Jesus\Culture
The huge
success of the video “Why I Hate Religion. But Love Jesus” by Jefferson Bethke
highlights a current trend in Christianity of moving away from traditional
language, doctrine, worship and theology for what is perceived as being free
and more authentic. It appeals to a generation disillusioned with standard
religion and are fluent in constructing lifestyles gleaned from the global
media space.
We now have
non-Denominational Churches and Individual (or more commonly couples) starting
ministries all with a slick website and the latest paperback. The worship group
has risen to international pop stardom. The rhetoric of the ministries, tinged
with end of days urgency, talks of “mandate”, “equipping”, “empowering” and
“generation” all to give a sense of a unique and immanent purpose. A mandate
sounds grander and more authorative than a conviction or commandment.
Isn’t this
just a reflection of the culture of today? If these new ministries are
attracting people to Christianity then that must be a good thing. But do they
reflect the truth? Traditional religion may just be the practice of empty
rituals and cultural observances now that we have got something new we able to
be free and authentic in our faith. Yet language has given them away because
when these ministries speak about a generation, a revival or missional
lifestyle and a Jesus culture, the message is you don’t need to belong to a
religious culture you can belong to our counter (Jesus) culture
Not the
least stroke of a pen
To anyone
hurt by the church, who is sickened by the double standards, hypocrisy and
self-righteousness of many in the Church would agree with Bethke’s opening line
of his poem.
What if I
told you Jesus came to abolish religion
It feels
right to our gut instinct, after all didn’t Jesus call the Pharisees a brood of
vipers and turn over the tables in the temple?
If Bethke was just venting with a group of friends about his experience
it would be one thing but this video went viral across the internet with people
either loving or loathing him. I have to
say the video spoke to me as well. However on reflection I have to say it has
major flaws. In what is a fitting response Jesus says
“Do not think that
I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them
but to fulfill them. For truly I tell
you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least
stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is
accomplished.
Jesus did
not come to abolish the religion (law) of his people, in the truly radical
manner of Jesus he come to fulfil it. As well as practising the religion of his
people he also initiated a new covenant and sacrament. If we hate religion,
what is it that we love in Jesus? If religion offends us or theology does not excite
then it is because we do not have a correct view of them. The law that was fulfilled in Jesus should it
be disregarded or should we be pure in heart and more righteous than the
scribes and the Pharisees.
The
Transparent Heart: Doxology and Orthopathy
Theology
once described as the ‘Queen of the Sciences’ has come to be regarded as being
difficult, pedantic and irrelevant. Yet how can the contemplation and talk of
our Holy Creator of heaven and earth, who made man male and female in his image
and who was the author of our salvation be anything but the Queen of the
Sciences (Sciences used in the Mediaeval sense). Our theology informs all our
other views (or at least it should). Theology is also peculiar in that what we
say and believe must flow into our worship and our actions. If not we have
flawed theology.
Orthodoxy
or correct belief has within it the concept of correct praise (doxa can be both
belief and praise) as well as correct practice. Orthopathy a new term to mean
correct feeling comes into importance if we are to tease apart the nature of
Orthodoxy we must see that a true feeling and true worship must reside in the
transparent heart. True feeling will purify our motives in good action, and
worship will seek to perfect our works.
Further Up,
Further In
In our
attempt to create a new, authentic and more appealing Christianity we have done
nothing but fragment our experience, turned the Gospel into a marketing ploy
and as an endlessly reconfigurable lifestyle choice. If we have done anything
by “Hating religion” it is that we have drifted further from God. To appeal to
a young generation is not an easy thing to do, but offering spiritualised copy
of the culture they live in will not succeed
In the
“Discarded Image” C.S Lewis encourages us to look at the view of heaven in the
middle ages imagination. “Earth is
outside the city wall” and we are looking in “within; the vast, lighted concavity filled with music and life. And,
looking in, we do not see, like Meredith's Lucifer, ' the army of unalterable
law', but rather the revelry of insatiable love”. A similar idea is expressed in the final part
of the Narnia series. Having entered Narnia from England, they enter a new
bigger Narnia "world within world, Narnia within Narnia", "more
real and more beautiful than the Narnia down below".
In C.S
Lewis’s view in “The Last Battle” the heaven we are seeking, our true home is
not someplace else it is further up and further in. Entering Narnia from
England, they now enter a better Narnia, a bigger one, in which England (a better
England) exists, Lucy describes it thus “like
an onion: except that as you continue to go in and in, each circle is larger
than the last.”
Like the
children in Narnia I believe that as we delve deeper into religion, it is that
we will gain more than arrogantly throwing off everything. This is not to
suggest that we must observe everything nor that we must believe every doctrine
or practice. It means that we should with an open heart and a discerning mind
we must look to what our “religion” is and find the path of truth.
