Following is Ron's Response to a questionnaire that was sent to him when the church was searching for a new minister:

What do I believe about God (or a Higher Power)?

I make a distinction between belief and faith.  Belief is something that takes place in our heads.  Faith is in our hearts (speaking metaphorically).  Belief is confidence in a concept.  Faith is trust.  The opposite of belief is doubt.  The opposite of faith is fear.  When it comes to God, I find it helpful to differentiate between believing in God and having faith in God.  It is in strengthening both that I find direction for ministry and personal growth.

My belief about God, at this point in my growth, is something like an omnipresent, omniscient and omnipotent field of Creative and Sustaining Cosmic Awareness, or Universal Intelligence.  I see this as consistent with some of the insights coming out of theoretical physics and biology as well as the traditions of ancient mystics.  I have trouble with the "Supreme Being" notion of God, as if there is an absolute something "out there" or "other than" the world in which we live.  Light, in my view and from my research, is perhaps the most accurate metaphor for God.

Which best represents your sense of God?

(The questionnaire listed several options.)  I like option two ("God is in and around and among us and all of nature, and yet God is also something and somewhere Other") and three ("God's place of existence is in everything that is of the physical world: nature, the earth, people") I would make one slight adjustment to these statements.    I prefer the notion that, instead of God being in everything (a version of pantheism), that everything is in God (panentheism).  I like the Divine Field metaphor, for it enables me to sense everything living and moving and having its being (and becoming) in God, and at the same time, understanding God as somehow transcendent, or '"Holy Other" than one's ego-self.

What is my understanding of the Bible?                                     

In my view, the Bible itself is NOT the Word of God, but a vehicle through which the Word of God can speak.  As I read it, the Bible's own self-understanding supports this.  The Biblical concept logos is translated, "Word", and refers to that which is God, was in the beginning with God and through which all is created (John 1:1-5).  The Word of God is much broader and finds many more vehicles of expression that the biblical canon three hundred or so well-to-do men voted into existence in the latter part of the fourth century.

In my opinion, and assuming that the underlying language of     [TOP] consciousness is symbol and sacrament rather than concept and theory, the deeper import of scriptures is missed when people take the Bible (and other sacred sources) too literally.

I believe the Bible and other religious sources become scripture when they address and inform our spiritual lives (our covenantal relationship with God and each other).  It becomes scripture when the idea is not to interpret the Bible, but to allow it to interpret us.

Who is Jesus to Me?

For me, there is Creator and there is a Creating Emanation from Creator, something like the relationship between the sun and sunshine.  Biblically, one concept for the latter is "Word," which is consistent with the Hebrew tradition that God spoke creation into being and that people, by virtue of their power of speech, are co-creators with God.  God's Work shines in and through all people, indeed all creation, equally. Enlightenment is available for everyone.

Jesus, completely human and by his own free choice, manifested the Word, totally, and invites the same from each of us.  For me, it is important to keep the distinction between Jesus and the Word, or between Jesus and his title, the Christ, lest our Christology become Christolatry.

I am first a Christian, partly by accident of birth, mostly by being a seeker in the way, truth, and life of Jesus.  I have found, to borrow a term from one writer, much ''consilience" (truth parallels among systems of thought) between Christianity and other world religions.

What is the desirable relationship between Christian faith and other faith traditions?

I call this "esoteric ecumenism." All religions have exoteric (outward rites and rituals) and esoteric (inward and spiritual) dimensions.  They all differ exoterically.  The closer we tune into their esoteric expressions, the more we discover how alike they are.  I have found that on the journey of the soul, faith traditions can have a natural and creative relationship.  Faith traditions are food for the soul.  I do not like to see certain food forced on people.  Rather. I enjoy being in a community where people are open to discovering new tastes.  No one has to give up their staples to sample appetizers.

Abraham Lincoln is reputed to have said something to the effect that, "If I ever found a church for which the sole criteria for membership was to love God and neighbor, that church would I join."  There is something about that which I like.

-  Ron Sebring

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