REDUCED TO RELIGION

I know a man, maybe you know him, too
You never can tell; he might even be you
He knelt at the altar, and that was the end
He’s saved, and that’s all that matters to him
His spiritual tummy, it can’t take too much
One day a week, he gets a spiritual lunch
On Sunday, he puts on his spiritual best
And gives his language a spiritual rest
He’s just a faaa…

He’s just a fat little baby!
Wa, wa, waaaaa…
He wants his bottle, and he don’t mean maybe
He sampled solid foods once or twice
But he says doctrine leaves him cold as ice
Ba, ba, ba, ba…ba, ba…ba, ba!
He’s been baptized, sanctified, redeemed by the blood
But his daily devotions are stuck in the mud
He knows the books of the Bible and John 3:16
He’s got the biggest King James you’ve ever seen!

I’ve always wondered if he’ll grow up someday
He’s momma’s boy, and he likes it that way
If you happen to see him, tell him I said,
“He’ll never grow, if he never gets fed”
He’s just a fat, fat, fat, fat, fat, fa-at, fat…
Fat, Fat, Fat, Fat, Fat, Fat, Fatttt…Baby…

If Amy Grant were to sing this song she wrote in the eighties today, I can only imagine how many people in our world would be offended.  I’m chuckling to myself as I remember this song from my past.  I sang it in church because I got the message, but some did not.  Can you imagine the comments of today’s “offended” with icy stares from the religious?  “Who’s fat, why I’m fit as a fiddle!”  “I work hard to keep the fat off my body by working out every day!”  “You have no right to tell me who to live my life.”  “And another thing, I go to church every Sunday and do good stuff so I’m good.” 

Hint: It’s not about being physically fat. Yeah, missing the point, yet again world.  “Thou doth protest too much, me thinks”?

Romans 10, The Message

Israel Reduced to Religion

10 ^1-3 Believe me, friends, all I want for Israel is what’s best for Israel: salvation, nothing less. I want it with all my heart and pray to God for it all the time. I readily admit that the Jews are impressively energetic regarding God—but they are doing everything exactly backward. They don’t seem to realize that this comprehensive setting-things-right that is salvation is God’s business, and a most flourishing business it is. Right across the street they set up their own salvation shops and noisily peddle their knockoffs. After all these years of refusing to really deal with God on his terms, insisting instead on making their own deals, they have nothing to show for it.

^4-10 The earlier revelation was intended simply to get us ready for the Messiah, who then puts everything right for those who trust him to do it. Moses wrote that anyone who insists on using the law code to live right before God soon discovers it’s not so easy—every detail of life regulated by fine print! But trusting God to shape the right living in us is a different story—no precarious climb up to heaven to recruit the Messiah, no dangerous descent into hell to rescue the Messiah. So what exactly was Moses saying?

The word that saves is right here,
    as near as the tongue in your mouth,
    as close as the heart in your chest.

It’s the word of faith that welcomes God to go to work and set things right for us. This is the core of our preaching. Say the welcoming word to God—“Jesus is my Master”—embracing, body and soul, God’s work of doing in us what he did in raising Jesus from the dead. That’s it. You’re not “doing” anything; you’re simply calling out to God, trusting him to do it for you. That’s salvation. With your whole being you embrace God setting things right, and then you say it, right out loud: “God has set everything right between him and me!”

^11-13 Scripture reassures us, “No one who trusts God like this—heart and soul—will ever regret it.” It’s exactly the same no matter what a person’s religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. “Everyone who calls, ‘Help, God!’ gets help.”

^14-17 But how can people call for help if they don’t know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven’t heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That’s why Scripture exclaims,

A sight to take your breath away!
Grand processions of people
    telling all the good things of God!

But not everybody is ready for this, ready to see and hear and act. Isaiah asked what we all ask at one time or another: “Does anyone care, God? Is anyone listening and believing a word of it?” The point is: Before you trust, you have to listen. But unless Christ’s Word is preached, there’s nothing to listen to.

^18-21 But haven’t there been plenty of opportunities for Israel to listen and understand what’s going on? Plenty, I’d say.

Preachers’ voices have gone ’round the world,
Their message to earth’s seven seas.

So the big question is, Why didn’t Israel understand that she had no corner on this message? Moses had it right when he predicted,

When you see God reach out to those
    you consider your inferiors—outsiders!—
    you’ll become insanely jealous.
When you see God reach out to people
    you think are religiously stupid,
    you’ll throw temper tantrums.

Isaiah dared to speak out these words of God:

People found and welcomed me
    who never so much as looked for me.
And I found and welcomed people
    who had never even asked about me.

Then he capped it with a damning indictment:

Day after day after day,
    I beckoned Israel with open arms,
And got nothing for my trouble
    but cold shoulders and icy stares.

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

This passage is filled with how not to think and behave with the wonders of how God changes us from the inside out—all because the work of God through Jesus, His Son.  The pleas of Paul reveals his heart for God’s people, the Jews.  Saul/Paul was born a Jew and has the heritage of growing up in the ways of the Jews.  But then Jesus changed his mind about what and who is of most importance and beyond the rituals and religion of the Jews—namely an intimate, growing relationship with God by accepting that Jesus is Messiah who died to take away the sins of the world!  No one else but God provides salvation with complete forgiveness of sins—all sins.

Salvation is a gift from God delivered by Jesus.  We don’t earn it with how many times we attend church each Sunday, how many times we sing in the choir, teach Sunday School, carry the biggest Bible so others will know who we are, or wear badges of distinction as we serve.  We realize we can’t wash ourselves clean from our sins by vowing to be a better person…tomorrow.  Only Jesus saves us from our sins when we ask Him.  This is God’s Work in us as He relates with us daily. This is why Jesus is preached, says Paul to the Jews who are wrapped up so tight in their religion and added laws that they can’t see Jesus who can set them free to have a right relationship with God! 

The Jews who do not believe Jesus as Messiah have become “impressively” fat because of the mental weight gain of all the added self-made religious laws, time spent in judgment of others who do not adhere to their laws, along with the busyness of administering punish to the people “under them” with their interpretation of the Law in ways that support their arrogant pride.  This is a lot of work, but they do not and will not give up their way for God’s way.

But we’re not like that, right?  We don’t judge “outsiders” who don’t seem to fit in our traditional church ways, do we?  We don’t punish people with icy states when they don’t talk and walk like us who have grown up going to church?  We don’t get frustrated when new believers take too long to act “appropriately” to be where are in our spiritual stage of growth…do we? 

We preach Jesus as the One and Only who died for the sins of world and rose from death in victory to give us hope of life eternal!  We preach that all are welcome to begin a relationship with God through Jesus!  By our behaviors, we create environments that take away the apprehensions and anxieties of seeking visitors who have thought it over and finally had the courage to come to a place where we worship God in Spirit and in Truth. 

Because God first loved us; we love Him back in a growing relationship with God. We trust Him, not ourselves.  We lean on His understanding as we ask Him for wisdom We ask what HE wants us to be and do. Because of our relationship with God and His love; our love for others is evident by the look on our faces.  We love more and judge way less. We don’t expect or demand people to be like us; instead, we point people to Jesus as the perfect example of living in relationship with God.    

Day after day after day,
    I beckoned Israel with open arms,
And got nothing for my trouble
    but cold shoulders and icy stares.

How our indifference to a relationship with the One who love us most must break the heart of God…

Believe and be saved. 

Trust God.  Follow Jesus.

Resist the urge to judge by calling on the Name of Jesus to help us.  He will.

“Devout yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a grateful heart,” writes Paul.  “Live wisely among those who are not believers, and make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.” Colossians 4: 2, 5-6, NLT

Lord,

Help us to avoid merely attending church from obligation with eyes that judge. Help us to seek you with open hearts, minds, and souls ready to be filled with Your Holy Spirit.  Help us to be still and really get to know as we learn from you and grow in our relationship with you.  Help us to be the church of people who live life in Jesus Name for Your Glory to all people. Cleanse our hearts, renew our minds, refresh our souls with your new mercies for today, and restore the joy and peace of you in us and us in you—growing in our love for you.  I love you, Lord.

In Jesus Name, Amen

No regrets…ever…when Jesus is the Master.