Where God Lives
The discussion group topic for this past week was about faith development. Most Christian publications about that topic focus on teens, children, and young adults – in that order. Whether it’s a subconscious form of ageism, or the idea that it is easier to track faith development in younger people, the end result is that few publications focus on older adult development of faith. Contrasting the trend, I am becoming an expert on that topic.
James Fowler, author, psychologist and theologian, wrote a landmark book about Christian education in 1981. The book, Stages of Faith, takes the reader through six stages of life and faith. In his early research, he found that of all the six stages, the most foundational is the “intuitive-projective” faith found typically in ages 3-7. At that stage, children have acquired language and the ability to work with symbols to express thoughts; they don’t develop formalized religious beliefs, but instead, faith at this stage is experiential and develops through encounters with stories, images, the influence of others, a deeper intuitive sense of what is right and wrong, and innocent perceptions of how God causes the universe to function. I worked for over a decade with children in the intuitive-projective faith stage. Although I would argue that children at the higher end of the age spectrum do develop formalized religious beliefs (we are Episcopalian after all), they hold it with a great degree of flexibility based on their encounters with others.
One day, I ran into a second grader from Sunday School at the grocery story. He recognized me immediately but had a big surprised look on his face. He asked why I was at the store because, “Doesn’t the church have enough food?” His mother chuckled and said that I don’t live at the church. He replied, “Oh; does God live there?” She smiled and said, “God lives in here [pointing to his chest] and at church.”
I often remark to myself that if God had a living room, it would look like All Angels. I think God would want the living room to be surrounded by nature and to be a welcoming place for all. I also have a hunch that God would want us to have to search a little to find it – the living room wouldn’t be easy to find out on Gulf of Mexico drive, but rather it would be tucked away so that only the seeker could discover it.
Does God live at All Angels? Yes, of course. We are a set-aside place of refreshment for weary souls and a source of joy for those who need to be lifted up. We are also a place of connection with God and one another where we collaboratively work to help others in need. Lastly, we are a place of final earthly rest for many people.
Fowler asserts that adult faith education comes at the time of crisis. One encounters a crisis stage when commonly held beliefs about God – usually from childhood – are irreconcilable with tragedy and strife. In other words, the religious beliefs developed in childhood do not help answer why there is poverty, war, and pandemics. Yet, there is a tug, from what I call the Holy Spirit, for many adults to return to the faith of where God lives.
The best way I can summarize it is with the words of arranger and conductor James Swearingen. He created a piece shortly after September 11th and with it wrote that tragedy in life can bring us new found joy of simple things and that perhaps the specialness of loss is that it can bring us appreciation.
Going deeper into faith from our childhood, we see God in the midst of suffering; but not as one who creates it or stands aloof from it. If one is searching for where God lives, I’d say to start where there is joy and appreciation. Lucky for us, that happens to be at church and in our hearts too.
-Rev. Dave
