Five Fingers and the Moon

In preparation to teach our Spiritual Formation class tomorrow, in the absence of our regular teacher, I found an interesting statement about Buddhism. According to Buddhist belief, the five major religions of the world (Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism) are metaphorically five fingers which point to the moon. They can show us the way to get to the moon, but they are not the moon itself.

My friend Meera wrote me this week that she and her son Ethan are going to attend a Hindu workshop soon. The purpose of the workshop is to review the primary principles of the faith and to especially answer questions like, "Why do we have so many gods?"; "Why do we not eat beef?"; and "Why do we have so many rituals?" The idea is that the younger generation might not know the tenets of their religion well enough to be able to pass it on to their children. Like Meera, I worry a bit about the tenets of my faith, Christianity, being passed on to my grandchildren.

Our daughter has told my husband and me that she will basically let her child decide for himself what he believes as he ages. Our son and his wife send both of their children to an Episcopal school and pre-school. The younger generation of parents often state that they personally do not need to go to church any longer in order to be spiritual. For people of my generation, however, we still believe in the importance of community and fellowship, one of the four purposes of the church, as a "finger to the moon," that points us to a closer relationship to God.

Perhaps it is true that we are living, as theologian Marcus Borg and others believe, in a "post-faith" world. As long as our lives are going well, we tend to believe that God has become irrelevant. I hope not, however, and long still to know more not only about my faith, Christianity, but also about the other major religions of the world.