Did Jesus Come to Destroy Human Religion?

Friends! Jeff V. here. I see it's been a long time since an entry has appeared in this space. Blogging is harder to do (especially as a collective enterprise) than I'd thought.

I will continue to try to keep the flame alive. This space has already provided a number of interesting and informative conversations. So...onward, by the grace of God!

This week's post comes out of my sermon on Sunday. I am seeing the advantage of having a blog as a way to continue to preach (and to listen - more importantly!) as the word of God preached continues to echo among the congregation - and within the preacher.

The main point of my sermon on Sunday - which had to do with what it means to be "holy" - was this: That Jesus came to destroy human religion. Is it a radical claim? Or is it really the heart of the gospel?

So, to explore a few things I didn't have time for in the sermon. First, what do I mean by "religion"? Here's a very simple definition for my purposes that relies a lot on the great theologian Karl Barth. The point he (well, among others, like Paul Tillich) makes about human religion is that it may begin as a response to the divine revelation - but it is a human work (not a divine one) that quickly becomes corrupted by self-interest and sin. Human religiosity (the sense of what is holy) can quickly become that which justifies our tribe, our way of life, our agenda. In this sense, the holy can even become a mask for the demonic - placing a halo over the human will to power. 

As I pointed out in my sermon, nowhere is that irony more obvious than the so-called holy land, where people have used religion to justify all manner of religiocentric and ethnocentric violence - all based on a human reading of "my tribe's" holy book. No one is exempt here: Muslims enticing suicide bombers with the reward of holy martyrdom; Jewish violence to defend a land that God gave them; the great capture-the-flag debacle that was the Christian Crusades. Religion (human religion) has demonic possibilities indeed.

I claimed that the complete tearing away ("from top to bottom") of the curtain of the temple in Mark 15 is Mark's way of saying that Jesus destroyed human religion on the cross. All our attempts at nationalizing or localizing God; our claims that God resides here, on our territory, and not on yours; and finally, that holiness is limited by any human conception or definition...all that monkey business was destroyed on the cross, which is God's judgment on human religion.

Mark's point is that God, on the cross, sanctified every place, not just one place. In that act, Christ "broke down the dividing wall of hostility," which Paul speaks of in Ephesians 2:14 - the same wall of the temple that divided Jews (in the inner sanctuary) from Gentiles (who were limited to the Court of the Gentiles) - the wall beyond which Gentiles could not go, on penalty of death. So therefore God's holiness cannot be limited to a building - nor can it even be limited by any human concept or construct of the divine.

So the formula goes something like this: Divine revelation results in human religion. Human religion quickly becomes corrupted by sin and self interest. God is disappointed...and most of all, God then gets lost in religion itself. Is that not the ultimate irony?

But there's a problem here. I mentioned in the sermon that I made this assertion (Christ destroyed religion) while guest teaching at the Lawrenceville School. After I said that, one particularly piquant student then asked me, "OK - so who pays your paycheck?" touche.

Karl Barth's theology is called "dialectical theology" because he says that, on the one hand, we cannot speak of God. God is beyond human knowing. God's fullness cannot ever be fully described or understood. And yet, we must speak of God. How can we do so?

Of course, we know how: the only way we can speak of God is through faith in God's revelation to us: God crossed the infinite distance between us and God in Jesus, the incarnate Word. God gave us a reliable witness to this gracious act in the scriptures. And God continues to enable us faithfully to understand and represent this through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which helps us in partnering with God in the ministry of reconciliation. But it is God's initiative, and it is God's help we need, which we receive by faith, not by religion. It is God's grace that we are constantly being thrown back upon, as we attempt to understand this revelation, and how we act out its implications (i.e. via religion).

So there is always a "dialectical" tension. The revelation in Christ judged all forms of human religion as inadequate. And yet we need religion to bear witness to this truth. (Hence...the need for my salary...whew). But we always need to be humble about our practice of religion, in light of that revelation, and in light of human sin.

Destroyed religion...and yet we need religion. That's the tension. While we constantly compartmentalize God - chop God into our human-sized boxes, so we can make God do what we want - God has been unleashed on the universe, destroying our provincial minds, and making Godself available to us at any moment and at any place. Any place and time can be a time when God's holy presence is revealed to you. And such moments are often the ones that cut against the grain of our self-justification (but...that's another sermon).

What do you think? Here's the question that might focus our musing on this. When has religion been an enterprise that, for you, needed to be questioned - or even done away with - based on your understanding of Christ's revelation? 

And, on the other side, when did you use the claims of religion for your own purposes and agenda - can we come clean on ways that we fall into this same trap?

And, lastly, given that all religion tends to become corrupted by human sin - how do we practice faithfully our...religion?

Look forward to your thoughts. Anyone out there?

Faithfully,

Jeff V.

We Wish You a Meaningful Christmas

Perhaps lighter, simpler fare this week. No big theological stuff. Stories! Provided by...YOU! 

Jeff here again, doing blog duty. Next week - Mary Alice...you tuning in?

Here's the question for the week: how are YOU making meaning of the season? 

It's an old question, but a good one. We've heard it before. We're all so busy, meeting the unquestioned expectations for givers and getters. But are there folks out there who are pausing, breathing deeply, taking time to look, to listen, to hear the angel voices? Are there folk struggling in the darkness of grief and loneliness, who wish to tell their stories of finding unlikely hope amidst the dark sky?

I will tell a story that I heard while waiting in line to see Santa Claus at the Lawrenceville Main Street Christmas festival, during a recent (and absolutely freezing) afternoon at Weeden Park. While waiting in line, I overheard some of the conversations between Santa and the various kids who posed on his lap.

"What do you want for Christmas?" Kids shared their imagined delights over receiving the usual things: a prized doll, a train set, a remote-control helicopter.

One kid, when Santa asked that question, responded with this: "I want a big heart." I inclined my ear to hear how he'd respond to this one. Santa stammered, muttered..."that's nice...but...." Then recovered with, "Well, what about under the tree? Wouldn't you like a nice radio-controlled helicopter?"

How are folks hoping for "a big heart" this Christmas? Stories? Anecdotes? Overheard at the grocery store?

In the PEACE, HOPE, JOY AND LOVE of the season!

Jeff

What would you do if Mary and Joseph arrived at your door?

We all know the story. Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem. No room in the inn. A stable is all they can find for their nightly digs.

We might picture the typical first-century travel experience as similar to our own. If you're on the road and get tired - find the next Motel 6 along the way. We don't realize that staying in an Inn was actually a highly unusual thing in Mary and Joseph's time.

Hospitality to strangers in the ancient world was a key aspect - a sacred duty actually - of any community's life, precisely because there really were no Inns or hotels along the way for travelers. You would have to take into your home the slightly strange-looking Lower Mongolian traveling through town, because someday you yourself might be alone, tired and transiting through Lower Mongolia on your way to the in-laws. Basic law of reciprocity.

Remember the story of Sodom and Gomorra in Genesis 19? Here's a provocative statement: the main sin there is most definitely not the sin of homosexuality. It is the failure of a community to uphold the sacred duty to protect guests, and provide hospitality and safe harbor. The attempt at homosexual rape is a sort of exclamation point to that main sin. Most people don't realize that the sin against hospitality is really why God gets so upset, and torches those two infamous cities. (Anybody out there have a different take?)

So - all that leads to the question for the week. What would you do if Mary and Joseph showed up on your doorstep? Some of us have had that actual thing happen to us, and more than once - it certainly happens all the time in my line of work. Someone in need shows up at your doorstep. What do you do? Drop everything and help?

We certainly live in a different culture. Hotels are indeed relatively plentiful. Social services arguably are available in many circumstances. When I worked at a soup kitchen, I was subject all the time to requests for help, at all hours of day or night. If I were to respond to each one of them, and not draw boundaries, I would become "an easy mark", and easily get taken advantage of.

But, if we fail to help the real people at our doorstep - what's become of us Christians? If I were to say, I can't help people - I'm too busy maintaining an organization that's helping people - would I have lost the essence of my calling?

I certainly struggle a lot with that. Should I drop everything and help Mary and Joseph at my door?

What do you think? What are your stories of helping - or not - the Marys and Josephs who've come to your door? What's the proper balance between supporting institutions that help people - as "professionals" - versus rolling up our sleeves and getting our own hands dirty with the real human problems of the person who suddenly comes to us needing our help.

Stories? Comments?

Hey - can we break 10 responses this time?

Peace,

Jeff V.

How do we live as Advent People?

Black Friday was indeed a black day.  There were incidents throughout the country of death and violence connected to the door buster sales offered.  There was the 34-year-old man who was trampled to death when Wal-Mart shoppers literally busted down the doors.  A woman also miscarried in the same stampede.  The New York Times noted that some had been waiting in line since the previous evening.

We understand this time of Advent as a time of waiting.  Not only waiting for the Christ child but also waiting for the return of Christ the King.  How can we recapture the joy of waiting in this time of door busters?  What can the church demonstrate to the world about the true reason for all these gifts?  How are we, as people of faith to respond, without being otherworldly and without being ones stepping on the Wal-Mart employee?  My question for this week is, "How do we live as Advent people?"

In Christ's Service,

Jeremiah

As a Christian, who, if anyone, would be on your "Axis of Evil" list?

As Christians, do we have a list of people or countries that we would consider evil and if so, who would they be?  The phrase, "Axis of Evil" has been recently used by our president to indicate those countries or organizations who are a "threat" to the United States.  Non-politically speaking, who might "make the list" of individuals, groups of people, countries, faith communities perhaps, or "the other" as a Christian?  Are we supposed to have a list, an "Axis of Evil" and/or how does our faith dictate who or what is really evil?  Do we start with ourselves or do we look at others or abroad to fill in our lists?

 

Would Jesus hang out with gay people?

Unfortunately, we regressed in our Blog participation last week - after a record 8 comments on our question, "How Would Jesus Vote?", we got a grand total of...zip, zero, nada...last week. I'm sure folks were thinking about the question though, yes? My wife said she was going to comment, were it not for the fact that you have to sign up with Blogger (hope our new note, above, will encourage people). Still time to comment on last week's too!

But, for this week...as alluded to in last week's entry, the logical progression is from politics...to money...to sex, of course. This week's question will really put our electronic conversation to the test--whether we can have a healthy "virtual" conversation about the gospel and human sexuality.

So...the question for the week is,"Would Jesus hang out with gay people?" And if so, how might we imagine him being with people who are gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered?

I think that's a different question than, "should gay folks be allowed to be ordained?" or "Is homosexuality a sin?" The question really goes to the quality of relationship Jesus might have...were he living in this time, place, culture...with people who are of a different sexual orientation than the norm.

I guess I like putting the question that way because the whole theoretical business--all the highfalutin questions about biblical standards, theological integrity, how we interpret scripture, etc.--gets transformed when you are in relationship with someone who is experiencing the attendant issues first-hand--whether they are "liberal" or "conservative" on the issue. People's theoretical ideas tend to change when they are able to really be with and hear the very concrete experience of the other.

The lack of any kind of relational element in the conversation over human sexuality in the church seemed so evident for me when I was at General Assembly. Of course, sexuality was the "hot" issue (as it's been for the last 25 to 30 years). But what was remarkable to me was how divided that body (and our church) is - how neither camp really talks to each other. They just divide up into camps of folks who already agree with each other. It's a tragic thing to see, to my eyes.

Sure - let's weigh in on what the biblical witness, what the gospel has to say about the deep theological/theoretical issues. But, since a lot of the theologizing we do has to do with *how* Jesus was in relationship with the real human beings of his time - let's imagine how he might be with real people in our own time, and how we might imagine his attitude toward them.

And...can we break 8 responses this week???

Imagine away!

Jeff Vamos

Money, mulah, filthy lucre, mammon...how do YOU talk about it?

This week's blog question is on a topic that we're all thinking about - especially us'ns who are in the church biz: money. It's stewardship season! And although we emphasize that stewardship (a vastly misunderstood word) is not just about money, it's what people hear us talking about this time of year, as we encourage people in their spiritual discipline of giving, and as we have to make decisions about deploying our congregation's resources for the coming year - monetary and otherwise.

I'll be honest. One of the hottest button topics in our household? Money. We often take different sides on questions about how to use it/save it/give it/spend it. One likes to give more than the other, and for different causes. One often questions the purchases of the other. (Questionable purchases on my side? Woodworking stuff. On hers? Clothes and knitting. We won't go any further there...).

And, another aspect of this: working with our 8-year old about how he uses his allowance, which he's been getting now for about 2 years. We work out with him, as a family, a giving/saving/spending discipline: ten percent to the church off the top, other giving for other good causes, a certain percentage for saving, a certain percentage for spending. This is the beginning of a life-long discipline around the proper use of money. It's dang important, in my book.

I'm really curious about what conversation goes on just before the pledge card goes in - in your mind, or in your family. How do you make decisions about giving, as an individual or a family? How do you make decisions about spending? How do you - consciously or otherwise - teach or share values with others in your family about the proper use of resources?

And, in terms of giving, we talk a lot about a tithe - giving away ten percent. I'm extremely curious about whether people approach their giving discipline in this way - by setting a percentage that seems faithful, and sticking with it. Do you give all to the church? Some to the church and some to other causes? Is a tithe supposed to ALL go to the church?

It's often hard for us to talk about money (harder, sometimes, than talking about sex - perhaps a topic for next week in the blog!) But, fact remains that over 1/3 of the words of Jesus recorded in the scriptures are about the use of resources and material things. For better or worse, we can't divorce our use of money from the Christian life.

And...if you want to comment on a safer topic than this...here's another question: how should we talk about money as a church? Do we spend too little time and attention on it? Too much? I get people giving me both kinds of feedback.

Love to hear from you out there!

--Jeff V.