away the stone.” Martha, the sister of the dead man, said to him, “Lord, already there is a stench because he has been dead four days.” Jesus said to her, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” So they took away the stone. And Jesus looked upward and said, “Father, I thank you for having heard me. I knew that you always hear me, but I have said this for the sake of the crowd standing here, so that they may believe that you sent me.” When he had said this, he cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” The dead man came out, his hands and feet bound with strips of cloth, and his face wrapped in a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
Many of the Jews therefore, who had come with Mary and had seen what Jesus did, believed in him.
Dear Friends,
Grace and peace to you from God and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Have you noticed how much there's been in the news on the subject of religion lately?
In the past three weeks, the covers of Newsweek, Time and U.S. News and World Report magazines have had religious themes. If you didn't see any of those magazines, you can probably guess that the press religion has been getting isn't good.
Religion has been taking it on the chin these past few weeks with the Branch Davidian ordeal in Texas, the Muslims being accused of bombing the World Trade Center, and anti-abortion Christians turning violent in Florida. Throughout time, religion has been controversial.
Clark Morphew, a Lutheran pastor, writes a column in the St. Paul Pioneer Press, and yesterday, wrote about a young man telling of a religion class he's taking at a Twin Cities Christian university.
The teacher of the class gave the students an assignment. The students were to give one-word descriptions of religion. Maybe we should do that here? Of the 15 students’ answers, none were positive. All were negative words and most were associated with conflict.
Maybe the truth is that religion is full of conflict. Negative things do happen, even in the most religious gatherings of people. When you look at the past decade of religious history, there has been a load of conflict, and none of it was pretty.
Just about anywhere you look, all around the world, religions are in conflict, and experts are saying it may continue forever. These ethnic and religious hatreds run deeper than faith, and they will spill over every time society allows one group to publicly hate another.
Why is there so often, no tolerance, much less love between religious people? Why, if religion is our expression of belief in God, is it so often times cruel, vicious and divisive?
There's a story that comedian Emo Philips tells about two Baptists. I'm not singling out Baptists - we could substitute Lutherans for Baptists in the story. Before I tell you the story, there is one word you need to know to get a chuckle - and it’s the word "heretic."
To be called a heretic is not a compliment! A "heretic" is a person who holds an opinion or belief about religion that deviates from the norm or the standard. Emo Philips, this comedian, talks about a time when he met someone new and right away discovered that their religious backgrounds were very much alike.
I said, “Are you Protestant or Catholic?"
He said, "Protestant."
I said, "Me too! What franchise?"
He said, "Baptist."
I said, "Me too!"
He said, "Northern Baptist."
I said, "Me too!"
The two men go back and forth like this for a while. Then Philips asks, "Are you Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist - Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?"
The other fellow says, 'Northern conservative fundamentalist Baptist - Great Lakes Region Council of 1912."
Philip replies, "Die heretic!"
Philip's story is not too far off the mark, nor is it limited to Baptists. We all know, some of us from firsthand experience, religion very often divides people and closes them off from one another. Lutherans and Roman Catholics fostered mistrust for each other for years.
Today, some still hold their religion to be THEE most holy and proper. But I ask you, “Why does religion have these negative effects? Why does it divide people?”
I think I'd like to venture an answer to that question. The problem with religion is thinking that we have all the answers - and that our way is the right way.
The rub comes when someone else believes there is another way - another means of ascribing glory to God - and we cannot tolerate that other way.
We think our way is most excellent, and we will not explore new avenues or consider different thinking. When we refuse to be open to new ideas and new learning, and begin to channel our energies into preserving the status quo, then religion becomes a curse.
This was the situation of the Pharisees we read about today who were put out by Jesus and his work of bringing Lazarus back from the dead. These Pharisees were good and proper religious people. They had in their heritage all the richness and vibrancy of Jewish religious experience. They wanted to preserve that tradition, even as it had become cramping and deadly.
Many times in the Gospels, we read about the tension religious people felt toward Jesus. I think the religious people of that day would have been happier if Jesus had never appeared on the scene.
I can almost hear the Pharisees saying, "What are we to you, Jesus? Mind your own business, Jesus. Just leave and let us get back to our old-time religion. We don't need you or your new ways of doing things!"
Are people still saying that today? You bet. Religion can get in the way of our believing and following Jesus Christ. Religion has said that people who didn't conform to all our beliefs aren't welcome. Religion has said that people who don't believe in the prescribed ways are wrong or bad. Old-time religion has said that sexuality is bad, and so are working mothers and the divorced.
Old-time religion has said that Christianity is really about not drinking, not smoking, not dancing, not playing cards. For women, old-time religion has meant wearing only a certain amount of makeup and sensible shoes.
For men, it meant having the proper haircut, and joining the civic club, and putting bread on the table. And for the people who didn't fit this view of Christianity, old-time religion was all too eager and all too quick to say, "Die, heretic."
The religious establishment, as portrayed in the Bible, would have loved it. That's the thing about old-time religion - it always tends to be the same. Religion that hates change will certainly try to stop anything new. That kind of religion is not good. It’s not good enough for me, or for you, or for anyone. That kind of religion is cramping and deadly and it needs to end.
So, do we want new-time religion? No. Jesus did not come to bring a new religion to this earth. Jesus put an end to religion as the Bible makes clear.
You see the problem - the whole point with religion is that you have to do something. With religion, you have to offer sacrifices or offerings, or you have to eat fish on Fridays, or you have to abstain from dancing or drinking or you have to wear your best to church and on and on.
All religions are about
