The Hazards of Being Religious John M. Buchanan
Hosea 6: 1-6 Matthew 9: 9-13 Broad Street Presbyterian Church
June 8, 1975 Columbus, Ohio

There wes a let abevt the prphets cf “Tsrast ee iter
The—»2e >be 2 ' = —

deste ssia gly hashes
fessiarly emberertgg: With dogged persistance they

showed up at the wrong places saying the wrong things to the

wrong people ‘\ a Ee ne
Sees
VT Tens { .

The objects of their harbs and threats and warnings, more often

than not, were the important peopte:\xings, politicians and

priests. \ They seemed to have no appreciation whatever for the
===5 —— SS ae

decent and orderly practice of religion | See EOE ET |
ret. cadiaiaieed al

But the really embarrasing thing about the prophets was

the way they had of revealing dishonesty in the lives of good

and respectable peopte.\ That has always and in every age, been
an unpardonable taux_pax.\ It is not a very popular activity

to point to the discrepencies between what people say they be-

lieve and the way they live their Lives: \ ana to do so claim-
Ss

ing the authority of God himself is literally to take one's

life in one's hands. |"'So persecuted they the prophets before
Eas

you", ] sesus told his disciples. | And as a matter of fact, the

prophets of Igrgel were not only socially ostraé¢ized but in
many instances physically banished and punished.
ees [coors

Let me tell you about one of those prophets, one of the

most curious, but in terms of developing Biblical theology,

one of the most important.
cass]

Hosea was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel in

the eighth century BC,

It was a chaotic
Ls |

and difficult time in Israel's history and Hosea tried to make
ianernk

. . . a
some sense of it by relating it to his own Sema personal ex-
a ee |
perience,

According to the prophet, God ordered him to marry a woman
[med

by the name of Gomer who was 2 prostitute | Hosea and Gomer had
een a eel

And then, apparently, Gomer reverted to her old ways and

resumed her life of sexual promiscuity - rather embarrassing
peer

a

for a prophet of God. \ According to religious law she eeused shovls

have been executed. | Instead Hosea sent her away, perhaps
ae

thet showtd Wave cime

sold her into slavery which sounds harsh but compared to comelubed You
: : yas
alternative was, in fact, an act of mercy. \ The trouble was.

teet Hosea still loved his wite. \ And so he did something un-

his
broken trust, his degraded.love and reclaimed her as his wife
= SE TEPER CTE are TI ener

and the mother of his children,
———,

pls _
HK The embarrassing thing about Hosea beyond the tawdryness
[oes

of his marital experience which apparently was quite public,
was the fact that he saw in his own experience a picture of

God's relationship with tsraet\ With great tenderness he des-

Lene y

cribes the early days of the covenant relation between God and

his peopie.\ But after the land was conquered and the wandering

ee

tribes became a nation, the people became religiously promiscuous.
oe

The Canannites who had lived on the land worshiped nature Gods
| “The Loraet ves joined in

called Baalim.

addition they forgot

their dependence on the Lord God and looked to military strength

and political alliances for socurity.\ All the while keeping
- eee

up the pretense of fidelity to their own religion. \ they main-
iin =

tained their own sacrificial system: \ they kept the 1aw\ But

to the piercing insight of Hosea it looked like nothing so much
precisel,
as harlotry, prostitution - and that's*what he called it.

Out of his own experience with Gomer, Hosea taught two
nal eo 2 sae

ideas that put him in a category apart from the other prophets.

Others had proclaimed God's anger and wrath and judgment .\ Hosea
saw that God's love for his people was unending :\ that there is
eee — Dd =

a tenderness in the heart of God that persues his wayward people

no matter how far they have strayed.
ed

He wrote —
"How can I give you up, O Ephram!

How can I hand you over, O Israel!

My heart recoils, within me,

My compassion grows warm and tender,
I will not execute my fierce anger...

for I am God and not man. " Hosea II: 8-9

tei

That was af new idea. \ aS
ee

is proplt

Lewere | God's love for dwell is like Hosea's forgiving, redeem-
a . . . a fave tec pts
ing, pursuing love for his estranged wife Gomer. 7 taney alajays be
tfeaie dd mM fs biansom

Sy oft
The second major idea that Hosea taught was that God wants
bi

bain ll

his people to be loving and forgiving and honest and righteous

—

more than he wants proper performance of religious ritual:

end

"For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice,
the knowledge of God, rather than burnt offerings"

(Hosea 6:6)

The prophets, and they really have no equivalent in the

other religions of the world, were men of faith who pointed

to the tension between form and substance in religion. | They
ee a

were not opponents of religion per

se:| they did not attack the temple, the rituals, the laws, the
sacrificial systen »===pew \ wnat they did was to point out,
with great persistance and courage, that thef@ is always a
built-in tension between ritual and reality: \ between Temple

and marketplace :\between what people say they believe and the
7 Fl Lill

way they live their ives. \ They pointed, that is to say, to

the “Hazards of being religious."

of keeping faith with our tradition is to understand that the

a

tension exists always; \that there is a seemingly natural pro-
gaat of
pensity in institutional religion to become an end in itself.
Gite te Preys Thing tran its Haare jdeas =

That propensity -~- that tension ~ shows up on many occasions
= be al

4

in the life and public ministry of Jesus \ He was, apparently,
———— | inhibin ——

a practitioner of formal religion.\ He went to the Temple:\ he

taught in the synagogs \ he expressed respect for religious law

and custom.| But recall the many instances when he disregarded

_——

the forms of religion in favor of something nore important | He
ed

broke the sabbath law by pealing:\ daemaiiotelelng
i el —

re \ But nowhere is the tension between
—————— nh be

éerex and substance more clearly revealed in his own life than
i.
in our New Testament lesson this morning.
pee,

Our Lord was sitting at table with some rather unsavory
ae

characters: \ tax collectors - those despicable people who be-
ae,

Se eieemnmeal

trayed their own nationality by collecting revenues for the
Sl el Ee

Romans, and sinners - the happy pagans, the poor, common people

Le el
who had no time for ior interest in the intricate formalities
ee in,

of institutional religion. \ tt was not only_a breach of propriety

to break bread with these types, \not only an exhibiton of very

poor taste, fit was also clearly itegat\ They were unclean:
score

Fe,

formal religion prohibited having anything to do with them.
De

eee
delight &
How i the Pharisees must have been to catch him
eee eet

in such a comprémising set of circumstances. \ They placed a
aa ee

very high premium on the forms of their religion: \they obeyed

the rules:\ they honored the customs:\ they supported the Temple

Standing outside the house, they addressed a simple question to
eal

=e.

the disciples: | "Why?" - (ne dees your teacher eat with tax-

collectors and sinners?" Jesus overheard the question, turned
—" a ll

late

~~

and said to them ("6° - and learn what this means, ‘Tt desire

mercy and-not sacritice'.")

The brilliance of that response is that they knew very
2 ne Cd

well what it meant.\ He had paraphrased Hosea 6:6, a verse of

scripture they all would haveknown.| He had fnvoked the memory

i

of the prophet and his own peculiar religious experience {They

thaw rit ‘le they
knew what it meant: } they knew well that God really did want them
oe

nel

to be loving rather than correct: | that He was far more interested
‘rpms ea F enal oan

in Lives that were lived on the basis of love and forgiveness
ea onal

il Lenten el i
and Kindness than He was in précise fulfiliment of sacrificial
— 7]

and dietary and ritualistic requirements.

Institutional religion, our own included, depends for its

health and resiliancy, on an understanding of the tonsion.\ The
woe

church of Jesus Christ must exist with the constant understand-

ing that there is a natural tension between form and substance:

that in a sense it is the very nature of institutional religion

to become an end in itseit,\ there is a very famous line é#n Pogo
that goes("1 have found the enemy - and they is us.) That is
the reality of the church. \ As institutionag, the Church is in
a Deameemererrettict
CANS toe i
constant danger of idolatry - selling’feligion, rather than preli—-
Da ed
Jesus christ :\ interpreting public worship as a guty, a ritual
to be performed rather than a response that wells up out of our (

— Bucs te ox pend grvanls
need; | encouraging stewardship as a formal obligation rather than

a privilege of grace and love.

=

The church is vulnerable here.\ tn his very witty and very
| Letitia od

good Screw tape Letters, C. 8. Lewis presents the correspondences
:

between two satanic under ings :| one-Screwtape, giving advice to
il deel

his nephew Wormwood - in the struggle to win a man's sour. \Tn
beet ed Rrra —

the middle of the book the subject of their devilish attention

banal

is about to join a church and ig comparing two parishes. [Screwtape'
[et Se

Le anenenl eer

advice is devastating:

".,..there is one good point which both these churches have

in common - they are both party churches. \1 think I warned

you before that if your patient can't be kept out of church,

he ought at least to be violently attached to some party

i,

within it.\ I don't mean in doctrinal issues: about those
the more lukewarm he is the petter..| The real fun is work-

ing up hatred between those who say "mass" and those who

say "holy communion" wheve neither party could possibly

appraisal

state the difference. \ without that...the church of England
Te nell

might have become a positive hotbed of charity and humility"

(The Screwtape Letters, p 84-85)

And the Scottish New Testament scholar, William Barciay
Fale Te

ie ianieebioomamederanl

warns that there is a type of religion that turns in on itself.7

— Eee
i
fo
i
it
YA eT
Y (ore may move a man to Pharisaic isolation, |, The Church must never
, TS Se ee
\ 4
¥ of be in any sense a little huddle of pious people, shutting the
doors against the world, lost in prayer and praise, |connoisseurs

of preaching and Liturgy, \pusy mutually congratulating themselves

on the excellence of their Christian experience." (In the Hands

of God p 40 - 41)
Now, I am not, please understand, offering an apologia for
Shin aera Sia Ca Didi eiidehiaieme ani

those who stay away from or attack - the Church because it is

full of hypocrites, | in fact, I rather believe that when it

aaa

comes to hypocricy there are fewer in than out and that if a

_—w

be @ sulped ilk Kue

person is honestly seeking for God and is honestly interested

in being a part of his will for the world ~ that person will be
en ae

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in Church, regularly, faithfully and responsibly.

— ie

—H—

What I am saying is that theChurch must be ever mindfull
TL, ee

of the tension in its own being between form and substance:

a.

and that the hazards of institutional religion is that it can
Pil tee rhbwale anh forme Can
Litto GOd'S will and anesthetize us from his living

word.

—r,

| Malcolm Muggeridge, well-known British intellect,

_

journalist and broadcaster has written a littlé volume, Something

Beautiful for God, the story of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and

eC

the missionaries of Charity, the religious order she instituted.

I found myself deeply touched by the book.

Mother Teresa is a Yugoslavian pun who received papal

Se

permission to work among the poorest of the poor - on the wretched

streets of calcutta. | With total simplicity of faith, with no
—— nn eel

money and no resources except her confidence that she was obeying

er hss cw the will of God ~ swe began by gathering five deserted urchins
4 avs from the streets and teaching them the alphabet as well as feed-

thse whe ae ia no y
releked fe pyenal re ligne

fasts Ly dowe -

-

ing and clothing them. | From that modest beginning has grown &

schoolyfrehabili tation centers for lepers ~ and literally @ move-

ee a a

ment in twenty five cities in India and five other nations.

ieee ——

Always the Missionaries of Charity live with the poorest
Ways |

of the poor, | they own nothing,\| they have no cloistered convent,
ee en ined

they give their lives totally to helping, in the name of Jesus

eral

Christ, the utterly helpless and hopeless. | none Mother Teresa's

ew

Cc

boy
Wr er
utt “ al ae

\4
ye

establishments is an institution housed in a Hindu Temple called
De aannmmmiinimienel ePVe nearer

simply Home for the bying| Te is simply that: [= piace where the

ies

sisters bring people who aredying on the streets and in the
a profrer Zugliiae
gutters of Calcutta. \ Muggeridge asked Mother Teresa what she
a NT,

was attempting to do.| She replied: E want to make them feel

rr, Sa

that they are wanted. | We want them to know that there are people

ba

who really love them, who really want them, who really want them

at least for a few hours that they have to live, to know human

ee =

and divine Love." \¢no1 #2) They are brought" she said, "to

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die within sight of a living tace."((p 41) 23,000 people have

been brought to the Home for the Dying in Calcutta.

—_——._

Children, by the hundreds, are cared tor. | Never has one

been turned away. | tugzeriaze writes, jrrne notion that there

could in any circumstance be too many children was, to her, as
i, Qa

inconceivable as suggesting that there are too may bluebells

in the woods or stars in the sky." (p 29)

ere,

when Muggeridge asked her to become analytical about

her work. AyPhe said, \te biggest dieease today is not leprosy

or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted, un-

cared for and deserted by everyboay.\ The greatest evil is the

Pre aenaaamannaad —

lack of love and charity, the terrible indifference toward one's

er

neighbor,

(p 73-74) "For all kinds of

eanameaietioniiidiiemtgt al

diseases there are medicines and cures | But for being unwanted,
lial

except there are willing hands to serve and there's a loving
a

heart to love, I don't think this terrible disease can ever be

cured." (p 99)

It seems to me that in her life and in her words Mother

Liisa

Teresa has captured the essence of religion: | religion expressed
— ed

b
prophetically troses\"1 desire steadfast love and not sacrifice",
ad

Se

and Jesus, \"Learn what this means: |I desire mercy and not sacri-

——— enna
— \
tT

sry “t te ble w/ The bobce str

fice,

Now, I am not advocating that everyone become a Mission-

ary of Charity, nor does she. \ wnat I am advocating is the

awareness that God wants - from you_and_me - love and mercy and

er

kindness more than religious propriety. | I am convinced that

es,

the Church is irrelevant and the faith it represents dead where

it is no more than a polite Sunday morning society \ Frank LLoyd

a

Wright once designed a Church which was described in an archi-

an

tectural journal as having |\"the airy grace of a country club."
nie —

God save us from that!

I am convinced that what matters to God about this Church

is the love and mercy that are generated here corporately and
eee
individually.\ I am convinced that if God keeps an accounting
ee ial —_—em ——
of his churches the people who are fed and clothed and heated
= ———— bed ad i

and helped will be the data on the positive side of the ledger.

aed

As long as people die unwanted and unloved - on the streets

of Calcutta -— or in the isolation of residential care centers

Lee

for the elderly in Columbus, Ohio, the work of God's people is

incomplete.

It is a mistake to think only corporately in this regard

Da el

i
albeit an easy one to nake.\ror Mister Teresa's diagnosis, that

the worst disease is not being wanted or loved, knows no class

el, wee,

10

nor status nor nationality, nor is it always a corporate matter.

ete a caanlil

Rather, I think it is more_often than not personal.\ It occurs

in intimate envirgpments such as marriage and tamily: \ those

places of physical closeness that make being unwanted and un-

loved the worst kind of kell on earth.

ey

How often we fail -— simply to be iina.\ How often we fail

——

simply to be attentive and to tell our wives, husbands, children,

parents that they are needed and wanted and Loved. \ How often

we get tied up in our own _ egotism, relishing the fact that we
a, ——,

are needed and wanted, \ana failing the opportunity to give life

Cee

to someone else simply by indicating that we need and want and

love and depend on him or her.

eel

The disease of being unwanted is not confined to the

streets of Calcutta :
en nenmiiaiienel

The Good News of the Gospel - which Hosea sensed 800 years

before Christ is that God is eternally predisposed to loye_us,

and that his love pursues us regardiess of how far we stray.

tinea

The Good News - which became incarnate in Jesus Christ is that

a

God's love reaches out - from a cross and beyond, \ The Good
en ian rt ic)

News is that we are saved not by our religion - but by that love:

Sound, vital and healthy religion acknowledges, proclaims and

eee a

celebrates that: \anc then prods us to express in our corporate

ae

and private lives the truth that God's way is merey and love
Ce il

a eden

and kindness. 7 iM Ody ware , aud iW eve aia gorsoe \ relates &

ae

ima

In what is perhaps the most frequently quoted passage in
shire

the New vestament,, |St. Paul lists all the traditional attributes

———

of religion:| prophetic powers, understanding % nygtery | preach-

ing, \taith \ generosity | and concludes that "the greatest of

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these is love,"
et

So as we seek to lead lives that are pleasing to God,

Let us/?'Go and learn what this means, x desire mercy, stead-

Daal —

fast Love and not sacrifice’." Amen.

Father, Keep us from shallow dishonesty. Make us un-
comfortable with our unwillingness to love. And give us grace

to care for those you have us to love - those far and near.

For your steadfast love, we give thanks: through Jesus Christ

our Lord. Amen.

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