Faith Amalgam

Recently I was asked to lead worship at a local Christian church, something I do on occasion.  Whenever I am asked I feel obligated to say “yes.” I gave up being a pleaser many years ago; my life subsequently got a lot more interesting when I started doing only things I felt really called to do. Leading worship is, however, not one of those things. In fact I have always felt out of place in such a role…Me? In a robe? You might be wondering, then, why I would say “yes.”

As an Interfaith Minister, I truly believe that the only singular path to God is the one each soul chooses to take in this lifetime. I find beauty and merit in all faiths at their core and have lived my life with a Faith Amalgam, borrowing from the wisdom of the Lakota, the Sufis, the Buddhists, Christians, Jews, Taoists and more.

Studying a wide range of traditions has worked for me, enriched my life, opened my mind and fostered in me a tolerance for even the fundamentalists. Because I see the Path of Faith as a labyrinth, the circuitous path that leads always to the same center no matter where you begin.

When I am asked to share a message in a Christian church, it feels like a great challenge, not the size of it, the degree of worth. It seems to me the world has never needed the Interfaith message more than now -when it seems the left hand has no tolerance for the right and would rather cut it off than oblige a compromise. So, I say “yes” in the hopes of bringing to a community of faith, the primary Inter-faith directive: Love. In fact, isn’t it the primary directive of any religion in its concentrated state?

So, the senior pastor of said Christian church got wind that an Interfaith minister had been invited to preach the following Sunday in her staid and called to interrogate me. “Now, where is it you were ordained?” and “What exactly does your seminary teach?” etc. I told her that we believe that God is Love and there are many paths to love; we practice tolerance and diversity of all faiths as long as they are non-violent. We promote peace, community and respect. She responded, “I’m sorry, but that’s not the direction I am taking this church.” She went on to tell me how progressive and tolerant she really was, but just could not have that kind of message when her main goal was to build her church.

I felt the fear come through in her voice, I felt the wall that separates the “us” and “them.” And, I felt the judgment rise in me, a moment of sadness for the lost opportunity – for myself and her church community, and I felt a jab of hurt, I had never been rejected before, this was a blow to my ministerial ego. Then my own words circled back on me like a boomerang, “…tolerance…peace ... respect.” 

It was, for sure a “practice what you preach” moment. It also reminded me to keep following my path not the path anyone else thinks I should take. In doing what we love, believe in and are drawn to, we fulfill our destiny and give to the world the very specific gifts that have been planted in us to give. Isn’t that what any of us can hope to accomplish?

Howard Thurman, theologian, writes, “Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs are people who have come alive.”