short-hand religion

“It’s short-hand religion without a deeper theology,” he said. “If you don’t have a theology of empathy, there is no Jesus there. Even if you look at someone who is gay [greedy, dishonest, hateful, racist] and you believe that’s not what God wants for people, Jesus encountered people throughout his ministry that would be doing things God wouldn’t want for them. And he always leaves them with more dignity than he found them.”

                                                              John Pavlovitz

__________________________________________

Why bother with faith?

Why bother, to put it more bluntly

With religion

I mean really, what a pain

You’ve got to give up part of a weekend

To go listen to some dude or dudette talk

And talk

And talk

you’ve got to give up not just time

but money

and perhaps

if your faith system has really got religion

things like

depending on your brand

pot

coffee and coke

alcohol

swearing (I mean WTF?)

and you’ve got to behave

or not

but seriously

what is it that moves a think adult

to embrace a religion

a lot of thinking adults aren’t, anymore

and so we have the “none”

As in I’ll have none of that!

But for those that remain….

Why?

Honestly it seems that for many it is a matter of….

Wait for it…..

Transaction

I participate in this faith thing

And I get blessed

I get prosperous

I get happy

I get saved

From eternal torment

Its turn or burn!

I ran across a song the other day

That might well be the national anthem

Of much of American Christianity

'll be so happy (Lord I'll be)

I'll be so happy (yes I will)

I'll be so happy (when I see his precious face)

I'll be so happy (When I see Jesus inside of me)

I'll be so happy (All my heartaches, they will be over)

I'll be so happy (All my sorrows, they'll be over)

I'll be so happy

(All my tears and my pains, it will be over, yes it will

Oh I won't have to bear noo, won't have to bear no more burdens

I'll be so happy

They'll be nothing but joy and peace over there

Every day will be Sunday

So Happy, Jesus and Me

Jesus and me

We are like “this”

And all is well with the world

Except

I wonder

Is that really what it’s all about?

As I think about my choice

To engage with a God who is love

There are of course “Jesus and me” moments

Yeah

Oh yeah

I want to be in communion with the Sacred

Drawn into a swirling vortex of Love

Forgiven

Healed

Empowered

I want to be filled to overflowing

With Sacred Presence

But there is the critical point

Filled with sacred presence not just

So that I can “be so happy”

But so full of God’s love

That I leak love

So full that it oozes out of me

And transforms

The way I see

The way I treat

Other people

All other people

Not just the easy people

The beautiful people

Rich people

Smart people

Kind people

Clever people

But all people

All meaning all

Even that dirty and drained soul lying on a park bench

Even that greedy and shriveled soul sitting in chairs of gold

My religion (I prefer spirituality)

Should be about how I interact with those people

Who I encounter

Each day

And I should be about one thing

One

Thing

Building a bridge between myself and the other

So that the Sacred can cross over

And do for that person

As much or more as the Sacred has done for me

What I want from my “religion”

Is to become human

To be drawn out of my subhuman

Selfishness and greed

Out of my need for power

And my need to put others down

Into the fullness of my humanity

Into my divine heritage

Into the image

So that I can work with God

To help others

Find themselves

Their true selves

That precious, amazing self

That reflects the very nature of the Sacred

What I want my religion to do

Is to make me a person

Who leaves other people

With more love

More hope

More joy

More peace

With more humanity

With more dignity

Than when I first met them

And that

Is why

I bother