Practical practice

Have you ever rode the pendulum-swing viking ship at one of those parking-lot carnivals? Every county fair in America has one. Empty moralism—vain religious practice—is just like that; you think you’re getting higher but really you’re just going side-to-side. You ever sit at a piano and watch a mechanical metronome swing, click-clack click-clack? Empty moralism is like that too. It ‘clicks’ when it crosses its threshold. Likewise, there’s times when it all seems to click, with religion. But it never speeds up or slows down; it exists to click-clack uniformly, and for its own sake. In practice, that’s a good thing. Keeps you straight. In performance… not so. My fellow musicians, can you imagine if you let the click-and-guide track through to front of house?

Religion is nothing more than practice. It comes from Cicero, the word. He used it to mean ‘scrupulous or strict observance,’ making a compound word from the prefix re- meaning again, and the verb lego meaning ‘to read,’ broadened to evoke a kind of ‘going over.’ Religion: ‘To go over again.’ Others have argued it comes from Augustine, but Augustine wrote under heavy Greco-Roman influence. Doesn’t matter. His definition for religion is ‘to be bound again, connected again.’ Almost synonymous. Religion is the practice of one’s beliefs, the ‘going back over’ or the ‘re-binding’ of belief, like you would re-glue a book binding after years of wear. He or she believes, and acts, and acts over time, and those actions over time constitute his or her religion.

The bible distinguishes between ‘true religion’ and false. I’ll let you look it up. Jesus heavily criticized false forms of religious observance: ‘You strain the gnat but swallow the camel.’ The prophets deal heavily with truth and falsehood in practice, and to them it all hinges on which offerings pleased the Father as opposed to the ones he didn’t like: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ Through the prophets, we learn that a true fast—one of the most important forms of observance in the bible—is one in which food is shared with the hungry, whereby slaves are freed, and widows and orphans are provided care, wherein one does not deny his own flesh and blood. I’ll let you look up the references to all those bible verses yourself. Through the prophets, we learn what’s required of us is live justly, walk humbly, and love mercy. That is right religious practice. Through the apostles we learn we’re freed from careful religious observance by a new law: Love.

But we choose to swing. We swing back and forth on this push/pull axis: Push things away, that’s legalism; pull things in and integrate them, that’s license. The whole game of it is what constitutes empty moralism. The pushing and pulling is a two-man crosscut saw, which over time cuts down your tree. Let’s get practical, to save the tree.

Practical: You’re not a Christian if you practice sin. Whoever says, ‘I know him,’ but doesn’t keep his commands is a liar. And what has he commanded? Simple love. Best-you-can love. Loving others as you love yourself, with enough grace to let you figure out what that means. You’re not a Christian if you don’t love people, even enemies. Hear me: You might be ‘saved,’ who knows? But you’re not a Christian.

Practical: If you’re calling attention to yourself, it probably isn’t real. Or, the attention you receive—that’s your reward. You’ve received your reward in full.

Practical: There is no prayer like the Lord’s prayer; don’t babble on.

Practical: If it’s obvious to others what you believe, you’re probably doing it wrong. It’s more complex than you can wear on a t-shirt or put on a bumper sticker. This is all Matthew 5-7, by the way. Jesus’ words. This view is found in his words, saying don’t practice to be seen by others, don’t disfigure your face.

Practical: If it has anything to do with money or clothing, you’ve missed the mark. There’s a church down the street that won’t let you in without a dinner jacket on, won’t let women in if they’re wearing blue jeans. I think that church needs to be burned down.

We’ve made our religion into something monstrous and gross. Religion isn’t all bad; by religion, the world has been remade a more peaceful place. Religion gave us advancements in human progress. A Presbyterian dude working in a Catholic hospital discovered penicillin. To deny religion is just another ‘push’ on the push/pull axis. Be quit of push/pull. I’m telling you, the pendulum swings, and you think you’re getting somewhere, but you’re going nowhere. The Southern Baptists outlaw everything, and their children revolt, and all they’ve built has gone away. The Cooperative Baptists allow everything, and their children suffer, and all they’ve built has gone away.

Let’s work up and down in acts of lovingkindness. Get practical. Ravenhill said the world is waiting for a practical demonstration of the love of God.

I’m sick of the push/pull, of prohibiting and permitting, the whole game of abhorring and allowing that we immature Christians play. Notice, I said, ‘we.’ Games like, can I enjoy this Netflix show or do I have to hate it? Enjoying it is as exhausting as hating it. I’m just sick of it all. I’m dropping it, for love.

Over the next forty days I’m embarking on a crazy spiritual journey and I plan to take you with me. These are my day-one thoughts. Let’s get practical.