Spiritual, But Not Religious?

²⁴ And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, ²⁵ not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.-Hebrews 10:24-25


It's a very popular phrase these days, so you've probably heard it:  "I'm spiritual, but not religious."  Translation:  "I don't go to church."


The "spiritual, but not religious" crowd often have had bad church experiences.  And as most of us know, it's not hard to find bad church experiences.  After all, churches are made up of sinners.  The "spiritual, but not religious" crowd like to maintain that they can find God in a sunset or on a mountain top or at the beach.  They say that they can "worship just as easily on a golf course."


Now I don't discount everything they say.  I even think that rightly done, some of these things can be a kind of sacrament in and of themselves.  And a really ardently spiritual person can find like-minded people to "be spiritual" with and have a kind of community (but wouldn't that be a church?).


But organized religion... even with all its faults... has very real gifts to bring to the spiritual soul.  By ourselves, we are likely to create a god of our own liking, rather than the God who has been revealed to us through scripture and experience through the ages.  We need to hear the word rightly spoken.  We need others with which to debate our own thoughts and feelings about who God really is.


It is only in a regularly meeting community that we can find the sacraments of Communion and Baptism.  They are not "magic" rituals that make us true Christians, but they are mystical means of grace that grow that spiritual life we crave.


And then there is the work of the church.  I want to share something I read this morning on the topic in a FaceBook discussion:

It doesn't take a Christian to see God in a sunset or in a baby's smile.  It takes a Christian to see God in the refugee camps of Darfur or in the flooded homes of Vermont.  The Jesus who died on the cross will always be found with the suffering.  If we would be followers of him, we'd best go to those places too... and be bearers of new life - after all, that's what the resurrection is all about.

It is through the organized church that we can best find good opportunities to serve those who need Christ most.  We will not find the oppressed and abused while contemplating the stars.  Yes, we can go find those in desperate situations on our own, but how prepared and equipped will we be without community behind us?  We need the financial and educational resources that only community coming together with purpose can bring.


Some churches can certainly make one want to run away from religion, but instead of running away, why not stay and help fix what might be broken?  Christ loves his Church, so should we.  We should love it enough to fight for it when it needs rebuilt, instead of discarding it as trash.


Lord Jesus,
Help us to love your church as much as you do.  Encourage us in our regular gathering and keep our mission about you and not about ourselves.  Amen.


Joys:  Riding through the country with the sunroof open on a beautiful summer morning; a quiet hike in the mountains; the smell of coffee brewing