for us irreligious...

A couple months ago, I was walking across campus, simultaneously reading "Velvit Elvis" (by Rob Bell) when a friend stopped me and asked me what I was reading. After I explained to him what the book was about (the title just isnt that self-explanatory), he became a little guarded and told me about his bad experiences growing up in a legalistic denomination. When I told him I was questioning a lot of things myself (the Americanized Christian culture just wasn't synching up with what I was reading about how Christ actually lived), he said something I haven't been able to stop thinking about.

He said, "I wish there was a place for those of us who aren't 'religious' to talk about spiritual things."

First off, I have to be honest with you... I absolutely despise that word... "religious." I don't know about you, but in my head its attached to all these other descriptors--judgemental, arrogant, self-righteous, hypocritical, etc. There are probably a lot of us who consider ourselves spiritual, but never want to be labeled "religious."

And then the other day I stumbled on some ideas that I totally connected with. Before Dietrich Bonhoeffer died, he started writing about "religionless Christianity," and I think he really had something there. Because the truth is, I really believe Christ came to eliminate our need for a religion, not to create another one in the world.

The religious are concerned with rituals, rules, temples, and priests. But ironically enough, the first century Christians were called "atheists" by the Romans because they emphasized the fact that they didn't need these things. In their minds, they didn't have a religion... they had a Person-- who knew them, and loved them.

So originally, prayer was never meant to be a ritual--it was just a conversation with a Friend. And worship wasn't a religious ceremony--but really just a natural expression of love. And Jesus didn't leave us with all these rules we had to follow--He just simplified everything down to "love God, and love each other." We don't need a temple because Christ left His spirit here with us and said He would be with us when two or more gathered together in his name. And we don't need priests because Jesus provided everyone with direct access to God's presence.

Maybe all the extra stuff is just man's attempt to make Jesus into a religion, and separate the sacred from the secular. When His original plan was to dissolve religion--and instead come and know us, to love us, and make sure we knew that everything was sacred.