(I wrote this for the newsletter of the Sausalito Presbyterian Church in 2004 when I was its pastor....)
Last night, Roberta and I took a stroll down Bridgeway near the church and heard live music coming from the No Name Bar, so we leaned on the open windowsill of the bar and listened for a while. Al, the bar's owner, came out to puff on a huge cigar, and we made his acquaintance. After a lot of friendly and funny banter, it came out that I was the minister of the church up the stairs. This surprised him, and he began waving his arms and talking excitedly about religion.
"Sorry," he said, "but I don't believe in God!"
"So what?" I asked. "That isn't what matters. I don't think Christianity is about belief in anything. I think it's about practicing and experiencing spirituality."
"Then what is spirituality?" he asked.
"I'm not exactly sure myself -- it's a fuzzy word," I answered, "but I aim to find out!"
This was enough to inspire Al to give me a cigar and offer us free drinks on the back patio, where we sat with a group of folks and carried on a lively conversation about religion and just about everything else, late into the night.
Al and I have a lot in common in our understanding of God. The God he doesn't believe in is the same God I don't believe in, either. He thinks that makes him an atheist, while I think that makes me a Christian! I sense that neither of us believes in a supernatural God who lives outside the universe and meddles in its affairs capriciously, showing favor to some and not to others. Neither of us believes in a God who expects us to believe unbelievable things or expects us to think one particular religion is right to the exclusion of all others. Neither of us believes in a divine being who set up humans to "fall" and thus need a bloody sacrifice to get right with God.
For me, God is beyond belief. Instead of believing in God, I experience God. When I feel unconditional love from or for others, I experience God. When I am full of compassion for others and for the universe itself, when I feel compassion that comes from a Source beyond any one person or thing -- then I experience God. When I am filled with awe and wonder as I encounter the natural world around me, I experience God. When I experience the kind of joyful hospitality that Al offered us last night, I experience God.
This experience is beyond any name I can give it. This is why the great religions of the world have always handled the name of God with great delicacy. The Jews wouldn't utter the name of God (Yahweh) because it was too holy, so they used the word "Lord" (Adonai) instead. The Buddhists don't give God a name at all, since they feel that their Ultimate Reality is beyond such descriptions. They are sometimes accused of being "atheists", but that misses their point. The Muslims use 99 names for God (The Merciful, The Compassionate, etc, etc). They have a wonderful tradition that says that Allah really has 100 names, but only 99 of them are known to humanity. The hundredth name is known only to camels, and they aren't telling! - hence the knowing smirk on the camel's face. The Hindus believe there are 333,000,000 names for God. Each of the many gods in their pantheon is really just a manifestation of the one ultimate God. And one of those names, OM, isn't really a name or a "god" at all, but a sound that itself makes you one with God. If you chant OM, you aren't just calling God's name - you are actually chanting the essence and reality of God! All these religions have poetic, mythical ways of saying that the experience of God cannot be contained or limited by the words we give to (him/her/it?). All religions, in some way, worship a God beyond naming.
At the No Name Bar, Al and I had a brief chat about the No Name God. The No Name God can be experienced in a saloon as well as in a sanctuary, on a sidewalk as well as in a pew, and by an "atheist" as well as a "believer". If Al can graciously offer a place for me at his table, and give me a cigar, to boot -- the least I can do is to offer him, and others who disbelieve or question traditional religion, a place at our communion table....