Divine Interruptions-Interrupting Our Religion

This last week we talked with Jeni about some of her life experiences and talked some about religion. For Christians, I think that religion can be a slippery word. Many of us who have extended experience around church tend to think of the word in a somewhat positive light. For long-time Christians there is usually some desire to be seen as religious, to attend church religiously, to help our kids get religious education, etc. It is easy to conflate our “religion” with our “faith” or our “relationship with God.” But what Jeni helped remind us of is the way that religion can wrap a culture around our faith that isn’t always helpful or healthy. This is particularly true when the religious experience is founded in rule keeping and false veneers of morality.

When we read through the New Testament, there is a tension along these lines. One cannot take the New Testament seriously without seeing some assumption of (if not explicit commands toward) community making. Jesus always saw his disciples living in community. He was aware that doing so would create a need to establish some sort of principles for that community (like those around conflicts in Matthew 18:15-17). As the New Testament continues narratively in Acts and in the letters of Paul and others, the community acknowledges a need for organization, standards, and practices. While some will suggest that Jesus never had any interest in building a religion, he certainly has a mind toward building a church that the gates of Hades could not overcome (Matthew 16:18). The Jesus movement, merely historically speaking, quickly formed into what many of us would call a religion.

On the other hand, Jesus is intensely critical of some of the quickly formed errors of religion. We see this most in his criticism of the Pharisees and the sort of religious structures we would call “Pharisaical” religion. These criticisms are too numerous to explain fully here, but generally include things like hypocritical outward piety devoid of inner transformation, keeping religious traditions but ignoring issues of justice, exclusionary practices, and more. Most stinging is when Jesus suggests that some of the religious people of his day go over land and sea to make a disciple and the result is a man “twice the son of Gehenna” that the Pharisees are (Matthew 23:15).

This tension encourages us to be considerate of what we are doing as we try to live in community. Religion and religious communities are not simply “good” because they try to teach the Scriptures. They can cause a lot of pain and turn into a factory for hellions! There are many forms of religion, even Christian religion, that devolve into places that harm people, repeat lies, and make the world a worse place. Conversely, I still doubt the helpfulness of deconstructing all religious institutions. I’ve just seen too much beauty and healing happen in good, healthy, religious communities. The alternative I fear would lead to loneliness and a lack of resources. In many ways, churches are like families. There are destructive, abusive families who do horrible things. I do not think that means we shouldn’t have families at all. I’m not sure it would even be possible. Communities are going to naturally form around shared values and beliefs. It is our job to make sure that we allow God to step in and correct them when they lose their way.