne Gustafson
“No matter who you are, or where you are in life’s journey, you’re welcome here.”
The United Church___of Christ