Text: Matthew 3:13-17
I've always liked Mark Twain's take on his Presbyterian faith. At one point, in a an article from March 4, 1866 called "The New Wildcat Religion," Twain blasts spiritualism as "wildcat religion" and then wryly compares that to the rationality of a Presbyterian worship service. By "spiritualism" Twain meant the belief that the spirits of dead people can communicate with people who are still alive (especially via a medium). As Twain puts it: "Loyalty to my Presbyterian bringing-up compels me to stick to the Presbyterian decision that spiritualism is neither more nor less than wildcat."
For our purposes here today, I'd like to change our definition of Wildcat Religion from Twain's spiritualism to my own experience of emotionalism in religion. Our Presbyterian faith is based on a healthy love of the mind. But I sometimes wonder if we haven't lost out on what John Calvin tried to proclaim. For in addition to an intellectual faith, Calvin also tried to engender in his followers a warm heart as well.
As Christians, we strive for balance between our heads and our hearts. I know something of this struggle from my personal journey. You see, I grew up in a modern day version of emotional based religion. The onus was on the believer to keep himself "worked up in the spirit" so to speak. Gifts of the Spirit such as speaking in tongues and healing were the coin of the realm. Without such spiritual gifts, your commitment to Christ was not evident.
Perhaps you have been involved in such Wildcat Religion yourself or have seen it on TV at least. Such was the religion of my teenage years after my baptism by immersion at age 8 years of age. Wildcat Religion as I am defining it - "emotional religion" - has some good points. There were close relationships formed among the believers. A religion based on emotions was a good match for me in my dramatic adolescent years. This form of religion also stressed knowing and memorizing the Bible. But Wildcat Religion was not emotionally sustainable for me.
When I graduated high school and moved off to a college, I met Christians who called themselves Presbyterians. I knew very little about Presbyterians at that time except that they were rumored to believe in Predestination. This is the idea that God knows and preordains everything that happens, including whether a person will be saved or damned. That sounded harsh to me and I didn't see the merit in it. After studying Calvinism in the Christian Ministries Department at Belhaven College I fell in love with it. The beauty of the doctrines was in the way they made sense to me. I had found a religion of the mind that encouraged studying and using one's brain as well as one's heart. This intellectual attraction plus my personal experience singing in the choir of a Presbyterian Church led to my becoming a member of the Presbyterian Church, USA.
Now what did I find in the Presbyterian Church USA? In a word, sanity. Yet, even sanity has its constraints. For instance, let's return to Mark Twain's commentary on "Wildcat Religion" and listen to his deadpan description of a Presbyterian worship service. Twain writes:
You never heard of a Presbyterian going crazy on religion. Notice us, and you will see how we do. We get up of a Sunday morning and put on the best harness we have got and trip cheerfully down town; we subside into solemnity and enter the church; we stand up and duck our heads and bear down on a hymn book propped on the pew in front when the minister prays; we stand up again while our hired choir are singing, and look in the hymn book and check off the verses to see that they don't shirk any of the stanzas; we sit silent and grave while the minister is preaching, and count the waterfalls and bonnets furtively, and catch flies; we grab our hats and bonnets when the benediction is begun; when it is finished, we shove, so to speak. No frenzy - no fanaticism - no skirmishing; everything perfectly serene. You never see any of us Presbyterians getting in a sweat about religion and trying to massacre the neighbors. Let us all be content with the tried and safe old regular religions, and take no chances on wildcat.
Now I appreciate Mark Twain's depiction of a Presbyterian worship service. And I applaud his admonition that we should avoid spiritualism. But I wonder what are we to do with our heart? You see, the struggle for me ever since renouncing Wildcat Religion and joining the Presbyterian Church has been how to find a balance between my head and my heart. I found that as my mind became more engaged over the years my heart became less engaged. It was as if I had lost something precious when I renounced the emotional aspects of my relationship with God.
I spent many years wondering if I would ever recover the warm feelings of religion and if so how would I do it? Years later, the answer came to me in a very unexpected manner. It was when I began practicing centering prayer that I was able to reestablish the connection between my head and my heart. I do not assume that centering prayer will have the same effect for everyone, but for me, it was the answer I had been seeking, a spiritual discipline that reconnected my heart my God.
As you may know, centering prayer is a method of silent prayer. Silence is maintained for 20 minutes. Any thought that arises during that time is acknowledged and then let go. This is a method of setting our intention to allow God to move in our inner lives. The result is a more profound engagement with the world. Centering prayer is a means to living a contemplative Christian life. It is a means to living a Christian life that includes, as Thomas Keating's book is titled, an "Open Mind and Open Heart."
I believe Jesus practiced some type of centering prayer and hinted at such as he suggested, "When you pray, enter the private chamber of your heart and God will meet you there." In the gospels, we find Jesus often getting up before dawn and going away to a mountain in solitude to pray. The constant repetition during centering prayer of letting go of whatever thought arises is a living parable of how Jesus lived. Jesus' life was a continual pouring out of himself in sacrificial love.
It all started for Jesus with his baptism. Jesus came to John the Baptizer and asked to be baptized. Knowing his divine origin, John was hesitant, and replied, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus said, "Yes, I want you to baptize me." So John did. Jesus' baptism was a demonstration of his obedience to God and the way he would pour himself out in service to the world.
Baptism is a sacrament rich in symbolism. Let me offer you one that may be new to you. Baptism is a symbol of the union of the head and heart in the life of a believer. The water symbolizes information or the life of the mind. The water is poured upon the head to symbolize the purification of the mind and the cleansing of the heart from anything that would separate us from God. In baptism, we find a symbol of the proper Christian attitude toward God of an open mind and open heart. The Christian religion is not about rules and regulations. It's not a "get out of hell free" card either. The Christian religion at its best is a unification of the mind and the heart as we glorify God by making disciples and meeting human needs.
We are here today because of the promise of a relationship between ourselves and the God who created heaven and earth. This same Christ that we read about in the scripture dwells within us. If we could grasp for one second the joy of living a life of obedience to God we would be glad to be laughed at or ridiculed or shunned by the world because nothing else would matter. Nothing else does when you hear God's voice calling your name, saying, "You are my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased." That is what Jesus heard in his baptism. That is what I found through the practice of centering prayer. We are profoundly loved by God. This is a statement of fact and also an experience we may have. May God grant us in our personal lives the union between head and heart that John Calvin wished for all believers. I don't think that is what Mark Twain had in mind when he talked about Wildcat Religion but that is what it means to me.
- - -
The Rev. Dr. Jon Burnham preached this sermon at St. John's Presbyterian Church on January 9, 2011, (Baptism of the Lord, Year A)
