Lenten Reading: Against Religion

Last updated on: March 19, 2013 at 10:40 pm by Christopher Smith

Lenten Reading: Against Religion 2013-03-19T22:40:15-05:00 Christopher Smith

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

The thing that I have been most struck by as I have read the Sermon on the Mount (SOTM) repeatedly over the last few weeks, is how ambivalent it is toward what we call religion (or even at times, the text seems specifically anti-religious). I’m thinking here especially of Chapter 6 (v 1-18) and chapter 7 ( v. 15-29).

One of the shortcuts that “Industrialized” Western Christian has taken over the last century or more is to make an increasingly big deal about the weekly (or bi-weekly, etc) worship service: about exactly the sorts of things that Jesus instructs against — worship becoming a performance (6:1-18) or posturing with the sort of “Lord, Lord” spirituality that gives lip service, but doesn’t bear fruit (7:15-23).

When we talk about Slow Church, the undergirding spirituality that we have in mind is a wholistic, everyday one. Church isn’t just a religious product that we consume once or more every week. Church is a discerning community to which we belong everyday and whose collective wisdom gives shape to all facets of our lives: from where we work to what we eat and where it comes from to the sorts of education we want for our children and our neighbor’s children, etc, EVERY. THING.

I don’t think we should do away with worship services. I do think, however, that we should be scrutinizing them in light of our call to follow Christ in all things. Do they serve to draw us deeper in this sort of all-encompassing life of the church community or do they distract us from it? They are — in most non-monastic church contexts anyway — a pretty small portion of the whole of our lives, and we should bear that perspective in mind as we reflect on HOW we gather together, but also the contrary perspective of the value of gathering and being together as a church community. Another tension: that we on one hand deeply value tradition and recognize its formative power and on the other hand need to be ever questioning/scrutinizing/discerning all things in love. Slow Church is slow because we recognize that we live and function as churches within tensions like these (and many more). The life to which we are called is one of conversation: sorting through all these theological, practical, economic, ecological tensions and navigating a course that fits who we are as a congregation with a particular history, tradition and place.

Following Jesus is not about putting on a show to ease and/or amuse our own troubled souls or those of our neighbors, but rather about being together and navigating everyday life as a community.

I have been reading the SOTM and thinking these thoughts about religion recently, but especially considering what these words of Jesus might mean as it pertains to the Sabbath (as I will be talking about this tomorrow with a church in Cincinnati). It seems like a lot of our concepts of Sabbath, are loaded up with religion, most Christians think of Sunday as the Sabbath, and that day often gets packed full of religious doing. It seems like the spirit of the Sabbath laws in the Torah, is guide us toward minimizing our will to do (for a day) and thus create space to be — learning over time to be present with one another and to love and trust one another as families and as church communities and as neighbors, etc.

I have some thoughts about how a Sabbath practice of being can shape a wholistic, everyday faith in Jesus, but those will have to wait for another day.

Image: Creative Commons license via Wikimedia Commons.

Lent

Sabbath

Scripture

Previous Post

March 15, 2013

Belonging to our Places. Liberty Hyde Bailey and My Explorations in Urban Naturalism

Next Post

March 21, 2013 Life On the Threshold: Reading the father of the rural life movement in the heart of the modern city

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Abundance Advent Books Community Conferences Conversations Ecology Economics Emergent Eucharist Family Food Gratitude Happenings Health history Hospitality Justice Lent Meditations Neighborhoods News Peace Place Poetry Politics Sabbath Scripture Stories Technology The Table Theology Uncategorized What is Slow Church? Youth

Select a Month January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 March 2016 June 2015 March 2015 February 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Who said, "Am I not sending you?"

Select your answer to see how you score.

Moses Jesus Elijah God