Jesus and religion

I'm not sure anyone is going to give a damn what I have to say about this.  I am, after all, religious.  I am a cleric, a priest, an ordained pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.  As such, I have a perspective of church and religion that is "biased".  I am not setting out here to defend turf.  I have been disappointed by church as a human institution.  I have criticized the church, publicly rejecting misbehavior.  I'm note even referring to clergy sex abuse scandals.  I refer closer to home, where church people mistreat one another.  I have seen church members fight.  I have heard church people publicly reject outsiders, non-adherents, or unchurched folks.  I have said aloud, "this is church, really?  What does this have to do with Jesus or God's love..." I have heard church people say and do things to intentionally exclude people. I studied the Crusades. The church's sins are well chronicled and continue in every dark corner of her hallowed halls.  Because church is full of people. People have their own problems, hang-ups, prejudices, etc...People are complicated.  With a great capacity to love and be loved, people still find ways to hate, perpetrate violence, and dehumanize others.  People hoard things, rather than share them.  People steal and kill and adulterate everyday.  Church people.  I,too, hate religion that promotes exclusivity and injustice.  I hate religion that speaks against gay people because they are gay, colored people because they are colored, poor people because they are poor, using the bible to defend ugly prejudices.  I, too, believe that Jesus calls us to a greater calling as servants.  I also believe that Jesus opposed empty religious habits that are self-centered and devoid of meaning.  I believe Jesus came to save us from sin and death, something than no religious habit can do.  Jesus did what religion cannot do.  Jesus invited people to experience reconciliation and communion with God through Him.  Jesus is the actor in divine reconciliation and salvation. Reconnecting to God by practicing Jesus' way of life, however, leads to religion.  Like it or not, to live in communion with God requires a container.  Be it a religious community, a house church, a sect, a prayer group, a bible study, or a worshiping congregation. No man is an Island, said Milton.  We are social creatures, set in families.  Communion with God is social, familial, communal, and religious.  Religious because a community of individuals will establish a way of life, a routine, a pattern of behavior that characterizes their sense of wholeness, their sense of unity.  Just me and Jesus is never enough.  God comes to all of us. God comes for all of us.
This viral YouTube video everyone is talking about makes for an interesting and entertaining four minutes.  I can't say that for everything--probably most things-- I've watched on You Tube.  I like this guy in the video.  He's sort of gritty, urban, hip hop. I don't know him, though.  I can't even say I know his "type", whatever that means. He is packaging a message that is worth hearing, though.  He's not the first one to say it out loud, to think it, to act upon it. He's probably not the You Tube Prophet sent to reform the whole mess. But he might be part of a larger phenomenon.  Hell, the emergence of Pentecostalism, fundamentalism, the Protestant Reformation, and most early Monasticism is based on the very same premise.  Something has gotten off the track.  The religious container no longer looks like its original message or intent.  Something stinks in institutional Christianity, like dead bodies or rotten fruit.  No kidding.  In every age there is rebellion against the religious ways of predecessor bodies.  Why?  It is how renewal and longevity happens within the human religious community.  How is it that Christianity (or even better, Judaism), exists for so long transcending time, space, ethnic/cultural, and linguistic limitations?  It has many names.  Renewal, reformation, resurrection.  Something emerges out of the death of something else. Someone within the body rejected the body and established an alternative.  The bible is not anti-religion. It is, however, a chronicle of how religion evolves, changes, emerges, dies, and is reborn. Abram leaves Haran and heads toward Canaan.  Moses leads a people in bondage out of Egypt to the Sinai desert. Jesus rejects the teachings of the Pharisees and scribes.  Martin Luther rejects the Pope.  The pope rejects the reformers.  The reformers reject one another. Its a frickin' mess. From age to age, the ways in which people seek after God, seek to contain God, to control God, to become God undergo deep self-examination, criticism from within and outside, and dramatic change.  No wonder the enlightened youth of later modernity or postmodernism have rejected religion altogether. This process, in every age, has been painful.  There will be casualties as we try to sort out life at the end of the 2nd Millenium.  We would like this to be easier, more balck-and-white.  So we set up a straw man---religion or church.  And we develop a polarity; Jesus vs. religion.  We prefer celebrity gurus.  Jesus could be a celebrity guru, if we can make him cool enough somehow. He could be our life coach, spiritual guide, mentor, and Facebook friend. If we suggest that Christianity has finally and completely lost the central message of Jesus and replaced it with lies for self-preservation and self-promotion, then we may have something to rap about on You Tube.  It  does sound good.  Its the same message as those who try to convince us to put Christ back into Christmas.  What they fail to realize is that no one can take him out.  That was the entire point of Easter.  You can't get rid of Jesus.  He is never going to leave.  Try as we might, he is in it with us to the end of the age.
Look, I get the message.  I am in agreement that religion can become a barrier to faith.  I get that church has hoarded money to build ornate buildings, cathedrals and pipe organs, but has failed to serve the slum dwellers and the homeless.  I get that religion does exclude people by establishing purity rules and hierarchical police that legislate and adjudicate the rules.  (Radical fundamentalist Mormon Warren Jeffs is dictating rules for his 1,500 followers from prison, stricter rules that will reduce the number of faithful adherents).  I get that religious people have been less that passionate about the plight of the poor, the oppressed, the terrorized, and the massacred.  I get that.  I also get that Dietrich Bonhoeffer gave his life to oppose the Nazis.  Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life to oppose racial injustice and promote a dream for beloved community.  Mother Theresa lived in the Calcutta slums.  And countless others have given their lives for the sake of the world because their religious calling to follow Jesus has compelled them to act boldly and courageously.
I am an insider.  I cannot defend the whole church.  That is not my job.  But I will say this.  I cannot argue whether or not church or religion merits its survival or existence.  I cannot say that church does more good than harm, so ought to be respected and not rejected.  I even get that leaving church for more fulfilling spiritual waters is tempting and, could prove necessary for the preservation of one's faith.  But I must also say this:  Jesus promises to be present with His followers as they minister to people who are sick and homeless, imprisoned or hungry.  He promises to be present for us in bread and wine, in water and in His Words.  When 2 or 3 gather in his name to practice reconciliation, forgiveness, and healing he is with them.  I believe that, in spite of itself, Jesus is still with and in the church.  At least as much as he is with the excluded, the marginalized, the poor and oppressed.  Maybe we all need to practice confession and forgiveness, and a lot more humility.  Maybe we have to practice death and resurrection, trusting that we will be raised to new life. Maybe we have to be willing to see Christ's presence in and outside the boxes we make.  Maybe we have to see what happens when we put new wine in old wineskins.  Maybe we have to make new wineskins. Maybe some of us have to poetically challenge the status quo.  Maybe some of us have to keep on working inside while God's Spirit reforms and reshapes us. Maybe some of us have to practice a religious life that is full of grace and truth, because Jesus is full of grace and truth.  I don't know. I'm not sure anyone is going to give a damn what I have to say about this. After all, I'm a follower of Jesus, the son of God.  I am religious in my devotion to Him.
 
  

come and see

Dear neighbors,
I think a lot of people in our neighborhood have the wrong idea about church, misconceptions or false impressions.  Also, some churches give people the wrong idea about church.  So, if you want to know a little about church from an insider that thinks church is still worth knowing, here is a word about us:  We are not entertaining.  We are not a rock concert, a light show, or a video message board. We are not shouting out the latest celebrity gossip. We are not the coolest place in town.  We are not the center of attention.  We are not hi tech.  We are not "starbucks for Jesus".  We are not the stomping grounds of the wealthy or offering self-affirmation for the guilty.  We are not here to chastize you, straighten you out, or condemn you to hell.  We are not dressed in our Sunday best.  We are not marketing anything or selling anything to you or anyone else.  We are not the newest, hottest trend on the net.  There is no app for what we do.   We sing old hymns with words no one understands like "ebenezer." We eat small pieces of bread and drink wine from small plastic cups.  We read or recite prayers together.  We listen to readings from the bible.  We say, "Peace be with you".  We say, "Thanks be to God."  We say, "Your sins are forgiven." We stand up and sit down, stand up and sit down, stand up and sit down. We are old people, widows and widowers, retired and downsizing.  We want our lives to have meaning and to leave a legacy of good in our wakes.  We are young people, with ambitions and dreams and energy and hope.  We want to change the world, make it better for everyone.  We are families with children trying to live sustainably in a demanding economy where costs-of-living often exceed income. We are single adults looking for friends and community in an isolated and isolating neighborhood of strangers.  We are people who have made serious mistakes.  We are divorced.  We are addicts, trying to recover.  We have been incarcerated.  We are on parole.  We have hit rock bottom more than once and we have gotten back on our feet.
We are people whose hearts and minds have been captured by an ancient 1st century story of a Jewish Rabbi named Jesus of Nazareth, who died and lives and is the son of the living God.  He is a savior, because we have recognized that we need someone to rescue us.  We cannot save ourselves.  We do not save. We spend and consume and expend.  We devour and destroy and die. We throw away, we discard, even people.  We perpetrate injustices unawares every single day. But Jesus came and promised new and better life to people who believe it's possible.  To people willing to sacrifice being the greatest, the richest, and the strongest in order to reveal that God is all love and mercy and peace, there is this story.  In it, Jesus confronted the inherited power of darkness that resides in the human soul and destroyed its power over us, so that we do not have to keep on living in the woundedness of the past.  We do not have to repeat the course of human history, with its wars and diseases and crimes against humanity. Because on a Friday afternoon, it was finished.  A new chapter in the human story began three days later, when the crucified man was raised from the dead and appeared to many people.  The church began as a tragic defeat was turned into a surprising victory. That's the story we believe and tell over and over again.  God promises to turn the world upside down by turning each one of us inside out.  The hungry will have bread, the homeless will have a place of their own, the lonely will have companionship, the sick will have merciful help.  Church are people who believe that God is healing the world right now.  And we are recipients and partners in that healing.  We are givers and lovers, helpers and healers devoted to others before ourselves. We are not entertaining, but who we are is worth seeing.  We are God's people, God's imagination, God's workforce, God's family, God's slaves.  We are not who you think we are.  What you thought you knew about church is not altogether true.  That's more our fault than yours or anyone elses.  We have not lived honestly and openly.  We have not shared.  Because we are ordinary people.  We live messy, complicated, painful lives.  Church people are not perfect. But we are God's chosen ones, holy and beloved.  And so are you. That's the secret we have to share with you.  God is with you.  Everyday.  In your house.  At your place of work or schooling.  In the car.  On the bus.  God is with you.  God wants you to come closer to Him.  Jesus formed a church so that communion with God could be a shared reality throughout the world.  The church is God's way of reaching out to you and reminding you who you are.  You are God's beloved child.  
We can't promise you'll be entertained.  But what we have to show you and tell you is worth hearing and seeing.  Your life will never be the same.  Come and see.