Easter VI April 27th, AD 2008
Meadowvale Lutheran Church
Mississauga
Pastor Peter Lisinski
“The
Purpose Of Religion”
(Texts:
Acts 17:22-31; John 14:15-21)
Conservative estimates
suggest there are some 30,000 Christian congregations in Canada today -- besides
Jewish synagogues, Muslim mosques and Hindu or Buddhist temples.
Studies and surveys consistently show that more than eighty percent of
Canadians are certain there is a God, while only five percent are certain there
is not! Ninety percent of us
believe in life after death; seventy-five percent pray at least once a week; and
fifty percent of Canadians believe that God is actively involved in daily life!
And yet only about six
million Canadians -- less than twenty percent of the population -- are gathered
today, as we are, in houses of worship. Nonetheless,
it does seem that modern and sophisticated Canadians have much in common with
the ancient and sophisticated Athenians, whom the Apostle Paul describes in
to-day's first lesson: “…I
see how extremely religious you are in every way...”
Of course, as St. Paul went
on to point out, that was precisely the problem! For all their religious conviction and activity, they did not
know the one and only true God, revealed in the history of Israel, in the person
of Jesus Christ, and in the pages of the Bible.
Might that be our problem
today, as well? In spite of
Canada's diverse expressions of religion might the God eighty percent of us
believe in be the God we imagine to be on our side and against our enemies in
matters of conflict or competition? Addressing the national convention of
religious broadcasters in Nashville, Tennessee a few weeks ago, President George
Bush stated that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was motivated by his belief that all
human beings are created in the image of God!
And how many times have you heard a victorious athlete or award winning
entertainer attribute their success to the will of God?
Perhaps the God whom
seventy-five percent of us address in weekly prayer is the God we hope will
protect us from the natural disasters and personal tragedies that afflict
those who may not pray as regularly. Or
is the God fifty percent of us believe to be personally involved in daily life a
God who plans the accidents or diseases that cause human pain and suffering?
Is the God we Canadians worship -- whether in church, on the golf course,
at the shopping mall, or in the solitude of our better homes and gardens -- the
God of love, peace and justice proclaimed in the Bible; or is the God we worship
the same old idol of power, patriotism and privilege who helps those who help
themselves?
There's a prayer in the
Anglican Holy Communion liturgy that has always troubled me because it seems to
violate the principle of separation of church and state:
"Almighty and ever-living God...grant unto thy servant
Elizabeth our Queen, and to all that are put in authority under her, that they
may truly and impartially administer justice, to the maintenance of thy true
religion..."
(Book
of Common Prayer, 1959, p. 75)
That word 'religion' shares
a common root meaning with the word 'ligament' -- a band of strong tissue that
binds bones together. In the same way that ligaments bind our physical bodies
together, God intends true religion to bind human beings together into one
common life, with God and one another. Sadly,
religion -- when reduced to the administration of justice, the enforcement of
correct doctrine, the proper performance of liturgical ritual, or even to the
privacy of personal spiritual preference -- has an ancient history and a modern
tendency of dividing people rather than uniting us.
But true religion seeks to reveal, express, incarnate God's divine love
in humanity's love for one another!
In the night in which he was
betrayed our Lord Jesus gave his disciples a new commandment:
"Love one another as I have loved you.
By this everyone will know that you are my disciples (John 13:34-35).
And in today's Gospel he continues, “If you love me, you will keep my
commandment..."
God created us only for the
purpose of loving God and one another. For
the restoration of that lost purpose, Jesus Christ has redeemed us.
And .for the fulfillment of God's original purpose for us, the Holy
Spirit calls the church into being -- and calls us into the church.
And as the church, our only purpose --indeed the one and only purpose of
any and all religion -- is to bind the whole world -- to bind all people, of
every culture, creed or colour, in all times and in all places -- together into
one holy communion of God's eternal love.