Perhaps here, the wise Anglican vicar asked the question, "Who then is my neighbor?" as the bishop and the priest scurry down the road. If you do all of the right things, go to church, pray, donate, hold the door, be nice to the old curmudgeon, you should be good, right? What if religious isn't righteous? What does that look like? We have some examples.
It usually occurs by disconnecting faith matters from the greater world of real life. Secure in its own silo, the individual faith isn't confronted by the real problems wrecking peoples' lives and ruining life for everyone.
This isn't new. Prophets like Amos were regularly communicating God's disdain for the emptiness of a Sunday-only faith. This faith commitment may not even last beyond the parking lot after worship service. It certainly doesn't consider a faith-centered response to the tragedies, crises, catastrophes, and violence, injustice, destruction, and pain and suffering being endured all around us.
And woe to the pastor who thrusts worldly realities in the face of congregants, confronting them with the demands of the Kingdom and contrasting it with the sinfulness of the world. A post from a colleague on the Presbyterian Leaders Facebook page asked how pastors were approaching the parable of the good Samaritan in view of the crisis at the border. Not a single comment over 4 hours from a large, talkative group! Not one! (See below - normally this kind of post would have 15-50 comments.) Do you see what I mean? Silence about reality is the unspoken rule in many churches, ours included.
Speaking of Amos, he railed with God's word against the wealthy who exploited and committed injustices against the poor. God even says that God doesn't want anything worship-wise from them - not assemblies, feasts, offering, even music and songs. God wants a lived faith, not a practiced religion.
This is really at the center of the parable of the good Samaritan. It isn't a nice feel-good story about some stranger helping someone else. It has quite a bite to it, targeting the "religious and devout" who don't practice what God and the Kingdom are all about. New life in the Kingdom is at stake, and who do you think goes to the front of the line?
Wonder how that works out? Check out the sermon video below the Facebook graphic.
It usually occurs by disconnecting faith matters from the greater world of real life. Secure in its own silo, the individual faith isn't confronted by the real problems wrecking peoples' lives and ruining life for everyone.
This isn't new. Prophets like Amos were regularly communicating God's disdain for the emptiness of a Sunday-only faith. This faith commitment may not even last beyond the parking lot after worship service. It certainly doesn't consider a faith-centered response to the tragedies, crises, catastrophes, and violence, injustice, destruction, and pain and suffering being endured all around us.
And woe to the pastor who thrusts worldly realities in the face of congregants, confronting them with the demands of the Kingdom and contrasting it with the sinfulness of the world. A post from a colleague on the Presbyterian Leaders Facebook page asked how pastors were approaching the parable of the good Samaritan in view of the crisis at the border. Not a single comment over 4 hours from a large, talkative group! Not one! (See below - normally this kind of post would have 15-50 comments.) Do you see what I mean? Silence about reality is the unspoken rule in many churches, ours included.
Speaking of Amos, he railed with God's word against the wealthy who exploited and committed injustices against the poor. God even says that God doesn't want anything worship-wise from them - not assemblies, feasts, offering, even music and songs. God wants a lived faith, not a practiced religion.
This is really at the center of the parable of the good Samaritan. It isn't a nice feel-good story about some stranger helping someone else. It has quite a bite to it, targeting the "religious and devout" who don't practice what God and the Kingdom are all about. New life in the Kingdom is at stake, and who do you think goes to the front of the line?
Wonder how that works out? Check out the sermon video below the Facebook graphic.
| 07-14-19-sermon.mp3 |
| 07-14-19-ff-answers.pdf |
| 07-14-19-when_religious_isnt_righteous.pdf |