Fasting from “Me and Jesus” religion
What did you give up for Lent?
Of the three Lenten disciplines – fasting, prayer, and almsgiving – it seems that fasting is the most popular.
I have experienced several Lenten fasts over the years. One Lent I attempted to give up coffee and after enduring headaches and fatigue decided I wouldn’t do that again. The next year I fasted from creamer in my coffee. I realized I could actually taste the coffee and have since drank my coffee black. One year I gave up speeding by traveling exactly the speed limit on the Mass Pike. I settled into the far-right lane and watched all of Massachusetts fly by me in the left two lanes. I must say, I found the drive surprisingly relaxing “out of the fast lane.”
Fasting is a way to mark Lent as an intentional season of reflection and repentance. Especially for those of us in a culture of plenty and abundance, fasting can help us remember that our identity is not found in the “things” and “stuff” of our lives. Our identity is found in the promise of baptism that we are named and claimed children of God.
So what did I give up for Lent this year? Here’s what I’m fasting from this Lent: my fast is from a “me and Jesus” religion.
What is a “me and Jesus” religion?
A “me and Jesus” religion is one focused on a private and personal relationship with Jesus. In this form of religion, the point of the religious life is personal belief, pious behavior and receiving the reward of eternal life. The entire arena of Christian life is your heart and mind. Some who believe in this “me and Jesus religion” will say: “I don’t need church to have a relationship with Jesus.” That’s true in a “me and Jesus” religion because in that religion you only have yourself.
Now let me be clear: we do experience the promises of God spoken to us as individuals. In our own unique ways we experience God’s Law and Gospel Word for ourselves. We are named and claimed as God’s children in the water and word of baptism. We meet the crucified and risen Jesus Christ in the bread and cup of the Holy Eucharist. A personal experience of God in the risen Christ that nourishes our faith is foundational to our Christian life.
The temptation I’m talking about, however, is for us to think that our Christian life ends there. That as long as I’m right with Jesus, as long as I’m growing in the faith, as long as I have Jesus in my heart, as long as I seek forgiveness for my sins and repent, then that’s all faith requires of me.
That form of religion fits nicely with a Western individualized capitalistic society where the self, the self’s needs, and the self’s desires are all prioritized. It is easy in such a system to turn to Jesus to ask for Jesus’ blessing upon that which we, independently of faith in Jesus, have chosen for ourselves. Jesus becomes the blessing we cling to for the sake of getting what we want for ourselves.
In fasting from a “me and Jesus” religion, I propose we turn instead towards a “Jesus and his friends” religion.
Many years ago I heard a Lutheran scholar say this: “When you invite Jesus into your heart Jesus will bring all of his friends with him – many of whom you may not like.”
Let that sink in: when you invite Jesus into your heart, he will bring all his friends with him.
To understand faith in this way, as “Jesus and his friends” religion, is to understand that to be in relationship with Jesus is to be in relationship with everyone Jesus loves. In fact, that is the heart of Lutheran Christian ethics and public action in the world. We who have received the love and mercy of Jesus Christ, as an unconditional act of grace through no merit or work of our own, are called to extend that love to our neighbors.
I believe it was Martin Luther himself who once said: “God doesn’t need our love – but our neighbors do.” In response to the love and grace we’ve freely received from God, it’s not God who needs our love in return, but it is our neighbors who need our love. In faith, we “pay it forward” – extending the love and grace we have received in Christ to our neighbors around us, especially our neighbors in need.
To turn from a “me and Jesus” religion and to embrace a “Jesus and his friends” religion, is to see that the purpose of God loving each of us is that we would love one another.
That as Jesus forgives us we would forgive each other. That as Jesus heals us we would heal each other. That as Jesus builds inclusive and welcoming community for all people in the promise of baptism and Christ’s presence in holy communion, we would build inclusive and welcoming communities of justice where all are named, known, welcomed, served and honored.
In this outward turning in a “Jesus and his friends” religion, the other two Lenten disciplines of prayer and almsgiving become foundational. With Jesus and all of his friends in our hearts, we pray for our new friends, give alms to support our new friends, and live in relationships of justice with our new friends.
This Lent I’m mindful of my new friends in Palestine and Honduras I was gifted to meet in my travels to our global companion churches in January and February. Having met friends of Jesus who are the members of the Lutheran Churches in Palestine and Honduras I pray for them with new fervor. I’m moved to action in new ways to use my voice to amplify their voices calling for justice with peace and adherence to international law.
A “Jesus and his friends” religion is a religion the world desperately needs today. It is a religion where disciples of Jesus are moved to action in behalf of their friends in Christ. It is an outward focused religion where God’s love bestowed upon us freely flows through us to the world around us. And, just as importantly, God’s love flows back to us through our new friends!
And so friends, I invite you to fast from a “me and Jesus” religion. Instead, for the life and healing of the world, for the sake of God’s love being made known to all people, for the sake of justice for all, live with a “Jesus and his friends” mindset. In community with all of Jesus’s friends – be the hands and feet of Christ loving each and every person of the world.
Yours in Christ,
Bishop Pipho
