It’s a dangerous word to use with religion – real – but it is sometimes necessary to make the point. The writer of the book of James in the Christian Scriptures wrote, “Religion that is pure and undefiled before God is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.” Jesus gave us a 3-point command; love God with all we have and love our neighbor as we love ourselves. The true practice of religion is an imperfect and sometimes frustrating journey. And from where I sit, I haven’t seen enough of these guiding words being taken seriously. And while I have no problem with diversity of faith, I do have a problem when our practices pander to the secular world rather than God.
For example, the Easter Bunny and Santa Claus. I know – not this rave again! No, bear with me; this is something I was reminded of as I was leading a group in a study of a book by Garry Wills, “What the Gospels Mean”. He pointed out that the stories of the two most important holy days in the Christian faith are not just upbeat and joyful; they are sad and full of danger and violence. We can’t help but weep when we read about King Herod murdering all the children under 2 years old so he could make sure Jesus was dead. We can’t help but watch in horror as Jesus is murdered by the government, abandoned by His followers. These are very real and important parts of the story yet are so often ignored by most of our members. The murder of the innocents is usually read on one of the Sundays after Christmas, considered a “low” Sunday when it comes to attendance. And Good Friday is, at least for most Protestants, barely recognized. In fact, I would say that most people spend far more time thinking about Santa and the Bunny than they do Jesus at those busy times of the year. They divert us from the real reason we practice this bizarre faith; they don’t push us to think more deeply about what we believe in.
Our stories of faith are like life; they are roller coaster rides that should force us to experience all of the emotions and thoughts that make us struggle, doubt, and (we hope) come out the other side with deeper commitments to loving God, neighbor, and self. The secular versions of these holy days are nothing more that greed-fests; they turn Jesus into a commodity and the preparation for the celebrations into frantic purchasing. I love seeing people visit us on those holy days, but the health of a congregation cannot be judged by how many visitors we get on Christmas and Easter; our spiritual health should be seen in the good we do on the days in between. Practicing our faith is a daily journey that we should be taking together. Real religion is how we treat everyone every day. Do you practice your faith, or do you avoid it? A good question we should ask ourselves often.
Prayer – Guide us, God of care and justice, to go deeper into our faith so Your grace can be revealed in us. Amen.