Theology 101

Many times it has been said that Theology 101 teaches the most important fact about God that one can possibly comprehend. There is a God and you are not him.

I am reading a wonderful book that looks at what is going on with the church in the early 21^st Century. The author relies on volumes of research and puts all that she says in clear historical context. Her take is that what many of us see as the church in a mess is really just America redefining what it means to be spiritual. Newer generations find the church and organized religious structures to be unnecessary to having a belief system and seeking to know and be guided by God.

I must admit that much of what she says resonates with me. I am a part of the generation that ramped up this idea that one can be spiritual without being Christian. (Or Muslim or Jewish or Hindu or most anything else one might be.) We made fun of the evangelicals for talking about having a personal relationship with God and then went on to design our own personal religions. According to the most recent surveys, when questioned about religious beliefs, the fastest growing section of the population is people who describe themselves as “spiritual but not religious.”

I can identify with this crowd. I am not a big fan of religion when religion is defined by much of the church that I have known since my childhood. The religions and churches I grew up around seemed to be all about rules and obligations and doing things that were NOT FUN and excluding people who didn’t believe just as you did and to worship, one had to get dressed up in the most uncomfortable outfit available and spend an hour or so being bored out of one’s mind. I remember being in worship in my three piece suit and laying down on the pew with my head in my mother’s lap and sleeping. Church was not a terribly negative experience for me. It was just a bother to go. Other than meeting with other kids my age in the little room behind the pipe organ to smoke, church was not something I cared to carry into my adult life. Church no – smoking yes.

But then my older brother introduced me to Christianity: the antithesis of religion. Religion is man’s attempts to reach God through a complicated series of beliefs and actions in order to get God to like us enough to invite us into heaven. (Or whatever you are taught to call it.) On the other hand, Christianity is God’s attempt to reach man through sending his son to live among us as one of us, teach us, experience what we experience, die for us on the cross and show us the way to eternal life through the resurrection. Christianity is less about rules and more about grace. The centerpiece of Christianity is not obligation, it is love. Religion and Christianity are two very different things.

As I have conversations with my spiritual, but not religious brethren, I have discovered that we part company at one strategic point. I believe in the God who revealed himself in the Bible and the plan God has for us to get to know him and develop a relationship with him. I see God as one who both loves us and calls us to a moral standard that may challenge us and cause some discomfort and life change. A God who teaches that being nice is great but being holy is even better. (The two are not mutually exclusive.) The God I serve doesn’t serve me. God both soothes me and afflicts me. Being a God follower is challenging more than it is comforting.

It seems, if the surveys are correct, my irreligious/spiritual friends believe in a god that is, unfortunately I believe, of their own making. Doing this strikes me as both extremely convenient and egocentric. The convenient part has to do with getting to develop a god who is much like me. My made-up god is a god that is: white; has the same moral standards as I; is especially forgiving of whatever it is that I am doing that even I feel is wrong; supports my political party; totally supports me in whatever social issues I believe to be important – they become moral issues; supports my belief that if you love me you must approve of everything I do. It is egocentric because if my god must meet my criteria to be acceptable, when you come right down to it, that approach makes me the ultimate authority. The reality is, ultimately I am my own god. And I don’t care how smart you may be or how “spiritual” you may be or how well intended you might be, you are an extremely shaky ground. It is ground that I am unwilling to occupy.

My younger sister shared a quote with me the other day that I believe goes to the heart of our struggle to understand God. It speaks to the reality that God is very different than we are. It is back to Theology 101. “God’s timing is not always our timing. We see the immediate, He sees the long term. We feel pain and desire relief; He sees our pain and offers comfort. We pray for God to do something; He wants us to do something. We want conflict resolved; He wants our resolve to be trust in Him. We want to be an overnight success; He wants our character to grow with our success. We want financial security; He wants us to be generous with what we have. We want meaningful relationships; He wants us to initiate friendships. We want health; He wants us to be complete. We are seeking glory: He wants to glorify Himself.  Fearful impatience can push us to settle for less than the Lord’s very best.”

Ultimately I guess I am greedy. Instead of settling for what I think is right and best, I want to experience the life God has in mind for me.

Copyright © 2014, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved