Across the Pastor’s Desk by Kyle Fever

Many of you may know that Albert Lea is revisiting the Blue Zones Project and seeking to become a full-fledged Blue Zones Community. The Blue Zones Project fundamentally concerns the quest for long, healthy, and happy life. The originator of the project, Dan Buettner, went looking for places where life was better, longer and happier. Why? Perhaps for several reasons.

Part of it might be because the dominant mode of living in our culture is not producing those results. The quest for something better is usually a judgment on the current status quo. Sometimes that hits hard for people, and they don’t want to change the status quo. For others, it is a breath of fresh air, an opportunity to move.

In his research, Buettner compiled nine “lessons” that have been identified as common links for communities around the world where long, healthy life is the norm. One of these lessons is “Participate in a spiritual community.” As I read that it strikes me that participation in “church” in the United States has been experiencing a historic decline in the past 30 years or so (especially so in the past 15).

Let me be clear: I’m not suggesting that the increase in poor overall health in the US is directly related to people not going to church. Not at all. Perhaps “spiritual community” is not even the same thing as “church” as we’ve known it. That’s certainly something worth looking into. Nevertheless, one has to wonder if a decrease in activity in a spiritual community has adverse effects.

It’s especially important that this particular lesson is not just “be more spiritual.” It connects spirituality with community. All throughout the stories of Jesus’ life — what we commonly call “gospels” — Jesus condemns blasé religion and religiosity. Jesus did not come to create another civic religion. That’s why the religious folks didn’t like him. He didn’t play by the “religion” rulebook. But — and this is important — neither did Jesus disregard community. Jesus sought to create community, apart from the sphere of “religion,” and return people to true spirituality by reaching out to all people and changing their lives on earth now.

The word spiritual is almost overused anymore. We’re all tired of hearing “I’m spiritual, but not religious.” At least I am. I get it. And, I agree, this is an important viewpoint. But, what is “spiritual,” other than for many people it’s “not religious”? In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian community (which was actually probably his second letter), he writes to correct a poor understanding of “spirituality.”

For the community in Corinth, “spirituality” had been reduced to how the individual soul relates to God. To this Paul says, “Yes … and …” For Paul, how we relate to God is directly related to how we relate to each other. Paul says as much: “Don’t call yourself spiritual if you do not love and serve the person right in front of you.” That’s my paraphrase of 1 Corinthians 13. True spirituality manifests itself in love of neighbor, even one’s enemy, as Jesus says (Matthew 5:43-48).

Sure, you can meditate, read from Scripture, or pray on your own. Anyone can say they do that. But if that’s all there is, such is a very isolated form of spirituality. Being in community means that we open ourselves to others to grow, and to learn together what it means to seek God. It is only in community that we can exercise love and service as spiritual practices — that we actually look past our own noses.

The second of the Ten Commandments states “Do not make images of God to worship.” We traditionally use the translation “idol.” The Biblical language specifically is “image.” This is interesting because earlier in the Biblical narrative we are told that all people are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). This is not an accident. It’s not that we should worship others. It’s that there’s a deep connection between worship of God, true spirituality and our relationships with others. In serving and loving others, we are genuinely serving and worshipping God. In other words, true spirituality is inherently relational.

“Participate in a spiritual community.” It does not mean just go to church more. It’s far more than that. Let me re-phrase it: Be involved, contribute to the well-being of those around you in the context of learning and growing with others about what it means to trust God completely with our lives. Something about this makes it a vital component of healthy communities where life is long and happy.

 

Kyle Fever is associate minister at First Lutheran in Albert Lea. He holds a doctorate degree in New Testament and early Christian origins and was professor of religion at Wartburg College before moving to Albert Lea with his wife and four children in the fall of 2013.