People get religion in different ways. William James, the famous psychologist from Harvard, made an extensive study of the wide range of experiences people have of the reality and power of the spiritual world in their lives. The results of his scientific survey William James presented in his famous Gifford Lectures at Edinburgh and subsequently published these in a book called: Varieties of Religious Experience.

The Bible reveals the same facts that the great psychologist’s scientific investigations proved — that the varieties of religious experience among people are infinite. Isaiah had his exalting and transforming experience of God in the Temple where he had gone for worship and where all respectable and orthodox religious people might expect to find the deity. But St. Paul had the most shattering religious experience of his life not in church, temple, or synagogue, but traveling on a dusty road. For Hosea, his experience of the personal love of God fell upon him in the midst of heartbreak and home-break when his unfaithful wife ran off with her suitors leaving him in that darkened house with his crying, bewildered children. Soul salvation came to the man born blind in the same moment that Jesus restored his sight, and the centurion found his Savior when he came to ask Jesus to heal his servant.

Infinite are the varieties of religious experience in that master book of religious experiences of all time — the Bible. In fact, Jesus says to Nicodemus: “The wind blows where it wills. You hear the sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it is going; so with everyone who is born from the spirit.”

“In this miniature parable of regeneration, Jesus reminds us of the sovereignty of the Spirit. This power from God which makes for human regeneration can overpass mountains and out leap all restraints imposed upon its actions by our dim vision and blundering unbelief. ‘It blows where it wills.’ We cannot choose its methods or prescribe its times.” (Expositor’s Dictionary of Texts)

Now this fact of scriptural revelation, of scientific investigation, of practical experience — the infinite variety of religious experiences — should be very instructive to us all.

In the first place it should teach us that we can’t dogmatize with God. We ought not to say to the Almighty: “Reveal yourself to me in such and such a way, or I will not believe in you, or join your church, or serve you. Meet my terms, or I will not be your servant.”

One of the most admirable Christian characters I have ever known was a woman who kept putting off making a profession of her Christian faith and joining the church until she had experienced some dramatic emotional upheaval. Her husband was an elder. Her children were leaders in the church youth group. Every member of the family was a professing Christian except the mother — yet none was more faithful in attendance at worship or more diligent in the practice of Christ-like virtues than she. Yet she stayed out of the church.  One of her children, a clean, capable young man, was seriously thinking of studying for the ministry and she knew it and encouraged it, yet she did not join the church. Suddenly that fine son became ill and died. Shortly after this tragedy the mother professed her Christian faith and took her place officially alongside her family in church, but so far as I know she never experienced the violent conversion ecstasy she had expected.

A young man, in discussing church membership, asked: “Is it necessary to see a light in order to be converted? People tell me that their conversion came with the vision of a great light. I guess I’m not much of a Christian, for I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing the light.”

John Calvin attested that his conversion to Protestantism was sudden: “Like a flash of light,” he writes, “I realized in what an abyss of errors, in what chaos I was.”

But John Mackay, the great contemporary Protestant leader, describes his call of God to the ministry in terms of a calm, strong, inner conviction. “My quickening came on this wise,” says Dr. Mackay. “It was Saturday, towards noon, in the month of July of 1903. The preparation service of an old time Scottish communion season was being held in the open air among the hills in the highland parish of Rogart, in Sutherlandshire. The minister was preaching from a wooden pulpit to some hundreds of people seated on benches and on the ground in the shade of some large trees in the glen. I cannot recall anything the minister said. But something, someone, said within me with overwhelming power that I, too, must preach, that I must stand where that man stood. The thought amazed me, for I had other plans.”

Yes, the fact of the infinite variety of religious experiences of various people should teach us this — we have no right to dogmatize with God — to say to Him: “I expect to be moved or called or worked upon in this particular fashion or I will not put my faith in your reality and give my heart to your service.” As Jesus said to Nicodemus: “The wind blows where it likes — so is everyone that is born of the spirit.”

But there is another lesson this fact of the infinite variety of religious experiences should teach us — that we cannot sit in judgment on the other fellow’s religious experience and from our own limited knowledge of God determine the validity or invalidity of his.

A devout church member of many years standing affirms that she has been disturbed to hear some Christians talking of “Born again Christians,” as if she and others in the church, who have not come through the same sort of momentous emotional experience as they, are not really in the Kingdom.

Edward Everett Hale testified of his experience: “I was born into a family where religion was simple and natural. I always knew God loved me, and I was always grateful to Him for the world He placed me in. I always liked to tell Him so and was always glad to receive His suggestions to me.”

How many faithful disciples the living God has like that — who could never point to some one moment as could Pennington and say: “Then I met with my God,” for God has always been near them and they have, day by day, manifested in acts and deeds that energies not their own and incursions of power from beyond themselves have been coming through them into the world.

The scriptural and practical fact of the infinite variety of people’s experience of their God teaches us not to sit in judgment on the religious experience of others, for William James says: “There are enormous diversities which the spiritual lives of different people exhibit. Their wants, their susceptibilities, and their capacities all vary and must be classed under different heads.” (Varieties of Religious Experience — p. 107)

Furthermore, this demonstrable fact of variety in religious experience should inspire us to be ready and willing to receive new and varied experiences of God as life goes on. Give God a chance to reveal Himself to you, to let the power and the beauty of the spiritual world break in upon you at more than one door in the household of your personality.

Say you’ve come to know Him in an unforgettable emotional experience. Perhaps it was at a revival service when, at fever heat, the mass emotions of the people and the word of God from the preacher smote upon you and stirred you to your depths, and God’s spirit came into your life with transforming, cleansing power through the door of your emotions. Well and good. But do not stop there. Be not satisfied with one blessing of God when He has for you an ocean full of His mercies. Your God is a God of infinite variety. He waits to make Himself known to you in all the other facets of your personality.

You have opened your heart to Him, now open the door of your mind to Him and thrill to the joys of the divinely inspired intellect. Give Him some time in your study and your reading. Take Him into that larger room of all your social contacts and watch in amazement the infinite variety of religious experiences He has in store for you and others as these doors swing open to His transforming grace. Unlock the door of your business and vocational labors: not only production and profits, but personnel, too, for He wants companionship with you not merely in the creation of wealth and the use of it, but He also wants to know and warm your heart and let you see deeper depths of His great heart as you deal justly, honestly, fairly, and not over-bearingly with your employees and associates. Then too, there is that quiet aesthetic, meditative side of you where your God waits to give you rare, rich experiences of Himself through art, music, and worship.

Yes, the infinite variety of religious experiences others have known, and been enriched thereby, should point us to the possibility of the wide ranges of acquaintance with our God we have never explored. And the only apparatus we need for this thrilling adventure is a believing expectancy, an awareness to the world unseen, and an unswerving obedience to His holy will.

And finally, does not his fact of variety in the religious experiences of people point up to us our responsibility as a possible transmitter, as well as a receiver, of the immortal tidings? A pupil of Rufus Jones, the homespun Quaker philosopher, said of his beloved teacher: “He lighted my candle.” And Rufus Jones writing in appreciation of that peer of American preachers, Phillips Brooks, the Episcopalian, said: “I heard Phillips Brooks preach twice in my youth and I knew instantly that the man I had been waiting for had come. You listen to a hundred persons, unmoved and unchanged; you hear a few quiet words from the man with the kindling torch and you suddenly discover what life means to you forevermore; and become forthwith another man — carrying perhaps your own torch. I knew almost nothing about Phillips Brooks before I heard him. After I had heard him I felt the kindling power of his mind on my mind and a new faith was born in me in answer to the great faith that possessed him.” So the luminous trail can be traced from one life to another as, mysteriously, the spirit of God uses one life to light and illuminate another. Yes, as the sage of Proverbs said: “The spirit of man is the candle of the Lord — and God needs your spirit for His candle.” (Harry Emerson Fosdick — influence of Rufus Jones on him — Fosdick on me, countless others)

A boy was in trouble and I had gone to see what could be done. The old man who kept the desk in the apartment house lobby, when I told him of my mission and the interest of the church in the lad that lived there, asked: “Is there anything I can do to help? I’m an old man with most of my life behind me, but if I can do anything to help a clean, ambitious young man with his future, I want to help.” And my heart was strangely warmed, and God was suddenly near, and the powers and the glories of the unseen world crowded in upon me and filled my soul with seraphic music, even as the switching, painted women with their rolling eyes were walking in and out of the cheap rooming house.

What our contemporary world needs is some evidence of God and the reality of the spiritual world in our lives — that we be transmitters as well as receivers of that power which makes for religious experiences.

“Christianity cannot win the world by references to the glories of a past epoch. It stands or falls, not by what it was in primitive vision, but by what it is in actual fact. We who profess it and hope to propagate it are its supreme evidences. It is not the miracles of 2000 years ago that prove it now to this scientifically minded age; it is the present miracle of spiritual grace and power triumphant in human life that has all the effect of a laboratory experiment.” (Rufus Jones Speaks to our Time — p. 191)

Fellow workmen in a British factory chided their mate who had “got religion” in a meeting and joined the church. “Do you believe, John,” one of them asked, “that the water was really turned into wine at the wedding feast?” John shook his head in uncertainty but answered with ascending assurance: “I cannot tell if and how the Lord performed miracles in Cana of Galilee, but I have seen God turn beer into baby’s shoes in my own Yorkshire home, and that is miracle enough for me.”

 

INVOCATION

Be present, O God, with us in this service in all that we do and say; that Thy word may not be fruitless, nor Thy worship barren; but that we, laboring together with Thee, may, by the gracious aid of Thy Spirit, lay hold upon Thy righteousness, and take courage in Thy power; through Jesus Christ our Lord who taught us to pray, saying …

 

PRAYER OF DEDICATION

Enlarge our vision, Lord. Lift our sights beyond our little worlds, and give us eyes to see the hurts of others and to hear their cries for help. Set the world on our hearts, O God, and speed these gifts as messengers of our concern. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen

 

PASTORAL PRAYER

Dear God and Father of us all, behold us here again in this hallowed and beloved place in the company of relatives and friends. Stirring memories of last week and long ago crowd in upon us: ennobling memories of Thy wonderful, undeserved blessings; and heart enfeebling memories of our shameful betrayals and crafty, selfish scheming. Confront us here, also, O Lord, with Thy forgiving presence, and Thy clear, clean word of truth for us to believe about you and ourselves and our world, and Thy commanding call to us to service in Thy eternal Kingdom.

We come today, O Lord, especially to present our gifts for the relief and comfort of those who have suffered the ravages of war in Lebanon. We pray that through this offering we may have a part in Thy divine work of feeding the hungry, healing the wounded, clothing the naked, rebuilding the homes of the displaced, and filling the hearts of the sad and disconsolate with new hope and faith and love.

We pray, O Lord, also for peace in our world — Thy peace: that pride and lust for power, and rancor and thirst for revenge in the hearts of people may give way to Thy Spirit’s fruits of forgiveness, love, mercy and justice; that Christ may truly reign in our hearts and in all the hearts of Thy estranged children; for we pray the prayer He taught His disciples, saying …

 

CALL TO WORSHIP

Come, let us return unto the Lord. The Spirit and the Bride say, come. He that is athirst, let him come. He that will, let him come, and take the water of life freely. Let us worship God.