REALigion: What God really wants from you

No, I didn’t misspell “religion.” I spelled it that way on purpose.

Over the past year, I’ve become very passionate about something. It really bugs me that more and more church leaders are telling people that religion is bad, and that God doesn’t want us to be religious, and that we don’t have to be religious to please God, or any variation of this idea. And I’ve become passionate about showing how untrue that is!

Now I realize that this may be an unpopular idea to promote, but BEFORE YOU TUNE ME OUT, HEAR ME OUT. I understand the motive. We’re (and by “we’re,” I mean myself and fellow church leaders and Christ-followers) trying to help people see that following Jesus isn’t about stale, old, sit-your-butt-in-a-pew-and-shut-up, don’t run in church, sing old songs you don’t like, boring, legalistic (get the idea?) “churchy” stuff. And, for what it’s worth, I completely agree.

Where I see a severe disconnect in theology and logic is this: God SURE AS HECK DOES want us to be religious, but to understand the why, we need to understand the what.

Simply put, God’s idea of religion is NOTHING LIKE what I described above. In James 1:27, we read a simple definition:

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”

Do you know what that means? That means that religion means rescue. God designed religion to be a rescue for hurting people. And His plan for us, as religious people, is to be a hand that helps, not a hand that swats or scolds.

In early church culture, there was no one to look after widows. They weren’t landowners, almost never had a job, and had no means of survival. Orphans, likewise, were pretty much on their own in terms of survival and basic living. No one was there to meet their needs. So God challenged the early church with the mission and purpose of being the rescue for these hurting people. He gave them the purpose of meeting their needs and providing for them. And listen up: that’s our mission too.

So hey, when you send people or supplies or money to Haiti, you’re being religious, God’s way. When you sponsor a child through an organization like World Vision, you’re being pretty religious. When you visit an elderly lady who’s lonely and just have a short conversation, you’re one religious dude (or dudette). Are you seeing where I’m going here?

“Religion” doesn’t have to be about the self-elite, or self-righteous, or “holier-than-thou” that we have been conditioned to instantly associate with church. Following Jesus is absolutely, 110% about religion.

The problem isn’t religion, it’s not Christianity. The problem is what we’ve turned it into. In many ways, we’re as bad as the Pharisees who made their own laws and warped God’s design and plan into their own twisted, screwed up list of rules and regs that probably made Jesus want to toss a few roundhouse kicks every time he walked into the temple. God’s plan and design is perfect. James 1:27 says so. We messed it up; it’s our fault. And we need to fix it.

I have this picture on my desk, a painting by Eric Samuel Timm. It’s pretty self-explanatory. “Repainting Jesus” is exactly what we need to do. We’ve given him a bad rep. And because I’m tired of the negative tone this post is starting to take, let me put it this way. WE HAVE A JOB TO DO, and IT’S ABOUT STINKING TIME WE START DOING IT! That’s how we’ll be able to “Repaint Jesus” in a better light. If we ever manage to get back to the heart of what God intended religion to be, you’d better believe this whole world will be turned upside down in a week.

When I die, I think I want to have James 1:27 etched on my gravestone, and I hope that people will remember me for being ridiculously religious.

So you tell me: where do we need to start to get back to the heart of “pure and faultless” religion, James 1:27 style?