My thoughts today arise from the Isaiah passage (Isaiah 1:1,10-20).
Here we have a prophetic and scathing attack on religion. The trappings of religion are considered as nothing before God. What were the religious practices in context? Sacrifices, burnt offerings, the shedding of the blood of animals, incense, solemn assemblies, various religious festivals, and prayers. According to the prophet God does not delight in these things, finds them an abomination, they are unendurable, they are a burden to God and God will not listen to those who practice them! This is a far-reaching critique.
For us, I think we might get out of the criticism by saying something to the effect of, “Well, that was then. It doesn’t refer to us. We don’t sacrifice animals.” In other words, a neat get out of jail card! But I am not happy with that at all. It still niggles me. What if the prophet was here today and made the same criticism. Perhaps, it is not a particularly kind of religion but any kind of religion. What if all religion is futile? Instead of sacrifices, the prophet might say “your church services, your daily devotions, your prayers.” It might be that God, the ultimately real doesn’t need any of our religious practices, in any of our traditions. In fact, there is an understanding of God, that for God to be God, God has need of nothing. To need something is a characteristic of imperfection not perfection. The ultimately perfect needs nothing. So, there is a very real sense in which even our very best religion and worship and practice is a futility—if we think that God needs us to do it.
Does this mean, then, that we abandon all religious practices? I think not. Spiritual practice, prayer, ritual all are for our sake not God’s sake. Spiritual practice (at its best) is what shapes us, helps make us more balanced. I have a book chapter coming out “Spiritual Practice as a Foundation for Peacemaking.” In writing the chapter I found out that most people in history who have been committed to peacemaking, to social justice, were rooted in a spiritual practice. My conclusion was that it is spiritual practice that sustains folk in their work for peace and social justice. So yes, I think we cannot live as well as we might without religious practice.
Yet, listen to the prophet’s critique. When religion is an end in itself, when it turns only inward, when there is no outworking of it, then it becomes and abomination.
Listen to what is needed: cease to do evil, do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. In other words, true religion has a very strong ethical component. And here we need to rescue ethics from being merely about “sexual sins.” Ethics is about the way we live our lives. It is about goodness and social justice. If religion does not lead us there, then it is truly futile. “You say you have faith,” said St. James, “then show me your faith by your works.” He was restating the words of the prophet in a different context.
The next thing that struck me from the Isaiah passage is the idea of karma. “If you are wiling and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” The idea of karma is in simple terms, “what goes around comes around.” What you do has a consequence. Every cause has a related effect and every effect has a related cause. You might say, “You get what you deserve.” Though the word karma comes to us from the eastern tradition, it is there deeply rooted in our western understanding. It is the root idea of responsibility. We each must take responsibility for our actions because actions always have consequences. It is found everywhere. Take preventative medicine. We now know that if we do certain things to our bodies, then the effect will be for good or ill. If you eat sensibly, exercise regularly, avoid the over-use of drugs of various kinds, then you can expect to be fairly healthy. If you overeat, abuse alcohol, never exercise, smoke cigarettes, then you can expect the consequences in your body. Those are quite obvious. It is less obvious, but equally true, that if you are constantly verbally abusive to people, then you will find that people become verbally abusive to you. If you show kindness, then kindness will be shown to you. (There are exceptions to this rule, but generally it seems to hold true.) It is a useful rule to keep before our minds. What kind of karma am I producing today?
Yet, I had another thought. It is in the words of C.S. Lewis a “deeper magic.” I think the revelation of God in Jesus is to say that even though there is such a law as karma, that actions have consequences, there is such a thing as grace. Grace is a deeper magic. I would go so far as to say that grace trumps karma! By that I mean that if God acted toward me as karma dictates, then I would be in a sorry mess. I am just not that good. Thankfully, Jesus shows me that I do not get what I deserve. In his dying moments Jesus said, “Abba/Amma, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.” Karma dictates that they get what they deserve. They are executing as a criminal an innocent man. That is bad karma if ever there was. They deserve to suffer the consequences. Yet, grace says, “forgive.” Grace trumps karma. Thank God for the deeper magic!
Here we have a prophetic and scathing attack on religion. The trappings of religion are considered as nothing before God. What were the religious practices in context? Sacrifices, burnt offerings, the shedding of the blood of animals, incense, solemn assemblies, various religious festivals, and prayers. According to the prophet God does not delight in these things, finds them an abomination, they are unendurable, they are a burden to God and God will not listen to those who practice them! This is a far-reaching critique.
For us, I think we might get out of the criticism by saying something to the effect of, “Well, that was then. It doesn’t refer to us. We don’t sacrifice animals.” In other words, a neat get out of jail card! But I am not happy with that at all. It still niggles me. What if the prophet was here today and made the same criticism. Perhaps, it is not a particularly kind of religion but any kind of religion. What if all religion is futile? Instead of sacrifices, the prophet might say “your church services, your daily devotions, your prayers.” It might be that God, the ultimately real doesn’t need any of our religious practices, in any of our traditions. In fact, there is an understanding of God, that for God to be God, God has need of nothing. To need something is a characteristic of imperfection not perfection. The ultimately perfect needs nothing. So, there is a very real sense in which even our very best religion and worship and practice is a futility—if we think that God needs us to do it.
Does this mean, then, that we abandon all religious practices? I think not. Spiritual practice, prayer, ritual all are for our sake not God’s sake. Spiritual practice (at its best) is what shapes us, helps make us more balanced. I have a book chapter coming out “Spiritual Practice as a Foundation for Peacemaking.” In writing the chapter I found out that most people in history who have been committed to peacemaking, to social justice, were rooted in a spiritual practice. My conclusion was that it is spiritual practice that sustains folk in their work for peace and social justice. So yes, I think we cannot live as well as we might without religious practice.
Yet, listen to the prophet’s critique. When religion is an end in itself, when it turns only inward, when there is no outworking of it, then it becomes and abomination.
Listen to what is needed: cease to do evil, do good, seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. In other words, true religion has a very strong ethical component. And here we need to rescue ethics from being merely about “sexual sins.” Ethics is about the way we live our lives. It is about goodness and social justice. If religion does not lead us there, then it is truly futile. “You say you have faith,” said St. James, “then show me your faith by your works.” He was restating the words of the prophet in a different context.
The next thing that struck me from the Isaiah passage is the idea of karma. “If you are wiling and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land.” The idea of karma is in simple terms, “what goes around comes around.” What you do has a consequence. Every cause has a related effect and every effect has a related cause. You might say, “You get what you deserve.” Though the word karma comes to us from the eastern tradition, it is there deeply rooted in our western understanding. It is the root idea of responsibility. We each must take responsibility for our actions because actions always have consequences. It is found everywhere. Take preventative medicine. We now know that if we do certain things to our bodies, then the effect will be for good or ill. If you eat sensibly, exercise regularly, avoid the over-use of drugs of various kinds, then you can expect to be fairly healthy. If you overeat, abuse alcohol, never exercise, smoke cigarettes, then you can expect the consequences in your body. Those are quite obvious. It is less obvious, but equally true, that if you are constantly verbally abusive to people, then you will find that people become verbally abusive to you. If you show kindness, then kindness will be shown to you. (There are exceptions to this rule, but generally it seems to hold true.) It is a useful rule to keep before our minds. What kind of karma am I producing today?
Yet, I had another thought. It is in the words of C.S. Lewis a “deeper magic.” I think the revelation of God in Jesus is to say that even though there is such a law as karma, that actions have consequences, there is such a thing as grace. Grace is a deeper magic. I would go so far as to say that grace trumps karma! By that I mean that if God acted toward me as karma dictates, then I would be in a sorry mess. I am just not that good. Thankfully, Jesus shows me that I do not get what I deserve. In his dying moments Jesus said, “Abba/Amma, forgive them. They do not know what they are doing.” Karma dictates that they get what they deserve. They are executing as a criminal an innocent man. That is bad karma if ever there was. They deserve to suffer the consequences. Yet, grace says, “forgive.” Grace trumps karma. Thank God for the deeper magic!