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a well lived bland life
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Religion vs Relationship
What is the first thing you think of when you hear the word religion? Sitting in a an uncomfortable wooden pew wearing tight akward fitting clothes listening to someone decked out in elegant robes babble on about some Paul guy? Yea me too. I once made a comment to a friend of mine that I thought traditional religion was a sham. He laughed. This coming from someone he considered religious and who attends church, oh my! I remember when a close friend of mine once made a similar comment a few years before. I of course was shocked because this friend was the son of a pastor and a Christian. Isn't being Christian being religious? Do they go hand-in-hand? Personally, I don't like being labeled religious, but I know when people ask that question they really are asking am I a devoted Christian, or even better a faithful Christian, so I answer yes and let it slide. So what is religion, and what is being a faithful Christian? Religion vs. Relationship.
When I was in college I decided that taking a religion class would be interesting and maybe I would learn something and grow more faithful. Well first of all if you're seeking to learning something about a "religion" or grow in your faith, taking a class from a secular liberal university is probably not the place to start, unless you want to be challenged or learn every conspiracy against your faith that has been concocted. During school I took two religion courses (I guess I didn't learn from my first mistake) of which one of my professors taught that the Moses of the Bible, was in fact three separate people who were compiled into one person by an editor or redactor later on. The text doesn't reveal this, but if you think long and hard about it, smoke lots of weed, then bash yourself in the head with a hammer, then you'll see it. During those classes it seemed that there was something missing. What they described as religion was not what I was looking for.
Religion is defined by Wikipedia as: a group of beliefs concerning the supernatural, sacred, or divine, and the moral codes, practices, values, institutions, and rituals associated with such belief. A religion is generally characterized by the following:
- Belief in supernatural beings
- A distinction between sacred and profane objects
- Ritual acts focused on sacred objects
- A moral code believed to be sanctioned by the gods
- Characteristically religious feelings
- Prayer and other forms of communication with gods
- A world view, or a general picture of the world as a whole and the place of the individual therein
- A more or less total organization of one's life based on the world view
- A social group bound together by the above
"Those who walk uprightly enter into peace; they find rest as they lie in death. But you—come here, you sons of a sorceress, you offspring of adulterers and prostitutes!"
Isaiah 57:2-3
"You have made your bed on a high and lofty hill; there you went up to offer your sacrifices."
Isaiah 57:7
Throughout the books of the prophets the authors use the phrase "and you will know I am the Lord" over sixty times. What's interesting is in Hebrew the word 'know' as it is used here is the same word to describe how a husband knows his wife. Not in the physical sense, but in the relational closeness displayed between a husband and wife. God wanted His people to KNOW him as a husband KNOWS his wife. The husband wife relationship is the closest, most intimate relationship that most humans experience. Developing that deep of a relationship with God is not fulfilled through monotonous rituals that become more habbit than doing so in reverance to and through love of God.
"When you come to appear before me, who has required of you this trampling of my courts? Bring no more vain offerings; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and Sabbath and the calling of convocations-- I cannot endure iniquity and solemn assembly. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hates; they have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them."
Isaiah 1:12-14
Here God says that the rituals performed by the Israelites are no longer pleasing to him. They are no longer performing the sacrifices out of love or fear of God, but out of habbit and traditions started by man even to foreign gods of other nations. They no longer have a close relationship with God as Abraham or Moses did, but instead they have distanced themselves from Him no longer keeping what was to be holy as holy.
In our culture people go to church on Sunday, and that's religion to them. Sunday is our day to be religious. Sunday is our day to be faithful. After you get that out of the way you're free to get back to the rest of your life and enjoy your week. Our faith is seperate from the rest of our lives.
God wants us to enter into a relationship with Him. He describes our relationship with Christ through the metaphor of the bride and groom. He gave His only son to die so that we may have eternal life, just as a husband would give his life for his wife. What does that mean? If we truly understood and truly believed that there is a God and the sacrifice He made for us, would we seriously give Him one day a week? God doesn't want us to practice monotonous rituals that we're not really even sure what they mean. He just wants us. Everyday of the week. If you were trying to develop your relationship with a friend or spouse would you only give them one day a week?
As a disclaimer, religious rituals aren't necessarily a bad thing; if done from the heart in worship of Him they can be glorifying and loved by Him, but we shouldn't define our faith by them.
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Blando's Blog
Disciple of Christ, Husband, Father, and IT-guy.
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