Changing Religion -- Questions

Sermon for North Hill Adventist Fellowship

August 25, 2012

In two recent sermons, I examined religion spirituality through a modern parable. My parable was inspired by Jesus' parable of wine and wine skins. Jesus compared the vital new spirituality of his disciples to new wine. He compared the long-established traditions of the Jewish religion to old and brittle wine skins. If you tried to contain new wine in old wine skins you risked losing the wine and ruining the skins. New wine must be put into new wine skins.

Given my lack of direct experience of of wine and wineskins I talked instead about berries and buckets. When we go up in the mountains to pick huckleberries or out to some local bramble to pick blackberries we need an appropriate container. The container is obviously not the point of our picking. But it is indispensable.

Spirituality—our sense of connection with God—is the point of religion. But the forms of religion—ways of praying and worshiping, ideas about God and the nature of the universe, i.e. theology, rules for living—these things are indispensable in passing spirituality from one generation to another. They are the bucket for the berries of spirituality. As important as the forms of religion are, they are subject to change. I argued, in fact, they must change if the religion is going to stay alive.

A fossil religion—a religion that is unchanged over time, a religion that preserves unchanged the traditions of long-past ages—is a fossil religion, better suited for the museum than the real world we live in.

In response to these sermons some of you texted insightful questions. We didn't get your questions up on the screen last week, so today, I want to address those questions.

Question Number One:

The concept that God never changes is often considered a comfort to many Christians. (The text that comes to mind is “I am God and I change not” Malachi 3:6.) But is it true? Is God unchangeable? How do we deal with stability in our ever changing world if even God changes?

Does God change? Let's look at a couple of pairs of Bible passages:

I am the Lord, I do not change. Malachi 3:6

The LORD was sorry he had ever made Saul king of Israel. 1 Samuel 15:35

Saying God was “sorry” clearly implies some change of mind. God made Saul king hoping for great things. When Saul screwed up God was deeply wounded. God was sorry—sorry Saul had not lived up to God's hopes, sorry that the people of Israel were damaged by Saul's failures, because when leaders fail they hurt more people than just themselves.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Even though Jesus was God's Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered.

In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him. Hebrews 5:8-9

When you learn you change. You can learn to respond to your children without yelling at them. In fact, you can learn to respond to them without getting angry. When you move from reacting loudly or angrily to your children to responding graciously, calmly you have changed. Learning is changed. Hebrews says Jesus learned through his suffering. It says he became qualified. At one time he was not qualified. Then he became qualified. That is a kind of change. It's good change.

These statements are not contradictory if you accept them as more like poetry than math. 2 + 2 = 4 and 2 + 2 = 8 are flatly contradictory.

“I will never forget you.” and “I can't remember your name.” may not be contradictory. One is talking about the fire in my heart. The other is talking about the function of the cognitive part of my brain. When both are true, the poor guy talking to the beautiful woman is dying of embarrassment and anxiety. He's desperately hoping her name will come to him. Maybe someone else will say it.

Similarly, for some people, “I love you” and “I hate you” are related rather than flatly contradictory statements. The reason for their “hate” is, in fact, their all-consuming love. It is the failure of the beloved to respond with affection and faithfulness that spurs the negative passion of hate. And, if the beloved offers the least hint of relenting in their rejection the lover immediately forgets all of the “hate” and flings themselves back into the passion of love.

The Bible's declarations about God's changelessness are focused on God's passionate engagement with humanity. God loves us so much he would rather die than live without us. His love is relentless, resourceful, stubborn.

The Bible's statements about changes in God reflect the reality that God is in a genuine relationship. When humans spurn God, it riles him. When humans damage other humans, God reacts with the passion of a partisan parent or, in some Bible images, with the passion of a jealous, proud lover.

God is not changeless in the sense of math and logic. He is changeless as a lover, a parent, a friend is changeless. You can count on God. But God is not in a box whose lid we control. God is not a vending machine whose buttons are under the control of our fingers.

The point of religion is to connect God and people. As human culture changes, we should expect religion to change. The forms and practices that nurture our spirituality, our relationship with God, will change. All living human relationships change over time as the individuals change. So the external forms of religion will change. This change is actually predicted by God's “changelessness.” If God loves modern Americans as much as he loved ancient Hebrews, we would expect him to love us in ways that are appropriate to who we are. We would not expect him to require us to become masters of ancient Hebrew culture before he is willing to condescend to interact with us.

If God's love is personal and not merely a “force” or a philosophical construct, then that love will be expressed and cultivated in ways that are distinctive in every culture and every age. We would not imagine that the perfect expression of God's love or the perfect human response was something frozen in time 3000 or 2000 or 168 years ago.

Question Number Two.

Why is prophecy in the Bible?

You may remember that one of the changes I called for in Adventist religion is our use of prophecy. For far too many of us, our focus on prophecy has made us fear mongers. We seldom forward emails that celebrate good news. For example, I have never received an email from an Adventist that mentioned the steady decline in the rate of violent crime in the United States over the past ten years. On the other hand I receive email forwards and facebook posts featuring news of domestic violence as a supposed sign of the end. I have seen official evangelistic productions that featured dramatic portrayals of headlines about violent crime again as supposed signs of the end of time. Logically, if violence is proof that we are nearing the end, then the steady decline in violence would be evidence that the end is receding.

Here is the truth: Around the world, famines kill fewer people now than they did 75 years ago. Wars are less deadly and less frequent now than they were during all of the last century. In spite of the terrible headlines detailing specific killings of policemen, the rate of deadly violence against policemen in the United States is less now than it was 50 or 100 years ago.

Of course, I'm not suggesting that everything is sunshine and roses. But there is much good news. Sadly, many Christians can't see the good news because their understanding of prophecy makes them oblivious to it. They fail to thank God for these improvements in the world. This is a misuse of prophecy.

Which brings us to the question: Why is prophecy in the Bible?

I would answer there are two major blessings that flow from a proper reading of prophecy in the Bible:

First, prophecy assures us that God is looking ahead. And the future is in his hands. Not the devil nor the Illumati nor jihadists nor randomness has the last word. God does.

Back when George W Bush was president, my liberal friends thought he was going to lead America into the Mark of the Beast. I even heard a prophet announce that. It didn't happen. Bush-Cheney were not in charge of the universe.

Now, my conservative friends warn me that President Obama is plotting to institute sharia law or surrender the sovereignty of the United States to the United Nations. That's not going to happen either. Obama does not run the universe.

Presidents do make consequential decisions. Policies matter especially over the long haul. We are responsible as citizens to seek to make informed decisions when it comes time to vote. We can donate money and write letters to seek to influence policy. But when you begin hyperventilating because of what's happening in the political realm, remember the grand truth of prophecy: Nothing will happen for which God is not prepared.

Prophecy teaches us not to freak us out at the impending danger. It reassures us that no matter what happens, God wins. And we win. We are his children, so don't freak out. Freaking out is a denial of the central truth of prophecy. Freaking out is a contradiction of the steady refrain of Jesus teaching which had at its center this command: Do not be afraid.

Second, prophecy highlights spiritual principles that offer us wisdom for life. Historically, Adventists have applied the message of Revelation 13 to the Roman Catholic hierarchy. The focus of that chapter is the use of force to compel people to worship in a particular way. The Catholic Church has certainly done this. There are plenty of historical examples of the Catholic hierarchy employing the force of the state to advance the cause of their religion. The problem with this focus is that it blinds us to the applications of the warning against coercion in religion to ourselves.

Even when we were a tiny sect with no political power, we still in our institutions, especially in our schools, used too much force, too much authority and threat. We thought we could force younger generations to embrace a pure religion by creating an environment that was strict enough, stern enough, to corral their youthful passions.

In doing this we were unwittingly coming close to the very evil impulses warned against in Revelation 13. Now, we have much more power, so we ought to be asking how the principles in these prophecies apply to us. Are we being seduced by the appeal and promise of power?

Let me be crystal clear about a misuse of prophecy. Prophecy gives us no useful information about the calendar of the end of time. No one has ever used their understanding of where we are on the grand time line of prophetic events to provide wisdom for living. Everyone who makes a decision based on some theory of end time events will end up regretting the decision.

If you don't go to grad school because the world is going to end before you can put that education to work, you're going to regret it.

If you build a house or a church or a school based on the notion it won't need to last long because Jesus is coming soon, you or your children are going to regret it.

If you fail to plan for retirement, if you fail to save for your kids college education, if you fail to exercise because you know Jesus is coming so soon you'll never benefit from that kind of advance planning, you're going to live to regret it or you're going to die young.

Prophecy is useless as a guide to calendar-based planning. Prophecy is a rich blessing when we use it rightly: To assure us no matter what happens, God wins. And, secondly, to give us wisdom in the application of spiritual principles in the real world.

Question Number Three

Vitamin A has been introduced into rice. This also is very helpful. It is helpful, passive, easy. A fossil religion is easy, does not take wrestling. How do we make our religion alive, vibrant and one that meets God's purpose in our lives, meets ours and other's needs?

To refresh your memory, I told the story of Dr. Maria Isabel Andrade who changed the farming and eating culture of Mozambique. She got the people there to grow and eat a different kind of sweet potato that provided Vitamin A. Across that region of Africa Vitamin A deficiency had been causing kids to die. Her work led to a markedly improved quality of life.

I think of religion as a culture. In church we create a culture that encourages us embrace wise habits. This helps children and all of us to live better. Our religious culture creates positive social pressure for us to take in the “vitamins” of church attendance, Sabbath-keeping, Bible-reading, exercise, healthy eating, carefulness in entertainment, the practice of systematic generosity, rejection of drugs.

I argued that every generation needs to rethink how to embody spirituality in a culture that works, a culture that helps people connect with God and thrive in the world they live in.

Wayne's question is one of the most profound questions we can ask: How do we make our religion alive, vibrant and one that meets God's purpose in our lives, meets ours and other's needs?

This question points in two directions: How do we avoid a mere fossil religion, one comprised of ancient forms disconnected from our world? How do we create a vital religion that reaches forward and creates new forms and alters old forms so it actively supports authentic, live-giving spirituality?

I am reminded of a question posed to Jesus:

One of the teachers of religious law was standing there listening to the debate. He realized that Jesus had answered well, so he asked, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?"

Jesus replied, "The most important commandment is this: 'Listen, O Israel! The LORD our God is the one and only LORD. And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.' The second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' [fn] No other commandment is greater than these."

The teacher of religious law replied, "Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other. And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law."

Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions. Mark 12:28-34

The grand central theme of religion and spirituality is our connection with God. The purpose of religion is to help us love God more fully, to love God with our hearts—with our emotions, our guts, our imaginations. With our souls—our wills, our loyalties—our minds. With our brains, our cognitive functionality, our reason, our theology. With our strength—our money, our muscle, our status, our beauty, our votes. This is the heart of religion. Going to church, reading the Bible, praying, keeping Sabbath—all of this is supposed to help us love God. We test every religious practice by asking the question does this help me to love God? Does it help my friends to love God? Does it help my kids to love God? (Some people use the Bible in ways that cause their children and acquaintances to dislike God. This is strong evidence that their religion is broken.)

Love for God is not the last word, however. There is a second word, a second command. It is actually as important, as crucial, and perhaps even more diagnostic than the first: Love your neighbor as yourself.

This is a very stern test of our religion. Does our religion prompt us to love others—Mexicans and Sikhs, Muslims and Catholics, Republicans and Democrats, Libertarians and Socialists—as ourselves? Not that we agree equally with every idea that comes along. We don't. The religion of Jesus requires us to love persons whose ideas we disagree with. The religion of Jesus requires us to give up hatred and condemnation.

According to Jesus we have to love people who believe rape victims are magically protected from pregnancy and people who believe that gay people should be allowed to marry. We have to love children who have been abused and monsters who have abused children.

The essence of a vital, alive religion is a commitment to loving God and loving people. Notice, Jesus does not mention any of the forms of religion. He doesn't mention going to church. He doesn't mention any particular theory of salvation. He doesn't talk about Sabbath-keeping or prophetic theories. He doesn't name any of the particular rules that we list in our beliefs. He names none of the cultural expressions of genuine spirituality.

Instead he gives us the grand, central principles which test all else.

In his own life, Jesus embraced the particularities of Jewish life. He went to church. He ate kosher. He had a practice of intense prayer. He memorized the words of the Bible. Jesus was not “merely spiritual.” He was also religious.

As a church, we are to be both spiritual and religious. We have the challenge and opportunity to create and pass on doctrines and practices that help us live out these two great commandments.

But when we come back to Wayne's question: How do we make our religion alive, vibrant and one that meets God's purpose in our lives, meets ours and other's needs? The answer is we evaluate everything we believe and do in the light of these two great commandments. We reject religious practices that no longer help us love God and our neighbor. We embrace new practices that work in our culture to cultivate love for God and love for our neighbor.

These commandments do not make everything simple and clear. They are, however, the unquestionable touchstones. They remain the final authority.

Asking how our religious practices help us live out these commandments is the first and perennially relevant question.