Karl Frank, Sally Waite, Peggy Kimball June 20, 2021
Sally, Peggy, and I have all mentioned along the way a few of our daily spiritual practices, as how the poetry and prayers we brought to you, came to us. If only it had come to us at the edge of the darkness beyond a campfire. But how about spiritual practice as contrasted with belief?
My amateur sermon on that topic is drawn from my personal history, and that of my parents. As I am not your minister, but just one more member of your congregation, it strikes me as appropriate that you understand my viewpoint. And that begins, not with me alone, but with my parents and my upbringing.
They were both naturalized citizens.
My father came first. He arrived from Germany at the age of 20, not speaking any English. By the time I was born, he had become a citizen with only a trace of his German accent.
My mother came from an English speaking family in Nova Scotia, so she was not seen as “foreign.” She helped make us a good American family because we all learned our English from her and not our neighbors in Brooklyn.
They wanted me to be well educated – as an Amercan. They were ambitious for me.
So, when I was of grade-school age, they sent me to Sunday School. Maybe that surprises you as the next step in this story. They sent me to Sunday School at a Methodist church in walking distance from our house. What was remarkable about that? you may ask. What was remarkable is that neither of them were Methodists.
Yet they sent me to a Methodist sunday school? Which is how I became adept at an early age with distinguishing belief and practice, and the idea of orthodoxy. This will become clearer as we go on.
Right away, way back then, I understood that I was sent to Sunday School to learn about religion. Much later, when I had learned a lot about the history of religion in America, I understood that they had chosen a middle-of-the-road protestant denomination which did indeed run a good Sunday School.
I am thankful for their wisdom in this. They always were supporters of my education, and I see it as a mark of their deep understanding of culture, that they recognized that it would be a good thing if I got some education in religion by actually going to sunday school.
From my Methodist Sunday School I learned first and foremost that they were Christians. Their church had existed since ancient times, and that I need not take their word for it, they would show me the proof. if I was to understand what it meant to be a Christian, I needed to learn the historically correct definition of that faith. And by the way, learn what I would be expected to believe should I seek to join their church.
They explained that from ancient times there was a general agreement about exactly what all “real” Christians believed. It was called the Nicene Creed. We kids did not have to believe it, but we had to learn it. I found it interesting. The formality of the language was unlike anything I had read before. the brevity of the sentences and the mysterious words were impressive.
The first point that matters here today, is that propositions that comprise the Nicene Creed are exactly what I mean by spiritual beliefs, as contrasted with spiritual practices.
It is printed below, in American English copied from a Methodist website. Note especially that it is formulated as straightforward statements of fact, made on behalf of all of us who would count ourselves as Christians. No evidence is offered.
I tread softly here. Some among you will be upset because of troubling personal associations. Others may be offended by what they perceive as disrespect for a text they hold sacred.. In a compromise I will read the first 4 lines only. Then I will wait a few minutes before goin on, so that you may read it from the chat box. yourself from the chat box.
We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.
We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory
to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.
We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son,
who with the Father and the Son
is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic* and apostolic church.
We acknowledge one baptism
for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.
I took the Nicene creed home to learn it, and so it came to my parents’ attention.
My father had been brought up as a Catholic. I have a photo of him serving as altar boy. My mother’s parents had been Baptists, then became Jehovah’s Witnesses. When we lived in Brooklyn, Grandfather Dennison came once to visit, but it seemed he was more interested in visiting the Watchtower headquarters.
It is clear that my parents, not wanting to bring me up in either of the religions they had left, had chosen to educate me in a church specially chosen to educate me in a general sort of way. Allowing that between the two poles of the Catholic Church in Rome and the Headquarters of the Witnesses near the Brooklyn Bridge, it is hard to say what the middle ground is.
Anyway, Wesley’s Methodism was a good choice for their purposes as you will see. When I came home with the Nicene Creed they saw that I was getting more education than they had expected.
Not only were neither of them Methodists, they never attended any church. I was early on saw the difference between practice and belief.
“Why don’t you go to church?” I asked. “Because we don’t believe any of the things in their creed, “Aren’t you Christians?” “Not exactly. Let’s just say we used to be, and we didn’t become Jews or Muslims instead.”
“So you used to believe all these things in the Nicene creed?”
“I know I did, because I remember that from my confirmation lessons” (this from my father, the lapsed Catholic who had qualified as an altar boy.)
Mother said: “My family was Christian. Yet I never heard of the Nicene creed. My father held services in our parlor, where he taught that Truth was based on the bible. I thought he really meant “Based on the bible as he understood it.”
“You mean not all Christians believe what’s in the Nicene Creed?”
Dad said: “Well, I don’t want to say that James Dennison was not a Christian, but I’m sure that a Catholic priest would say he wasn’t really a Christian. The Nicene Creed is part of the mass, the Credo.”
Mother replied that her father called the Catholic church “the great Apostacy.” “James Dennison said the Roman church had abandoned true Christianity in ancient times”.
The Methodists had not intended it this way, but you can see how their assignment to memorize the Nicene Creed had started me, with the help of my parents divergent experiences, toward an understanding of the belief side of the subject. We can leave this family conversation now. Back to practice contrasted with belief.
The Methodists next had me memorize the ten commandments. This worked out better. I noticed right off that I followed most of them already. I never stole anything, and though I did sometimes lie, it made me felt guilty. And I honored my mother and my father, and still do, especially for their concern with my education. So I found it easier and more useful to practice what they taught, rather than to believe what they thought I should.
And now I find myself following the practice of putting on a service every Sunday – observing the Sabbath and keeping it holy, without finding that it forces me into any particular belief. though thankful I don’t have to practice writing.a sermon every week. And also thankful that in the rare case when I do write a sermon, I am not required to preach the truth of any doctrine.
