Provoking One Another (to love)

“I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious.” Those words have become the mantra for this generation. What do these words mean? “I’m spiritual.” I’m in touch with powers out there and powers in here? I’m sensitive to the good energy that flows through the world and exists between people? I’m open to be touched by something larger than myself? “…but I’m not religious.” I don’t go to church. I don’t want people cramming rules down my throat. Wherever the answer is to be found, it won’t be in Christianity. “I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious.”
Anglican clergyman NT Wright served for a time as chaplain of Cambridge University. He loved meeting new students, most of whom were “spiritual, but not religious.” When he introduced himself, students would sometimes attempt to brush him off with the words, “I’m spiritual, but I don’t believe in God.” Wright would smile and ask them, “Really? Tell me about the God that you don’t believe in?” Taken aback, they would say something about not believing in the angry God who delighted in punishing wrongdoers. “Well I’m glad to hear you don’t believe in that God,” Wright would say, “I don’t believe in that God either. Come see me sometime; we’ll talk about the God that we can believe in.”
Jesus was spiritual too…but to tell the truth, he wasn’t very religious. There were a lot of religious practices he didn’t believe in. I think you could say that Jesus was disgusted with many displays of public religion. He didn’t like the pretentious buildings and pious spectacles that carried God’s name. The disciples were understandably impressed with all the trappings of the Jewish religion as they toured the temple mount. Covering an area the size of 24 football fields at the time of Jesus, the temple was right at the center of Jewish identity. Dominating the skyline of Jerusalem, the gleaming white stones and the gold overlay of the Temple made it shine like the sun. Worshipers who entered its gates were bombarded with all the trappings of religion. Crowds bowed and prayed; Psalms were sung in endless repetition, coins jangled into huge offering boxes, a phalanx of priests slaughtered animals all day long, trusting that the never-ending river of blood might appease the demands of a holy God. The disciples, mostly country boys, were goggle-eyed at the size, the scope, the pageantry of a well-oiled religious machine hitting on all cylinders.
“Rabbi,” said one of the disciples, “Look at the size of these stones! Look at these buildings” Some of those stones are still visible in Jerusalem today. One stone in the Temple mount foundation is 45 feet long that weighs 570 tons. Jesus was singularly unimpressed. Looking up at the massive buildings that dwarfed the little band of disciples, he shrugged his shoulders and said, “All this will be thrown down…you won’t find one of these stones atop another.”
Do massive, ornate houses of worship really bring us closer to God? In the Middle Ages, Pope Innocent III took Dominic on a personal tour of the opulent basilica of St. John. Referring back to Peter and John’s healing of the lame man in Acts 3, the pope leaned over and boasted, “No longer need the church say ‘Silver and gold have I none.’” Dominic gazed at the lavish building and answered, “Neither can the church say, ‘In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, Rise up and walk.’”
Jesus had little patience for religiosity. The hypocrisy of the system got him steamed, and he pelted the system’s managers with rough words aimed at puncturing their religious pomposity. Blind guides he called them. Two faced hypocrites who would sell out their own mothers and fathers for money and call it God’s will. “You tithe right down to your spice rack, but you neglect the weightier demands of the law,” he told them. “You burden people with heavy loads and you don’t lift a finger to help them.” “Don’t pray like them,” he told his disciples. “Don’t give like them; Don’t be like them!”
Fortunately the church no longer struggles with religious hypocrisy! Clergy sex scandal. Embezzling leaders. Divorce rate among ministers higher than the general public. Churches that preach love and practice hate. Every once in a while someone will tell me they don’t want to get involved in the life of the church because the whole place is loaded down with hypocrites. “Aw, Come on in,” I tell them. “You should be right at home!”
Don’t feel too badly if some aspects of the religious “system” give you the heebie jeebies. There is much of it that God doesn’t like either. But the good news of the gospel is that while Jesus quickly tires of empty religious ritual, he loves people. Jesus understood that religion can only take you so far. That’s why He steered clear of religion and focused on relationship.
Our morning scripture from Hebrews 10 tells us that Jesus did for us what empty religiosity can never do…he actually took away our sin. Our sinfulness separates us from God…creating barriers that plug our ears, blind our eyes and isolate us from communion with God. Religion chips away at that distance between us and God, but just does not have tools big enough to make much of a dent. Our morning scripture from Hebrews 10 says: 11 …every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins. 12 But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” 13 and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.” 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us… I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds,” he also adds, “I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
At the price of his life, Jesus bought our freedom. Ten thousands slaughtered animals never moved the scales an inch in our direction. An endless procession of priests and ministers and clerics standing at attention day after day at ten thousand altars couldn’t erase a single guilty stain. Religious sentiment tells you to come in here week after week and grovel and fret and beg, then you come back and do it all again next week…it’s an endless cycle. But Jesus has done away with that hopeless cycle. Jesus has offered for us the single, supreme sacrifice of himself. He took care of all the selfishness, all the violence, all the hurt. It’s been covered… cleansed. We can’t earn forgiveness…but Jesus has given us grace and pardon as a precious gift.
Our old religious habits keep us worried about saying the right things and praying the right prayers and performing the right acts that allow us to crawl into God’s presence. But Jesus has thrown open the doors. Hebrews continues: 19 Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, 20 by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Jesus has invited us home. His house has become our home. So come with confidence. Come with joy. Jesus has covered you, cleansed you in the waters of baptism, and brought you near.
Another gift Jesus has given for us that religion could never give…He gave us a shared life together. Hebrews continues: Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised his faithful…let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
This is part of the life we share…gathering on Sunday morning to “hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.” We sing about that hope. We pray about the hope. We sit under the Word of God, trying to figure out how to align our lives with that life-giving message. We join our lives together with his at the table, and we declare that we are family…brothers and sisters who love each other and take care of one another. We are aware of how easy it is to sink into meaningless ritual, but we realize that it is important for us to be together to worship our Lord. We don’t neglect meeting together. We come to worship, and every week we are sent from this place into the world, to be salt and light, servants of Christ for our generation.
This public worship time can’t be the only time we meet together. We were a church last night too…we were a family last night too. We gathered to feast together, laugh together, serve one another as we remembered one of our brothers who has gone before us. It was a joyful night, tinged with sadness. “Let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds…not neglecting to meet together…but encouraging one another.” Last night was a holy act of worship as we gathered to fry fish and eat together, to serve tables together, to marvel at the incredible time and energy people put into their gifts of love for the Polly family…pictures, latch hooks, incredible edibles, gifts of labor, time, talent…even gifts of laundry service were all given freely and joyfully. Surely that’s what it means to be spiritual…and religious.
Our week with Jesus may begin here, but our life together goes on day by day as we meet to work together, talk with one another, keep in touch with one another, serve together, pray together. Checking in with someone is spiritual, Rosemarie baking pies for Bill is spiritual, Mel stopping during the Sunday School lesson to pray for someone is spiritual, watching a single mom’s child so she can sneak away for a few hours is spiritual…part of our life together.
Jesus saw how religion has the capacity to split people apart, drive wedges between people, separate people. He showed us another way. He forgave us. He invited us to become a part of his family. And that family is seated around you right now. This is the family that God has given you, to encourage you, to nudge you on to love and good deeds, to pick you up when you’re down, to walk with you as you journey with Christ.
Are you a religious person? Who cares? Do you walk with our Lord Jesus, and with his people? Those are more important questions. Empty religious practice won’t get you anywhere. But hanging out with Jesus and living life with his disciples will open up the door to real disicpleship. It will bring you forgiveness, direct, confident access to the very throne room of God…And a family, a real family.
Because Jesus has gone through the curtain, entered the holy of holies, sacrificed his own flesh – he has CONSECRATED us – set us apart, dedicated us to his purposes in the world. Therefore, let us provoke one another to love and good deeds, meeting together, living together, loving one another, encouraging one another, and all the more as we see the day approaching.