Posts by danieljkoren:
Religion Made Me Do It
On a warm spring day, the beautiful sunshine fell on my back as the garden tiller stirred up the dark soil in front of me. Suddenly I stopped the tiller. I left it sitting there in the middle of the partially tilled garden while I jumped in my truck and drove home.
See, I can explain. Religion did this. I was at a neighbor’s house that day. She was a widow and I wanted to do the biblical thing and help her out. But there was something else in the Bible that stopped me from helping the widow (the problem was not the Bible, but my poor use of it).
“Religion” has been defined as coming from a Latin word meaning ‘to tie, to bind.’ Others say the word comes from another root meaning ‘to read repetitively.’ I suppose both meanings are applicable. To be good at your religion, you have to be well-read on it and you are “bound” by some rules and behaviors.
People are religious about many godless things.
We all do religion of some sort for the same purpose—to feel better or to achieve some desirable outcome. Some people are religious about cleaning the kitchen—they are bound to it, could not think of leaving dirty dishes in the sink, have to clean that counter with bleach wipes, and so on. Others are non-religious, some even sacrilegious in how they manage their kitchen, yet such a person might be tied to the TV—their religion is the tube. Others find Facebook binding—they cannot put it down.
What am I bound by? What about you?
I had two binding elements that caused my weird behavior that day in the widow’s garden. First, I wanted to help the woman with no man to help her. Second, I wanted to keep Saturday Sabbath by not working. I was cultivating the soil of her garden on a Friday night when I glanced at the time and realized it was almost 6 o’clock. I had heard that Jewish Sabbath began at 6pm, so I quickly shut off the machine and hurried home.
Why does this sound so bad? Because you have an innate sense of priorities. My religious mindset had blinded me to this basic value: human needs come first. Because of other commitments, it took a week before I was able to get back and finish her garden so she could start planting her vegetables. Eventually, I realized that Jesus is my Sabbath and that slavish observance of a day did not make me more spiritual. Helping the poor and needy, however, does.
James 1:27 says pure religion binds us to the behavior of caring for the needs of widows and orphans. Stephanas led a group that bound themselves to serving the needs of other believers (I Corinthians 16:15). What compels me? As a child I had a habit of checking for quarters in all the telephone change-return slots. I was bound to this. I could not pass a bank of pay phones without clanking every little metal flap to see if a coin awaited me in there.
Little rituals can become big fetishes that put important matters out of balance. Are you bound to purity? Does honesty attach itself to everything you do and say?
Some people say it is wrong to be religious. They are very bound to that belief. In fact they attract friends who feel the same way. They even have gatherings of people binding themselves to the belief that religion is a bad thing. They are all tied up in the idea of opposing those tying, binding, well-read ideologies.
Paul had a religious tradition before the Lord converted him. Then he found a new religion, a binding relationship with King Jesus. James said we should have pure religion. If a person has a religion but cannot control his tongue, his religion means nothing (James 1:26).
The Greek word used by James for “religion” comes from the root of ‘to shake or tremble.’ Deeply held religious beliefs often come from moving experiences. Some women almost have a religious belief that all men are evil because of traumatic experiences in their past.
Has your religion come from trauma? Have you had a troubling, shaking encounter with God? If not, your religion will change with the next passing fad. Those who have been deeply moved by Jesus will not be easily moved away afterward. Pure, “Jesus religion” makes you love others and give yourself for them.
What is your religion today? Empty ritual? Do you love your ceremony or spiritual practices more than the people they were intended to serve? Do you put people ahead of your perfection?
Some people are so proud of their religious professionalism that they take offense at those who live otherwise. Show me a group of well-heeled, perfumed, and prettified Christians and I will listen for the gasps when I bring a man with tattoos for sleeves, a vest for a shirt, and rainbow-colored hair. Will they see a human God loves or an offense to their values? Typically, lifestyle choices we have made because of God can become more important to us than the God who led us out of the old life.
I want to love God and love people. I love holiness and I love humans.
What are you bound to? What are you constantly reading? What still moves you?