It’s not a religion, it’s a relationship!
–Anonymous

Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God our Father is this:
to visit orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.”
James 1:27

For quite a while now I have been bothered by the way some people re-define words however they best fit into their pre-conceived ideas and views. This is very common in politics, in various other ideologically driven groups, and also among Christians.

Here’s an example: Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship. That’s a very popular assertion in some Christian circles, and usually goes hand in hand with a rejection of all liturgical forms of worship, because these believers have also re-defined the word Liturgy to mean “dead liturgy”.

But is this assertion true, or have they re-defined “religion”?

There is no question that Christianity is concerned with a relationship to God, as long as we are ready to understand “relationship” a good bit broader than relationships with other people. But it is precisely because Christianity has to do with a relationship with GOD, that it is also a religion.

For religion (the etymology of the Latin word is not too clear, some derive it from re-ligere, re-reading, while others derive it from re-ligare, binding or tieing back) is simply a defined way in which humans relate to God or gods (because, certainly, there are false religions, too), with a public aspect to it.

That public aspect becomes more clear when we look at the Greek words in the New Testament which are usually translated religious or pious or religion and piety.

These Greek words are threskos — pious or religious, and threskeia — religiou, piety. They very likely derive from throeo, proclaim loudly, with clamor.

That, by the way, puts in their place all suggestions that we should practice our religion in private — in a very real sense it would then cease to be a religion.

I find it very interesting that most German Bible translations render these word as pious or piety (fromm and Frömmigkeit), words which (in German at least) have as negative connotation “in the world” as religion and co. have in certain Christian circles.

But really, all we need to do is go back to the Bible. In his epistle James, the brother of Jesus and leader of First Church in Jerusalem, describes what true religiou, true piety looks like: meeting the oppressed and marginalized (widows and orphans in his time, when there was no social security) with practical expressions of love, and resisting the temptations of a godless world. The first part of this description should find the approval of worldly people, while the second half should please the ultra-pious Christian crowd . It is this kind of religiou, this kind of piety, which pleases God, according to this verse.

Of course here is also why some Christians are then inclined to throw out the baby with the bathwater, rejecting and condemning not just false religion but all religion:

We can’t do it, certainly not on our own. Unless we are in this relationship with God, we cannot be truly religous or pious, so as to please the Father; when we try to do this on our own, then the words of Isaiah 64:5 apply to us: All our righteousness is no more than filty rags. It must never become our own religiousity, our own piety, it always has to be driven by Christ in us.

On the other hand we must not forget that even with Christ in us, the hope of glory, we remain mortal, limited human beings, and cannot begin to grasp such a totally other, immeasurably great God. We must not forget that many of us, even after years of walking with the Lord, can go through phases of doubt and depression, when God seems incredibly far away. That is why, when we speak of our relationship with God, or of God speaking to us, in to much of a “buddy-buddy” manner, we run the risk that this is even for us mere jargon, the way we talk amongst ourselves, or worse, that by projecting this image of casual friendship with God we put a stumbling block in the path of others who do not have this same emotional experience of closeness to God; who, when they hear “relationship”, think of the relationships we humans have with each other, where we can see and touch each other and never doubt each other’s existence, even when we are down in the dumps.

And it’s just then, when we are down in the dumps, doubting God’s love or even His existence, walking through the “dark valley of the soul”, that some of the ritual aspects of religion, daily  Bible reading following a lectionary, even when we “don’t get anything out of it”, regular attendance at church services, prayer based on the Psalms, on hymns, or with pre-formulated prayers from a book, can be crutches that help us make it to the other side where we can see the sun, the light of God’s presence.

That brings us to that other re-defined word, “dead liturgy.” Liturgical forms and set prayers are dead only when we rattle them off by rote, without any desire for the presence of God or a relationship with him, in our heart. As an aid to overcoming our human weaknesses and limitations liturgy is not at all dead, but a precious and life-giving gift of God.

(I was prompted to write down these thoughts which have been percolating in me for quite some time by a post by Steve Scott at  his blog, From the Pew.)

Posted on: 17th January, 2011

Filed under: Blog English, Christian Faith, Christian Living, Liturgy, Theology

No Comments

Leave a reply