I found myself stunned when I learned that the Lutheran
clergyperson who participated in the joint prayer service in Newtown,
Connecticut had to apologize for his appearance there because his Missouri
synod superiors were afraid that he stepped over the line in seeming to offer
some kind of recognition to other religions.
I have also been somewhat puzzled by the way that the bishops of the
Roman Catholic church have argued against the way that the Affordable Health
Care law provides for birth control for people who want it. The bishops don’t want to have to pay for
it. The government has bent over
backwards to try to insure that their paying for it won’t be the case. I also wonder why the newly appointed
Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby sees fit to say that he stands in
opposition to gay marriage in England.
He is just entering office and it seems to me that there are a lot of
other things that religious people in England and indeed all over the world
need to hear from him other than this.
What all of
this says to me is that religion seems to be trying very hard to commit suicide. There is nothing new in that, it has been
going on for two thousand years. As soon
as religion gains a foothold, it begins with its claims of certainty to
undermine its very existence. I’m not
surprised by this, human arrogance being what it is, we will not see the end of
it any time soon.
In Luke’s
gospel, he tells the story of Jesus taking Peter, James and John with him up to
the top of the mountain in Galilee where he is transfigured before them and
they see Moses and Elijah with him and out of the deep cloud that covers Jesus,
they hear the voice of God say to all of them: This is my son, my chosen, listen
to him! The disciples are deeply moved by this. But what really interests me about this story
is what happens next. They come down the
mountain and a man calls to Jesus to come and to heal his son, who has been
seized by a spirit that makes him shriek and convulse. The man tells Jesus that he asked his
disciples to cure the son, but they were unable to do it. Jesus throws a fit and says: You faithless and perverse generation, how
much longer must I be with you?
He asks the man to bring his son to him.
He calls the evil spirit out of the child and cures him.
The reason
that I love that story is because it is a mirror of what we do with our
religion. God gave us all of the tools
that we need to provide comfort to those in need in this world, and we continue
to squander them on issues such as I raised above. We fight our religious battles in the world
of politics, not human need. No wonder
God becomes impatient with us. We need
to learn that our religion is not absolute.
Our religion is simply a way for us to express our faith, and our faith
is the only thing that binds us to our God.
Our particular religion is one of many ways to honor that faith. When we fight over it we dishonor ourselves
and our faith.
good one. Rodge!
ReplyDelete