Dear Faith Family,
We have officially entered the most "religious" season on planet Earth. Conservative estimates claim that over the next stretch of weeks, some two and a half billion persons will participate in a religious activity with a particular focus, many of those partaking in more than one practice individually and collectively. While Christmas may be the most global and secularized "Christian" holiday, Easter really is all ours.
But what is religion for? Why does more than a third of humanity take part in the demonstrations of faith and declarations of worship? Is it, as it has popularly become and to which even our faith family falls prey at times, to satisfy a need we have? Are our acts and activities means for getting what we need: community, communion, affection, affirmation, distinction, purpose, and future? Are our deep and authentic needs met, truly the end which our religious exercises are constructed?
I'd be willing to bet the vast majority of us participating in the Lenten journey or just attending an Easter service are doing so because we feel like we need to, that doing so will satisfy a need somehow. Yet religion (our acts, activities, and attitudes of faith and worship), as it unfolds in our scriptures, is not a way of satisfying our needs, though ironically, it does sanctify them. Rather, the religion of our sacred stories, says Abraham Heschel, "is an answer to the question: Who needs humanity? It is an awareness of being needed, of humanity being a need of God."
Think about it: our stories begin not with humanity's need for God but God's need to create and commune. Why else would God be so patient and persistent throughout our faith's history not to abandon but to protect, chase after, and put up with all the self-made plans and pious pouting of people? And how else can you explain the absurdity of God to die on behalf of His creation? Surely, such actions speak volumes to what God desires; even, we might say, needs.
No, religion, especially in this season, makes no sense, doesn't add up, if it is first a means to meet our needs. So, before you (we) go any further, let's be sure to consider the calculations of our efforts. And remember that religion (acts, activities, and attitudes of faith and worship) makes total sense as a response to the One who gives Himself for our needs.
I hope that's the perspective our Lenten preparations, especially this past Sunday's story, have given us as we join the global church in the journey to Easter morning. May our activities of faith and acts of worship be a response and not a means, especially as we remember where the road ahead leads.
The LORD is gracious and merciful,
slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.
The LORD is good to all,
and his mercy is over all that he has made.
(Psalm 145:8-9)
Love you, faith family! God bless.