A Response to "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IAhDGYlpqY

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ru_tC4fv6FE

These are two videos that have been posted all over facebook.  The first one, "Why I Hate Religion, But Love Jesus," has gone viral with over 15 million views.  The second one, "Why I Love Religion, And Love Jesus," is newer and beginning to make the rounds.

Ultimately, I think both of these videos are trying to make the same point, though they seem to be arguing from opposite ends.  Jefferson Bethke, the spoken word artist and writer for the first video, notes that this poem is to highlight the difference between Jesus and false religion.  Unfortunately, despite the line confessing that he does not hate the Church, the video still comes across suggesting that all religion is bad because it gets in the way of following Jesus.  Fr. Pontifex, the lyricist (and I believe performer) for the second video, comes back to argue that religion is most often the vehicle for following Jesus and the oft-needed framework and structure.

It seems like these days a lot of people have been burned by a church, thus making them "spiritual, but not religious."  There are two main ways we can respond to this:
1) Turn our frustrations against certain aspects and people of the Church and reject the whole thing entirely.
2) Recognize the broken and weak parts and work to redeem the Church as the Bride of Christ.

It seems to me that God is in the redemption business, so maybe with His help we can straighten some of this stuff out.

I want to commend both Jefferson Bethke and Fr. Pontifex for making creative and inspiring videos charging people to follow Jesus more whole-heartedly and not get caught up in empty actions and promises.  Their work is valuable and important.  However, it is important that we define our terms in this type of discussion (what do we mean by "religion"?).  I also encourage everyone to spend less time discussing what is right and wrong, so they have more time to simply be obedient to Christ and live out their convictions.  I'll close with this response by Dietrich Bonhoeffer to Luke 10:25-29:

"We have literally no time to sit down and ask ourselves whether so-and-so is our neighbour or not.  We must get into action and obey - we must behave like a neighbour to him.  But perhaps this shocks you.  Perhaps you still think you ought to think out beforehand and know what you ought to do.  To that there is only one answer.  You can only know and think about it by actually doing it.  You can only learn what obedience is by obeying.  It is no use asking questions; for it is only through obedience that you come to learn the truth."

New Year's Resolution Bitterness

As we find ourselves at a time of the year where people are focused on New Year's resolutions and how things will be different in 2012, I confess that I find myself resistant to join the tradition of resolutions.

Perhaps it's the fact that I've never successfully kept a New Year's resolution through to the end of January, but I seem to be in good company on that one.  I think it has more to do with the fact that people are resolving to be different based on the time of the year, rather than a true desire to change.  As a procrastinator myself, I recognize the down falls of planning a later resolution instead of just beginning your new resolution.  If you want to make a change, why not begin immediately on December 29th instead of waiting until January 1st?  Then when January 17th comes and the old routines have taken over again and you struggle to remember what you had even resolved to do, you give up, saying how you've already blown it for this year, but maybe next year you'll do better.  If one were truly resolved, failure would not be the end, but merely a starting over.

It's not the resolution I am opposed to, merely the fact that it is a New Year's resolution.  It is a wonderful desire to grow, change, evolve, and improve yourself.  I'm just concerned that there is a toxicity in linking this desire to a time of year that can delay and/or cut short the hard work and process of personal growth.

My encouragement to everyone making resolutions, New Year's or not, is to be full of patience and grace toward yourself.  Growth takes time, as we see in the parable of the sower.  When the seed fell on rocky places, it grew very quickly, but it could not last because it didn't have any roots.  So take the time to grow deep roots.  Be "like trees planted along a riverbank, with roots that reach deep into the water.  Such trees are not bothered by the heat or worried by long months of drought.  Their leaves stay green, and they never stop producing fruit." (Jer. 17:8)  We see how patient God constantly is with us ("But you, O Lord, are a God of compassion and mercy, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love and faithfulness.... Give your strength to your servant" Ps. 86:15-16); why should we treat ourselves any differently?  So go ahead and make a resolution, but don't wait until tomorrow to start it.  And when you fail, don't give up.  The fight isn't over.  Pray to God to give you strength and keep working at it.  You don't have to wait until next year to try again.

Forgiven

"Repentence is not what we do in order to earn forgiveness; it is what we do because we have been forgiven.  It serves as an expression of gratitude rather than an effort to earn forgiveness."

- Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel

Faith Journey

My roommate from last fall just sent me this quote.  As I ponder "what's next" (and I know I'm not alone in this inquiry), I thought it seemed particularly applicable:

"Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are being led.  But it does mean loving and knowing the one who is leading.  It is literally a life of faith, not of understanding and reason - a life of knowing Him who call us to go.  Faith is rooted in the knowledge of a person and one of the biggest traps we fall into is the belief that if we have faith, God will surely lead us to success in the world."

- Oswald Chambers

Clueless

On one occasion, while [Jesus] was eating with them, he gave them this command: "Do not leave Jerusalem, but wait for the gift my Father promised, which you have heard me speak about.  For John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit."
So when they met together, they asked him, "Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?"
He said to them: "It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.  But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth."
Acts 1:4-8

We really just have no clue, do we?  Here we see Jesus, after He has already risen from the dead, telling the disciples to hang around Jerusalem in order to wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit.  The disciples are thinking that this is when the kingdom of God will become a reality over all the earth, yet here we are, 2000 years later, and that still has not happened.  They were way off in their guess.  Additionally, I can assume pretty assuredly that they had a wrong picture of what that might look like (as we likely do now too).  And this idea of "baptized with the Holy Spirit" must not have made any sense to them.  They were completely clueless and I'm not sure that we're much different 2000 years later.

I think this teaches us two main things.  First off, we need to trust God to provide all of the answers and that He has a plan for this broken world, since we have trouble grasping many of these concepts.  Secondly, we are called to be witnesses, as it says at the end.  Let's think about this idea of witness in the domain of a court room.  A witness is called upon solely to present what they have seen and know to be true based on their experiences.  They are not called to judge right or wrong, there is a jury for that.  They are not called to say what the future will hold, there is a judge for that.  They are not called to convince anyone of what the truth is, there is a lawyer for that.  Witnesses just say what they have seen.

In a letter to the Corinthians, Paul says, "When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.  For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified." (1 Cor. 2:1-2)  Paul was intentionally clueless to everything but what he had witnessed in Christ Jesus, because nothing else really mattered.

So may our cluelessness lead us not into despair, but rather to trust more fully in God and to be obedient in what we do know.  May we be witnesses of what we have seen.

Another Perspective: From/For

From my experiences and observations, a frequent question of college students or others in life transitions is, "What do you want from me, God?"

The other day, someone was telling a story and when he asked this question he instead asked, "What do you want for me?"  At first it caught me off guard as a strange way to phrase the question, but I think it is much more accurate to what is actually going on.

God doesn't need anything from us.  He's not sitting around waiting for someone to step up because otherwise there is no way He can get the job done.  Rather He wants us to step up because He sees the benefits for us if we do.  God wants for us to get involved knowing that we will be changed and benefit from a closer relationship with Him.  His desire is for us, not to gain something from us. Sometimes our gain requires giving, but God is still asking out of motivation for us.  Throughout the Bible when we see God asking people for things, ultimately it's because He wants for them to be in right relationship with Him.  God could have freed the Israelites without Moses' help, yet He knew what an amazing opportunity for Moses it was, etc.

Another thing I love about this phrasing is that it shifts the focus off of what I'm doing and more appropriately to what God is doing.

What does God want for you?

"Sin"

The question isn't,

     "Is this right or is it wrong?"

but rather,
     "Does this draw me closer to Christ or does it rob me of my affections for Him?"