The Life of Brian & Jesus

On the way home from picking up my youngest from the youth group he's part of, he shared what they did as a group last night. It apparently was the second night of/week of Advent where the youth group gathered with the adults that were there for one big group time to talk about Advent, sing songs, look at religious images, etc.

He was curious about what all that was about. What's Advent? Why are we having to get together with all the adults and sing endless songs, listen to "interesting" talks, and so on? I explained that his congregation has relatively recently found a new freedom to talk about things their tribe kind of/sort of didn't have the freedom to talk about in years past and so they're kind of/sort doing it a lot more.

We went on to talk about other details about the "church time" he had experienced and other questions that it brought up, like "Why do all the religious paintings and images from the past have a certain look to them?". Or what's up with people who really get into singing and seem to love to sing A LOT?  Or...well, the list went on and on. Lots of questions about things that didn't make any sense or seemed to be left unexplained.

It was a healthy discussion.

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It reminded me of how many times in ministry I probably ignored people's questions or concerns over the years when something happening wasn't explained more clearly - either because I didn't know an answer or didn't want to explain something I knew was going to take a really long time or would inevitably surface a disagreement I knew that existed, scripturally or along the lines of personal preferences.

In the absence of clarity, people make up their own answers - sometimes accurately and sometimes to the best of their ability, with the informational scraps they have available. So it is no wonder that a lot of times there is vagueness and ambiguity in religion/churches. Not because we can't handle the mysteries of faith, but because of the nature of relationships, communication, power, and the political dynamics of it all.

Regardless of topic, sometimes answers aren't given or explained because churches try to cram everything in a few short time frames with different educational, maturity, and cultural backgrounds present and hope that, magically, given enough time and exposure, people will just go along with whatever is being said or done, banking on the idea that the overall feel of the gathering, the pull of relationships, and the vague but strong implication that you MUST stay connected to make God happy, keeps it all going.

So our driving-down-the-road-conversation turned to The Life of Brian - an old movie by the Monty Python group. In it, a man named Brian is confused with Jesus or a Messiah in a time when people were looking for wisdom and freedom from Roman oppression. Brian is on the run from the Roman soldiers after having been caught defacing a Roman building, trying to get "in" with a group that might accept him.

In his running away, people begin to see him and ask what he's got to say about God and things. He's got no desire to say much of anything, but says a few things for appearances in front of a crowd - just enough to allow the soldiers to pass by and not notice him. He then trails off and walks away and the crowd is quickly convinced he MUST be important, maybe even the Messiah.  And the chase begins!

As he evades the soldiers and the growing crowd that is wanting him to be the Messiah, he loses a shoe and has to keep running. The crowd stops at his shoe and begins to debate what the lost shoe means. Some say the it's a sign that they should all collect shoes. Others say it's a sign that his followers should only wear one shoe and hold their other shoe in the air.  And many other crazy interpretations follow.

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So, our conversation paused or ended for the time being with the acknowledgement that there are times when religious things do not make sense for a variety of reasons. Sometimes it's gonna be because the meaning of something was lost and people just make up new meanings or explanations. 

Sometimes it's because there is something lost between the person asking "What is that?" and the person trying to answer them - there are too many layers of culture, meaning, trust, etc that don't exist to allow them to connect and share meaning adequately.

Sometimes it's because they don't make sense in and of themselves, but are placeholders or distractions to keep your attention and allegiance to something else that isn't necessarily wrong, but isn't necessarily related to a trust and dependence on God.

And so, it's okay to be confused and have a lot of questions. And it's okay, maybe even great, to ask a lot of questions and to insist that time is taken to answer the questions, even if it sidelines whatever else is going on. 

No longer do those kinds of institutions have the power, in most communities, to wreck your life if you don't "keep in line" and just go along with whatever is happening. Always feel free to ask, to disagree, to want to know more, to want to know why, and so on. The truth with set you free.

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Out of a desire not to mess things up with the God who set things up so we can't mess things up with him, we persist. 

Much of religion is well meaning and has a lot of good intention fueling it, but it often trusts itself more than the God it says it trusts.

Jesus came to bring clarity about God and show his heart for the whole world and we sometimes miss the point and make God seem like just the opposite.

We confuse the religious experience we inherited or made with a relationship with the God who made everything and has given us all we need to know and walk with him.

Be at peace and know that a lot of the things that are confusing about God or that people want you to be worked up about regarding God, aren't things that God is as worried about as you might think.