January 8, 2012

Rev. Dr. Steve Poos-Benson

“The Wheelbarrow”

Our Scripture reading this morning is actually a one phrase verse. The more I study the bible, the more I preach, the more I realize that our understanding of who we are as children of God balances on sometimes one or two key verses. So the phrase for today, is this, from Luke.

“When the son of man returns to earth, will he find faith?”

And may God bless this verse as we seek to understand it and apply it to our lives.

As Joe shared with you today, we are entering into a whole new sermon series which is called “The Wheelbarrow – Taking the Risk of Faith.” This is a sermon series that is beginning a whole new theme for this church. “Life…finally.” At Columbine United Church we are entering into a whole new era of who we are as a congregation. For the past four years, life at Columbine United Church has been interesting. Sometimes challenging. We’ve gone through some real financial hardships the past four or five years. And you have been so faithful, kind of digging our way out of it so I’m looking forward to this next year. What happens in May – our mortgage is paid off. Oh yeah, baby. That is so cool.

The staff – the staff is finally coming together. All the turnovers are done – our interims are done. We have a staff and they’re very excited about working together and now we are projecting into the future about the new things that we’re doing – it’s like “Life…finally”. Justin is actually the one who came up with that. He says “I’m so excited about what we’re doing here at Columbine and it kind of feels like life” and I said “finally”. So we said that’s our theme – “Life…Finally.”

And so to help us explore life – the sermon series that we’re going to be doing all the way through September – I’m going to be starting today with faith development. For the season of Epiphany, we’ll be looking at faith development and how our faith changes and grows. And then in Lent, which is mid-February through Easter, we’re going to be studying forgiveness. One of the things I’ve heard people talk about over and over is how hard it is for them to forgive and how do they learn how to forgive, so we’re going to be studying that. We’re going to do a one church-one book, Lewis Smedes’ books “The Art of Forgiveness” and that is all through Lent. Takes us all the way to Christmas, and then Christmas through the end of May, we’re going to be studying “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” by Steven Covey and his way of looking at how to make our lives more effective and productive and applying that to our faith. And then in the summer, we’re going to be looking at a book called “The Anatomy of Peace”. The other common theme that I’ve heard from people over the years, is how much conflict there is in the midst of our lives, and what do we do about that conflict. Well, for the summer, I’m thinking about ways to resolve the conflict. National conflict, community conflict, and most importantly, the conflict in the midst of our lives. So that’s what we’re going to be doing through September.

But today we begin a sermon series on faith development. Life long faith development. Why should we be studying faith development? For several reasons. First of all, it’s something I’m very passionate about. When I walked in this morning and everyone heard my voice and they said “Why didn’t you stay home?” And I said “Because it’s not that I didn’t trust Justin that he couldn’t preach, but I’m so passionate about it, that I would have had to be in bed with pneumonia in the hospital not to teach/preach this sermon. I would have used sign language to communicate this to you. This is – based upon a class that I teach at Regis University to graduate students. And I’m so passionate about it, that I wanted to do an adult education class on faith development and make it mandatory that every single one of you has got to come to this class and I began to realize – that ain’t gonna happen.

So I’m bringing the mountain to Mohammad and I’m going to say I’ve got you as a captive audience. I believe so passionately about this that you have got to hear this. And for the next seven weeks I don’t want you to miss a Sunday. And if you do have to miss a Sunday, you can always go to the website, you can watch a video of the sermon, you can download the audio of the sermon. Some of you even said “My sister in Seattle wants to hear the sermon” – well that’s why you can go to the website. I don’t want you to miss it – it’s that profound. I’m so excited – when I teach this to grad students, they kind of go “Oh” when this starts happening. I’ll have to be careful, because I kind of slip into professor mode with it. Like the first part of the sermon, you eyes might be tempted to kind of glaze over. So I want you to kind of hang with me, but I have to set the stage.

The second reason this is important is because this is one of our core values of who we are as a congregation. We have five core values and one of these values is we value life long faith development. And since this is one of our core values, we need to talk about it. I believe we really do not understand what faith development is. So it’s who we are as a congregation.

Third, it’s going to help you understand that crazy relative who always comes to family gatherings and they start talking about what they believe in. And you go “this makes me nuts. This person makes me nuts. How can they believe the way they believe?” And you kind of sit back and you go “how did they come to this understanding?” Or you might have a co-worker like that where you just come to a place and you say we’re not going to talk about religion and politics. We’re never going to find any common ground.

Well, when you understand faith development, you finally will have common ground by which you can talk to people. But most importantly, the reason we need to talk about faith development, is that you can understand yourself.

Think about your own life. Think about everything you’ve been through. Do you remember a time when you knew who you were and you knew what you believed and you had this really tight relationship with God and things were hunky dory. Can you remember a time?

And there’s the time where there’s a faith crisis – maybe a huge faith crisis. You just junked it and walked away. Said “forget it. There is no God, there is no religion – I don’t believe any of it.” Maybe some of you are in the middle of that. Maybe you’ve been in the middle of that for quite some time and you wonder should you or should you not come to church. I don’t know exactly what I believe – am I agnostic? Maybe you work through that and you kind of come to a new place where it’s like “wow – I really kind of believe again, but I believe that everybody has the same truth and all the paths lead to the top of the mountain.” Maybe there’s something beyond that – maybe there’s a universal effect.

If you do that, you know what you’re doing? You’re doing faith development. And what I hope to do – what we hope to do over the next seven weeks is help you understand the language of faith development. Because you will then understand not only yourself, your family, your friends, who you are in relationship to God, but a relationship to the cosmos. And that is so important to me because as a congregation, this is what I’m trying to do with you. I’m trying to get you on the process of faith development. I’m going to get you thinking and challenging and questioning everything about who you are and how you live and what you believe in.

Now a lot of people are not comfortable with that. Actually, two people this past week told me “I don’t want to question myself. I don’t want to question what I believe in.” I said “Well, Columbine United Church helps you question. We believe that questioning is good because that’s part of the faith process.” Who we are as a congregation is that we want to create a safe and healthy environment for you to question and grow because that’s how you mature in your faith development.

Now we’re going to be using James Fowlers “Stages of Faith.” It’s a textbook that you can buy on Amazon.com. I need to warn you that it’s a little bit on the esoteric side but it’s still a great book that you can read along. What Fowler says, is that there are six different stages of faith. He’s interviewed so many people – hundreds of different people. I was actually set to be a part of the research back in the mid 70s when Fowler was writing this book – published it in the late 70s – and what Fowler did – when he realized after talking with so many people is that there are basically six different stages of faith that people go through throughout their life. And when we understand these stages, it helps us understand ourselves and all the other people.

There are a few things I kind of need to say up front. This is kind of the lecture part, so don’t glaze over on me. Don’t start making your grocery list because you have to hang in there – there are a few things you need to know about stages of faith. We have to teach this in a linear way. I have to say Stage One, Childhood, Stage Two, Adolescence; Stage Three – Mid Adult, bla, bla, bla. And next Sunday, what Justin is going to talk about is the faith development of a child and how a child develops faith and how we at Columbine United Church help children develop faith and how you can help your children or grandchildren and nieces and nephews develop faith.

The Sunday after that, Carla – Stage Two into Stage Three – is going to talk about the faith development of a teenager. If you have a teenager and you’re wondering how they’re wrestling with their beliefs and why they’re saying the things that they need to say or explore, that’s what Carla’s going to be doing.

I’m going to pick it up the following Sunday with Stage three which is - just for you technical people - is called conventional synthetic faith. The Sunday after that, Stage four, is individuate/reflective faith. Stage five is called conjunctive faith. Stage six is called universal faith. And there’s actually a Stage Seven I’m going to wrap into Stage Six.

But we’re going to present it in a linear fashion. It’s important to know that life is not linear, is it? Life is kind of a mess and we’re messy people. And Fowler talks about the fact that life is like a spiral and that you just don’t go from here to here to here, but you kind of wander around and as you grow and mature, your faith kind of grows and matures in wonderful, unique ways. So we need to allow room for that movement.

The other thing when I say Stage One, Stage Two, Three, Four, Five, Six – it’s easy – and this is a trap that I fall in to, is to say that Two is better than One and Three is better than Two and Four is better than Three, and it’s better when you go higher in the stages, that that’s better. And that’s not the case. That’s not the case. People are in the stage of faith because that’s where they are in their life. And some people will come to a Stage Three – actually most adults in the United States end up at stage three and that’s their resting place for the rest of their life. They’ll stay right there in a Stage Three. And we have to say that that’s good and that’s fine and that’s okay because that’s kind of where they are in their development.

However, personally, what happens is my bias bleeds out all over the place – is because I want people to move beyond Stage Three. Primarily because Stage Three people can do a ton of damage. Especially when they’re the president of the United States. Or a congressman. Or a mayor or a governor or a minister. And they have a certain world view of how everybody should be and they try to legislate that. That’s when a Stage Three faith can be dangerous.

And that’s why many of you are in this congregation because you went beyond a stage three to a stage four – more on that as we kind of unpack it. So, it’s a spiral – one is not better than the other.

Okay. A few key terms. We have got to understand the difference between what is spirituality – this is kind of the lecture, so don’t – hang in there. Alright? Spirituality, beliefs, dogma, religion and faith. These are all terms that we use to say – we think we’re saying the same thing. But they’re not. They’re very, very different things. And that’s why I want to take just a second to help you understand. And this is a key point for you to get. Because I’m going to build upon this throughout the entire sermon series.

What is spirituality? When people say “I’m not very religious, I’m spiritual.” What does that mean? The short definition of spirituality is how I walk with the world. How I walk with the cosmos. And you’re spirituality is very individual. Your spirituality is going to be very different than Joe’s and Joe’s is going to be different than mine and mine is going to be different than Mitch’s – thank goodness.

It’s very individual based upon how you were raised as a kid. It’s based upon part of your genetics. It’s based of your world view, your experiences, your education – your travel throughout the world or if you’ve just stayed in Littleton, Colorado. Your spirituality is tacit. That’s one of my favorite words – tacit. And what tacit means is “I know in my knower that it’s true, but I can’t tell you why. But I know in my knower that it’s true. But I can’t tell you why.” That’s tacit. That’s spirituality.

So people say, I’m spiritual – it means they haven’t taken enough time to figure it out what it is they believe. Because then what is beliefs? Beliefs is when you’ve taken the time to take your tacit spirituality and kind of figure it out. “I really believe that God is such and so. I really believe that Jesus is… I believe that Buddha is…I believe that Allah is…. And you’ve taken something kind of vague and you’ve made it more clear. Those are beliefs.

And actually, when we had to figure out what our beliefs are, we’re creating a sense of community because we gather together with people who believe like this. Birds of a feather, flock together. You’re here at CUC because basically – yeah, you like the preaching, you like the breakfast – better than the preaching – you like the music – but most importantly, it’s a community that you feel at home with. Because you kind of know that we share some of the same beliefs. You don’t know exactly what those beliefs are, but we share some – so it creates a sense of community.

So then we go to beliefs, the next step is doctrine, but I put it as dogma. What is dogma? Dogma is when we basically have taken those beliefs and we said “this is truth. This is truth.” And when we create dogma, we create what is called orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Orthodoxy is the right way to think. If you’re going to be a part of us, you have to take on our orthodoxy. Because this is the truth. Orthopraxy is how I’m going to live that out in the world. So I’m going to take my truth and I’m going to live it out in the world.

The Presbyterian church is probably one of the best examples I can think of – since I am one, I can talk about it – who have this dogma. We have this dogma. We have the Book of Order. We have the Book of Confessions. We have the Bible. We have the Book of Worship. And if you’re going to be a Presbyterian, this is who you are. And when we installed Justin a few weeks ago – back in December – he had to say “Do you Justin Spurlock give assent to all these – you know – will you uphold every single one of our beliefs” and he said “absolutely. Absolutely, I do.”

Because that’s kind of what it means – when we have this sense of dogma, we create this sense of knowledge about who we are as a people. And it’s the identity that we put on.

Well then, what is religion? Religion is nothing more than the sacred processes that we go through that says that our spirituality, our beliefs and our dogma are good and sacred and are of God. And depending upon where you are in your faith development, your religion will say “our dogma is the only right dogma.” And religion is just that process that communities go through to bless their spirituality, beliefs, doctrine, dogma. Religion is how we raise up children. And to teach them the same things that we believe. It’s how we take new people who want to be a part of us – before they can be a part of us, they have to be a part of the communal aspect where we bless these different things.

So can you begin to understand those differences? So what is faith? Is faith the same as those? Or is faith different from those? You see, faith is very, very different. Let me tell you a story. What is faith? Faith is like a man who is a high wire walker. And this high wire walker – he’s known throughout the United States. And everywhere he want, people flocked to see him walk, because he’d take these huge cables and stretch them across the chasm. The unique thing about this high wire walker, though, is he would walk pushing a wheelbarrow. And people would love to watch him push this wheelbarrow across the chasm. So he was at this one town and he’d stretched the cable across this huge chasm, and the appointed day had come and everybody said “Let’s go watch him.” And so the whole town gathered together and he was out there on the edge of the cliff, holding his wheelbarrow, but there was a high wind that was blowing. And the cable was dancing in the air and slicing back and forth. And he was wondering “should I or shouldn’t I?” And the crowd had gathered, and they said “NO – Don’t do it. It’s too dangerous.” And the guy was wondering if he should or shouldn’t. But there’s always one guy who likes to slow down at a car wreck. Right? And he’s the one who says “Do it. Walk.” And the guy says “Do it. Walk. I have faith in you. I have faith in you.” You have faith in me? “Yes, I have faith in you.” I’ll tell you what. If you ride, I’ll walk.

That’s faith. That’s faith. Faith is where you’re standing up here going “I’ll put my money where my mouth is and I will lead the crowd and I will get into that wheelbarrow and I have faith that the high wire walker knows what he’s doing and I’m going to go forward. Faith is the process of going forward. And depending upon where you are in your stage of faith development, that wheelbarrow is going to look differently.

Now pay attention, I’m going to walk you very close – each one of these six stages of faith through this analogy. If a child approaches the wheelbarrow, the child is going to go “Look – what is this thing that has a red bucket and two handles – is that called a wheel?” And they learn that that’s a wheelbarrow.

A Stage Two individual is going to approach it – and a lot of adults end up at Stage Two – this is where they stay throughout their entire life – a wheelbarrow is not meant to walk across a high wire. You take a wheelbarrow and you put rocks in the front yard and you take it to the back yard and you empty it. That’s it. That’s the only thing a wheelbarrow is used for. Don’t misuse the wheelbarrow.

A Stage Three individual is going to say “We have the right wheelbarrow and we have the right cable across the chasm. And if you want to get across the chasm, we’re the only people who can take you across the chasm. Everybody else is lying. They’re false. Don’t trust them. We will take you back and forth across the chasm.”

Stage Four individuals are people who have been dumped by the people of Stage Three, half way across. Or they have jumped out of the wheelbarrow or they have fallen off and they’ve landed down at the bottom of the chasm. And they’ve crawled their way back up and they’ve said “I’m never doing that again.” Or “I’m not going to let anybody else take me across the chasm. And if there’s any way across the chasm, it’s going to be me because I’m going to stretch my own cable and I’m going to make my own wheelbarrow. Because I don’t trust your wheelbarrow. I’m going to make my own wheelbarrow and I will walk myself across. Thank you.”

Stage Five people are like “Look at all the different wheelbarrows. There are red ones and yellow ones and green ones – there’s one with one wheel, there’s one with two wheels, one with two handles, one with three handles. Some people will carry a wheelbarrow together. There are some wheelbarrows that even have a motor and wouldn’t it be cool if I could try each and every one of them and this week I’ll try this one and next week I’ll try that one and maybe we can just try to walk together.” That’s Stage Five.

Stage Six people are “Why are you guys all so fascinated by wheelbarrows – don’t you know you have wings on your back that will fly you across the chasm? And why don’t we all fly together?” That’s where Fowler stops.

Now Poos-Benson, through my study and teaching and being with people, what I actually believe is that there’s actually a Stage Seven type of people. And they’re a mess. Because Stage Seven people go “That’s not the chasm. That’s the mouth of God. And we just need to dive.” And Stage Seven people mess this up because they completely change everything about us. Those are the six or seven stages.

Now there are a few things I want you to know. This is where all the grad students go – their minds go – I turn them around and it’s where you really need to listen to this. There’s no such thing as no faith. Everybody has faith. Even an atheist has faith. An atheist goes through these different stages just as everybody else does. But they have faith that there’s nothing there. All the world religions – this is the common ground of all religions – I have different pictures up here. There’s a picture of a Buddhist, a Muslim – I love that little boy – there’s a Christian and then a Hindu. Hear this. They all have the same faith. They all have the same faith. They all go through the exact same process of faith development. What is different, is spirituality, beliefs, dogma and religion. But the bedrock of it all is faith. The common element that we have with all people is that we all go through these same stages of faith. That’s why, when people start arguing about different religions and on and on – I always want to blow a big cosmic whistle. And say “sit down – let me give you a lecture and help you understand.” Because where you’re differing are in your beliefs. And your religion and your dogma. And you need to sit down and listen to one another. But the common ground, the common ground is that you all have faith that links you and ties you back to something. You see, the common ground is that every single human being goes through this. Every single human being engages this process in childhood, in adolescence and middle adult and people in their 50s and 60s and then they ultimately, in their old age, and everybody is in some place in this stage – it’s the common ground. You cannot not have faith. When people come and tell me and they cry and tell me they’ve lost their faith. I always say that’s impossible. Your faith is changing. And that could be painful. And that can be so traumatic. Especially when the faith that you used to have brought you all kinds of meaning in life. And how you organized your life. And usually what happens is a major crisis. Like an illness, a death of a loved one. You’ve lost your job or something – and suddenly, the world view that you created and how it relates to the ultimate God, doesn’t work any more. And then things that people have said – “God is this and God is that” and you’re thinking that your world just does not reflect that. And that’s when people usually fall off the cliff. And they say “I’ve lost my faith.” I say “No, your faith is changing. Your faith is changing. And let me walk with you. Let us walk with you as we re-stretch your cable across the chasm. Or help you lean where those wings are.” You cannot not have faith.

Now ultimately, for me, why this is so important, is because Jesus says “When the Son of Man comes to earth, will he find faith?” Notice he did not say “When the Son of Man comes to earth will he find spirituality.” He did not say “When the Son of Man comes to earth, will he find belief.” Nor did he say “When the Son of Man comes to earth will he find dogma.” That’s where the Presbyterians are going to go “Ahhhhhhhhhg – we have the dogma.” Nor did he say “When the Son of Man comes to earth, will he find religion?” He said “When the Son of Man comes to earth, will he find faith?” Will he find faith? Will he find people that are engaging a life long journey of exploration? Will he find people who are working with other people of different beliefs and of different religions to explore who and what they are? Will they find people who are open to new ideas and new possibilities? Will he find people who are engaging the process of faith? Will he find people who have gotten away from the crowd and been to the wheelbarrow?

As you walk away from this place today, I want you to think about yourself and your faith and where you are on this journey. And I want you to think about, when you leave, and you go to work tomorrow, or you go to the office or the mall, that literally, every single person that you meet is somewhere on this faith journey. And instead of being different from everybody, the common ground that God has given us is faith. And you are not different. You might be different in what you believe in your religion, in your doctrine or dogma. But what binds us together is faith. Amen.