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It isn't easy writing a statement of what you believe. Then when you've written one, then look at how you're living, it seems to leave out so much of what really drives you. It isn't easy.
And one reason it isn't easy, as ironic as this sounds, is because we have already inherited the words and the styles in which we're supposed to be thinking of our beliefs. In our culture, beliefs are supposed to involve God, sin, and salvation, even if we don't think of our lives that way. And not any god, either. Just that one taken from the religious scriptures of Jews and Christians.
If we say "Well, I don't think God is a useful concept, I think in terms of trying to be awake rather than living in illusions" - if we say that, we'll be made to feel that we haven't done it right, that we didn't use the right materials, even though it would be a perfectly good Buddhist statement.
We've inherited this set of religious luggage we're supposed to use. One suitcase says "God" and is filled with over 25 centuries of traditions, poetry, fantasy, feeling, wisdom and nonsense, all packed in that suitcase under the word "God."
Another suitcase may be called Sin, and it too is loaded with centuries' worth of stories, a lifetime of personal experiences, the teachings of our childhood church, our classmates, and the low-level religion we see in the media. It isn't a neutral word; it comes to us already packed with other peoples' meanings.
Originally delivered by Rev. Davidson Loehr on 21 March 2004
The text for this and other sermons can be viewed online at
http://austinuu.org/sermons/
34:54
© Davidson Loehr 2004
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