Sermon on Religion

I preached this Saturday, 8 March.

What I need to talk about today is my religion. When people ask me if I am religious, I say, “no, just spiritual.” Because religion seems bad…rules….ahh…I want no rules…after all, its for freedom that Christ set us free right?

We have all been burned by other people's rules. Back in Mark 7 Jesus says, “They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men." Legalism is damaging. Legalism is us trying to please God…It is us convincing others that they need our Religion…(I don’t work on Sundays and you shouldn’t either; you must read the Bible every morning; you must serve the homeless).

Wikipedia says: Religion is an organized approach to human spirituality which encompasses a set of beliefs and practices. It is socially defined and includes specific behaviors.

I have been trying to read the bible from start to finish, and I got in to dreaded Leviticus. Eugene Peterson’s introduction to the book startled me, and convicted me that I needed to find me some religion. He starts off “One of the stubbornly enduring habits of the human race is to insist on domesticating God. But our Scriptures are even more stubborn in telling us that we can’t do it. “The Book of Leviticus is a narrative pause in the story of our ancestors as they were on their way, saved out of Egypt, to settle in the land of Canaan. The moment these people enter Canaan, they will be picking their way through a lethal minefield of Gods and Goddesses that are designed to appeal to our God fantasies. 'Give us what we want when we want it on our own terms.' What these God-fantasies do in fact do is cripple or kill us. Leviticus is a start at the 'much teaching and long training' that continues to be adapted and reworked in every country and culture where God is forming a saved people to live as he created them to live—Holy as God is holy."

Throughout all of the Old Testiment, it is clear that even if God’s people screwed up and didn’t offer the right sacrifices, they were still in relationship with God. The most disturbing thing about Leviticus is all that blood and guts…popping heads off pigeons, pouring the blood of animals around the alter, two of Aaron’s sons died on the spot for violating the temple with some “strange fire”…another guy died for using the Lord's name in vain (and he was an Egyptian and didn’t know any better.) The majority of Leviticus is about regulations regarding sacrifice. Hebrews says we don’t have to sacrifice animals anymore because Christ’s death was the final sacrifice.

So does any of Leviticus apply to us?

There is a part of the animal sacrificing which was about atonement which clearly doesn’t apply to us. But it also served to prepare the people’s hearts. Micah 6:7-8 says, "Will the LORD be pleased with thousands of rams, with ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."
And Psalm 50 says: "I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. But He who sacrifices thank offerings honors me, and he prepares the way so that I may show him the salvation of God."
The people needed to sacrifice. As Eugene Peterson’s introduction states, the people’s religion protected them from falling for those gods and goddesses that appealed to their god fantasies (the modern equivalent is our addictions.) Their religion is forming the people into holy people.

People back then had more time on their hands. Money certainly didn’t mean the same thing. Their most valuable possession was their livestock. This is what God wanted them to sacrifice. They needed to give something up…to die to themselves. In the New Testament, Romans talks about becoming a living sacrifice, and Hebrews talks about a sacrifice of praise. So like Leviticus I think my religion ought to contain sacrifice. Which brings me to AA.

I went to the AA retreat a few weekends ago. It was hard and confusing. I was the only non-alcoholic, but I feel as sick and addicted to myself as the rest of them. The food version, Food Addicts Anonymous, asks participants to eat only three meals a day, no carbs, and go to like 4.5 meetings a week. That sounds horrible. Regardless I have moved forward a little.
I went to a Food addicts meeting this week. The girl that was leading, said hi, that we met before, and that we knew each other from seminary. I didn’t recognize her. She just smiled. She was gracious and kind. I listened to her story, and she passed around pictures. She was about 140 lbs, 5’1’’. In her pictures she was 285! Once I saw the pictures I recognized her—I couldn’t believe it!

God didn’t need the blood of animals to forgive us; we needed it. What is the point of a Religion? To ground us. To open us up, to remind us, tap us into the peace that has already been made by Christ. Any ritual that merely piles on a whole new weight of all the ways you aren’t—all the ways you fall short…this is not Christ-centered.

I just heard this analogy. Lets say God is a song. And the song is beautiful, and compelling. In order to follow the Song, we must learn to play it.

A Rhythm for life…getting in tune with God….I have felt really out of tune for a very long time. I like the song…I just don’t know how to play it….I can daydream all I want, but I got some work to do if I want to get better at being in tune. Christ is not asking us if we like the song—he is asking us to play it.

So we want to learn to play the song God is playing. We know we need to practice, we know we need community too play with. With no rules, we are only admirers of the song, and Jesus is not calling us to be simply admirers.

With legalism, we become more interested in how to learn to play, more interested in becoming skilled musicians than learning the song. I guess you could say the Pharisees learned to play the instrument, but they aren’t playing the song.

I will tell you only what I am considering for my religion. First, I think I need the 12-steps. Working through the steps is a continuing cycle of surrender, confession, repentance, amends, and service. While followers of Christ may believe that all of these things are important, especially in the “low church” we tend to try and do all or nothing…never really doing a great job at any of them….because you simply can’t do all of them all the time. I think the 12-steps breaks it down for me. I live a pretty self-centered, stubborn existence. Of course I need to surrender before I can serve!! I need to confess and repent… And I really need to be obedient to something or someone once in a while.12-steps breaks it down for me.

Leviticus is big on a lot of the 12 step stuff too. The whole sacrifice thing was a way of publically confessing sins. Leviticus 6:4 talks about making amends, and restoring what people took from others. Leviticus 19:13 talks about serving strangers.

Also Leviticus has a lot of time for celebration and “hearing the song”. There were seven major holidays each year. Most of us are fragmented, and compartmentalized. We live isolated, independent and private lives. We are too busy…

Every teacher on the special education team at work is on either antidepression or anti anxiety medication. One more option, problem, commitment, expectation, purchase, debt, change, job, one more decision. We need a space between our routine and survival mode. Something held in reserve for the spontaneous. We need time to hear the song!

The Hebrews celebrated not only a nightly rest, But a weekly Sabbath, and seven yearly feasts, including Passover which lasts 7 days. In addtion, every 7th year they were supposed to let the land rest and not work it (Just look at us now with industrial farming completely raping our soil of all nutrients, till we get to the point of barrenness, and me never taking Sabbaths and feeling out-of-my-mind stressed.)
Finally, every 50th year is the year of Jubilee where all land and possessions get restored to their original owners—slaves are freed, and everything is set equal again.

I would like daily, weekly, yearly, and life-stage rests as well...

I would also like to build some Religion around the seasons. Every winter I get depressed. Maybe my Religion needs to account for that. Once a month, my hormones get out of wack…maybe I need some Religion around my menstral cycle that so it doen’t take me by surprise. By the way, in Leviticus, the women had to hang out in a tent outside of town during their menstral cycle. Think of what it would do for the culture if all PMSing women spent time alone with other women instead of handling the demands of life?

We need for a rhythm of creating and resting. Just like God, from the very beginning!

Finally, AA and Leviticus were communal Religions. Everything took place in an atmosphere of accountability and obedience. Its not that there was one athourity that is always right, but that we learn obedience to God by being obedient to others…to our corporate Religion, to people in our life we choose to submit our lives to.

We’ve heard it all before, I am not going to tell you a rule for your life…heck I don’t even know what mine is. But I wanted to leave you with two things. Think about two categories of disciplines.

1) Disciplines that could help you stop to hear the song,
2) Disciplines that help you learn how to play it.

We want to learn how to play the song. Leviticus/and AA tell us how to be holy not in emotion, intention or religious feeling, but in the details of everyday life. We need religion. At the same time, we need to make sure we do not become legalistic.

We can ask ourselves the following questions:
Does my religion reflect my love for God?
Or does it show that I love control/rules, something else more?
Can I thank God for my Religion?
Does it help me love myself/others?