I think religion can be good and bad. I suppose, as a minister of religion, I should be defending religion and emphasizing its good qualities, but I think now is a really good time to acknowledge that it isn’t always good and why.
I think religion is the structure that we humans put on our relationship with God and with spiritual things. We create it, or are inspired to create it, so that it can help us understand, relate and organize the things we believe so that we can understand them better and grow in our humanity.
Ideally, of course. Being human-made, it can be flawed and fallible. It can also be used to judge, manipulate and control and a host of other bad things. And it has been. And not just historically. I think we’re experiencing it right now.
I think the first followers of Jesus were religious people who suddenly found themselves freed of the devotion and dedication - and demands - of their religion by someone who was more interested in the divine spirit than the human practices that seemed oddly disconnected from it. That’s not to say that Jesus and his followers weren’t devout Jews, I just think they started to see the value of living love than behaving a prescribed way.
As a result, they were more attached to following The Way of Jesus than the way the religious authorities demanded they serve the temple and society.
We need more of that. Right now.
However you understand God, by whatever name, if you believe love is the way, that grace, compassion, understanding and peace are The Way, we need more of that, right now. That’s what Jesus was all about.
There’s a story in the bible about Paul, who became a follower of Jesus after persecuting Jesus’ followers, speaking in Athens at the Areopagus, the Greek high court (Acts 17:22-31). He’s been in town a few days, waiting for others to join him, and he sees the many idols and the temples built for the many Greek gods. He’s also noticed that there is an altar set aside for “the unknown god.” So he acknowledges “how extremely religious” they are and tells them that in their unknown god - unknown to them - he sees the one God who created, and is in, all things, the God who “does not live in shrines built by human hands,” but in the world.
This is where I’m not so religious. I don’t think Paul meant to be sarcastic, I think he truly meant to compliment the Athenians. But there must be more than just buildings and statues, real and metaphorical. Religion can’t be just about structure, unchanging and cast in stone. It can’t just be about process and organization. It can’t be about “sameness,” of culture, thought or idea. It can’t be contained. Where’s the spirit in that? The spirit is alive. The spirit is energy and power, connectedness and relationship, life in all its fullness.
Religion is at its most meaningful when it’s full of both a spirit that enlivens and a framework that builds community, reinforcing our connectedness to each other and all of creation. It shares power and builds everyone up with equity. If we are open to the spirit in how we create community, then surely we can be open to how the spirit expresses itself in each of us and what we bring to that community.
Perhaps some old structures need to be let go. Perhaps some new ones, too. Perhaps old and new shouldn’t be as important as appropriate.
