Not a Religion but a Relationship
The new phrase all the cool Christians are saying is "Christianity isn't a religion but a relationship." I get that--at least I get the point of that. It's not very accurate,* but I get it.I understand the impulse to be "religious," meaning someone who goes through the motions, does "churchy" things, uses certain words in certain ways, and does certain actions that are intended to move the spiritual world in some way. As a protestant and child of the reformation, I quickly think of Roman Catholics crossing themselves, lighting candles, saying the rosary and the like. It's the thing that other people do, some self-imposed, or man-made religious looking/feeling action. (Apologies to my Catholic friends for caricaturing what they're doing.)
A couple of years ago I attended a large, seeker-oriented church where this phrase was spoken. The service began on time, there was a band that played a few songs (that a few in the audience sang along with), followed by a man coming out, shirt untucked from his jeans (like all the really cool pastors), and talked about a multi-step project this church had adopted to deepen their discipleship. There may have been an offering next (maybe earlier) and then we left. If we were supposed to not be doing religion, but having a relationship, I wondered with whom we were supposed to have a relationship that morning, as not a single prayer was said--isn't communication sort of necessary for relationship?
Let's move our focus now to a Pentecostal worship setting. One would hear this phrase (not religion but relationship) here too. If you attended the kind of Pentecostal churches I did, you'd find a welcome, about 30 minutes of worship, led by a (usually) skilled band, there might be people flagging, dancing, some might shout, there could be someone laying flat on the ground (on their back or face down). There would certainly be people raising their hands. There could be speaking or singing in tongues. It all seems to flow pretty freely, but if you went back the next week you'd probably see almost exactly the same thing, just the songs would change (maybe). It might even be that same person laying on the floor in the same spot. In other words, there is a set pattern of behavior here too; a particular set of practices.
Now let's go to a more 'traditional' service--a tradition that goes back at least into the 1950's, whether Evangelical, main-line or Reformed. You'd also find a fixed order of service, with probably more elements (Call to worship, opening hymn of praise, greeting from God, mutual greeting, etc.). If you heard the phrase "it's not a religion, it's a relationship" it would probably be a part of the sermon.
What's my point? If religion is a set of beliefs and practices, then we're all doing religion! Further, I think we're supposed to! (Don't worry, I'll qualify this statement later!) Any relationship that doesn't include some sort of outward behavior isn't really a relationship!
I have a relationship with my wife. That means we do certain things together, some of those things are quite predictable. There are some fixed sets of behaviors that we just do. We eat at certain times, we give each other a "good night" and "good morning" kiss, etc. Now it's possible to just go through the motions of these behaviors (and maybe sometimes we do), but the pattern of behaviors is the framework within which the relationship happens.
As human beings we need a behavioral framework within which a relationship can flourish. In all of the examples above (including the Catholic ones), the particular beliefs and patterns of behavior (religion) provide the occasion for something more to happen. Sure religion says "Do" and Christianity says "Done," but beyond the cleverness of that phrase, there's no such thing as a relationship where you're not doing something together!
Seeing Our Own Blind Spots
Somewhere between the flesh and the devil, there emerges a tendency to 'just' do the stuff. That is, our focus had never been on the One we are supposed to be worshiping, or over time our focus changes from God to what we are doing as we worship. So instead of praying, we just say prayers; instead of worshiping we just sing songs. We sometimes don't even know when we shifted our focus.
We find ourselves drifting to worshipiness (apologies to Steven Colbert). For some this worshipiness is found in the artistry of a well-crafted liturgy, connected to an ancient spiritual heritage, full of rich symbology and mystery. For others, this worshipiness looks like deeply stirred emotions (but still just "soulish"), that seem to reach down to the depths of our souls, and call forth expressions that we find hard to put into words. For still others, worshipiness looks like truths that move the mind to think higher thoughts, and give us deeper understanding of the great doctrines of the faith, the recapitulation of the highest theological attainments of our tradition. For yet others, worshipiness looks like the stirring of the call to justice and compassion for the poor and oppressed, an impartation of courage and conviction to take action on behalf of those unable to act.
The problem with worshipiness: God can be a million miles away and the 'worshipiness' can still happen. We can feel like we worshiped, we can think we worshiped, but if we worshiped it wasn't God we were worshiping.
There is no difference between a priest raising the chalice in a "high church" setting, or a prophet blowing the shofar in a Pentecostal revival conference, or a preacher cleverly explaining the difference between the words "inerrant" and "infallible," or an activist washing the feet of a poor person, if all that's going on is somebody raising a cup, making noise, defining terms, or illustrating a point. Anyone can do any of those things in such a way that they'll have as much spiritual impact as spending the day bowling and drinking beer.
It's so much easier to look at the blind spots in the practices of others, than it is to see them in ourselves. If you noticed that as you were reading this blog, good for you!
It's Just Magic
There's a really bizzarre thing that happens in all of these streams: it happens when we begin to believe that certain actions themselves have spiritual powers.A few years ago people who wanted to sell their property would bury a statue of Joseph (husband of Mary, father of Jesus), upside down in their backyard. Amazingly people reported that their property sold much more quickly than they expected. Then the prayer of Jabez thing started happening. In both cases, people were doing things or saying words in a way that suggested they had magical powers. Huh?
I've seen this same bizzarreness show up in the colors some use to decorate places where spiritual events happen, the types of scented oils they use for anointing, the type of bread used for communion, the blowing of the shofar, the waving of flags, the repetition of words or phrases to drive away demons, the imaginary taking up of the 'sword of the Spirit' by saying the words and pretending to take up an imaginary sword, the insistence on the use of certain, Latinized theological terms, the use of "Thee" and "Thou" and other "King James English" when addressing God, or the insistence on saying "Yeshua" instead of "Jesus," and on and on.
On the flip side is the fear or disdain induced when a certain version of the Bible is suggested, in how certain objects in popular culture are "actually" shown to be objects of the occult, where candles in certain settings are rejected on the grounds that they are "Catholic," or the use of English in the mass is rejected because it's too "modern," where concepts like meditation, trances, visions are all rejected because they sound to much like "new age," or the rejection of idea that the creation account in Genesis 1-2 teaches us primarily something other than how creation happened on the grounds that it sounds like compromise with the secular world, and if you don't end your prayer by saying "in Jesus' name, amen," it doesn't even count (in spite of the fact that no prayer in the Bible ends that way!).
There are certain terms, certain practices, certain concepts that have risen above their place of actual importance and have taken on seemingly magical powers. They move heaven, or move hell, or both, just by doing certain things or saying certain words in certain ways. It doesn't even matter if you understand what you're doing, or believe what your saying, or are aware of the presence of God (or any other spiritual reality). Just by saying or doing things, something happens in the spiritual realm -- or so we imagine. I suspect that often the only thing that happens is in our imagination.
If Jesus had only healed one blind man, how many would be studying the types of dirt used to make mud, and what a typical Jewish diet might by that would produce just the right kind of saliva? I'm quite certain that someone, somewhere would be selling the formula and demonstrating positive results!
Somehow we've mistaken technique for the way of truth.
In Spirit and In Truth
Jesus primary teaching on worship in John 4, emphasizes that what the Father is seeking are those who worship "in Spirit and in truth" (John 4:23-24) Without going into a long discussion of what that means, I'll just summarize: God wants us to worship with our spirits, with the help of the Spirit and worship Him authentically based on the Who He really is (there's deliberate ambiguity in the terms "spirit" and "truth"). Jesus says that the rituals of worship in the temple are finished, their time is over (John 4:21). God never really did care about the blood of bulls and goats (e.g., Psalm 51:16; Isaiah 1:11). He was always after people's hearts (e.g., Deut. 6:5; 10:12), not rote obedience.When we just 'go through the motions,' we are missing the mark. When we ascribe magical powers to certain actions, words or concepts, whether positively or negatively, we miss the mark. When our hearts are more in tune with what we are doing, what we are saying, what we are thinking than on God Himself, we miss the mark.
Actually what God really wants from us is a relationship, not just certain forms of busyness! He doesn't want mere religiosity,* no matter the shape (even the shape of so-called "free worship"). What He wants is our hearts turned toward Him completely, from the core of who we are. This will take the form of actions, even certain actions like prayer, singing, reading or listening to Scripture, etc., and those actions (in whole or in part) are absolutely necessary! But the activity isn't what's important; what's important is the inclination of our hearts.
What or Whom do we have in focus? With all due deference to the bard, that is the question.
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*I prefer the term 'religiosity' over 'religion,' since it conveys more clearly where the problem lies.
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