Friday Night Lights.

It was Friday night and I was playing soccer under the lights for the first time in years.  I was excited to connect with some new people, see if I had anything left in the tank, and make a memory.  The moment I walked across the field, I realized I had made a mistake.  I thought it was an alumni soccer game, at least that is what it had been publicized to be.  Instead, I walked into an impromptu class reunion on a soccer field.  My biggest problem. . . it wasn't my class.  (My other problem was that i was a good 12 years older than anyone we were playing against!) I knew a couple of the 15 or so guys on the "alumni" squad.  The rest of the guys were complete strangers to me, but they were in deep community with one another.  I was overwhelmed with the realization that no matter who I was, how I could play, or how badly I wanted to join this "team", I was already labeled.  I was invisible for one reason: they were too busy protecting their own place in the team to notice anyone new.  It was surreal.  

It wasn't lost on me that none of what was happening was personal toward me nor was it a reflection of my ability or character.  I just didn't happen to have a history with this group.  No matter the reason, as the match started I was still left on the sideline, questioning why I would want to help a team that I didn't belong to.  Wondering at one point whether I should just force myself into the community, or pack up and call it a night.

It felt a lot like church.

I wonder if many people watch "church" happen and decide to pack up and call it a night.  I often wonder why the church has to fight so hard for it's reputation.  I wonder why there are so many intelligent, loving, selfless, encouraging, and broken people in the world who want nothing to do with the church.  Then I wonder if it is because we (the religious) are too busy having class reunions every Sunday morning to notice anyone else.  Are we too insecure, selfish, proud, oblivious, or conceited?  In soccer, there are only 11 spots on the field at a time.  It's often a fight to get those spots and keep them.  Rarely do you find someone who is willing to surrender their place on the team in order to get someone else into the game.  That takes guts.  It takes confidence.  It takes a leader who sees the big picture.  

I wasn't offended as I stood on the sideline of this meaningless scrimmage.  I was thankful to be reminded that religion without Jesus is about self preservation. That type of religion is about keeping myself right with God by my actions.  I don't see a place for that type of religion in my life.  

Religion in response to Jesus is about reckless abandon of self.  I can invite someone to take my spot because Jesus has room for both of us.  I would rather be in a community that values everyone than watch a team of the best "christians" in the world "do church" as I sit, sidelined, because they don't even know my value.  I wonder how many people I have left on the sideline, though?  I want to see the world differently today. I want to lean in to the value Jesus has given to me and every other life on this planet.  I don't need to prove my worth.  I long to notice those standing on the fringes, the visitors, the disconnected, the ones looking for a chance to matter.  I want to work harder at getting others into the community of the church than I used to work at protecting my own value.  I believe this to be pivotal in redefining my religion.  

Pardon the Interruption

The context is set during the reign of Hezekiah, king of Judah.  In his first year as king he got to work cleansing the temple of God.  He tore down the idols of false gods according to his religion.  The idols were so prominent that he had to tear one out of the temple itself.  It defined the state of his culture.  The idol of a serpent (an asherah pole) standing in the middle of the temple of God.  Hezekiah tore it down.  He then took a staff of Moses that was being idolized by the people of God, and he broke it.  Hezekiah went to work cleansing the temple so that it would be holy and pleasing to God, according to his religion.  He commissioned the religious leaders to set themselves apart to God again through the "cleansing" process of his religion.  As they began this process, Hezekiah began to make the invitations.  The Kingdom was invited to the party.  Not just Judah, but all the tribes of Israel.  The invites went out.  Some laughed and mocked Hezekiah, some prepared themselves in holy reverence, and some started to party even before the party started.  What happened next looked like chaos.  The unclean people started touching the clean stuff.  The clean people started to freak out.  The party  (passover) was starting to early.  It wasn't according to the religion.  The sacrifices weren't right.  They were being made by unclean people.  The priests began to shudder.  The levites began to cringe.  They were all going to die.  The covenant was clear as to who was to touch the passover lambs, make the sacrifices, lead the prayer, and preach the sermons.  The cleansing process of the people was known by all.  They knew they weren't clean. The steps to sanctification were essential to keep the peace with God. . . .

Unless.  

Unless they weren't at peace anyway.

Unless God was more interested in pardoning his people than judging them.  

Unless he was more interested in foreshadowing a new covenant not built on being clean in order to come to the temple, but being clean through the temple.  

Before the invitations had gone out, Hezekiah had prayed, "May the good Lord pardon everyone who sets his heart to seek God, the Lord, the God of his fathers, even though not according to the sanctuary's rules of cleanness."  2 Chronicles 31:18-19.  He knew no one was clean enough.  He knew it was more important to get his people to the God that saves than to clean them up first.  He knew this would only work if God granted the grace for it to work.  And He did.  God heard the prayer of Hezekiah and accepted unclean people in his clean temple.  He pardoned their interruption.

Even in the old religion, God was foreshadowing a new one.  Good religion begins by leaning into the truth that God longs to pardon people even though not according to the churches rules of cleanness.  Pardon the interruption, but religion may need to be redefined by leaders who are claiming that Jesus already petitioned God on behalf of people who are setting their hearts to seek God.  How do we find those people?  Invite them to the party.  Jesus is the last passover lamb.  He is what Hezekiah was bringing his people to.  A belief system (religion) doesn't matter until  someone has a God worth believing in.  A God that pardons me before I do anything for him. . . I want to believe that.

Jimmy Eat World

When I was in college, Nate lived across the hall.  I was an upperclassmen and he was a freshman.  We were so different.  I was "Abercrombie & Fitch" and he was "Hot Topic".  He represented a rebranding of "cool" that was happening within our generation.  My friends were listening to their Dave Mathews Band  cd while Nate was downloading Jimmy Eat World from napster.  Our backstories were completely different, our music style was different, but at the core, we shared a commonality.  We weren't satisfied with the name of Jesus in our generation.  We were questioning the traditions of Christianity, albeit from two different perspectives.  The great thing about a conversation with Nate was how open minded he was.  It helped me immensely.  I have a tendency to think black and white.  My mentality was either "for us" or "against us".  Our conversations centered more on questions than answers.  We talked about potential threats to Christianity.  I'm glad I didn't misinterpret Nate because he didn't look like me, talk like me, or dress like me.  I realized early that different doesn't equal enemy.  He wasn't like me, but he wasn't against me. 

 "Religion" and "Follower of Jesus" live across the hall from each other.  We often pin religion against Jesus, making all who practice religion equal to the "religious leaders" Jesus contended with.  However, simply saying that we aren't "religious" but we are "followers of Jesus" doesn't remove religion, it rebrands it.  When religion is pure, James (1:27) says it cares for widows, orphans, and leans into the grace of Jesus so much that the world cannot stain it.  What follower of Jesus wouldn't long to practice this religion?   Our fight isn't against religion.  Jesus didn't have an issue with religion.  He took issue with religious leaders who didn't lead a pure religion.  They were judging the very people their "religion" called them to love and to lead. They were redefining the law to make glorify their comfort and distance themselves from the desperate.  It was a manipulation of pure religion that Jesus took issue with.  Isn't that a greater cause?  When we follow Jesus, we adhere to his teachings.  These teachings, by definition, are a religion.  This religion is built on freedom from condemnation through the work of Christ and not the work of the religious practices.  When we lean into the grace of Jesus, we find ourselves at the beginning of pure religion.  

In the beginning.

I've read blogs, watched youtube videos, and entertained debates that wage war against religion on behalf of Jesus.  With each read, view, and conversation I am left contemplating the question, "Does Jesus really hate religion, or have we just given religion a bad name?"  So I'm taking a challenge upon myself to seek a redefining of religion based on the Theology of Jesus interwoven with the practices of biblical leadership.  Does pure religion exist in the Kingdom of Heaven that Jesus so often taught about?  If it does, how do we lead generations with misconceptions concerning religion?  If religion does not exist within the Kingdom of Heaven, how do we lead without it?  This is an effort to define a worldview by sound doctrine instead of defining doctrine by a worldview.  I'm inviting you to journey with me as we consider, contemplate, seek, exegete, dialogue, and redefine religion.