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Experiencing Religion
By Daryl Bridges
Given at the First Parish in Wayland- May 5th, 2013
Picture yourself in the middle 1800s in the rural corners of, let’s say, Kentucky. All
around you are the tools of an agricultural society and the sturdy people that live there. You are
a farmer like most of your friends and family; you know the lands here like the back of your
hand and are no stranger to a hard day’s work. You know how to milk the cows, plow the fields,
harvest crops and all manner of other physical labors. And like any good native son or daughter
you’re a proper church-goer which means going twice on Sunday and maybe one or two more
times in the week to the town church.
You work hard six days a week and the seventh you rest, go to church, and listen to
someone, without a doubt a man, preach long sermons from behind a pulpit. You might be a
Baptist or an Episcopalian or a Congregationalist or what have you but the core is the same, on
Sunday you go to church. And that’s how it has been for as long as you can remember. Heck
most of your life you’ve even heard from the same preacher standing behind the same pulpit in
the same building but this week rumor has it that a circuit rider, an itinerate preacher, is
coming to town.
Like most people in the mid 1800s you’ve heard about these travelling preachers and
their camp meetings. They are called Methodists and follow the methods and teachings of
some British Anglican priest named John Wesley.
Funny folk theses Methodists, they have different ideas about salvation and are said to
rouse up the passions of people at these camp meetings. Not everyone looks kindly on their
ways and word is that back East the academics don’t think much of them but what do those
stuffy New Englanders know?
Either way it is no small thing when this itinerate preacher rolls into town, heck it is
downright festive! People come for miles and gather in a field, because none of the local
churches would let them in, to hear this wandering preacher. In the early evening he comes up,
welcomes everyone and gets down to business, and OH! what a sermon he gives! The preacher
gives a rousing sermon about how everyone can be saved if they just have faith. He tells the
story of the Apostle Paul, once a man named Saul who experienced the powerful presence of
God and was redeemed! And that experience he assures you, you can have too.
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Somewhere in the evening there is singing and maybe even a little dancing. Hopefully
you aren’t a Baptist or that might be a bit scandalous but oh it is such a great time. The sermon
was long, but passionate, the music joyful and satisfying, when the minister suddenly does an
altar call. He stands up at the front and calls out for anyone who has felt the presence of God to
come forward and share their experience with everyone, to explain that because of their
experience of God's love that they have had either tonight or sometime how their life is forever
changed.
And people do. Some are your neighbors, family, or friends. People who maybe cannot
read or write and for who the stodgy sermons they normally hear don’t mean much but the
message this Methodist brings speaks to them. This message which says you have to feel God,
you have to feel loved, and once you have experienced the love and presence of God you can
know that you are saved. And who knows, maybe tonight amidst all the song and preaching and
friends and excitement, just maybe you felt something stir in your heart and yearn to answer
that altar call…
Camp meetings such as this grew out of the work of John Wesley, a former Anglican
priest who after a theological disagreement broke ranks, began to spread his new
understanding of Christianity which he called Methodism, and eventually fled to the American
colonies where he had hoped to spread his message in peace. While he did not find the peace
he was looking for he did find a community eager for the less academic, more spiritual religion
he was spreading.
One of the ideas that John Wesley's carried with him and that found a great audience
would be called the Wesleyan Quadrilateral. That is fancy term that was created by Methodist
historian Alfred Outler and outside of Methodist academics the term only works well to impress
your friends. Anyway, it was a relatively simple idea that Wesley had which said that all
theological reflection should be done through four lenses: Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and
Experience. For Wesley the primary lens was Scripture, the Bible was the ultimate source to
which he believed humanity was accountable to. In compliment to Scripture were the lens of
Tradition, both those traditions passed down from Biblical times and those more modern,
Reason, John Wesley believed the mind was a divine gift that was intended to be used, and
finally, perhaps the most ambiguous of them all was the lens of Experience.
The early American Methodists and their camp meetings engulfed themselves in
Scripture and Experience. They preached a simple message: God is love and if you have felt the
presence of God then you are saved from damnation. The experience of feeling God's love
became the primary motivator of their movement to such a point that critics would arise that
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considered these camp meetings little more than feel-good plays and that those that converted
in the heat of the moment tended to be rather poor Christians.
There seems to be some validity to that complaint, after all, we might want to say that
with little more to go off of than a feeling of being loved it begs the question of what was really
being accomplished? But for both John Wesley and the early Methodists there was a real belief
in the power of this experience. The experience that these itinerate ministers sought was not
simply to expose people to a positive and enjoyable moment but instead to speak a theological
message of divine presence and love though a profoundly unique and personal method.
John Wesley believed, and he is in good company with this belief, that Experience
should hold a great role in our religious lives. It was John Wesley's belief that devoted people
would feel the very love of God in their being in such a way that the experience would forever
change their lives. The experience would be incontrovertible and intimate and it would signify a
new life, a new birth if you will. It was John Wesley's followers who laid the groundwork for the
modern Evangelical movement and for the language of being Born Again. It was this core
tenant of experience that defined not only Methodists but many Christian traditions, mystic
traditions the world over, native religions, and countless other religious and spiritual traditions.
All are built on the same simple premise: it is very hard to argue against your own experiences.
Even our religious ancestors, the Universalists, followed suit with a great interest in both
traveling preachers and religious experience; the experience of the love of God being so
powerful for them that they could no longer fathom a God who lotted out eternal punishment.
Now, the Universalists as well as the early circuit riders' and itinerate preachers' understanding
of what John Wesley meant by experience was largely limited to what Wesley himself would
have called “sanctification”, the direct, life changing experience of feeling God’s presence. But
John Wesley was also interested in the role of more mundane experience.
Our experiences living amongst other human beings, in a world in which sickness, love,
death, and joy are all part a whole which cannot be discounted. If experience told you not to
loan your neighbor $20 because he would only use it to get drunk and not to buy feed for his
cows, then Wesley would have said you know what to do. Your experience has taught you. If
experience tells you that this year will be a good year but next year promises to be lean, then
store up what you need. Your experience has taught you. Wesley was quite adamant that
Methodism should not run counter to the world in which we live in.
It may seem strange that I am speaking so much about Methodism today but bear with
me, growing up Methodist and three years in a Methodist seminary has left its mark. But I think
there is a great question that arises in Wesley's thinking that, even now two hundred and sixty
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odd years later, bears some of our time for reflection. As Unitarian Universalists in the 21st
century how do we reflect on where experience fit in our faith?
I agree with John Wesley that all theology must be accountable to our experiences as
living, sensing creatures that have the ability, and even the duty, to evaluate the world around
us. If our experience tells us that an action is painful then it is quite reasonable for us to stay
away from it. If our experience tells us that certain beliefs are harmful, say like believing that
only Unitarian Universalists go to heaven, then we are right to abandon them. And if our
experience tells us that an action brings joy and love into the world then I believe we can say
from a theological position that that action goes with our faith, for example supporting the
right to marry whoever we love no matter their gender.
UU congregations all throughout the world have people in the pews, or behind the
pulpit in my case, who come from different religious backgrounds. Why are we here? For many
it is because at some point we entered a UU congregation and experienced what it felt like to
be, religiously speaking, home an experience that has stuck with us profoundly enough that we
continue to invest our time and effort in UU communities. Many others were raised as UUs and
never left! Why? Their experience in UU congregations, while likely not perfect, has spoken to
something in them, spoken to something theological. We sit in these pews together today
sharing in an experience that is theological and in Coffee hour many of us with talk with one
another about how our lives are unfolding not simply because we want to hear our own voices
but because we want to share ourselves with others and that too is a religious experience.
And yet still in our congregations sit those who can, but perhaps don't, speak to their
own numinous religious experiences, their own experience of “sanctification” as Wesley would
call it. This is a difficult subject to broach because one of the hallmarks of religious or mystical
experience is that it transcends easy description. Yet without a doubt some among us have at
some point in their life, perhaps only once perhaps with some regularity, felt... something. The
presence of a greater being, a sense of oneness with all living things, being awash in an ocean
of the divine, hearing, seeing or feeling what we might call a god or goddess, whatever the
words we use to describe it, they have felt something awe inspiring.
Even a cursory look at the mystical traditions of the world will say time and time again
that religious experience transcends language and perhaps that is one reason why we hesitate
to discuss it. A now quite dated survey of UUs included questions on theological perspective
and 6.2% identified with mystic traditions, another 13% with generic theism, and 19% with
Earth/Nature centered beliefs. Among these, and surely, others lie hidden, quiet stories of
religious experience.
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As you likely know by now I am an avid hiker and it is when I am alone in the woods
where I feel the closest to the divine. Over the years my greatest moments of joy and clarity
have come in isolated places surrounded only by plants, animals, and stones. Some years ago I
was walking on a hiking trail I walked regularly, so much so that I could let my mind rest and my
legs would carry me along by force of habit. And I was doing just that when about an hour and a
half in I was completely alone. I was far enough in the woods that I could not hear or see
another human or any evidence that other people still existed. There was no sound of cars, no
talking, and I could not hear any footsteps other than my own.
In that isolation as my feet carried me forward along that familiar path I felt my
awareness slip away but unlike drifting to sleep I drifted into a deep and different awake-ness.
All around me were different plants and animals but in that moment I could not tell the
different between myself, the trees, or any living thing. It was as though all the lines between
myself and all other living things had been erased and I floated serenely in a great shared
experience of being One.
After some time, I cannot be more specific for time had ceased to be relevant, I found
myself still walking down the path suddenly aware that I was me, the trees were trees, and you
are you. What had felt like an hour had been no more than maybe ten minutes but the feeling
of love and oneness that lingered inside me lasted for months, if not years, and the only word I
could utter afterwards was “wow”.
I have long considered myself a pantheist, a believer that all things share in what it
means to be divine. Having felt the world wash over me, I cannot stop believing that I am
sharing what it means to be divine with all living things. I also have worked long hours in menial
jobs and worked closely with others in even worse jobs. I have seen people crushed under
injustice cry out for help and I have seen the power that being told “you have value, you are
loved” can have. These experiences are key to defining who I am today.
And could I be standing here today before you, talking as I have about John Wesley,
talking about my experiences both profound and mundane if I did not find a reflection of my
experiences in Unitarian Universalism? Clearly, no. And would I be here if the experience of
being a part of this movement, this congregation, and this faith if it did not speak to my
experiences? Again, no. Would any of us linger long in these pews and this buildings, in this
community, if our experiences are not acknowledged, are not given the space to be spoken, or
are not granted the dignity that they deserve? No or at least it is unlikely.
It is clear that our experiences have a profound impact on who we are, what we value,
and how we live our lives in this world. It is clear that if our faith cannot or does not speak to
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these experiences then we are deadening ourselves to one of the great sources of religious
examination. We may not want to take up John Wesley’s whole Quadrilateral; there is much
debate to be had about Scripture, Tradition, and even Reason. But one thing cannot be
questioned and that is that we cannot ignore our experiences.
As liberal religious people I believe this is a role of ours that is sometimes forgotten. As
we seek out intellectual fulfillment, social justice, and even just a little bit of peace and quiet in
the day. Sometimes the time we need to spend being religious, experiencing our religion, can
seem wasteful and the temptation may rise to not let our religion touch our experience or our
experience touch our religion. Or worse, we may dare to think to ourselves that experience is
best left to other faiths and that we as enlightened, rationalist Unitarian Universalists of the
21st century are somehow beyond experiencing.
John Wesley spoke some two hundred and sixty years ago of his belief that a faith that
cannot or will not respond to our mundane experience cannot speak to what it means to be
human and risks making itself irrelevant. Equally a faith that cannot or will not speak to our
most profound experiences denies the possibility that we are part of something greater and
leaves no room for wonder or mystery. No matter if we are a farmer in rural Kentucky in the
1800s or a New England Unitarian Universalist in the 21st century we are bound to our
experiences good, bad, or indifferent and we cannot escape them, but we can chose what to do
with those experience, we can chose to honor them, to engage them, and to share them.
I do not foresee a Unitarian Universalist camp meeting springing up on the front lawn
but I do hope that we take the time to make space for our experiences. I hope that we take the
time to deeply experience our religion and religiously experience our lives. Amen and Blessed
be.