112. The Way Out

Luke 2:10 – 12 But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.”

An atheist author once offered the following observation, “religion ruins everything.”  It may come as no surprise that I agree with him.  I think there is a significant difference between the institutional religion of Christianity, and the spirituality of following Christ.  That difference is not insignificant, and that difference leads to a drastic shift in experience.

          Consider this quote from Isaiah 29:13

“These people come near to me with their mouth

                   and honor me with their lips,

                   but their hearts are far from me.

          Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.

The past four posts have been about the religion of Christianity.  And for the most part, I see religion as a competition for deciding who God loves best.      At its very base level, religion is about mitigating the randomness of life, and our insignificance by gaining favour with God.  The Christianity that I see practiced, well most often practiced, is based on personal gain.  We talk about personal salvation, storing treasures up in heaven, and developing our personal righteousness.  And there is something about this approach that strikes me as very wrong. 

          The difficulty with this approach is that it uses the spiritual economy of debts owed, and ingratiating ourselves to God to gain favour.  This very approach in turn seeks for us to quest for certainty.  This certainty we crave, is at the heart of our idolatry.

          Yes, my spirituality is very personal. And yes, there is obviously personal gain to be made by my encounters with Jesus.  Yet, it seems to me that my faith is about being restored; and restored may be the wrong word.  Being brought into wholeness seems more accurate, for I do not think I have ever had an opportunity for wholeness.  As with any relationship, there are ebbs and flows, successes and challenges.  As we mature, our understanding of God becomes more complete than when we first came to believe. 

So this is what I understand.  God desires to be in relationship with the world around us. That is the point of the Christmas Story.  I love the Christmas Story, of Christ coming to earth as an illegitimate child.  Of all the ways that God could come to earth, this was the coolest.  He did not come in power and majesty, the heavens did not open up as he descended from heaven.  Jesus came as an infant, totally dependent on those around him, born into questionable circumstances and probably into poverty.  Pause for a moment and think of what your reaction, or your church’s, might be to an unwed mother?

          I also think about how he met with people.  He entered their homes, he ate with them, a rather intimate act.  It did not matter who you were, or what you had done, he was interested in you.  He did not demand that people clean up their act before they came to him.  He wanted to know people in the midst of their pain, their confusion, their fucked-uppedness.  And these days, two thousand years later, he still is interested in us.

          This is what convinces me to have faith.  That I do not have to be good enough – whatever being good comprises – in order to come to God.  In fact, I think the author of the Revelation got it right when he wrote, “Behold I stand at the door knocking.” God seeks us out.

          These last posts have not been meant to trip you up. Rather, I have sought to encourage you to take a radical step of faith.  Maybe, just maybe, they have also sought to encourage me to take a radical step.  To look behind the curtain of our faith, to see what lies behind.  That radical step?  To let go of self interest. 

A friend of mine talks about falling in love with the Holy Spirit.  He claims that until one has been smitten by the spirit, one cannot understand the life of faith that we are called to live. As I have stated before the difference is fundamental.  It is the difference between obedience based on the fear of punishment, and the obedience based on the desire for a closer union with God, and the natural response to love.

          Consider the words of Jesus that those who love him will keep his commands.  Then consider the difference those three approaches to obedience will have in understanding.  I could draw out personal experiences from my own life, but I think you get the idea.

          For me, this step, losing self-interest, and embracing the experience of being with God holds the most challenge for me. For the next series of posts I want to explore what this means. Til then I leave you with, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John 13:35

          So as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, of the light entering the dark, I will be grateful for the way out that is offered.