Losing My Religion

Religion is too hard. So I’m giving it up.

You might think I’m losing my sanity but I’m not. I’m just losing my religion.

And I’m not alone. Recent surveys reveal that many people have given up on organized religion. They still consider themselves spiritual but have quit their church, temple or synagogue.

Why give up on religion? Too many rules to remember. Too many toes to avoid stepping on.

“Now hold on just a minute! Aren’t you a pastor? Why would you give up on religion?”

Because I’m giving up man-made religion to follow Jesus Christ. I want to be part of a church that follows Jesus and shares his mission to serve and to seek and save the lost.

Giving up man-made religion sounds noble. How does someone, steeped in religion do it?

By listening to Jesus. Like the time he spoke about some of the most religious people of his day. He said, “Unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven.”

Jesus’ words shocked his listeners. Why? The Pharisees and the teachers of the law were well-respected religious leaders. Ordinary people looked up to them.

To be fair, all faith or belief systems could be described as a ‘religion.’ But what I’m talking about is man-made religion as opposed to the kind of faith in God Jesus described.

Man-made religion is more about manipulating God than pleasing him. Jesus used the words of the Prophet Isaiah to describe it. He said, “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men.”

Rules taught by men are what we end up with when we take away from what God has said or add to it. And God is not impressed with our attempts to ‘improve’ his words.

Some of Jesus’ most scathing criticism was leveled at religious leaders who didn’t understand God’s sense of justice and his passion to help those who were powerless, helpless and lost.

Please don’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Jesus wasn’t against pious people. It was those who demonstrated false piety that angered him. He called people hypocrites that were in religion for the recognition, power and wealth.

So what was Jesus’ point? That connecting with God involves so much more than rituals, right interpretations and rule keeping. Since the Garden of Eden, God has sought to have a personal relationship with men and women.

As Timothy Keller points out in his book, “The Prodigal God,” Jesus did not come to promote religion or the lack of religion. He came to show us a third way. A way to have a personal, one-to-one, heart-to-heart relationship with our Creator-God through his Son, Jesus Christ.

So when I say I’m losing my religion, what I want to do is abandon the European religious model. The model of the holy man, the holy place and the holy ritual as the way to please God.

What I’m calling for is a return to the simple, pure message of Jesus: That God loves us and wants us to love him. That he (Jesus) is the only way to God through faith in what his death, burial and resurrection accomplished for us. And that our job is to take that good news to others.

One day some people asked Jesus, “What must we do to do the works God requires?” Jesus answered, “The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent.”

The answer to life’s problems is not more religion. The answer is to lose our man-made religion and follow Jesus Christ. That is a proven path to peace with God and a life worth living.

Listen to the Bible; it’s great for your soul!