Dear Friends in Christ,
The poet, Edna St. Vincent Millay, once wittily said,
"Life must go on; I forget just why." I sometimes fear that she may have put her finger on the fundamental malaise of our
time. Life does go on, but we no longer know why. Martin Luther said that we humans live by faith alone, so what happens to
us, morally and spiritually, if we lose our capacity for faith?
This, in my opinion, is what religion is for. Most
people seem to think that religion is about propositions about the existence or non-existence of this or that deity, but I
agree with Henry David Thoreau that it is really about a more fundamental question: what is the meaning of my life? Deities,
and propositions about deities, are spiritual and poetic answers to that fundamental question. When religion degenerates (as
it always seems to do), the deities are about the deities and the propositions become absolutized so that they are no longer
about the real question and the word for that is idolatry.
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| Pastor Peter Bastien |
Religions, in other words, are best when they are catalysts, helping people
to find a way of being in the world that is rich, healthy; empowering us for authentic living. Religion is at its worst when
it becomes an escape mechanism from life or when it finds it necessary to demonize people who answer spiritual questions differently.
Anyway, what I'm hoping you will notice is that Edna St. Vincent Millay is
right. She has put her finger on the real crisis of our age. People live on, but they have no idea why. This aimlessness and
lostness makes all our other problems so much worse--it compounds them. We cannot deal with specific social, economic, or
moral questions if we have no general idea of what life is for and what we should be doing with it. Society becomes like sharks
in a feeding frenzy, everyone just mindlessly grabbing for themselves with no thought for the morrow.
I am a Christian and a Lutheran pastor solely for the purpose of helping people
have an idea of why life should go on, what we can do with our lives. Religion is like money--it is an instrument for living.
Money becomes the root of all evil if we love it for itself. Religion too. This is why, at CTS, we try to keep our theological
lenses focused on the purposes for which churches need to be. We're trying to keep means and ends clearly in mind. We're trying
to be a community of love for a world that increasingly says: Life goes on, but we don't know why. We're trying to help people
find a workable "why" for their lives.
Have a great summer!
--Pastor Bastien
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