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Just a little humor to introduce what can be a very uncomfortable subject.
Are we really prepared to do what it takes to allow God to deconstruct religion and cultivate relationship in our lives? Because to genuinely do so will require a level of objectivity and introspection that is highly likely to go far beyond anything we have ever experienced before. Will you join the Sacred Cow Tipping Team and be prepared to laugh (and probably cry) at your own religiosity when the Holy Spirit digs you in the ribs and says, “Yes, you actually think and do that.” Or are you already setting out the barbed wire and sandbags and getting ready to defend your favorite pet bovine to the death?
Because frankly, facing religion means facing the fact that we have been complicit in our own slavery, which is neither easy nor pleasant.
I believe the British novelist Donald Wheal (pseudonym Dresden James) summarized religion brilliantly when he wrote:
“The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which [who] blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves.”
The journey from religion to relationship is not for the faint of heart. We must always remember that God really has only one method by which he engages our personal transformation and advances his kingdom—death and resurrection. And as much as we might like to think so, we don’t get to skip over the death part and go straight to resurrection. As a matter of fact it is religion that teaches us to try to do exactly that—to minimize the reality of the cross—to treat it strictly as a metaphor with no practical or experiential reality in our day-to-day lives. In order to experience the power of his resurrection, we must also share in the fellowship of his sufferings. The road from religion to relationship is the way of the cross. And the death of religion can be excruciating (pun intended) indeed.
Whenever Jesus encountered your standard issue sinner, he always demonstrated extraordinary compassion. And yet there was one particular group of people, that when he encountered them, didn’t seem to engender much compassion—you guessed it—the Pharisees.
Time and time again, Jesus called it like he saw it—“hypocrites,” “generation of vipers,” “whited sepulchres.”
But although not as immediately inflammatory, the phrase Jesus used regarding the Pharisees that I believe should arrest our attention more than any other is this…
“The traditions of men”
Jesus’ accusation against the Pharisees is absolutely stunning—that they valued their man-made (human) traditions over the commandments of God—and that in doing so they actually transgressed the very commandments they thought they were upholding.
The Pharisees were the masters of religion—using human traditions posing as the commandments of God to attempt to stand approved before God—and teaching and requiring others to do the same.
So time for a new shade of meaning…
Religion is: Attempting to use human tradition, effort, engineering, ingenuity, initiative, ability, and/or ambition to try to stand approved before God, accomplish God’s work, gain God’s acceptance, earn God’s approval, obtain God’s affection, etc, etc.
Plus, these traditions, efforts, etc, are often disguised or camouflaged as being mandated by God. After all, what better way to be approved of by God than to utilize an “approved” method?
But unfortunately, when we read about the Pharisees, our reaction more often than not tends to be, “Oh those silly Pharisees, when were they ever going to learn? I sure am glad I’m not like them.” Not realizing that records such as these are actually insights to ourselves.
In order to allow God to deconstruct religion in our lives, we must be prepared to allow him to dissect our “harmless” traditions at the cellular level, and to acknowledge that we have been complicit in our own slavery—that we too have been Pharisees. Please repeat after me…
Hello, my name is _____________________, and I am a recovering Pharisee.
Welcome to the Sacred Cow Tipping Team.
The End of Religion 