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Religion is a mess. The Catholic Church is so filled with pedophilic scandal that the words of any Easter Sunday Mass ring hollow if they ring at all. And as per their counterparts, the Protestants, well they have quite a mess on their hands as well… mostly from the way their leaders see, understand and teach regarding the world in which we live.
Yesterday I saw a sound-bite from Rick Warren, one of the (if not THE) leading voices of Evangelical Christianity today. It was Easter Sunday, and his message?? According to the clip, it was one of reminding people that we live in a world that is ‘broken’ and that does not function ‘perfectly.’
Even though I could hear it through ears that once-upon-a-time were a part of this movement, on this day, this Easter Sunday, I wanted to puke. Really, it made me that nauseous to think that the best message institutional religion has today is that soon we’ll all be dead and can finally get out of here.
I would like to suggest that, as in the day of Jesus, it is not the physically observable world that is ‘broken,’ rather it is the ‘religious world’ that is broken. This is why the strongest words of Jesus were reserved for the most institutionally observant of his day. He resorted to calling them everything from ‘hypocrites’ to ‘snakes’ to ‘children of the devil.’
I think if Jesus were walking among us today he’d still pretty much feel the same way – those who profess to know God seem to have everything right except the story!
Was it not the apostle Paul (a real hero to today’s evangelical) who said that he prayed that we might have “the power to comprehend… what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God”? And didn’t he also follow this by saying that there was “…one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all”? And with all this good news are we really to think that we’re powerless to create a better world, a better life – right here, right now? That the best we have to say on Easter Sunday is that we live in a screwed up broken down pit of hell?
Jesus came to reveal God. That was what his ministry was about. And in doing this he affirmed that all of us together (Jesus, God and us) could all be One. Paul followed this with the exact same message of an “all in all” God. Peter (the one the Catholic Church refers to as ‘the first pope’) affirmed that we were even made “partakers of the divine nature.”
And so what is the bottom-line message of an Easter Sunday sermon – and remember that Easter is about resurrection, new life, victory, indescribable joy – that we live in a screwed up world? That’s the best we can do – the best story we can cobble together? Frame the story so that people keep coming to our church, giving their tithe and following all that we say as a coping mechanism to usher them out of this life and into the next? Hey – nice public relations move for your church, but it doesn’t say much about the God you claim to serve.
I’m thinking that Easter is one of those days we probably ought to draw near our fellow-man with charity, words of comfort and encouragement, extend a helping hand, share from our abundance, etc. In other words, maybe it’s a day that should inspire us to more kindness and compassion toward ourselves and others and for one Sunday of the year – just one – we should lay aside religion’s favorite tool of fear to celebrate the power of the One we serve and who works to make all things right.
17 comments to “Happy Easter Mess!”
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I like that Steven: “The systems keep you thinking instead of just being.”
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Perhaps many preachers think Peter didn’t know what he was talking about when he wrote ( 2 Peter 1:3) “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the full knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence.” Full knowledge would be the key phrase…..the compartmentalized Christianity that is preached in many, many churches across the land can leave the hearers phobic, disillusioned, with lives ruled by their ever-changing emotions… feeling powerless to do anything but hang on with a white-knuckled grip awaiting their escape. Much is preached about the cross, much less is preached about resurrection! In many places, Sunday services are treated like a weekly pep rally required for the masses to go back into the game of “them against us”. (“We’ve got spirit, yes we do….we’ve got spirit, how ‘bout you?”) The religious phobic must live for the weekend because they’ve yet to understand that everything available (and more) at the Sunday “pep rally” was already present, every moment. Like waiting in line at a soup kitchen while carrying a ticket to a great feast, they remain hungry, weakened. (I remember standing in that “soup kitchen” line at one time.) It doesn’t make any sense. It seems it wasn’t any different in Jesus’ day. No wonder he looked upon Jerusalem and wept.
Tim, I feel your intensity and hear your angst. I’ve felt sickened as well …especially in a recent situation where someone “religious” refused to extend grace to another…breathed it in, but wouldn’t exhale it. I confided to a spiritual, trusted friend about the grievous situation and she reminded me that we need to have compassion even for the “unconscious”…..and then I immediately remembered Jesus’ words while hanging on the cross….”Father forgive them, for they know not what they do”. (The empty grave wasn’t the only miracle.) That kind of love is the hope of the resurrection. That’s an Easter message worth preaching!!
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I really don’t think that Rick Warren is viewed by evangelicals as a key spokesperson. Many conservative evangelicals find more fault with him than agree with him.
I agree that religion is a mess. Each one of us has to share the truth of the gospel and live as Jesus teaches us to live. We get to share God’s love through the relationships that we have with the people around us. We have to do the things that religion fails to do.
Good post.
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Preach it brother, preach it.
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All this is true. The big question hanging is what can we do about it? How can the message of love be heard that so desperately needs to be shouted at the sad, angry, hurting people? In 2000+ years we haven’t gotten it right. I have no answers but I understand the question. Good work here, Tim.
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Well spoken post! I do not understand why church folks insist of reading the words but not the heart of Jesus’ message. Easter… yes, rejoice because Jesus did the hard work of exemplifying a different way of being before God and with God. The victory (as my friends at church would say) has been won, but the work remains. Unfortunately they do not realize the work that has to be done is in their own consciousness. Would that that they could see the whole picture.
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Greetings, Tim. The problem with a sound bite is that we’re not privileged with the context. You and I could be in a conversation and acknowledge the many atrocities in our world, be quoted on only that bite and leave a bad impression because of it. Not defending Warren, but wonder if his Easter message turned toward the abundant life that Resurrection ushers in . . . in the midst of brokenness, Jesus brings wholeness.
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Great work—keep it coming.
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The modern english term Easter is the direct continuation of “Old English” Ēastre. The name refers to the Anglo-Saxon Goddess named Ēostre, who was celebrated at the Spring equinox. Easter is not mentioned in the Bible, and has nothing to do with the Jewish holiday Passover (Hebrew, Yiddish: פֶּסַח) or the resurrection of Jesus. Ēostre is considered a Pagan Goddess by Bible Christians.
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Amen. And so true about Jesus reserving His harshest words for what amounted to God’s fan club at the time. It took me awhile to realize that fact.
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Tim, I love your insights. I also love the passion behind the words. I agree with you, it the Religious world that keeps trying to “fix the broken world” and declares it doesn’t function properly. There is a perceived absence of Victory in the author of the “Purpose Driven Life.” We have deluded the Greatest and Glorious Demonstration of Victory to a “Survival” mode. The mechanics of our distorting the sacred texts int the lie that Love is Present.
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The mechanics of our distorting the sacred texts into the lie that Love is NOT PRESENT, but absent.
Personally, I don’t think Jesus would want us to celebrate “Holy Week” as a sign saying “Jesus Invites you to Holy Week” said at a church I passed by this week.
I do think that religous Christianity, or any religion for that matter, misses the point that God, Jesus, you and I are all in all, one and the same.
The systems keep you thinking instead of just being.