Readings for today: Deuteronomy 12-15
One of my favorite theologians is a man named Karl Barth. A Swiss theologian in the 20th century, he was an influential voice in the Confession Church movement that resisted the Nazis in Europe and the author of the famous Barmen Declaration. Barth is most known for his relentlessly “Christocentric” theology. Everything was about Christ for him. He believed with all his heart that the fullness of God dwelt in Jesus which means Jesus reveals the fullness of God to us. Among his many famous sayings about Jesus, I particularly love the one where he calls Christ “the end of all religion” because “religion is understood as human striving toward God.” The essence of Christianity is not religion, it is relationship. It is God coming to be with us. God becoming one of us or as Barth himself put it, “God becoming what we are so we may be become what He is.” This is why God hates religion so much. He hates what it does to us. He hates how it diminishes us. He hates how it degrades us. He hates how it shames us. We were not made to be slaves of gods. We were not made to serve their whims no matter how capricious and arbitrary. We were not made to live in our lives in fear over their anger and rage. We were made for relationship. We were created as beloved children. We were shaped and fashioned after God’s own image so we could serve Him joyfully in the world He has made.
No wonder God tells His people to destroy the false gods and goddesses they encounter! “Destroy completely all the places where the nations that you are driving out worship their gods on the high mountains, on the hills, and under every green tree. Tear down their altars, smash their sacred pillars, burn their Asherah poles, cut down the carved images of their gods, and wipe out their names from every place.” (Deuteronomy 12:2-3 CSB) He is not being mean or lashing out in rage. He is seeking to protect His people from the dangers of false worship and false religion. He does not want them to fall prey to the paganism of the world around them. He is a jealous God. He will not allow them to turn their affections towards another. He will not share them with any other god because He knows how religion deforms and defaces and dehumanizes. And His love is jealous and fierce and loyal and true which is why He seeks to protect us even from ourselves.
The temptation to worship false gods remains. Our world is full of all kinds of religion. All of which God hates. Religion is the source of so much shame and so much fear and so much pain. It drives us crazy because it presents us with a goal that is forever out of reach. Strive as we might, we can never live up to religion’s ideals. We can never meet religion’s ethical and moral demands. We are always falling short. And this is why we need Christ. The end of all religion. The end of all human effort and striving. The end of all shame and fear. The end of all heartache and pain. What God offers us in Jesus Christ is an eternal relationship not another human religion. What God has done in Jesus Christ is bridge the divide between heaven and earth. The Word becomes flesh and blood and moves into our neighborhood. God becomes Emmanuel - God with us. God comes to us, full of grace and truth, to show us what it means to be truly human. Truly beloved. Truly accepted. Put aside your religion. Embrace a relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
Readings for tomorrow: No readings on Sundays