No Longer in a Pew
I was raised by people who were ignorant of, unconcerned about or careless with their religion. As a result when exposed to religion by others I was leery of its rules, especially when represented by strict authority figures. Matters of faith befuddled me because I was inclined more towards fact in any event.
By chance, after years of poking my nose around several religions including those in my family, a close friend convinced me to invest time in the Episcopal Church for purely social reasons. I was curious about what genuine good I might discover there beyond the “social,” so I used that “invested time” hounding the youngish priest, Reverend Thomas Pike, with a boatload of questions.
To my great fortune, Rev. Pike was as magnanimous a person as I had ever encountered. After revealing my deeper spiritual hesitancy and the numerous encounters I’d had with Eastern religions and mysticism, even some shady business I thought might be real when it came to “magic” and witchcraft, he and I had a series of long conversations the basis of which had to do with the difference between “faith” and “grace.”
Please do note that neither he nor I introduced the term “Christian” to modify either of those two terms, generally.
Rev. Pike counseled me to focus upon the idea of grace more or even exclusively in my life and not be concerned so much with faith; that it didn’t matter so much what I, or anyone, believed as much as how we behaved. Is there a “god” in any shape that any one religion defines? What difference as long as we treat each other kindly each day?
But what, I asked him, does one do when someone doesn’t treat you kindly?
That, he said, is what you have to learn.
I was only a boy back then. For better or worse—one day to the next, I’m not certain which is the case—I am no longer that boy. I still have much to learn. One does not go from “graceless” to “full of grace” in one easy step.
Nor does one know for certain what “full of grace” might be...perhaps until one gets there. Plenty of other places where “full of this or that” along the way are quite noticeable.
But I’m not there yet. Nor am I past getting there. And Rev. Pike, now retired, is still waving a flag, waiting for me even though I am no longer sitting in a pew.
For my friend, Kevin Strawder
By chance, after years of poking my nose around several religions including those in my family, a close friend convinced me to invest time in the Episcopal Church for purely social reasons. I was curious about what genuine good I might discover there beyond the “social,” so I used that “invested time” hounding the youngish priest, Reverend Thomas Pike, with a boatload of questions.
To my great fortune, Rev. Pike was as magnanimous a person as I had ever encountered. After revealing my deeper spiritual hesitancy and the numerous encounters I’d had with Eastern religions and mysticism, even some shady business I thought might be real when it came to “magic” and witchcraft, he and I had a series of long conversations the basis of which had to do with the difference between “faith” and “grace.”
Please do note that neither he nor I introduced the term “Christian” to modify either of those two terms, generally.
Rev. Pike counseled me to focus upon the idea of grace more or even exclusively in my life and not be concerned so much with faith; that it didn’t matter so much what I, or anyone, believed as much as how we behaved. Is there a “god” in any shape that any one religion defines? What difference as long as we treat each other kindly each day?
But what, I asked him, does one do when someone doesn’t treat you kindly?
That, he said, is what you have to learn.
I was only a boy back then. For better or worse—one day to the next, I’m not certain which is the case—I am no longer that boy. I still have much to learn. One does not go from “graceless” to “full of grace” in one easy step.
Nor does one know for certain what “full of grace” might be...perhaps until one gets there. Plenty of other places where “full of this or that” along the way are quite noticeable.
But I’m not there yet. Nor am I past getting there. And Rev. Pike, now retired, is still waving a flag, waiting for me even though I am no longer sitting in a pew.
For my friend, Kevin Strawder
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