Go Green, Jesus is Doing it! - pt. 4

Theologians past and present share genuine reverence for nature. They understood creation to be a source of regeneration, a testament of God's majesty, and a gift from the loving creator. Because he loved God, Francis Schaeffer proposed Christian advocacy on behalf of the environment, and suggested the Jesus-way to those turning to New Age religion.

It seems fitting to end this series asking what the word of God says about creation. Does Jesus' teachings and the scriptures provide a foundation sturdy enough to build earnest reverence for nature? Does green rhetoric and advocacy of Christians today speak to the truth of the bible, or to a cultural trend?

Begining in the old testament, it is common (especially in Psalms) for creation to inspire worship of the Lord. In Psalm 104:24, 31-32 the Lord's majesty is revealed through his creation, and he even "touches the mountains and they smoke." The Lord is seen "riding through the desert" in Psalm 68:4 which causes the psalmist to exult him in nature. Likewise, in Psalm 19:1-4 "The heavens (as in stars) declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork." Amos describes a similar feeling in 4:13, "For behold, he who forms the mountains and creates the wind, and declares to man what is his thought, who makes the morning darkness, and treads on the heights of the earth-- the LORD, the God of hosts, is his name!" Creation inspires many of the biblical authors to worship God, which plants the seed in our hearts, reminding us to be respect nature.

Another theme of the Old Testament is the Lord's active roll in nature. In Psalm 18:10-12 The lord, rides on the wind, beneath a canopy of thick, dark clouds. It continues, "Out of the brightness before him hailstones and coals of fire broke through his clouds." A longer, similar image occurs in Job 38, as the Lord hurls lightning bolts, opens up the storehouses of rain, and walks among the lions. C.S. Lewis was not far off when he said that the Lord "is not a tame lion." These verses reveal that God cares for creation, because he is an active force within it! If God only cared about the spiritual things, then why would He "provide food for the raven," "tip over the water jars of heaven," "lead out the bear with its cubs," "satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass," and "journey to the springs of the sea?" (Job 38)

Jesus Christ himself inspired reverence for nature with his metaphors for the kingdom of heaven. One day Christ said that the kingdom of heaven is like a growing seed, (Mark 4:26-29) and then a mustard seed (Mark 4:30-34). Fittingly, later that day Jesus calmed a wild storm and rebuked his disciples for having little faith (Mark 4:35-41). Christ's dominion over the storm echoes the poetry of Job 38. In the gospel of Matthew Jesus tells an organic parable to describe the kingdom of heaven: a farmer sows good seed, but overnight his enemies sow bad seed among the good. The farmer allows the bad seed to grow among the good seed, and separates the wheat from the weeds at harvest. Jesus uses another organic image after the disciples leave the last supper. This time, Christ compares himself to a vine, and the disciples to branches (John 15:1-10). If God disdained creation and desired men to bastardize it, then why would Jesus use nature to describe himself and his awesome kingdom? President Bush does not compare America to a pig sty, likewise Christ would not compare his kingdom to something unworthy and low.

The most powerful examples of God's care for nature comes from a series of verses (old testament and new testament) in which mankind sinfully defiles the Earth, resulting in the scourging of creation. (Check out Isa. 24, 35:12-20, Jer.12, Hos. 4, Joel 1:10-20, Nah. 3:16) In each of these verse a similar line occurs:

"The earth is defiled by its people;

they have disobeyed the laws,

violated the statutes

and broken the everlasting covenant." (Isa. 4:5)

Men and women defile the Earth and sin. This breaks a covenant with God, which leads to the destruction of nature:

"The earth dries up and withers,
the world languishes and withers,
the exalted of the earth languish." (Isa. 4:4)

"Therefore a curse consumes the earth;
its people must bear their guilt.
Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up,
and very few are left." (Isa. 4:6)

In Jeremiah, the prophet mourns the scourging of the Earth caused by the defilement of man:

"How long will the land lie parched
and the grass in every field be withered?
Because those who live in it are wicked,
the animals and birds have perished.
Moreover, the people are saying,
"He will not see what happens to us." (Jer. 12:4)

The prophet's sentiments are all inline. Man sinned, and man defiled Earth. One of the first gifts God gave was dominion over the Earth (Gen. 1:28). John Eldredge suggests that after mankind fell into sin, so did man's dominion over the Earth. In sin man lost full dominion over the creation. Jesus, who was sinless, never lost dominion; this is why he could command the fish an nature (Matt 17:24-27, Mark 4:35-41, John 21:1-11). In man's sinful dominion he abuses and defiles nature, and wrongfully subdues the beautiful world God gave as a gift.

In Revelation John writes of judgement for the defilement of creation:

". . .The time has come for judging the dead,
. . . and for destroying those who destroy the earth." (Rev. 11:18, emphasis added).

God takes dominion seriously, and abuse of dominion is rebellion against God's will. These verses provide a beautiful foundation for advocacy and care of the environment.

Bradstreet, Schaeffer, Edwards, Assisi, and Augustine were right in their evaluations of creation. Today we can look to God's word as a mortar board for a radical worldview: we must practice, respectful, rightful, and sensible dominion over the Earth, protecting the creation and building it up, recognizing it as God's gift, and loving the giver above all things.

A Poem A Wednesday (4)

Encounter
By: Czeslaw Milosz

We were riding through frozen fields in a wagon at dawn.
A red wing rose in the darkness.

And suddenly a hare ran across the road.
One of us pointed to it with his hand.

That was long ago.Today neither of them is alive,
Not the hare, nor the man who made the gesture.

O my love, where are they, where are they going
The flash of a hand, streak of movement, rustle of pebbles.
I ask not out of sorrow, but in wonder.

Go Green, Jesus is Doing it! - pt. 3

I love Anne Bradstreet, which is bizarre because I loathe most authors like her. Initially I read Bradstreet the way most people do: begrudgingly with sleepy eyes, but last semester my eyes were opened, and I fell in love. She candidly explores many of the same spiritual crevices and canyons I wrestle within, and does so in a beautiful way.

There is something to be said about historical theological writings; they are the mortar boards for theologians today, and profound resources for any doctrinal debate. So, when I read Francis Schaeffer, Rob Bell, Charles Colson, and Udo Middleman's thoughts on environmentalism, I wondered if their philosophies were in tune with writings of our spiritual mothers and fathers.

I was surprised at what I found: a rich heritage of writing. Countless works, by great theologians and poets dissected various themes about nature. Their work, unlike Schaeffer's, was not in response to gross abuse of the environment by mankind, rather to the gospel and creation. Such an impressive historical discourse speaks great truth to the Christian solution to pollution.

Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) wrote little specifically about ecology (the word wasn't coined until 1866) but he often used nature metaphors in his sermons and writing. The most striking example is from his autobiography. He describes his spiritual life like a hilly plain, running to and away from God for several years. Every spiritual high is deeply connected to an experience in nature; his greatest spiritual elation is always found in the silent places of the forest.

This example, from Edwards' childhood, describes a secret nature sanctuary, "I, with some of my schoolmates joined together, and built a booth in a swamp, in a very secret and retired place, for a place of prayer. And besides, I had particular secret places of my own in the woods, where I used to retire by myself; and used to be from time to time much affected."

Another example, soon after Edwards' college graduation, describes a revelation of God's majesty unveiled to him in nature, "And when the discourse was ended, I walked abroad alone, in a solitary place in my fathers pasture, for contemplation. And as I was walking there, and looked up on the sky and clouds; there came into my mind, a sweet sense of glorious majesty and grace of God, that I know not how to express." He goes on to describe the scene quite vividly. Edwards writes that the place gives him tastes of God.

Edwards deeply respected nature, not because he saw it as God, but because he loved God so much. Creation instilled within him a deeper love of God. Edwards rhetoric implies that nature, because it is God's creation, ought be a great source of spiritual revelation for Christians.

Before Edwards preached his first sermon, Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672) was writing poetry. Her poem Contemplations, a personal favorite, is a thirty-three-verse exposition on the intricate beauty and wonder of God’s creation. Like Edwards, her writing heralds sincere reverence for nature. After reading the entire piece, I was struck by how small Bradstreet becomes in her own image of Earth. She understood what it meant to view animals as fellow creatures (more on this later) before Schaeffer ever said so, "Hail Creature, full of sweetness, beauty, and delight!" She contemplates on the wisdom of Oak trees, and the strength of the sun. Truly, Bradstreet is in awe of nature.

Yet, Bradstreet's high esteem of nature turns her not to pantheism. Instead it centers her on God, as revealed by three lines, "Soul of this world, this Universe's Eye,/ No wonder some made thee a Deity./ Had I not better known (alas) the same had I," and her conclusion, "But he whose name is grav'd in the white stone, Shall last and shine when all of these are gone." Bradstreet foresaw the arguments of New Age religion and admitted that she too would be tempted to worship nature, if it were not for God's glorious fingerprints throughout creation. Like Edwards, creation points Bradstreet's worship upward to the Creator, rather than downward to creatures.

Bradstreet grew up in a puritan tradition, and was certainly influenced by the prayers and sermons of prominent puritan leaders. The Valley of Vision, a collection of prayers and devotionals written by puritans, shares Schaeffer's, Edwards', and Bradstreet's environmental sentiments. This is significant, because puritans believed "the soul learns to pray by praying; for prayer is communion with a transcendent and immanent God who on the ground of his nature and attributes call forth all the powers of the redeemed soul in acts of total adoration and dedication." In other words, people learn through prayer, and assimilate prayers into their beliefs about the character of God.

An excerpt from the prayer God Honoured offers modern Christians insight on the puritan's reverence for creation:

"This is thy due form all thy creatures, for all thy works display thy attributes and fulfil thy design; The sea, dry land, winter cold, summer heat, morning light, evening shade are full of thee, and thou givest me them richly to enjoy. Thou art king of kings and Lord of Lords;"

The puritans loved creation because it was a gift from God, and they loved the giver. They were not given to a path of destruction like the business tycoons of the industrial revolution, nor to equality with nature like the pantheists. Instead, they gave themselves up wholly to the creator, recognizing Him as the "king of kings and Lord of Lords" over creation.

Nearly 600 years before the puritans landed in the new world St. Francis of Assisi (1181-1226) was said to give sermons to birds and squirrels. He was one of the greatest Christian radicals after Christ himself. Ironically, pantheist Dr. Lynn White Jr. revered St. Francis of Assisi, calling him the "Patron Saint of Ecologists," because Assisi often reminded Christians that they were equal as creatures with all creation. White misunderstood the Saint's writing. Assisi, like Schaeffer, wrote that humans in their finiteness are mere physical creatures in creation when compared to an infinite spiritual God. On the other side of the coin Assisi asserted that humans, unlike their fellow creatures, have spirits, free will and personal relationships with the creator. He worte that humans choose how to exercise their authority over nature, but should not do so in irreverent way. Assisi rebuked abuse of human dominion, because it is in rebellion to God's created order.

Assisi was not the oldest Saint to contemplate nature. Christians can look to one of the earliest forefathers of the church, St. Augustine. Although he never wrote a piece entirely about man's role in nature, his lasting work, The Confessions, revealed that he is of the same mind and heart as Edwards, Bradstreet, the Puritans, Assisi, and Schaeffer.

The Confessions is a collections of "books" (similar to what we would call chapters) detailing Augustine's contemplations on various biblical passages, and theological philosophies. Interestingly, in every book of Confessions Augustine calls himself "thy creature," not only implying God's ownership over him, but also emphasizing Augustine's place as a finite creature in creation--a belief much like Assisi's. In Book III he contemplates his finite mechanical similarities to other creatures, "these things the beasts and birds discern as well as we." Augustine admits that he, like all creatures, is given to necessary mechanical needs and behaviors (eating, drinking, sleeping, breathing).

In Book V Augustine writes, like Edwards, about the rest and revelation found in nature. "Thy whole creation ceaseth not, nor is silent in Thy praises; neither the spirit of man with voice directed unto Thee, nor creation animate or inanimate, by the voice of those who meditate thereon: that so our souls may from their weariness arise towards Thee, leaning on those things which Thou hast created, and passing on to Thyself, who madest them wonderfully; and there is refreshment and true strength." God's gift of creation refreshes man, and in doing so glorifies God.

In Book II Augustine writes sentiments similar to Bradstreet's, "wherein the world forgetteth Thee its Creator, and becometh enamoured of Thy creature, instead of Thyself, through the fumes of that invisible wine." Augustine notes that the the Lord's signature and fingerprints are evident in the beauty of creation; the beauty deceived man, and he worshiped it instead of God.

Nearly 1700 years before America turned to New Age religion, St. Augustine spoke to the deception of pantheism. Dr. Steven L. Childers wrote "God has created man to be a worshiper, we are always worshiping something." We as Christ followers must dispel the deceptions of pantheism, and reveal the truth of Jesus Christ.

To do so, we must adopt the attitudes of Edwards, Bradstreet, Assisi, and Augustine. We ought to revere nature as God's good creation, from which comes revelation, regeneration, and inspiration. Also, we must recognize how the beauty and majesty of nature points only to God the creator.

A few questions to think over:

1. How do you revere nature, and respect your fellow creatures?

2. What parts of creation inspire you, and reveal the Lord's majesty to you?

3. How is God's creation a gift, and how have you received it?

4. What can you do to fight on behalf of God's gift?

Next Time: What does the bible have to say about nature?

Go Green, Jesus is Doing it! - pt. 2

30 Rock, an NBC sitcom, has been entertaining me for countless hours the past few days. One of my favorite episodes from season 2, "Greenzo," makes fun of the recent environmentalism trend. Jack, the network's CEO, asks the writing team to write a couple sketches for the networks new environmental mascot, "Greenzo."

Jack explains his logic to the lead writer, Liz Lemon, saying, "He's part of our new company wide global-eco-initiative. Do you know why?"

"To save the Earth and it's resources?"

"No, to drain the Earth's resources. Don Geiss is a genius, he's pitting all the divisions of the company against each other to see who can make the most money off this environmentalism trend. I'm going to do it with Greenzo, saving the Earth while retaining profitability."

I agree with Jack, America is caught in the grips of a green revolution that started nearly 40-years ago. Hippies and pantheists led the initial charge in the 60s; they rightfully wanted to clean up the industrial revolution's act. Moreover, they wanted speak against westernized "Christian ideals" which led to so much destruction and pollution. Now, with 40-years hindsight, Christians seem to be doing more, but was there spiritual validity to the arguments of hippies and pantheists?

Lets time travel for a moment, reevaluate spiritualism of the 60s, and discover if the hippies and pantheists truly found the best way to respect and understand nature.

Pantheism (New Age, Zen Buddhism, Spiritualism, Neopaganism, Naturalism, etcetera) are any religious systems that believe, according to historian John Herman Randall, "The world was no machine, it was alive and God was not its creator so much as its soul, its life." The pantheist would say we are all God, of one essence, therefore no creature or thing, is of more spiritual value than the next. To the pantheists there is little difference between a man, a tree, and a squirrel.

During the 60s a strong academic notion emerged that the only way to protect nature was with Pantheistic belief systems. Aldous Huxley epitomized this ideal when he claimed, "Elementary ecology leads straight to elementary Buddhism."

Professor Lynn White Jr. wrote extensively on the subject. He concluded that "what people do about their ecology depends on what they think about themselves in relation to things around them. Human ecology is deeply conditioned by beliefs about our nature and our destiny--that is, by religion." In his work The Historical Roots of our Ecological Crisis, White explained how a westernized Christian worldview led primarily to his generation's apathy about ecology. He wrote that Christians historically disparaged and abused nature because their faith system lacked a foundation to build a deep respect for nature. He uses this example, "To a Christian a tree can be no more than a physical fact. The whole concept of the sacred grove is alien to Christianity and to the ethos of the West. For nearly two millennia Christian missionaries have been chopping down sacred groves, which are idolatrous because they assume spirit in nature."

White believed that God was to be found in all things. Moreover, he believed that if men saw trees as Gods humanity would no longer disrespect and abuse nature, rather respect and adore its divinity and equality of beings. For love of nature, the Pantheists led the charge against pollution. Richard L. Means picked up the rhetorical baton where White left off. He wrote that White's beliefs "should help destroy egoistic, status politics, for it helps unmask the fact that other men's activities are not just private, inconsequential, and limited in themselves; their acts, mediated through changes in nature, affect my life, my children, and the generations to come." This thought became the ultimate plea of Pantheists. They cried, even if you don't believe all things on Earth are equal, at least do it for your children's children!

And many would say we have.

In almost immediate response to articles written by White and Means, theologian Francis A. Schaeffer wrote an apologetic work Pollution and the Death of Man. With his scrupulous rhetoric Schaeffer dissected the arguments of academic Pantheists, and proposed a Christian solution to the environmental crisis of the 60s. Schaeffer conceded that the hippies and Pantheists were "right in fighting the plastic culture, and the church should have been fighting it too, a long, long time age, before the counterculture ever came onto the scene. More than this, they were right in the fact that the plastic culture--modern man, the mechanistic worldview in university textbooks and in practice, the total threat of the machine, the establishment technology, the bourgeois middle-class-- is poor in its sensitivity to nature." Yet, he differed with the Pantheists and hippies on the solution to the problem.

First Schaeffer criticized Pantheism for being morally pragmatic. He challenged Mean's idea that we ought to do it for our children's children, by pointing out that it is still morally egoistic of humanity. How do men doing what's best for mankind escape "human egoism?" Such a plea proved that Pantheists lack a moral universal to justify their respect of nature. Schaeffer wrote that the Bible gives us the best universal upon which to build morality: the character of God the creator.

Next, Schaeffer challenged Pantheism's assertion of equality between man and nature, "Pantheism eventually gives no meaning to the particulars. In true pantheism unity has meaning, but the particulars have no meaning, including the particulars of man," so "those who propose the pantheistic answer ignore this fact--that far from raising nature to man's height, pantheism must push both man and nature down into a bog. Without categories there is eventually no reason to distinguish bad nature from good nature . . . and man becomes no more than the grass." Simply put, Schaeffer said a tree ought to be respected as a tree, because that is its created order. One should not abuse trees with deforestation, likewise one should not abuse trees by romanticizing them and treating them as humans.

We must also turn to the Church, and understand how a spiritual/secular dichotomy caused the Church's apathy toward nature. Schaeffer looks at numerous passages to point out how important the material world is to the Christ. He explains that the Lord loves his creation entirely, and we as humans should respect it, because we love God. Rob Bell explains a similar concept in his book Sex God. Bell says the way we treat a gift or creation from another human speaks to how much we love that human (this is why mothers love everything their children make). Likewise, the way we treat God's gifts and creations speaks to how we love God.

Schaeffer sums up his argument, writing "God will always deal with a plant as a plant, with an animal as an animal, with a machine as a machine, and with a man as a man, not violating the orders of creation. He will not ask the machine to behave like a man, neither will He deal with man as though he were a machine . . . If God treats His creation in that way, should we not treat our fellow-creatures with similar integrity? . . . Should I, as a fellow-creature, do the same--treating each thing in integrity in its own order? And for the highest reason: because I love God--I love the one who made it! Loving the Lover who has made it, I have respect for the thing He made." With this worldview Christians appear more equipped to fight for the environment than pantheists.

A couple questions to end with:

1. Are Schaeffer and Bell's assertions about creation biblical?

2. Is there a historical discourse in Christian literature on nature (and even grassroots environmentalism?)

3. With a new worldview on the environment are Christians more equipped to protect the environment?

4. Would changing our worldview be catering to a current cultural fad, or conforming to God's truth?

Next Time: A look at Christian writings about nature throughout history.

Go Green, Jesus is Doing it! - pt. 1

Get out your pen and paper (or notepad document) and lets do some stream of conscience on one name:

Jesus...

...Son of man, tall, friendly, loving, scary, unpredictable, peaceful, lover, sacrifice, lamb, husband, church, kingdom, wine, shepherd, savior, calls men, lovely...

Look over your list. I doubt anyone wrote "green," "tree hugger," or "captain planet." Why should we anyway? Jesus never mentioned pollution during the sermon on the mount. He never said "Blessed are environmentalists, for they will outlast global warming." He never told the parable of the Chemical Dumper and Lazarus.

I would guess most people (Christian or not) do not believe scripture speaks relevantly to today's controversial environmental issues. More over, there is little historical dialogue on Christian environmentalism, and what little exists bastardizes nature and its resources. No doubt, most Americans are familiar with the subversive theology of business tycoons during the industrial revolution who justified strip-mining Appalachia and polluting countless river systems with Genesis 1:28, God's command to "subdue ... and have dominion" over creation.

Today political Christian leaders are not known for their sympathy to environmental issues, and I can't think of any Churches teaching the virtues of going green, and protecting the environment. The church is laboring on more important issues. Perhaps apathy best describes the Church's relation to environmentalism, or at least the common person's perception of it.

I'll end with some questions:

1. Does elementary environmentalism lead to Pantheism?
2. Does the bible speak to environmentalism, and is there a historical discourse on the subject by Christians?
3. Many churches break the aforementioned generalizations, is this to fit current cultural concerns, or are there good biblical reasons to do so?
4. Do Christians have a spiritual duty to protect and redeem nature?
5. Would Jesus go green?

Next time: are New Age religions better suited to protect and care for the environment?

A Poem A Wednesday (3)

A Story
Li-Young Lee

Sad is the man who is asked for a story
and can't come up with one.

His five-year-old son waits in his lap.
Not the same story, Baba. A new one.
The man rubs his chin, scratches his ear.

In a room full of books in a world
of stories, he can recall
not one, and soon, he thinks, the boy
will give up on his father.

Already the man lives far ahead, he sees
the day this boy will go. Don't go!
Hear the alligator story! The angel story once more!
You love the spider story. You laugh at the spider.
Let me tell it!

But the boy is packing his shirts,
he is looking for his keys. Are you a god,
the man screams, that I sit mute before you?
Am I a god that I should never disappoint?

But the boy is here. Please, Baba, a story?
It is an emotional rather than logical equation,
an earthly rather than heavenly one,
which posits that a boy's supplications
and a father's love add up to silence.

Lessons from Francis Schaeffer

Here is a blogger who has put together an interesting list of things that we can learn from the life and ministry of Francis Schaeffer, as well as a short guide to some of his books.

A Poem A Wednesday (2)

Rilke is one of my favorite poets. His words are consistently heavy in a way that makes me come away feeling like he understands more about the soul than I do. His poems are like those Russian dolls, the more you read the more depth and layers are exposed, coming always closer to the center, and this poem is no different.

The Man Watching

by Rainer Maria Rilke

I can tell by the way the trees beat, after
so many dull days, on my worried windowpanes
that a storm is coming,
and I hear the far-off fields say things
I can't bear without a friend,
I can't love without a sister

The storm, the shifter of shapes, drives on
across the woods and across time,
and the world looks as if it had no age:
the landscape like a line in the psalm book,
is seriousness and weight and eternity.

What we choose to fight is so tiny!
What fights us is so great!
If only we would let ourselves be dominated
as things do by some immense storm,
we would become strong too, and not need names.

When we win it's with small things,
and the triumph itself makes us small.
What is extraordinary and eternal
does not want to be bent by us.
I mean the Angel who appeared
to the wrestlers of the Old Testament:
when the wrestler's sinews
grew long like metal strings,
he felt them under his fingers
like chords of deep music.

Whoever was beaten by this Angel
(who often simply declined the fight)
went away proud and strengthened
and great from that harsh hand,
that kneaded him as if to change his shape.
Winning does not tempt that man.
This is how he grows: by being defeated, decisively,
by constantly greater beings.

Global Mind: Myanmar and Nargis

Read Nathan Tiemeyer's post on the crisis in Myanmar in the wake of hurricane Nargis, posted on Every Square Inch.

110 Greatest Books

A list of the best books ever written according to Telegraph.co.uk.

Categories are:
Books that changed the world
Childrens books
Classics
History
Biography
Poetry
Fiction

A Poem A Wednesday (1)

Bloggers like to pick days of the week for regular traditions. They usually start with same letter, such as "Music Monday" or "Foto Friday". In a effort to add some literary depth to this blog we are hereby inaugurating a poetry day, but seeing as how no days of the week start with P we will have to settle with "A Poem A Wednesday" for now.

The first poem is a favorite of mine. Language has the power to become anchored in our souls, and from that anchor you can hang all sorts of meaning, and from that meaning you can order a life, be inspired, be reminded, be moved, awaken. There are a few lines from this poem that have done that for me from time to time... Following the wrong god home we may miss our star... It is important for awake people to be awake... The darkness around us is deep. I heard someone say recently that what is important about a person is what she loves, the trouble is that it is so easy to forget what we want to love. Language, and poetry specifically, can help us to remember. Enjoy.


A Ritual to Read to Each Other
By: William Stafford

If you don’t know the kind of person I am
and I don’t know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.

For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dike.

And as elephants parade holding each elephant’s tail,
but if one wanders the circus won’t find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.

And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider --
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.

For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give -- yes or no, or maybe --
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.

Free Audio: Martin Luther in His Own Words

Every month ChristianAudio.com releases a new free book of the month. This May it is Martin Luther In His Own Words.

Follow the link and then type "May2008" in the coupon section as you are filling out the order form and your free download will begin.

Contents:

• The Small Catechism
  
• 95 Theses
• On Faith and Coming to Christ
• On Confession and the Lord's Supper
• Of the Office of Preaching
• Excerpt from Luther's Tower Experience
• The Last Written Words of Luther

Theology Survey (9): Jesus vs. Religion

Question: What is the difference between Jesus and Religion?

#1: I need Jesus, but don’t deserve him. I love Jesus because he first loved me (1 John 4:19.) I am perfect in Christ (Colossians 1:28.)
I don’t need religion. Religion is a rulebook and a checklist. Religion is what scares people away from Jesus. People mistake Jesus with religion. Religion occurs once a week, while Jesus should be on your mind throughout the entire week.

#2: I’m so tired of hearing certain kinds of Christians say (about Jesus and Christianity) “It’s not about religion, it’s about a relationship”. Religion, etymologically, is to bind oneself to something one understands to be most meaningful. Jesus is the highest form of meaning to have ever been visible and touchable and accessible to humanity. It only makes sense that the most befitting response to Jesus is to bind ourselves to him. I argue that all humans are religious in some way. Jesus is the most pure object of religious affection, and the only thing truly worth binding ourselves to with utmost allegiance and love…better described as worship. Now, for those who say what I quoted above, they really create a false dichotomy to say that being with Jesus means to not be religious.

#3: Religion is the practices and beliefs concerning god (lowercase). The term religion can be applied when discussing any spiritual beliefs. Jesus stands in opposition to religion in that He is the only Truth about God and hates spiritual beliefs and practices that lead people away from God.

#4: Jesus is a person. Jesus is God. Jesus is the good news. He is the gospel. Religion is a group of people seeking after a God. They have established rules, and manners of experiencing that God. Jesus give life. Religion has no power to give life.

#5: He was a person. He is still alive.
Religion seems like it’s the means to grow closer to this person. It is a structure created in order to lead us to truth and keep us growing.

#6: Jesus is our only Lord and savior, through whom we’ve received the Holy Spirit. Religion cannot save souls, and cannot impart the Holy Spirit. Religion is an institution in which we can celebrate our beliefs, but it is not what we believe in.

#7: I think religion leaves bad taste in peoples’ mouths. Religion is imperfect because it is full of people, who are only people. Jesus is perfect, loves, and is not legalistic. Religion can sometimes seem legalistic. Religion can hurt people and leave them there to pick themselves up; while Jesus only loves, and he’s the one that picks everyone back up!

#8: Jesus is the Savior sent to earth by God the Father to live as a human being and die for the transgressions of God’s chosen, sinful people. Religion is what we believe we should do and what we actually practice in light of the truths of God and His Word.

#9: Jesus is God incarnate with whom I have a relationship. He is a tangible and real. His perfection saves me from my sin. It is through him that I have anything. He is to object of my worship and who I have faith in.
Religion is a set of ideas about faith and devotion to something. It could be anything. If someone says they are religious, that doesn’t automatically tell me anything other than they worship and put their faith in something .

#10: Jesus is both God and a historical person. Religion, on the other hand, is simply a big category of ideas about god/God.

#11: JESUS and CHRISTianity is not religion, but relational! It is based around an intimate relationship with the SON of GOD, who was the propitiation for our sins and fallen nature. Religion as referred to in James 1:27 means “a ceremonial observance”. Religion is a system of beliefs that requires no factual evidence or support.

#12: To me, Jesus wants us to have a personal, everlasting relationship with Him. But when I think of religion, I think of rituals, traditions, and what humans need to do to reach their god. I do believe Christianity is a religion, but I also believe that there is so much more to it than what I listed about religion.

#13: Jesus is a person. Religion is a set of beliefs that people follow.

#14: Religion is man’s faulty construct or representation of who and what God is, but Jesus is the pure representation of God.