Is God Interested in Religion? 

John 15:1-8 

November 20, 2016 

Mark S. Bollwinkel

            Will our children have faith?

            For many of us over the age of 50, we raised our children in the church only to find that as they became adults they drifted away.   Don’t raise your hands, but how many of our children go to church?   Bonnie and I have two wonderful sons.  They are ethical, good men both with a deep sense of spirituality but neither of whom go to church to express or experience that spirituality.  They are typical of the “spiritual not religious” generation, one of the fastest growing groups in America (Pew Religion Survey).

            When I ask “Will our children have faith?” I don’t mean will our children have religion. 

            Religion can be a good and important thing.  It certainly has been in my life.  My religious tradition has been a tool with which I have learned to love God.  I belong to a global community of like minded people who share that same tradition and vocation.   The church has meant the world to me at so many levels.  I wouldn’t be the same person I am today if it weren’t for the practice of my religion.

But religion and faith are two different things.

Human beings create religion.  It is God that inspires faith.

Remember the movie “Oh, God!”?   John Denver plays a grocery store manager who is called by God, played by George Burns, to be the next great prophet to the world.  One night in bed John Denver’s character tries to explain this to his incredulous wife.  She asks, “But you haven’t gone to seminary, you haven’t been ordained, you don’t go to church and you are not even religious.”  To which the grocery store manager replies, “That’s the funny thing about it, God says he isn’t very interested in religion.”

The terrorists who flew the airplanes into the buildings on 9/11 were religious.  War has raged in Ireland, Palestine and Southwest Asia for decades between the religious.  All manner of atrocity has been perpetuated in the name of religion.

But religion and faith are two different things.

Jesus loved his religious heritage and activity practiced his Judaism but taught us the distinction between it and faith.  To the Pharisees whose orthodox religion barred them from healing the sick or feeding the hungry on the Sabbath Jesus said, “the Sabbath was made for human beings not human beings for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27).  To the hypocrites who took pride in religious observance while blind to the needs of the poor, Jesus said, “you strain out a gnat and swallow a camel” (Matthew 23:23-25).    To the thief crucified by his side that none-the-less could recognize God in Jesus’ death while all the sneering, mocking religious leaders could not, Jesus says, “Today you will be with me in paradise” (Luke 23:25-42).

Human beings create religion to express that which cannot be expressed, to try and understand that which can never be fully understood.  Don’t get me wrong, religion can be a wonderful thing.   Yet, at best any religion points to the eternal truth of God. It can never contain it within its limitations.

Rather faith is the dynamic, living, vital, growing relationship one can have with the Creator of the Universe, the spirit and the fire of life itself.  Faith is the open heart and mind that demands a lifestyle, not an occasional ritual (Isaiah 58:1-9, Amos 5:21-24).  Jesus wasn’t interested in creating a new religion.   Rather he invites us to faith.

Will our children have faith?

We hear about this relationship of faith in our gospel lesson this morning from John.  Jesus is speaking in metaphorical narrative suggesting he is the vine and we are the branches.   If we abide with him…when we are in relationship with him…we are connected to life and growth and blessing…the fruits of faith itself.  When we aren’t connected in this relationship we wither and die and need to be pruned; all this that we might become disciples.

How do we learn that kind of faith?  How do we build a relationship with the divine, nurtured by the spirit, learning the way and teachings of Jesus?

I was privileged to receive a wonderful education; primary, secondary, college and graduate school.  But when you come into my office you will not find my degrees and awards on the wall.  You’ll find my Willie McCovey autographed photo, lots of pieces of my pottery, but not my diplomas.  I keep them in a box in my closet in case the “credential police” ever come by.  They are very nice receipts of the time and energy invested in my formal education.  But when a person comes into a pastor’s office the relics of their degrees don’t guarantee that the clergy person has learned to be faithful.  And that is really what people are seeking.

Thirty years ago in Reno, Nevada I was getting our station wagon ready for a long awaited, well deserved family camping vacation.  I am no mechanic but I figured I could save us some money by changing the oil in my own garage.   Some gorilla must have put the oil filter on the last change because no matter what I did could not get it to budge.  I tried every tool in my box to no avail.  I ran over to the auto parts shop and bought a special tool just for such occasions.  It did not work.  Bonnie was about to come home from work.   I was supposed to have the car all loaded up and ready to go on our long awaited, well deserved family camping vacation.  

Time was running out. 

In desperation, I figured that if I drove a large screw driver through the body of the filter itself, I could then torque it off the thread of the base to which it was fused.  So, I drove the screwdriver through the filter and the body of the filter tore as I tried to turn it.  I succeeded in getting oil all over the engine and floor of the garage but failed to get it off.   Now I couldn’t even drive the car.

I was overwhelmed with frustration and shame.  Bonnie was going to blow her top.  I was a failure as a man.  I felt as if I was about to break down and cry.   I didn’t know what to do. 

Just then my son Dan, nine years old at the time, came into the garage and asked me what was going on.  I briefly explained the mess and my frustration, to which he replied, “Well, Dad, have you prayed about it?”

I was dumbfounded.  I hadn’t prayed about it at all.   I had been using God’s name quite vocally but I wouldn’t call it prayer.  That such a suggestion would come from my nine year old son stopped me cold.  After Dan left indeed I did pray for help.  As I did, it came to me to call the mechanic who occasionally worked on the car and ask what he would do in such a situation.  I got off my knees, called my friend and he patiently explained how one can tap a stuck oil filter off an engine block with a hammer and chisel over against the rim of the filter in the opposite direction of the thread.  I thanked him, went out to the car and had it off in 30 seconds. We learn faith in a variety of ways.

John Westerhoff suggests we learn faith during four main stages of our religious development.

We learn Given Faith by the example of our parents and family.  We learn this as children saying prayers at dinner or going to worship during the Holidays or being told bible stories at bedtime.

We also learn faith through a sense of belonging to a religious community.  We shape our identity by participation with and enculturation by a special group of people.  We call this Belonging Faith.

We learn faith through searching and questioning the ultimate dilemmas of life.  Teenagers and young adults read and debate and question boldly in this stage of Searching Faith.  Many of us never leave this stage.

Mature Faith is the final stage when we come to commitment and spiritual awareness.  Each and every opportunity in life becomes a chance to grow and deepen and expand our openness to God’s spirit.

Given, Belonging, Searching and Mature faith are stages we go in and out of throughout life.  Each requires different learning skills and opportunities.  It is a process in which we journey towards wholeness.   

We come to such faith in different ways.  This is evident in Jesus’ calling of the twelve.  Andrew, Simon Peter and Philip “drop their nets and follow” simply with the call (Matthew 4:18-22). James and John, the sons of Zebedee, will follow after an amazing miracle (Luke 5:1-11).  Matthew is called from his tax collector’s table and out of his status as a “sinner” (Matthew 9:9-12). Thomas will not come to faith until he places his hands in the wounds of the Lord’s resurrected body (John 20:27-28).  If his own disciples display a diversity of response to Jesus, who are we to judge each other for the diversity of our own?

Jesus is speaking of the vine and branch analogy to his disciples.  He is encouraging them not just to practice their religion but to nurture their connection, their relationship with God.  The same is true for us.

We all want our churches to grow and prosper with new members and activities.  But if our motivation for church growth is to get new people to give their money to the budget or volunteer on our committees we’ll attract very few. Who wants to join an institution whose mission is to get you to give money and sit on a committee?

Rather, churches grow when their members are deeply committed to inviting others into discipleship.   And the most effective way to do that is to be one!

Disciples earnestly open their lives to the reality of God at whatever stage they find themselves.  Disciples learn the story, the history, and the traditions of their faith.  Disciples celebrate them even as they come to know their limitations.  Disciples are known by the credentials of their lives as they love God and neighbor.  Discipleship is the formation of a peculiar people, with a distinctive lifestyle. 

When our friends and family see the quality of our faith and ask how they can get it too, that’s when our churches grow.

This is the last Sunday of the liturgical year.  We call it “Christ the King Sunday”.  Next Sunday we’ll begin a new liturgical year with the beginning of Advent, which leads into the Christmas celebration and the New Year.  The sanctuary will be decorated with the Christmas Tree and the symbols and colors of the season.

This is a great time of year to take stock of our faith not merely the status of our religion.  Do we feel connected to God?   Has the maze of confusion and anxiety in the world and our nation today subverted our faith?  What’s in the way of us experiencing the power and presence of the Divine Spirit within us and in those all around us?

Jesus is the vine and we are his branches.   Each and every day and especially in times like these Jesus can be our teacher, our model and guide. 

If we want our children to have faith...if we want others to join us here at church…those around us will know who and what we are by the credentials of our living and the quality of our discipleship.

Amen.