Divine Indirection

A friend of mine, Dwight A. Moody, recently wrote a review of an old book that was influential in his life. The book is a collection of sermons by J. Wallace Hamilton published in 1965 and entitled Serendipity. The author was the pastor of the Pasadena Community Church in St. Petersburg, Florida, in the mid-20^th century. I had never heard of the book or the man, yet I am always interested in books that have influenced my friends’ lives.

According to Moody the best thing about this book is its central concept of serendipity. The review says: “Hamilton traces this word and idea to an ancient Persian fable, about the travels of “The Three Princes of Serendip” (the latter being the island now known as Ceylon). The travelers were constantly finding things of value while searching for other things entirely. Hamilton calls it the “principle of indirection” and, throughout the book, illustrates it with story after story from the history of science, exploration, and literature.”

This definition of serendipity as “finding things of value while searching for other things” resonates with me. It describes what happened to me a little more than a decade ago. I had a crisis of faith. Conflict in my Pennsylvania church caused me to question everything I had ever believed about Christianity. The misconduct of Christians made me question the religion that spawned such people. I resigned my position as pastor.

Rather than immediately seek a new position, I took a year off from ministry in 2010 and began a systematic reexamination of my faith. That search was to continue for more than two years, even after I returned to ministry as a pastor in New Hampshire. 

During those years I did a lot of study, prayer and research. I questioned all my assumptions and presuppositions. It led to a radical deconstruction of my Christianity. At the time I thought I might be finished with religion and Christianity altogether.

Yet God has a sense of humor. Serendipity happened. The principle of indirection was at work.  In looking outside of theism I found God beyond theism. The God beyond Church. The God beyond doctrine and dogma. The God beyond God. I saw the Kingdom of God that Jesus had proclaimed, but which the Church had forgotten. That was in the summer of 2012. It was a turning point in my life.

Jesus told the story of a sharecropper who found a treasure while plowing a field. The farmer was simply hoping to eke a living out of the ground but found a life-changing treasure. Jesus called this serendipitous treasure the Kingdom of God. The same thing happened with me.

At first I had no words to describe this discovery because it was beyond words or thoughts. What I recognized as Reality did not fit the categories of traditional Christian theology. Yet this Reality was clearly the message preached by Christ.

As I read the gospels anew, every word of Jesus shone with the Kingdom of God. I reread Christian mystics whose experience seemed to be similar to mine. I started to proclaim this message of Christ from the pulpit. I published these sermons under the title Living Presence: A Guide to Everyday Awareness of God. I wrote a book entitled Experiencing God Directly: The Way of Christian Nonduality in 2013. I continued in fulltime ministry until I retired in 2016.

Then in 2020 the COVID pandemic happened. Like everyone else I was masked and homebound, so I tried recording online talks on YouTube. I initially called them Devotions for a Pandemic. As the pandemic continued I followed it up with a video series called Christian Nonduality and a podcast called The Tao of Christ. I have not stopped.

The response I have received from listeners around the world shows me that I am not the only one who has seen the Kingdom of God. Nearly every day I hear from people who have had the same shift in perspective. I am now invited to be interviewed on other podcasts and YouTube channels. Many of my listeners are Christians who no longer feel comfortable in Christian churches. This situation has been made worse by the radicalization of evangelical Christianity in recent years.

People are disillusioned with the church, but they are still interested in spiritual matters. They are just looking for inspiration elsewhere. Churches across the theological spectrum – liberal, moderate and conservative - are emptying at an alarming rate. Yet at the same time a spiritual revival is going on outside churches.

People share their stories of spiritual awakening with me regularly. A recent email said, “Something amazing and miraculous has happened to myself and a close circle of friends in Asheville NC!” A few days ago I did an interview on this man’s podcast, which will be broadcast soon. I have an online meeting with a group scheduled for this Sunday. 

This is a time of hope. Out of the compost of a decaying church a new Christian spirituality is sprouting. That is resurrection.  That is the Living Christ. This is the Kingdom of God.