16 October 2005 Devotion for Today “Religion or Relationship?” James 1:26-27
For some reason, the question posed by a British teen aged friend years and years ago comes across my mind every now and then. This was in the early 1970s near the town of
“No,” I said hesitantly, “Gotta go to church in the morning but maybe in the afternoon I can play.”
I could tell that the response gave the kids even more derisive pleasure.
“Church? You mean you believe in religion?” said one friend, tauntingly. “Core, I don’t think I’ve ever been to church a handful of times in me life!”
I braced myself for the teasing that I knew I would probably get for making such a remark. These British boys had seldom been to church. They were christened in the Church of England as babies and perhaps had not been to church since except for their confirmation classes a year or two before. But we got into a good discussion about the value of church and what it means. One of the boys reflected fondly upon how, at his confirmation with twelve or fifteen other young people, the bishop sponsored a dance at the parish hall in which alcohol was served to the parents and other guests. The boy bragged about how many of the confirmants sneeked beer from the party and went behind the parish hall to get drunk. They only managed to get very sick before they were discovered. When the bishop and the vicar heard about it, they laughed. I was incredulous as I heard their tale.
Another boy, who was in the same parish confirmant class, boasted about how he would steal sacramental wine from the vestry, and how the absent-minded vicar would come into class complaining how every time the parish held the classes he never managed to keep enough wine around for the Sunday Eucharist. Somehow he never quite made the connection. Again the boys laughed.
I couldn’t recall about what I was more appalled at- that these young men would have such lack of respect for God as to use their confirmation classes as an excuse to get drunk, or the sheer lack of understanding and value that faith held for them. And not just for them only, but also their parents and for the clergy who thought the whole sordid ordeal was hilarious. By their response they admitted that they probably played the same game themselves. Wisely I withheld my urge to comment upon their stories, because they would not have understood even if they had wanted.
I have come to loath the word religion since then, for its very expression betrays a lack of a genuine spiritual relationship with Jesus Christ. Religion conveys a feeble, if not grudging response of man to reach out to God on man’s own terms with such cold formality that desires to say more about who they are than who God is. The term religion implies an inadequate response to the love that God has for us. Do I believe in religion? No. As I see it, religion has done more to keep people from really knowing God than pointing people to Him. I don’t believe in religion. But I do believe in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. The outflow of my love for Him has never compelled me to practice the expression of my faith in Christ- the response is automatic. What is more, (the situation in raising children is always being subject to change) I have never had to demand that my three teenagers attend church. For that I also give God the glory. To them their faith is not a religion, it is born out of a loving relationship with God.
James says that “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.” James 1:26-27
James was concerned that expression of one’s faith be consistent with the overflow of one’s heart. Obviously being “religious” does not have much effect when it does not evoke change in the manner in which one uses one’s tongue. “Real religion” is not only consistent, it is also proactive. Don’t get me wrong- It’s not that I am against religious expression- whatever that means. But if it is not born out of a love for God that creates an inner desire to serve Him then it does not have much value for me. I doubt it has much value to God, either. Each day I must ask myself, “Do I exhibit religion or relationship in all that I do today?”
Have a blessed day.
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