Christianity: The Anti-Religion

Thanksgiving is commonly know for eating way too much food that you don't commonly eat throughout the year.  In my families, both my side and Jaime's side, we celebrate through a sort of covered dish dinner that invites family and friends.  We grab our styrofoam plates and place bits of carb-laden luscious goodness into the little dividers stamped out of the styrofoam, in an oft-time futile effort to organize this feast in to categorical compartments.  This year I placed meat in one area, my pineapple stuffing and mashed sweet potato (oh my was that amazing) in another.  Vegetables up there, mashed potatoes and stuffing over there, and an ample place up from to load up on mac and cheese and biriyani, the less typical fare of this particular meal.

But as I sat down to eat, I had this desire to reach out and talk with a family not my own from birth (I was at my in-laws this year).  I began chatting with a young couple at the table next to me because we some common ground – missions.  This young man was relation in the "it's going to take a few minutes to explain this" kind of way.  But the one thing to keep in mind is that this kid has changed since I remember seeing him first, about 10 years ago.  He went from being a confused teenager, to a better student, to a man seeking God, and now, a father of the most amazing miracle baby I've ever met. He met his wife in Peru while on a missions trip there, and so... our little conversation began from that one piece of commonality.

As we spoke, I found a young man who has experienced the polar ends of the church and the unchurch.  He had gone to third world countries on missions trips.  He desired to make a tangible difference in the world, and not just be a member of a comfy church.  He equated going on your first mission trip to getting your first tattoo, that after the second one you'll want to get "full sleeves".  In other words, that's all you will think about and save your money until you can go on the next one.  We sat in a corner and talked about the things of God.

Some of you know that I'm not a huge fan of organized religion.  I think there is great power in multitudes, but I also fear that the church is not heading in the proper direction.  I believe there is a true church, and then there's the fake one.  The fake ones are the pretty ones with the pretty steeples and the perfect people with the Sunday mornings filled with Sunday best and Sunday dinner.  I'm not saying that's bad, but when there is no fruit, no action or no risk, I have to wonder.

Then there's the true Church.  There are people of God getting together and walking in faith.  It's consoling a friend in a smoke-filed bar, or praying for someone over a lunch break.  It's doing things a bit dangerously and talking to the "wrong" people.  It's being confrontational and not ashamed.  These are the amazing "God moments" that I want to live in, not the cheap substitute.

As we talked I realized this young man, who was feeding the hungry and taking care of orphans in the most impoverished of lands, did not label himself a "christian".  In fact, he told me the closest label for himself would be an "Agnostic Deist".  In other words, he doesn't have all the answers, but he knows there is a God.  To him, having the "right" answers weren't really important.  I thought this was interesting for a guy who went to a Christian high school and who has been changed and evidently living a life like Christ.  But yet he didn't consider himself a church goer.  In fact, as the conversation progressed we talked about his apologetic study of world religions.  He noted that of the 50 religions he studies, Christianity is meant to be different.  True Christianity stands alone.  That's because Christianity is an anti-religion.

All religions of the world have a basic concept.  It's to follow the rules with the pursuit of achieving heaven, or nirvana, or paradise, or some other state of pleasure or perfection for ourselves.  In an essence, the major world religions are self-seeking.  Even the Christian church was been distilled into a sound bite of popular theology which focuses solely on heaven and hell as it's selling feature, that by going to church and being "good", we get to hangout with God forever.  It's true that this has been promised to us, but we conveniently skip over the "being Christ-like" part of the gospel and instead look out for ourselves.  We keep trying to protect ourselves, to perfect ourselves.  But is that what we should be trying to do?  No.  We should be following Jesus which is entirely different.

Jesus was perfectly selfless.  He taught us that we must not concern ourselves with ourselves, but rather look after all people.  Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him.  He is asking us to lay down our lives for a friend.  Keep in mind that everything Christ did was counter-culture and counter-religion.  He ate with sinners, drink with party-goers, held lepers, forgave adulteresses and touched some icky dead people.  And then he gave up his life and descended into Hell.  Jesus lived his life to save people, not his own hide.

Christianity is about having a relationship with the living God, not serving an empty religion.  It's hearing the living word of God and living it out, not reading letters on dead trees.  It's about saving others and not ourselves.  It's about being willing to die and go to hell so that others can live and get to heaven.

I ended my conversation with my new remote family member turned friend.  I was encouraged and challenged to live a life so much like Christ, that I won't fit into a church.  To be so much like Christ, that others will see the difference.  This may take a long time, perhaps a lifetime, but there's no time like the present to begin the journey.