Posts Tagged ‘religion’

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Merely Religion

May 12, 2014

Just going through the motions.

That’s what many people think of when they internally define the word “religion.” They think that “religious people” merely “recite” prayers.

My wife was raised in a fundamentalist, independent Baptist church. She was taught many misconceptions about other people and their religions. The teachings about Catholicism were so off the mark, for example, that her mother was amazed to discover that the Catholic Bible was pretty much the same as hers. She was probably 60 at that time.

I’m part of a generation that tended to reject “organized” religion. When I was younger, I thought that true worship had to be in “house churches.” There was a movement in the 70s. I only reluctantly joined (actually rejoined) a denominational church back then. Now, of course, I’m sucked into the structure.

Our pastor hit on something yesterday. “Respect for God without intimacy with God is religion.”

You can respect God, yet not live with Him. You can respect God, yet fail to try to live a pleasing life. You can respect God by coming to a worship service, yet feel nothing. You can even sing the hymns, yet be unmoved.

Jesus pretty much didn’t discuss formal religion often, and when he did it was to point out the hypocrisy of the leading practitioners. He taught right relationship and right living.

The reason to develop Spiritual discipline–reading, study, meditation, prayer, simplicity, worship, praise, fasting, and the rest–is that these practices have been proven over many centuries to aid people in developing that right relationship with God through Jesus in the Spirit. As your focus is sharpened every morning through practice, the life you live that day will be more pleasing to God.

Worship does not have to be going through the motions, yet for many it unfortunately is.

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Why Do We Feel The Need To Know the Future

April 24, 2014

Why is it that humans keep reaching for a sense of certainty in a life that has always been quite uncertain? We want to know the future. But even today’s most sophisticated computer models can’t tell us with certainty what the weather will be next week.

Even so, there are people who study the Bible looking for hints of the future. It gets so bad that there was a guy I heard about in the 70s who had figured out the size of the “New Jerusalem” and the cubic feet of gold as described in John’s Revelation and the weight of that amount of gold and multiplied by the price of gold to figure out the US Dollar value of that gold. I was so put off by how much that person (and the people who spouted that off as if it meant something) missed the spiritual point, that I still remember the episode.

I didn’t want to write about Revelation. But the small study group I attend is still in the book. It’s still on my mind.

There are many interpretations of the meaning of the writing. Several interpretations hold that it is an actual description of historical events to come. Even though God is explicit in his condemnation of fortune telling–predicting the future. (My interpretation, picked up from some of the early Church Fathers–who, by the way didn’t agree not only on the interpretation of the book but on whether to even include it in the official canon for teaching–is that it “describes” events that have already happened. Its focus is on the horrors of Rome, the destruction of the Temple, and how God’s people will triumph because God has already won the war.)

Don’t bother trying to argue the points with me. I don’t care. Someone in the group asked why our church doesn’t teach from the book. Well, I don’t teach from it. I can understand others.

The purpose of study is to learn how to live a life that’s pleasing to God–the with-God life. If a writing is so open to conjecture and argument, how can we learn from it? Paul condemned idle argumentation. I go with him.

Jesus said, “Follow me.” He said the Kingdom of God was there. I’m with him.

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Those Who Love To Tell Others What To Do

November 12, 2013

There are two types of people–there are always two types of people, I guess. The two I thought I’d talk about today are those who love to tell other people what to do and those who do not like to be told what to do.

I’m proudly in the second camp.

I don’t know how that came about. Maybe I was born that way. Or maybe because neither of my parents were self-confident enough to order us around. I’m not positive about my brothers, but I think they are not the ordering around type either.

When I teach, I prefer to guide. When my kids were growing up, I preferred to guide and suggest rather than order them around (after that early stage of discipline where you have to set the limits and provide strict guidance).

That is some of the problems that Jesus initiated with his message. Since the time of Moses, the Jewish religion was primarily a religion of laws–people ordering other people to do certain things in order to be right with God. There were exceptions, of course, but this passing on of strict laws was the norm.

Jesus came along and said the important thing is not simply obeying a set of laws made up by other people who loved telling others what to do. Jesus said what matters is what is in your heart–that is, what matters is your own attitude and motivation.

Paul tried to explain this, but his explanations often became a little complicated. Then other people came later who tried the first method of developing laws out of Paul’s words and then ordering people around. The whole process started again–this time under the guise of being Christ-followers.

Let’s just go back to where Jesus was. If your attitude and motivation are to live with God, then you will naturally live a good life (allowing for the sins that come through the fallibility of being human). Jesus came to redeem us from a life of being bossed around, and from a life of guilt and shame from our shortcomings (sins), and to release us with love to live with-God and for others.

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God is the Same Forever

November 11, 2013

I have been reading Genesis and Exodus with a small group this year. It’s easy to see how misconceptions arose from partial readings of the text over the years. But when you read the entire text and digest it, there are many interesting things to absorb.

Abraham and his progeny were not the only followers of the One God throughout that time. Abraham met others occasionally—note Melchizedek for one. So did Moses. It was just that one tribe was singled out to be the torchbearers for God. Let’s just say there were mixed results.

God was far more merciful than some teachings would suggest. God was also then, as now, intolerant of sin and worshiping of objects as gods.

God’s message to the people through his prophets changed somewhat as the social and cultural circumstances changed. When Moses was trying to forge a people out of the group of former slaves, God was concerned about keeping them pure—uncorrupted by those surrounding peoples who worshiped a number of other Gods. Therefore, he ordered them not to conquer a city and intermingle with the people. He rightly perceived that especially the women would bring their gods into the households of the Hebrews and corrupt the worship of God.

By the time of the prophets after David and throughout the time of the Babylonians and Persians, the world was becoming multi-cultural and the Hebrews had to learn to live in a more hostile world where they were not a dominant force in the land. By the time of Jesus and the early church, it was accepted that the world was multicultural and that Christians needed instruction on how to live in such a world while maintaining their moral practices.

I guess I’m thinking about this because I was brought up on a theology that the “Gods” of Old Testament and New Testament are different. That, of course, is an untenable position. God is God—never changing since before the universe was created and after the universe has passed away.

God does speak to people in the context of their environment. Our societies have become ever more complex. Population keeps growing. We travel and mingle with people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds more today than ever before. God’s message to his prophets necessarily changes to give answers to different questions.

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Discipleship Means Changing Your Life

October 31, 2013

Jesus tells a story, actually an analogy, about wineskins and new wine. He said that you put new wine in new wineskins and old wine in old wineskins. If you put new wine that is still fermenting and therefore expanding into old wineskins that are stiff and fragile, then the skin will break and all will be lost.

He was talking about his message as the new wine. If he talked to people who were set in their ways and unwilling to change, then the message would not have any effect and all would be lost.

If the message entered people who were fresh and new and receptive to it, then they would grow with the message and the message (fresh wine) would be useful.

Parables, or stories, are almost always about people and their relationship to the message Jesus was teaching. This teaching is an important life lesson–even for us older people.

It is actually possible for us to age, yet remain fresh and receptive in our outlooks. We can try to remain open to new facts, experiences, knowledge. Even as we grow, we can continue to be mentally and spiritually fresh. Or, we can become rigid in our beliefs, unable to accept new ideas. Then the message will lose its impact and we are in danger of becoming Jesus’ enemies–the Pharisees. These are the people who put laws ahead of love; put knowledge ahead of spirit; put ritual actions above living out God’s will.

One of the reasons to practice Spiritual Disciplines is to find ways to remain fresh and receptive to God’s message. Daily prayer, meditation, study and service help us to live God’s message as a part of our daily lives. Not because there is some law that orders us to do certain things. But because we are living with Jesus every moment.

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Leadership and Vision

October 11, 2013

I’m reading in the book of Exodus for a while. Interesting stories. Familiar to many of us. Overall, it is the story about a leader. A leader who was reluctant to lead, but whom God convinced was the one man who had the talent and upbringing to be that leader. He grew into the role and became a great leader, the builder of a nation, and the builder of a religion.

He was Moses, of course. A great prophet in the sense that he spoke with God. He accepted God’s leadership and vision. He was to form the diverse tribes of Hebrews into one nation who worshiped the one true God.

From the text, I have to believe that the 400 years spent in Egypt, much of it as slaves, separated the majority of the people from true worship of God. Moses had to convince them in the desert that God was real. I think the detail about priests, garments, alter and so forth–remarkable that it was written and preserved–was basically a leadership method to instill the habit of worshiping God into future generations.

Moses had the vision from God, totally incorporated into his life, of leading the people into the land promised to Abraham centuries before. He overcame opposition to God from people who wanted a god they could see (the golden calf). He formed them into a structured society. He led them to the edge of the Promised Land.

But, he still could not instill in them the courage to take the land and believe that God could be trusted.

That was left to the next generation of leaders–primarily Joshua.

But think about Moses.

  • He had early training in leadership as a member of Pharaoh’s household
  • He served an apprenticeship under a God-fearing man
  • When God talked, he listened and obeyed
  • He remained focused on God and God’s vision for the people
  • He built new habits within the people who had left security–albeit one as slaves
  • He built a structured way for the people to remember God and to worship Him
  • He persisted for the remainder of his life

He remains a great example for us no matter what we’re leading. Grounded in the right motives, firm vision of the future, building the right habits among his followers, persisting until the end.

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Make Rules or Make Disciples

September 23, 2013
Division like fractals

Mandelbrot fractal image. From Wikipedia.org

We took a vacation last week. My wife’s family gathering. We worshiped in a church of a different denomination than the one we attend. It’s a southern-based, conservative off-shoot of another denomination.

Reminded me of the years I taught a course on American Baptist history. How there was Roger Williams, then Northern Baptists (now American Baptists) and Southern Baptists. And then they split like fractals.

Sometimes these divisions are based on worship style. Some like the solemnity and mystery of high Mass. Others prefer jeans and T-shirts, guitars and drums, hands waving in the air celebration. As for me, I like almost any of the styles.

Most of the divisions are created by rules. We created organizations called churches or denominations. They had to have rules. Then someone said, “I don’t like your rules. I want to make up my own rules.” And off they went. We still do that today.

It is as if Jesus said, “All power in heaven and earth has been granted to me. Go, therefore, and make organizations with individual rule sets around the world so that you can worship God with those with whom you agree.”

But, wait, Jesus didn’t say that. He never spoke about organizations other than to point out the problems with the one religious organization he knew–the Temple worship cult. And he didn’t like it.

What he said was, “Go…and make disciples. Teaching them what I have taught you.” Making disciples–that’s a one-to-one thing. Not a political thing. You model Jesus so that others can model Jesus by modeling you. It’ not rocket science. But, it requires intentional living.

And the organization thing–that’s a human condition. How many divisions of Judaism are there? Islam? Buddhism? Hinduism?

It’s time to focus on the Lord who showed the way. Not on divisions. Divisions detract us from placing our entire attention on God.

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True Worship

August 30, 2013

My wife and I were discussing church doctrines last night over dinner. Well, not in depth. But someone asked her about the doctrine of a certain denomination of Christian church. She was at a bit of a loss to explain it.

I thought a little, and the many variations of denominations flashed through my mind. Mention Baptist–but there are more than 57 varieties of Baptist. There are at least three variations of Lutheran of which I’m aware–and two Presbyterian. The Disciples of Christ broke away from the American Baptists a long time ago because someone thought the Bible taught to have communion every week.

It struck me how each of these took a bunch of verses from the Bible, seemingly at random, and strung them together into a doctrine. To me, many of those are misreadings often caused by lifting verses out of context or not understanding the reference.

Then I thought (sometimes maybe I do too much of that) about how these denominations and the people in them fight all the time. People get mad and leave, only to go to another denomination and begin the process again.

Then I returned to my study of Isaiah 58.

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,

and oppress all your workers.

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight

and to strike with a wicked fist.

How often that’s what we do today! And not just Christians. Check out the other two religions that grew from Abraham’s worship of the one true God–Judaism and Islam. We all gather to serve our own interests. We seem to gather to quarrel and fight.

That’s not what God said in the Old Testament 2,800 years ago. That’s not what Jesus taught 2,000 years  ago. Again from Isaiah 58,

Is such the fast I choose,

a day to humble oneself?

And,

Is not this the fast that I choose:

to loose the bonds of injustice,

to undo the thongs of the yoke,

to let the oppressed go free,

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into your house;

Humble means to think of others before yourself. And think of God first. Leaders, take the lesson. All of us, let’s remember the source of life. “You shall love the Lord your God…, and your neighbor as yourself.”

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Having the Right Heart and Attitude

August 29, 2013

Isaiah is almost sarcastic at the beginning of Chapter 58:

Yet day after day they seek me

and delight to know my ways,

as if they were a nation that practiced righteousness

and did not forsake the ordinance of their God;

they ask of me righteous judgments,

they delight to draw near to God.”

I added the italics on “as if.” That phrase reveals the points to come. The people say they seek God, but there is something wrong. Wonder what it is?

“Why do we fast, but you do not see?

Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?”

So the people are also asking of God what’s wrong. In our terms they are saying, “We go to church. We donated to the church. Why does it seem that you are against us?”

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day,

and oppress all your workers.

Ah, now we have reached the point that God charges against them. Two points really. First, when they “fast” or worship, their attention is not on God. It is on themselves. They fast only to serve their own interests. Then look at the last phrase. We’ll study more on that later. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a spiritual teaching that does not also include a moral teaching–a teaching on the way we treat other people. Those seem to go hand-in-hand.

“What is the greatest commandment?” asked the teacher to the Teacher. Jesus replied with the Shema about worshiping the Lord. Then he said that the second commandment was as important as the first–to love your neighbor as yourself.

These people were thinking of ways to take advantage of people in their community even while worshiping God. This is abhorrent to God, the God who wanted to build a community focused on Him.

When I teach the Spiritual Disciplines, I always begin with the proper attitude. Simply practicing the Disciplines will do you little good. It begins with the right attitude.

Same with leadership. Beware this judgement of Isaiah in your practice of leadership. Take care of your attitude.

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Why don’t you hear us, O God?

August 28, 2013

Why don’t you hear us, O God?

A teacher was speaking. I made a hurried note, because I was driving across rural northern Indiana at the time. “Read Isaiah 58” was all I noted.

So I returned home late last week, opened to Isaiah 58 in the Kindle app on my iPad and began reading. What a great passage. A preacher could easily develop a sermon series from this passage.

I’m going to contemplate this for a while. So, pull out that old Bible and read it to prepare for a few meditations.

Isaiah, speaking God’s words to his people, answers the question I began with. But, to start at the beginning…

“Shout out, do not hold back!

Lift up your voice like a trumpet!

Announce to my people their rebellion,

to the house of Jacob their sins.”

This is God talking to Isaiah. He’s encouraging his prophet to speak. In fact, not just to speak, but to do so dramatically. What is it he is to speak? It’s about how the people have stopped doing the Lord’s will–what the Lord wants.

Before we condemn those people of 2,800 years ago when Isaiah preached, we can think of ourselves.

“Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers” (if you followed “Car Talk” on National Public Radio) talk of the famous “dope slap.” That’s when you’re acting like a dope or said something stupid and somebody (maybe even yourself) slaps you on the side of the face. You dope.

That’s a little crude, but it’s what Isaiah is doing to the people of his nation. He’s saying something like, “Wake up people. You think you are so good, but you’re not. Oh, and here’s why.”

Probably all of us need one of those “dope slaps” every once in a while. Usually just when we think we’re so smart, or so good, or so wise, or so beautiful.

Has someone tried to give you a verbal dope slap recently? Did it wake you up? Or did it miss the mark?

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