“If we are indeed to be that Body of Christ in the World we need ligaments of love which will be limber enough to stretch not only to include all who wish to be bound together in this community of faith but to speak out whenever any member of the human family is oppressed or marginalized, wounded or afraid, silenced or in danger.”
Sermon by Susan Russell at All Saints Church, Pasadena, on Sunday, September 1, 2019.
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Graft in our hearts the love of your Name; increase in us true religion …
Every year on this late summer Sunday we pray these words in the prayer that began our worship this morning.And every year I think they may just be the origin of that old adage:
“Be careful what you pray for.”
“increase in us true religion”
What does it mean to pray for an increase of true religion
when one of the great challenges we face
in our nation and in our world right now
is the polarization and division between people
who are so convinced their religion is the “true one”
that they’re willing to victimize, villainize and even terrorize
those who believe differently than they do?
When we reduce our religious beliefs into weapons to harm other people
we arguably miss the whole point of this thing we call religion –
and I can’t think of a better place and time than here and now to talk more about that.
So let me start with my own “religion confession:”
I spent a number years
with what I can only describe as a “religion allergy.”
As a young adult I was “spiritual but not religious” before it was a thing …
spending a lot time and energy avoiding attending the church I grew up in:
A church which was so full of rules and rituals,
do’s and don’ts, judgment, criticism
and cranky old people talking about the love of God
while being mean to each other
that there seemed to be no actual room for GOD –
which I was naïve enough to think
was supposed to be the POINT of this whole thing in the first place!
So when it got to the point where religion
became a roadblock in my spiritual journey –
I took a detour.
And because God works in mysterious ways,
my “spiritual GPS” led me back to the Episcopal Church of my birth
and eventually to All Saints Church.
Somewhere along that journey, I looked up the word “religion” in the dictionary
and here’s what I found:
it turns out to have the same root as the word “ligament” –
that which “binds together” –
and one of its definitions is
“that which binds together people in their quest for the divine.”
• Not “that which insists that our way is the only way.”
• Not “that which gives people license to villainize, exclude and even kill in God’s name.”
• Not “that which creates enough rules and restrictions that everybody you disagree with has to stay out.”
No – the definition of religion is:
“That which binds together people in their quest for the divine.”
It turns out the allergy I had wasn’t to “religion” at all –
but to what it had become in the hands of those
who had taken what God intended as a means to draw all people TO God
and turned it into a system to hold everyone they found unacceptable
AWAY from God.
And it turns out the allergy I had was the same one Jesus had –
and acted on – throughout the gospels
whenever he was confronted by the rule makers,
gate keepers and power brokers of his generation.
“increase in us true religion”
What we’re praying for when we pray for true religion
is to follow Jesus …
the radical rabbi from Nazareth who stood up, spoke out
and challenged those in his generation
whenever he was confronted by the rule makers,
gate keepers and power brokers who were using religion
as a weapon of oppression and division
rather than as a tool bind us together.
Like those who complained that he was healing on the Sabbath –
who gossiped about his eating with tax collectors, sinners and outcasts –
who complained that his disciples didn’t wash their hands the right way …
and dozens of other examples all throughout the Bible.
“And what is the greatest commandment?”
(in other words “what IS “true religion?)
they will famously ask him later (trying to trap him)
And Jesus will tell them:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind –
this is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like unto it –
love your neighbor as yourself.
On these two hang ALL the law and the prophets.
There you have it: the essence of true religion –
that which binds us together in our search for the divine –
turns out to be love: love for God and for each other.
ANYTHING else that we manage to create –
even our most beloved rituals,
most comforting routines,
most philosophically congruent doctrines –
can become religious roadblocks if they themselves
become more important to us
than this walk in love, this quest for the divine –
this journey to God.
The true religion we inherit is nothing less
than that which equips us to be the Body of Christ
in a world in desperate need …
NOT in need of the church’s dogma and doctrine
but of Jesus’ love and compassion.
If we are indeed to be that Body of Christ in the World
we need ligaments of love
which will be limber enough to stretch
not only to include all who wish to be bound together in this community of faith
but to speak out whenever any member of the human family is
oppressed or marginalized
wounded or afraid; silenced or in danger.
Because the true religion we claim
the true religion Jesus threw down
is “love your neighbor as yourself.”
All your neighbors.
Not just the ones who live in your zip code or are part of your car pool.
Not just the ones who think like you or vote like you or worship like you.
ALL your neighbors. Every. Single. One.
And yet true religion –
that which binds us together in our search for the divine –
seems to be in shorter and shorter supply in this strife torn world of ours.
As we look at the world around us
on this first day of September in the year 2019
we do not have to look very far
to see example after example
of religion being hijacked and used
as a weapon of mass discrimination
as a tool to perpetuate systems of oppression and marginalization
and as a source of polarization and demonization
all wrapped up in a toxic worldview that pollutes our body politic.
It is a toxic worldview
that programs you to believe science is an enemy of faith
quite literally setting you up to reject as “fake news” the very science
that calls us to come together to save what we can of this planet
we have exploited rather than tended.
It is a toxic worldview that insists on male language for God
marginalizing women and non-binary people,
perpetuating the patriarchy
and fanning the fire of unexamined privilege.
It is a toxic worldview where it a very short journey
from “the Bible said it, I believe it, that settles it”
to “my country, love it or leave it.”
And there is a direct connection between this theological worldview
and the rise of nationalism, sexism, white supremacism
and the rest of the litany of isms that plague our nation and our world:
the rise of the forces we struggle against daily
as we live out our baptismal promise to persevere in resisting evil.
Just this week Richard Rohr offered this summary by Australian theologian Denis Edwards that frames these opposing cosmologies far better than I can:
Our theological tradition has been shaped by the worldview which took for granted that the world was fixed and static with the Sun and the Moon and stars revolving around the Earth. It was assumed that human beings were the center of the universe, that Europe was the center of the world, and that the Earth and its resources were immense and without any obvious limits.
In contrast, the emerging narrative is one of a universe begun with a cosmic explosion called the Big Bang, that we live in an expanding universe, that the Earth is a relatively small planet revolving around the Sun, that we human beings are the product of an evolutionary movement on the Earth, and that we are intimately linked with the health of the delicately balanced life systems on our planet.
Intimately linked. Bound together – with each other and with all creation – by ligaments of love.
This – my brothers, sisters and gender fluid siblings –
is the true religion we prayed for God to increase in us this morning.
This is the dividing line between toxic religion and true religion:
Does it build bridges or walls?
Does is bind people together in their quest for the divine
or set people against each other in their competition for privilege?
True religion has nothing to do with
the pride and anger Sirach railed against in this morning’s lesson …
a lesson that could have been written
after the latest tweet storm from the White House.
True religion has everything to do
with the parable Jesus told in this morning’s Gospel from Luke …
which could be the foundational text
for our commitment as a sanctuary church
as we live out our decades old mantra of radical inclusion:
whoever you are and wherever you find yourself on the journey of faith
there is a place for you here.
True religion calls us to speak out when Christianity is hijacked
by those who confuse their right
to believe whatever they choose to believe about God
with their right to write those beliefs into our Constitution.
To speak out for
the neighbors Jesus called us to love as ourselves —
neighbors who are refugee children at our borders.
And workers fighting wage theft.
And unarmed teenagers shot in our streets.
And women needing health care.
And victims of yet another mass shooting
and a whole laundry list of other things.
True religion is the gift God has given us
to enable us to do the work God has given us to do –
binding us together as we continue the work
of becoming a place of radical hospitality –
where all are received joyously:
even those we disagree with,
even those who wish we weren’t here;
even those who would prefer
we would keep someone else out.
“increase in us true religion”
When we pray for God to increase in us true religion
we are asking to be to deployed into the hard, challenging,
joyful gospel work
of tearing down walls and building bridges;
of living out that promise we make to simultaneously
strive for justice and peace among all people,
and respect the dignity of every single human being …
even those whose actions, policies and worldview we deplore.
It is work we have been committed to for decades
in this church and in this diocese
and it is work that our bishop John Taylor is calling us to focus on
with intentionality as we launch “One in the Spirit”
a diocesan initiative with four goals:
• “To live more fully into our baptismal promise to respect the dignity of every human being.
• “To understand better how barriers of class, race, language, nationality, culture, politics, geography, orientation, and identification blind us to the burning image of the divine in one another.
• “To proclaim in Christ’s name that we will not submit to our era’s epic division and polarization.
• “To feed hearts that are hungry for connection and community in a secularizing, isolating age.”
Starting this week I will be dividing my time between continuing to serve as a member of the All Saints clergy staff team and leading this initiative as a member of the bishop’s staff. There will be much more to share and explore in the weeks and months ahead but today is a day to rejoice and be glad in this opportunity to make true religion — that which binds together people in their quest for the divine — not just something we pray for once a year but a reality we try to live all year long.
Nobody ever said it was going to be easy.
And yet that is the work we have been given to do.
It is why we gather around this table week after week, year after year,
to be fed by the holy food and drink of new and unending life —
reminding us that it is in the broken that we are made whole
and that until all of us are gathered in none of us are truly home.
Reminding us that our true religion
— that which binds us together in our search for the divine –
is the ligament of love
intimately linking us with all creation
as we strive to make God’s love tangible
in this beautiful and broken world.
