“Spiritual
but not religious” is an increasingly popular description for many
who’ve turned their back on the traditional, institutional
practices of faith but who still acknowledge that they are more than
simply bodies and brains.
Even
the “Coventry welcome” that graces the cover of your order of
service proclaims a measure of distaste for “organised
religion”...(I guess it would be cheating to claim that I’m much
too DISorganised to be in danger of any such thing myself) – though
it would be hard to think of anythign more symbolic of religious
institutions than an Anglican Cathedral congrgation busy about its
Sunday worship.
One
way and another, religion is getting a pretty bad press these days –
and perhaps that’s understandable.
After
all, ours is an age that values personal choice and freedom above
almost everything else...yet the very origin of the word “religion”
is all about binding “Obligation,
bond, reverence” says the dictionary definition, before reminding
us that the word comes from the Latin “religio” - to tie...from
which we also get ligature, ligament etc.
If
you’re a free spirit believing passionately in the autonomy of the
individual then why WOULD you choose to be tied into a way of life
that might seem to be all about restictions, about the law of “thou
shalt not”…
What
possible benefit could there be? How could such practice help you to
grow?
At
first glance it seems, actually, as if Jesus might agree with this
view. The Pharisees, who are the supreme practitioners of the
RELIGION of Judaism, have come from Jerusalem to investigate what’s
going on around this charismatic itinerant Galilean...And their first
criticism is that his followers are sitting light to their religious
obligations. Those Pharisees are very very anxious that the disciples
are neglecting personal hygiene – you can imagine them saying to
one another “It’s the slippery slope! If we let this go, they’ll
have broken every one of the commandments by tea-time”. They’re
great ones for the minutae – but in their focus on the details
they’ve lost sight of the big picture. They have clung zealously to
all the demands of the torah, but not to the purpose behind it – to
create a people set apart in a special relationship with God…
If
that’s not the main agenda, - if that relationship is not reflected
in every aspect of life, - in our words AND in our deeds– then
we’re practising the kind of religion that is simply not worth the
paper it is printed on. Jesus has lots to say about the ways in which
our behaviour reflects our state of inner being...the truth of our
hearts. It’s just not possible to conceal that, long term – from
one another, from ourselves and of course from God. Even, or maybe
especially, if that truth is ugly – spoiling our cherished
self-image – it cannot be evaded for long. That’s what defiles.
So the message is that our aspirations to practice true religion will
achieve nothing if we’re not actually connecting with God.
This
is the situation Jesus presents to the Pharisees. He recognises the
good intentions behind their adherence to the law. These are not his
natural opponents, but rather brothers who’ve become distracted
along the way.
Jesus
knows that they WANT to be in a right relationship with God – but
that’s not the way they’re living. Instead they’ve used
obedience to the letter of the law as a substitute for living into
its reality of love.
“This
people honours me their lips but their hearts are far from me...” -
and what’s in those hearts cannot but leach out, spoiling all their
aspirations, defiling them even as they engage in a relentless
pursuit of religious purity.
James
makes the same point “Be doers of the word...”
Religion
exists not to create ties that restrict us from really living but to
give us a trellis which supports us as we grow in faith and love…
For
James there seem to be two opposing forces competing for our time and
energy...and that time and energy comes as a gift from God, an
outpouring of grace give to us that we might bless others.
This
is the essence of true religion.
Not
the observance of rituals, not obedience to laws for their own sake
but time used in loving service…
Put
like that it sounds so simple – and so obvious. You’ve known it
for years.
To
choose the good is to practice pure religion, a reflection of the
goodness of the Father of Lights from whom all good things come...to
tie ourselves thoroughly into our relationship with him and to allow
God to transform us as we respond to grace at work in us.
Easy!
But
somehow it never is.
As
a friend said, It’s not WHAT you know, but what you DO with what
you know.
We
may know that when we fail to “walk the talk” - when we hear the
word but let it slip from our minds immediately, changing nothing in
ourselves, we’re falling tragically short...but that doesn’t
always inspire us to do something about it.
But
I’m very much afraid that ACTION is not an optional extra. Really,
it’s not.
When
I was quite a small child I remember going out one Sunday with a
school friend’s family – who were, rather startlingly in the cosy
middle England of the early 1960s, not practising Christians. As we
passed a church, the congregation were pouring out and my friend’s
mother said, without a trace of irony, “Look at the good people”.
It seemed natural and easy to equate the practice of religious
observance with a matching life-style then.
5
decades on, immured as we are in investigations into historic sex
abuse, conscious of the weight of institutional imperfection, I can’t
imagine she’d have made the same connection…
“BE
DOERS OF THE WORD.
Walk
the talk. - or there’s no point to any external observance of our
faith.
It
is the Gospel in ACTION that will make our worship pure and
vital...will transform empty ritual into life-giving encounter.
Without
that, we might just as well stay at home with the papers.
So,
let me say it again. True religion can be measured in the impact of
Sunday’s worship on the working week. If there’s no visible
difference in the way we respond to the needs of a broken, hurting
world...if we worship Christ in Word and Sacrament on Sunday but
ignore him in those troubled and troubling people whom we meet on
Monday morning...then we’ve overlooked the vital ingredient and
got stuck with the superficialities as surely as those who glance at
themselves in the mirror but fail to really see themselves at all.
We
receive richly from God – so that we can give generously in
response to God’s grace. Remember, the point of religion is to bind
us, one to another, and fix us firmly in our relationship with God.
Left
to myself, I know that I’m easily distracted, prone to wander off
course – so actually a few ties to keep me heading in the right
direction are entirely welcome, even necessary.But it’s the
direction that matters – the orientation of our lives towards the
God who is wholly, and eternally LOVE – with no variation or shadow
of change...
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