Relationship

Readings for today: 1 Kings 7-8, Psalms 11

What does it mean to be in relationship with God? I’ve been helping some people in my life wrestle with this idea lately. We’ve been having lots of conversations about God and what and why to believe. Over and over again, they keep coming back to religion. They talk about God as an abstract, philosophical idea. They talk about codes of ethics. They talk about laws and rules and expectations. And they struggle because they cannot imagine aligning their life along these lines. It feels arbitrary. Coercive. Sometimes even abusive. One of them was at least honest with me and said, “You know I’m pretty much anti-authority, right?”

My response in these conversations is to try to reframe their thinking around relationship. If our connection to God is mediated through religion then I can understand their objections. Why would anyone want to submit their life to a set of rules that limits their freedoms? That doesn’t have much appeal to me either. But what if our connection to God was mediated through a relationship? What if God was good and loving and could be trusted to know what’s best for us? Wouldn’t that change things?

This is the heart behind Solomon’s great prayer of dedication. Yes, there were a lot of rules and rituals associated with Temple worship but at it’s foundation is a covenantal relationship with the Living God. You see this mapped out in the different examples Solomon cites from everyday life when he prays…

“When a man sins against his neighbor and is forced to take an oath, and he comes to take an oath before your altar in this temple, may you hear in heaven and act. May you judge your servants, condemning the wicked man by bringing what he has done on his own head and providing justice for the righteous by rewarding him according to his righteousness.” (1 Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭31‬-‭32‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

“When your people Israel are defeated before an enemy, because they have sinned against you, and they return to you and praise your name, and they pray and plead with you for mercy in this temple, may you hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your people Israel. May you restore them to the land you gave their ancestors.” (1 Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭33‬-‭34‬ ‭CSB‬‬‬‬)

“When the skies are shut and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you, and they pray toward this place and praise your name, and they turn from their sins because you are afflicting them, may you hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants and your people Israel, so that you may teach them to walk on the good way. May you send rain on your land that you gave your people for an inheritance.” (1 Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭35‬-‭36‬ ‭CSB‬‬)

“When there is famine in the land, when there is pestilence, when there is blight or mildew, locust or grasshopper, when their enemy besieges them in the land and its cities, when there is any plague or illness, every prayer or petition that any person or that all your people Israel may have — they each know their own affliction — as they spread out their hands toward this temple, may you hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and may you forgive, act, and give to everyone according to all their ways, since you know each heart, for you alone know every human heart, so that they may fear you all the days they live on the land you gave our ancestors.” (1 Kings‬ ‭8‬:‭37‬-‭40‬ ‭CSB‬‬‬‬)

Clearly, Solomon has more in view than just religion here. He believes with His whole heart that God Himself has come to dwell with His people. Come to meet with His people face to face. Come to show His great love to His people in person. It’s a powerful prayer and an even more powerful way to think about faith in God. Faith in God is not a commitment to certain ethical code. It is not a belief in an abstract set of theological principles. It is the most intimate relationship we can have in this life because we are relating to the same God who shaped and formed us in our mother’s wombs. The same God who loved us and called us by name from eternity. The same God who bled and died for us on the cross. The same God who rose again to open the way to heaven. The same God who’s coming again to claim His own, set all things right, and make all things new. This is the God we worship and adore and He invites us into His presence so we can know Him and love Him and worship Him.

Readings for tomorrow: 2 Chronicles 4-7, Psalms 134, 136

The End of Religion

Readings for today: Deuteronomy 12-15

One of my favorite theologians is a man named Karl Barth. A Swiss theologian in the 20th century, he was an influential voice in the Confession Church movement that resisted the Nazis in Europe and the author of the famous Barmen Declaration. Barth is most known for his relentlessly “Christocentric” theology. Everything was about Christ for him. He believed with all his heart that the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus which means Jesus reveals the fullness of God to us. Among his many famous sayings about Jesus, I particularly love the one where he calls Christ “the end of all religion” because “religion is understood as human striving toward God.” The essence of Christianity is not religion, it is relationship. It is God coming to be with us. God becoming one of us or as Barth himself put it, “God becoming what we are so we may be become what He is.” This is why God hates religion so much. He hates what it does to us. He hates how it diminishes us. He hates how it degrades us. He hates how it shames us. We were not made to be slaves of gods. We were not made to serve their whims no matter how capricious and arbitrary. We were not made to live in our lives in fear over their anger and rage. We were made for relationship. We were created as beloved children. We were shaped and fashioned after God’s own image so we could serve Him joyfully in the world He has made.

No wonder God tells His people to destroy the false gods and goddesses they encounter! “Destroy completely all the places where the nations that you are driving out worship their gods on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.” (Deuteronomy‬ ‭12‬:‭2‬-‭3‬ ‭CSB‬‬) He is not being mean or lashing out in rage. He is seeking to protect His people from the dangers of false worship and false religion. He does not want them to fall prey to the paganism of the world around them. He is a jealous God. He will not allow them to turn their affections towards another. He will not share them with any other god because He knows how religion deforms and defaces and dehumanizes. And His love is jealous and fierce and loyal and true which is why He seeks to protect us even from ourselves.

The temptation to worship false gods remains. Our world is full of all kinds of religion. All of which God hates. Religion is the source of so much shame and so much fear and so much pain. It drives us crazy because it presents us with a goal that is forever out of reach. Strive as we might, we can never live up to religion’s ideals. We can never meet religion’s ethical and moral demands. We are always falling short. And this is why we need Christ. The end of all religion. The end of all human effort and striving. The end of all shame and fear. The end of all heartache and pain. What God offers us in Jesus Christ is an eternal relationship not another human religion. What God has done in Jesus Christ is bridge the divide between heaven and earth. The Word becomes flesh and blood and moves into our neighborhood. God becomes Emmanuel - God with us. God comes to us, full of grace and truth, to show us what it means to be truly human. Truly beloved. Truly accepted. Put aside your religion. Embrace a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.

Readings for tomorrow: No readings on Sundays