It’s one of the gospels’ most well known teachings, and with good reason.  The parable of the Good Samaritan is an incredible account of what it looks like to follow the greatest commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” (v. 27) establishing an ideal for neighborly love and compassion.  All though familiarity can tame astonishment, which is a trap we must carefully avoid.  

Because this is a shocking story.  It is shocking that that there is no description of the man who needed help.  Jesus gives us no discussion of his race, class, or religion, because in light of the greatest commandment none of that matters.  It is shocking that the Priest and the Levite, the religious elite of Israel, not only failed to live up to the Command, but also that they crossed to the opposite side of the road to avoid helping the man.  And it would have been infuriatingly shocking that a hated Samaritan was the one who lived up to the Jewish God’s commands by going to such amazing lengths to help the injured man.  

But the most radical part of this teaching is very easy to pass up.  See, Jesus tells this parable in response to a lawyer’s question, “And who is my neighbor?” (v. 29)  It’s a question that understands the neighbor relationship as a passive relationship, a relationship that is somehow defined by proximity and circumstance not by people.  But Jesus doesn’t answer that question.  Instead, He tells this parable and closes with his own question, “Which of these three [Priest, Levite, Samaritan], do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers?” (v.36)  It’s not about who are your neighbors, it’s about who are you a neighbor to.  Christ’s sense of being a neighbor is too radical to be confined to a passive relationship.  No.  It’s about being committed to actively seeking and reaching out to those who need help.  It’s about loving them in truth and also in action, helping their specific needs the best you can, while also trying to connect them with those who can better meet their needs.  Because it’s about loving them as you love yourself.  

If Jesus answered the lawyer’s original question, He would have given a definition.  Instead, Jesus gave a commission.  A commission that extends to all of us, “Go and do likewise.” (v. 37)

*(Luke 10:25-37)

So as I was preparing this talk, I had to really think about what I should say to get people fired up about Christianity.  Because that’s all a revival is: getting ourselves excited and inspired to commit or recommit our lives to Jesus, so we leave energized and empowered.  That’s my prayer for tonight, that something would hit each and every one of us, so we all walk through those doors uplifted, but more importantly transformed.  Amen? 

One of the aspects about Christianity that really gets me fired up, that just hits me, is the tremendous, radical freedom found in the gospel.  And that may surprise some of you, because its easy to find examples of Christians being portrayed, or even portraying themselves, as hyper-judgmental, cookie-cutter images of each other, too afraid to think for themselves.  Christianity can seem to be a religion that’s al about believe this, think that, don’t do these, and we’ll see you next week.

But that’s not what God wants for us.  The purpose of the gospel is for us to now be able to live life to the full.  And this freedom to live flows directly from God’s love for each of us that Maureen just talked about. 

John 8:31-32 “Then Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, ‘If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.’”

These are a couple of pretty mystical verses, even the people who Jesus was speaking to didn’t really get what he was saying.  They were like, “Who us?  Free?  But we’ve never been slaves?”  And in order for us to really get at the meaning behind this statement, we can’t make the same mistake they did in taking Jesus’ words only at face value.  If we do that, we miss out on the depth and power of what Jesus is saying.  “The truth will make you free.”

The first thing we need to ask to understand what Jesus is saying is quite simply: what is this truth that Jesus is talking about?  Without knowing that there isn’t anywhere for us to go, and we can’t possibly figure out what Christ meant, let alone get that freedom He is talking about.  It isn’t enough to know that there is a key that opens a lock.  If we want that lock opened we need to know what key to use.  So what is this Truth?

It’s Himself.  Jesus is the Truth that makes us free.  

A large theme throughout the entire New Testament and especially the books and letters of John is that Jesus wasn’t just someone who proclaims a truth, but He is the very Truth He proclaims, and that by following him, we come to know this Truth Jesus.  Later on, in John 14:6 Jesus says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”  At the core of Jesus’ identity, the depth of who He is, is this freedom bringing Truth for anyone who seeks it.  Because Jesus is the epitome, the embodiment of Grace.  He is the truth that God is reaching out to you, is going to extreme lengths to bring you back near to Him into an intimate relationship, only because of His radical, absurd, overflowing Love for you.  And He reaches out for us in spite of our failures, our problems, and our sins.  And it is this Love which saves and sets us free from all of that.  This is who Jesus is.  Jesus’ name in Hebrew means God saves.  

That’s the truth He was talking about.  It is His identity.  It is why He came, why He lived, why He taught, why He died, and why He rose again.  It is John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” 

It is the Gospel, the good news, the greatest news, and it is why we are here tonight.  This is the message that fires us up to face the world.  God is for us.  He is not scowling down at us waiting for you or me to step out of line so he can crush us with Condemnation.  No.  He is seeking after us, like a shepherd for his lost sheep, a father for his lost children. He wants to pour out His love on each of us, transforming us into our true selves.  In communion with Him, in communion with each other, and in communion with all creation.  His hand is outstretched to each of us, because of what Christ has done to set us free.  All we need to do is take it.  

God is for us.

So radically for us that he brought Himself and His entire Kingdom to us.  He is not distant or disinterested.  He has made it abundantly clear that this life, this time, this space we have been given is not something we just need to get through to go to heaven.  No, heaven is invading right here right now.  And it is calling us and giving us the strength to live life to the full.  The hand God is extending to us is, in Jesus’ words “at hand,” so close we don’t even need to reach to grab it.  God’s Kingdom has drawn near. It is among us and in us.  And we are invited to live in the kingdom and with the kingdom in us.

This is the Truth that Jesus proclaimed, because He is this Truth. 

And it is in this Truth that we find the tremendous, life-changing freedom to truly be ourselves, and to live life fully and authentically.

The world we live in spends a lot of time trying to tell each of us who we are.  And it is harsh.  The world looks only at the outside, what we say, how we look, what we’ve accomplished.  But the world gives the most staggering weight to our mistakes, failures, and the wrongs we’ve committed.  It is happy to define us by those, allowing them to eclipse any other aspect of who we are.  So we get labeled by the things that we are most ashamed of.  The world says we are failures, liars, screw-ups, addicts, cowards, criminals, lusters, weaklings, whores, cheaters, hypocrites.  That we’re wicked, evil, fearful, worthless. And on and on and on.  It is incredibly difficult to shake those words and labels off, instead we become chained to them.  

But even worse than what the world yells at us, is what we whisper to ourselves.  The world is quick to judge, but we can be downright cruel in how we identify ourselves.  We each know intimately the things we regret, the wrong we’ve done, and all the sins we’ve committed.  Most of all, we know the sin we continue to struggle with.  Those things we confront but can’t beat. I bet that at one time or another we have all identified with the saint’s words in Romans, “I do not understand my own actions.  For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate… I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.  For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do.” With that sin and knowledge, we can be so ruthless to ourselves.  “What’s wrong with me!  I should be better than that! I’m a failure! An idiot.”  It’s so easy for us to dwell on it.  Letting that guilt and shame fester and grow.  So it just wears on us, dragging us down.  We can begin believing that those things we hate most about ourselves are the very things that make us who we are. That they control us.  Which is allowing those things to enslave us.  To take our lives captive.  And that is exactly what Jesus means in verse 34 when he says “Very truly I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.” 

Then this bitterness begins sapping our strength and energy, making us more prone to stumble, to fall, and to give in to sin again.  Reinforcing those self-defeating things we tell ourselves.  And we can spiral and spiral, being tougher and tougher on ourselves, coming to believe that we are our shame.  

But that is not the Truth. 

The Truth comes to us in Love.  And it says, “You are not your failures.  Your mistakes do not make you who you are.  Your sins do not define you.  I know because I created you.  You were fearfully and wonderfully made.  I breathed life into you, so that you could find peace and joy in My Love for you.  I delight in you.” 

Jesus, the Truth tells us, “ I know you’ve made mistakes.  I’ve seen your sin and how it has separated us.  But my Love is bigger than your sin.  My embrace is stronger than your attempts to turn from Me.  And I want to bring you back to Me, so much so that I came and gave my life so that we could be reconciled.  Because of that you are not a failure.  You are not a sinner.  You are God’s beloved child, righteous and without blemish.”  

This is our true Identity, and it is the identity that gives us the freedom to authentically be who we are, because it shatters sin’s lies about us.  

We no longer have to accept the world’s valuation of us.  We don’t have to listen to that voice in the back of our heads that criticizes and condemns.  Because the God of the Universe has loved and forgiven us, so we are given the freedom to love and forgive ourselves as well.  So don’t hold onto the sin that Jesus freed you from any longer.  God has let it go in His view of us, so we should let it go as well.  Die to the sin so you can live to God.  We are to be filled with that overflowing love and forgiveness of God.  As that wells up within us, we can pour it onto our neighbors.  Restoring the relationships with our brothers and sisters, growing into real community with them as we also grow nearer to God, creating this deepening communion between ourselves, others and God.  

With the empowerment that comes only from communion like that, and the strength of God within us, we are encouraged and empowered to fight back, overcoming ourselves and our sin.  This is repentance, and we are called to live it.  It’s a not a word we like hearing.  But each of us needs to understand that repentance is not a barrier, but an invitation.  Those sins that are enslaving us, lying about who we are, and keeping us from living life to the full, we have to face them to be free of them.  But we don’t have to face them alone.  The God of the universe is facing them with us.  Paul says in Romans 8:9, “the Spirit of God dwells in you.”  Or as he says in Philippians 2:13, “For it is God who is at work in you, enabling you to will and work for His good pleasure.”  Paul is just carrying on the proclamation of Jesus, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven has come near!”  And brothers and sisters, the weight of that entire kingdom is behind us in our repentance.

Now of course, repenting is still a struggle and a process that we must continue throughout our life.  But that’s okay. Because of God’s Love for us we can know we aren’t perfect, and instead find peace in the fact that we are works in progress.  Because we can trust that no matter our stumbles and the times we stray, God is faithful to be with us every step of the way.  Or as Paul says about life in Philippians 3:12, “Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”  

And because of the Grace of God expressed in the Gospel, we can press on to live better. Not in timidity or selfishness, trying to earn our way into heaven or to avoid punishment, in other words, only doing good for self-serving reasons; but in boldness knowing that it is the way to live authentically and out loud.  Because Christ came and freed us from our sins so that we can, in his words “have life and have it abundantly.”  

But we don’t just have a newfound freedom of identity and freedom to live.  We also have the audacious freedom to rejoice.   Jesus has given us an unthinkable gift, at the cost of his own life.  It is not just freedom from our sin and the chance to find strength and peace in fighting it, but now we get to be reconciled to God through Him.  We are connected to the God of all Love, Goodness, and Peace, the God of Life, and if it is God who draws us to Himself nothing can separate us from that.  As Paul says in Romans 8:37-39, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.  For I am convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  The incomprehensible God loves you incomprehensibly.  The only response to this is unthinkable gratitude, which leads to immeasurable Joy.  So now that the gospel has set us free, we can live with that joy firmly planted in our hearts as we take on the world, with all its challenges and pains, assured in the confidence that because of God’s Grace and Christ’s sacrifice we have already won.  

Peace

It is today that Christians get to celebrate the ultimate injustice: Grace. 

As Jesus was being lead to his crucifixion, we are told that the Roman soldiers made a man carry Jesus’ cross.  Now we can’t be sure if Simon was a follower of Jesus or not, but I think that we can be confident that the Roman soldiers didn’t care.  They “compelled” him, or “seized” and forced him to do it, without any regard for his personal beliefs.  This is exactly what we should expect from some of the most brutal men portrayed in the New Testament, the same men who mocked, beat, and executed Jesus. 

So my question is why are we Christians doing just what these soldiers did in forcing others to bear Jesus’ cross? 

As a Christian, I see bearing my cross as an awe-inspiring responsibility as well as a precious honor.  But it is one that is only to be taken up freely, aided by the empowerment that comes from God.  It is not something that we should compel and force others to pick up. 

There’s a story in the Gospel of Luke,* where Jesus and his disciples cross the Sea of Galilee and go to the town of Gerasene.  When they arrive they meet a demoniac who had been long afflicted to the point of running around the tombs naked.  This man was well known in the town for his crazy and terrifying behavior.  But anyway, Jesus cures this man, and the whole town hears about it.  They come out to find the man they knew to be wild clothed and sitting calmly and Jesus’ feet.  

Seeing the formerly possessed man like that was a challenge to what they thought they knew and their entire worldview.  This made them uncomfortable and even “seized them with a great fear” according to the author.  Not able to cope with this assault on their understanding and wanting to go back to the status quo, the people ask Jesus to leave.  

This pisses Jesus off.  So he begins screaming at them.  He yells about how wicked and sinful the Gerasenes are, and about how they will burn in hell for rejecting him and not repenting.  And he rants, and he rants,  and he rants. 

Actually, I’m totally kidding.  Instead he just leaves.  

Yup, he gets in his boat and goes away.  Probably recognizing that if they didn’t accept Him at first, after what He had shown them, anything else he tried to do would only make them push him away further. Staying would only turn their discomfort and fear into anger and hate, strengthening their rejection.  So he peaceably leaves them.  

But Jesus doesn’t completely abandon the Gerasenes.  He commissions the former wild man to stay and to testify on his account.  This is something that we Christians can do as well.  Because if we approach someone in humility and grace, being respectful especially if they don’t want to hear what we have to say, and leaving them alone if they ask, then hopefully we can heal the twisted view of all Christians being pushy, judgmental hypocrites.  And maybe that will go on to testify on our behalf. 

*Luke 8:26-39

Religion, no matter our own beliefs, is so entrenched in our past, our present, our world, and our perspective that it has become a part of the human condition.  It is something that many people participate in, and can be found all over the world.  This only begs the question, what is religion?  The most blatantly obvious answer looking at our own history is that religion is something that humans do, and have done for a long time.  But that is only a simple answer, this question demands that we take it further.  So, at its core, in its purest form, what is real sincere religion?  This deeper question requires us to look at religion as an attempt to speak at what it means to be a person.  Almost intrinsic to all of us is this deep, awe filled recognition that there is something outside of ourselves that is so glorious, so incomprehensibly grand that by comparison we amount to nothing.  And yet, just as deep is the conviction that we as individuals possess an inalienable, incalculable value as part of our basic humanity.  The struggle of religion is the struggle to find some unification between these two contending convictions.  

So, religion is the personal striving of the individual to relate to the Universal.  Of course many worship in groups, or are part of an institutionalized religion in which they share the same doctrines and dogmas.  But in order for beliefs to have any significant impact on a person’s life they must be internalized in a way that the individual can connect with, and beliefs can only be held and understood on the level of the individual.  

Because religion is a personal journey, it is necessarily impacted by our own limitations.  As humans we all possess our own imperfections, flaws, and constraints.  These constraints follow us through all of our attempts to seek understanding, tainting them.  As a species so constrained, we should be weary of certainty.  This is exactly where faith comes in.  Faith starts with this recognition that we are creatures with imperfect and limited brains, then states that we don’t have the right to claim absolute certainty.  Instead, faith says that we should use all of our faculties, take them as far as they will go, then we have to take a leap of faith to bridge the gap between what we know and the absolute truth.  This leap is both necessary and something that we do all the time, because life demands that we make choices and act despite not having perfect knowledge.  This understanding of faith leads to three conclusions for the intentional religious life: the importance of doubt, the value of humility, and the demand to always keep searching.  

In Recognizing that we are not, and should not be certain, we open the door for doubts.  However, with the realistic view of ourselves that faith demands we take, doubt is no longer something that we must disprove of or condemn, instead it becomes a powerful ally for furthering our faith.  Doubt becomes a motivation to examine the structural integrity of our beliefs, and then serves as a tool for strengthening or improving our positions.  For the beliefs that cannot stand up to examination or challenge, doubt demands that we remove them.  Yet still leaves us with comfort from the understanding that the particular belief was not helping or was possibly even hindering us from relating more fully to the reality of the universal.  So we can realize that we are better off without the belief.  For the beliefs that do withstand the testing we can feel more secure in them and hold them with deepening faith.  Instead of doubt leading to a cynical form of skepticism, it is actually a powerful means of gaining confidence.  This is a confidence forged by uncertainty and challenge, not a vain pride based in self-indulgence and self-deception, meaning that it is actually in harmony with humility.  This is a confidence that grows from how far we have come, and it walks hand in hand with faith’s recognition of how far there still is to go.  

Confidence like this, tempered by reality, is humble, and an intentional, sincere faith demands that we  stay humble so that we will remain open.   There is so much in the universe that we haven’t seen, heard, or touched, and even more that we don’t know, and all of it has the potential to improve and expand our beliefs bringing us that much closer to the universal.  So the faithful live wide-eyed, trying to take in as much as they can, using the unfolding of life to grow.  Humility also shows us that there is the possibility to learn from anyone, no matter their station.  If they disagree with us, they offer us the challenge of doubt along with its potential for our development.  If they hold similar beliefs, they may be able to illuminate something we have taken for granted.  But no matter what someone believes, discussion always offers us the chance to widen our own views by seeing where someone else is coming from.  

Arrogance shuts us down to all of this.  If we believe that we are absolutely right, we no longer will have the desire to try and further our understandings, and we would no longer see the value in listening to others because we would believe that they have nothing to offer us.  If this happens, we are no longer participating in religion, because we are no longer striving to relate to the universal.  No, we will have deluded ourselves into having trapped the incomprehensible universal within the constraints of our own beliefs.  This is the realm of narrow-minded ideologies, not religion.  

It is the very nature of the universal that refuses being contained and shatters any box we try to fit it into.  This is why faith is a life long process.  Any attempt to stop is tantamount to claiming complete and perfect knowledge.  Instead faith says that there is always more to learn and room for beliefs to grow.  So we must strive on.  

All of the above is integral to the religious life, but religion is not merely an intellectual pursuit.  A necessary part of trying to relate to the universal is doing our best to live in accordance with it.  By starting down the path of religion we must allow that the universal can and will make claims on our choices, our actions, and our very lives.  The religious person acknowledges that the universal is the highest reality, so any attempt to reject or resist it is not only futile but also absurd.  The attempts to violate the way of the universal only serves to separate us from it.  Thus cutting us off from the source of truth, life, and goodness, leading us into a state of despair.

  As already recognized, we are not perfect.  The truth about life is that we will fall short and we will fail.  But the failure does not have to be the end.  We can repent and try again.  Which is in fact what religion compels us to do.  This struggle works a lot like doubt as we face the challenges posed by our own faults and desires which are in opposition to the way of the universal.  These challenges help to strengthen our will allowing us to grow nearer to the ways of the universal.  Ultimately helping to restore us to a better relationship with the world around us.  

Now, the seeking and striving of the religious life are necessarily personal, but this does not negate the role of others in the individual’s life.  In relating to the universal, we are relating to the source and sustainer of all.  In bringing ourselves into right relationship with it, we are also bringing ourselves into right relationship with everything and everyone else.  From these connections peace will overflow and pervade our lives as far as we let it.  This is integral to the religious life, because as humans we must live in the world and in community with others.  And that is to say nothing of the inherent value of sharing life.  We have already discussed the role of others in expanding our beliefs, but that is nearly insignificant when compared to the amazing blessings of relationships.  Sharing life with others brings new richness and depth to existence, as well as strength when we are weak, care when we are hurt, comfort when we are depressed, and even joy when we are already rejoicing.  

With religion viewed in this way, many would argue that it should be the most important thing in a person’s life.  But religion in this way makes a completely different argument.  It is not content with being a fraction of our lives, no matter how big.  Instead, its demands are all encompassing.  Religion does not seek to be one aspect of our lives to which we commit our time, energy and passion.  No, religion seeks to reframe every aspect of our lives, relating them to the reality of the universal.  Because it is only in relationship with the universal that significance is granted.  So, we must be ready and willing to offer up everything as a sacrifice.  Some things we must let go in order for us to grow, some things will begin to require more of our  passion and commitment, but all will be laid claim to by the universal and will be reformed by it.  

This is of course an intense and demanding process, which our whole lives are an act of trying to complete.  But it is not something we should do with grief or despair.  No, if we can truly trust that the life spent relating to the universal as we understand it, then we can see that this process is not only necessary but it is the best we can do for ourselves as well.  So, despite the hardships in store for us, we can begin walking down this path with peace; rejoicing that it will lead us to a life lived to the full.  

Religion like this is a journey that I have been on for several years now.  My seeking for the universal has taken me on studies through many different faiths and systems of belief as well as intense self-reflection.  This path has lead me to become a Christian.  Christianity makes the same claims on the believer’s life as I have listed above.  It demands that the believer have sincere faith; do his or her best to live according to the way of God as the universal; live in communion with God, others, and the world; and to be willing to surrender life and everything in it to God’s will.  But, Christianity makes a radical shift.  Instead of focusing on what the believer has to do to come into relationship with God, Christianity emphasizes with supreme importance what God has already done to come into relationship with the believer.  The incarnation of God as Jesus of Nazareth, as well as His ministry and crucifixion are the embodiment of how far God was willing to go in order to bring me back to Him.  What drives me on in my religious life is my wonder, thanks, and joy for the love and grace that God has given me so freely, and the desire to abide more fully in relationship with Him.  

Do not mistake love for a feeling.  There is this common misconception of being “in” love with someone, of being swept away and infatuated by another.  And these feelings normally do surface in loving relationships, but you are wrong if that is all you think Love is.  Being filled with that raw passion, and finding all that delight in another is a wonderful blessing, one to be seized and enjoyed as it lasts.  But if that is the total of your “love” for the other, than it is not them that you love, but the way that they make you feel.  Your love comes down to nothing more than love of self.

True love is an active commitment.  It is something that you must do, not a state that you are passively “in.”  True love is selfless in its concern for the other, but it is not self-defeating in its means.  To really love someone, you recommit to that love every day, especially when it is difficult, especially when the passion has faded, especially when you are upset with them.  Because your love is bigger than that.  

Love is the act of an individual, selflessly pouring themselves out from the abundance of their heart.  Caring for others around themselves, because they see the common spirit and worth of all.  Loving your neighbor, because your neighbor is to be loved.  All true love starts with this loving your neighbor for who they are, and cherishing the innate value they carry within themselves.  And truly loving is the greatest thing a person can do.

 As we love, and others return the love, then we enter into relationships, the greatest blessing we can receive.  While starting as the broad, undefined love of neighbor, this love becomes profoundly particular as our unique personalities connect.  Growing into a personal expression of a transcendent reality.  

So hold on to love, and to those that you love.  Stay committed and find peace in those you are committed to. 

Peace

In my last post, I came down pretty hard on religion in general.  So you may not have much hope for my feelings on rituals.  But not to be confusing, I actually have no problem with the idea of a ritual, a practice that has gained meaning in our attempt to closer relate to God.  I think they can be a valuable part of a healthy faith, and serve as a powerful symbol and reminder when we need one.  

The most important thing to remember in our approach to rituals, is it is our heart that makes them valuable.  The action on its on is meaningless, but it gains meaning as we give it the power to open our hearts to God.  Many times, the repetition of rituals can start to make them stale, we begin to take for granted the significance of what we are doing.  The solution is simple: remember.  Go back to a time when the action was powerful and made your spirit tremble.  If there never was a time like that, investigate the overall symbolism of the action, and the symbolism it bears in your own life.  But a more overarching solution is to just be grateful.  Give thanks that you can express your faith in meaning laden action.  See it as a grace, and a source of solidarity between you and your fellow believers.  

Never let a religious leader or institution hold a ritual over your head.  Never believe that by refusing you the ritual, they are preventing you from receiving God’s blessing, or worse, bringing down his condemnation on you.  If anyone is preventing you from honestly participating in any religious action, for whatever reason, especially that of a past sin, find a way to do it on your own, or with a close community.

 Our ability to ritualize an event, and find deeper significance in an action is a gift from God.  No one can take that grace away from you.  

Peace

I am a firm believer in faith.  I think that given our circumstances, faith is the most humble way to go through life, while still preserving our own ability to act willfully.  

My relationship with religion, however, is not the same.  I have problems with religion. 

For clarification, my definition of religion is an institutionalized system of belief concerning how one should approach reality.  

The institutionalization, creates a massive problem with spiritual matters.  Because, while divinely inspired, all religions are ultimately established and perpetuated by man.  Meaning that all religions are susceptible to error and flaws.  This could be a source of tremendous strength to believers, forcing them to stay engaged with the questions that arise from confronting the mysteries of the world.  This could be a source of tremendous growth, both for the believer and the beliefs.

But instead, religious people confront the awe inducing unknowns, and their fear and trembling is replaced with terror.  They see uncertainty as a threat, and doubt as a grave enemy.  So they institute their dogmas into walls, to protect them from their own insecurities and those who would challenge their beliefs.  These walls then shape their whole view on the world.  They start defining people as either “In” or “Out.”  Those who are in think their walls protect them from the outsiders, but in fact they are just isolated.  Beliefs are like the human spirit, when alone they stagnate and become weaker, so those on the inside must believe them even stronger to compensate.  They feel compelled to defend from unbelievers the institution that was once constructed to protect them, launching their attacks from behind their walls, shielding themselves from doubt.  They never allow for another point of view.  They never consider viewing their structure from the outside.  So as the stones weaken, and the foundations split, the insiders can’t see it.  

But the worst thing about these damn walls, is that they try to fit God or reality inside of them.  Unaware, that God shatters all that is arrogant enough to try to limit him.  Ignorant of the fact that the only thing that can contain God is the heart.  

Institutions are also completely unsuited to deal with the radically personal nature of the spiritual life.  In this approach to living, the beliefs are valuable, but also valuable is the striving and development in coming to those beliefs.  In this regard, religions establish a finish or end when the journey is a vital part of the spiritual life.  

Another devastating component of religions is their emphasis on legalism.  They mandate laws as the way to win God’s favor, neglecting the reality of mercy and grace.  This leads to two places, and both are troubling.  For the believer who can’t quite measure up, they are wracked by guilt and despair.  In this person, the raw passion that could be the fuel for a burning relationship with God, instead is used to oppress their spirit because they have not been introduced to the radical Love of God.  On the other side of the spectrum is the believer who feels capable of keeping the rules.  This person becomes arrogant and prideful, believing that they can reach God on their own merit.  This person is further from God, because they are so wrapped up in their own ability and goodness that they feel they don’t need God.  

Viewed in this light, there are no completely religious belief systems, and in every religion, there are bright spots.  But while there is no reason to completely despair, we do need to stay on guard against these pervasive religious inclinations.  Our best defenses against religion are the courage to doubt, humility, and grace. 

Peace