In the modern world there is one thing that everyone seems to agree on. Whether they’re Liberal or Conservative, young or old, rich or poor, even Christian or pagan, everyone thinks the Church stinks.

I often hear my secular, New Age acquaintances say things like, “Oh, I’m spiritual, but I’m not religious.”  Generally these people view beliefs like a diner views entrées in a cafeteria.  They like choosing things.   They’ll say, “I’ll take a little reincarnation, and give me some yoga – that’s good for stress, you know.  Oh, and throw in the unconditional love, because you can’t have too much of that, besides, I deserve it.”  For these folks religion means “organized religion” or “institutional religion.”  In other words, it means Church.  And the Church tells you what to believe.  It doesn’t let you have it your own way. 

Many of my Christian friends, unfortunately, sound much like those folks.  I’ve often heard them say, “Christianity isn’t a religion, it’s a relationship.”  Generally what that means is, “Just give me Jesus, please.  You can keep all that other stuff.”  They don’t want creeds, or rules, or traditions.  They want Jesus one on one, all to themselves.  All that other stuff, the stuff that makes it possible to enjoy Jesus along with other people, well that’s extra baggage.   

Although these two groups don’t seem to like each other very much they really have more in common than either would care to admit.  They want choices, not obligations.  They want things on their own terms.  They want a personal, private, convenient spirituality.  They want the benefits of a spiritual life without all the complications that come with sharing it with other people.       

Bad arguments really bug me, especially when terms are used that people don’t understand or haven’t thought deeply about.  Let me speak up for a very unpopular word.  Let me say something kind about religion. 

The word “religion” means “to bind.”  “Aha!”  I can almost hear you say, “I knew it!  Binding – slavery – didn’t Jesus come to deliver us from that?”  Well, yes and no.  He did come to deliver us from the bondage of sin.  But, he put a new yoke upon us.  He binds us to himself.  But there’s more to it than that.  He also binds us to the other people who are bound to him.  Remember the old hymn, “Blessed be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love –?”  That’s the sort of binding that Christianity promotes.  No, we don’t want to be bound to sin and death, but to have righteousness and life we must be bound to the source of our righteousness and life – the Lord Jesus Christ.  And you know what you find when you’re bound to him?  There’s a whole lot of other folks bound to him too.  Getting back to that silly quote – the choice isn’t between relationship and religion; religion is what relationships are made of.  What we should be concerned with is true religion.      

But people are so, well, inconvenient.  Disappointing too.  There is a saying I heard once, attributed to Einstein (I don’t know if he really said it, but it sure sounds like him), “I love humanity; it’s people I can’t stand.”

Abstractions are easy to love, they can’t hurt or disappoint you.  But particular people, well, they’re real and they can do both those things.

A few years ago I read a book entitled, What’s Right with the Church, by William Willimon.  It’s not a terribly big book (I know what you’re thinking!) – but it is a good book.  He made a lot of good points, but the best point is this – the church is God’s creation.

And just as humanity is meaningless abstraction without particular people to know and be frustrated with, so the Church is a meaningless abstraction without particular bodies of local believers.  Why, the Church isn’t an abstraction to God.  Every book in the New Testament was written to local churches, to be read aloud in local churches.  The only books written to individuals were not written to you or me.  In fact, the persons they were addressed to: Timothy, Titus and Philemon, thought the letters were too important to keep to themselves.  Since they were bound to the Church, they handed them over because it would be wrong to keep things so precious to themselves.

Before I sign off, I just have one more thing to say.  No, your family is no substitute for the Church.  It’s just not big enough.  The Church is made up of people from every tribe and nation and every local expression of the Church should strive to embody that as much as is possible.  If your family was the only Christian family in traveling distance, well, sure, it would have to do.  But is that what you really believe?  Are you really the only expression of the Church where you are?  I hope not.  If on the outside chance your family is – well, get busy and start evangelizing people!

There’s an old song you never hear these days that’s entitled, “Give me that old time religion.”  Yeah, that’s what I want.  And if creeds and old hymns help to bind me to the Church – well, throw those in too!  Make the cords so strong that I could never even imagine a relationship with God without all God’s people thrown in!  Sure, there’s a lot more to say about this.  I didn’t even get into the Christian’s connection to the Church around the world or through time — but it’s a start!