Worship other Gods?

I would like to write a spiritual biography; there are bits and pieces in this blog but it would be nice to be more chronological or at least organized. I often think about my faith journey especially in realizing that I am a Christian who no longer accepts the most common, traditional view of Jesus.

In simplistic terms, I grew up thinking that different religions just worshiped different gods; "You shall have no other Gods before me." I was not sophisticated enough to think about worldview and how one approaches life or even the activities of each day/week. As I have mentioned elsewhere, many Christian authors have nourished me without emphasizing or highlighting the differences with main stream Christianity.

One phrase I heard listening to an interview on a podcast (Thomas Sheehan) a few years ago was, "God doesn't need our worship. He is doing very well, thank you." That statement frees me from thinking the main purpose of gathering is to worship God. Sometimes a phrase just stays in the back of my mind and slowly changed my worldview. Or it just finally sinks in!

Not that anyone asks, but my ready answer is that I am still a Christian but I find value in Buddhist thought. My reflection on worship came because I realized that Buddhists are doing something different when they gather. This came to me during a recent mindfulness retreat. They did not expect just Buddhist to attend, so they did not assume we had any knew Buddhist practice. Before the meal we ate in noble silence, they handed out this "prayer" from the mindfulness practice of Thich Nhat Hanh.

The Five Contemplations 

• This food is a gift of the earth, the sky, numerous living beings and much hard and loving work. 
• May we eat with mindfulness and gratitude so as to deeply value it. 
• May we recognize and transform our unwholesome mental formations, especially our greed, and learn to eat with moderation. 
• May we keep our compassion alive by eating in such a way that we reduce the suffering of living beings, preserve our planet and reverse the process of global warming. 
• We accept this food so that we may nurture our sisterhood and brotherhood, strengthen our sangha and nourish our ideal of serving all beings.

I think gratefulness is an important practice for life and many (most?) Christians would agree. But Buddhists don't find it necessary to direct it to a supernatural being (who might be angry if you don't). That makes more and more sense to be since I no longer think that we have to be saved to avoid burning in hell for eternity. As I have said elsewhere, I see myself continuing to be in the Christian faith. I probably do not go so far as to eliminate God completely but I am not going to obsess about the nature of God. I found the following interesting as I read this blog post by jason: leaves in the hand, the place of god in buddhism

Moreover, I think one can certainly present Judeo-Christian ideas, or those from any other predominately monotheistic tradition, in a more or less Buddhistic way, and vice versa. As I've often mentioned before, my dear friend Simon shared with me some of his ideas regarding the "excellence of the synthesis of the messages and practices" of Buddhism and Christianity, for example; and people like David Cooper (God is a Verb) and Thomas Merton (Mystics and Zen Masters) seem to continually find harmony between these spiritual disciplines.