"Religious" vs "Faith"

Point of reference:  This entire blog was prompted by a discussion I had, about two or three weeks ago, while at an appointment with a pulmonary doctor.  He knew I was a retired pastor and was asking about being a woman able to be ordained.  So I ask him his religion.  He is a Sikh.  

The conversation was short but intriguing.  He told me that it was a tiny group of people from India, that practice love through spiritual intervention.  That conversation tugged at my imagination.  So I have been doing a little research.

The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

I have been thinking a lot about people of "faith."  Faith that has been stretch into, what we call, dominations — organized religion.  I am not limiting my thoughts to a certain religion, or religious group.  

The wonder, circulating in my mind, has been how these groups have moved away from their center.  Moved away from God.

I am thinking about all the traditions and practices that have evolved over the years.  Things that have clouded, or diluted, the main thing  — God.  It is almost like we have forgotten the reason for the group.  

I have observed this, many times over the last thirty years, serving as a pastor with people who have been duped into  thinking that to be faithful, to have faith, we have to buy into all the things that have been developed over the centuries.  That is, we have to do things the same way.  Celebrate the same way.  And follow all the rules and rituals in order to be a good ________. 

What began as a belief in God, has developed into a club of people who belong.  Or, as some say it, to be very religious people.  

I remember one afternoon, about six years ago, a group of us were trying to plan an event where all our neighbors were to be invited.  We were trying to decide how to advertise the event.  I can’t remember the exact phrase I suggested, but one of the women said: “Oh! We don’t want them to think that we are too religious.”  I couldn’t believe what came out of her mouth.   Don’t talk about Jesus/God because it might turn people off!   My quick response was: “Well we are, after all, a community of faith.”

What I wasn’t hearing that day was a very thin distinction between being “religious” and being a person/community of “faith.”

Being “religious”, according to Eugene Peterson, is “ the well intended effort we make to ‘get it all together’ for God.  That can very well get in the way of what God is doing for us.”(Living The Message page 107)  

We call this attempted to ‘get it altogether’ “being pious.”  A pious person, devoutly religious, is “one who makes a hypocritical display of virtue.”  Their dutiful effort, however, gets in the way of faith.

In the name of faith they ‘do'; in order to be right, good, worthy followers of all the, human made, rules about God and what God desires.  Instead of listening to God's Word concerning his will and purpose.

To be a bit more clear, they choose “proper” behavior over following Jesus call to love and service.

1 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life - your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life - and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. 2 Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you. 3 I'm speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it's important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him. 4 In this way we are like the various parts of a human body. Each part gets its meaning from the body as a whole, not the other way around. (Romans 12 The Message)