Does Religion Do More Harm Than Good?

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SERMON:  AUG 18, 2013  “Does Religion Do More Harm Than Good?”   

Luke 12:49-56            

The Rev. Laura Adelia   

Proper 15  Pent. 13

In my Religions of the World classes that I have taught over the years at Mesa Community College, I like to begin the semester with a class discussion to get the students intrigued and thinking… 

·      Why do we humans have religion? 

·      How did we get so many religions in the world? 

Inevitably, someone will ask, ‘with all the divisions and conflict religion seem to cause, wars and acts of violence done and all the other not so lovely things done in the name of God…. Does religion do more harm than good?’ 

In some ways, it certainly can seem so. 

In today’s Gospel passage in Luke, Jesus says he came to bring fire, not peace but division and conflict, to set father against son…mother against daughter… and so on.  This is not Jesus as the Prince of Peace we thought we knew! 

What did Jesus mean by this passage?   This seems to go against everything he taught and stood for!

If you are perplexed by this passage, you are in good company.  For centuries, theologians and religious leaders and scholars have themselves argued and have been divided over the meaning of this passage!

Perhaps for some of us, we can relate to this passage, especially if we have family or friends or neighbors of another denomination and have endured painful and ridiculous arguments on who is right, which is the true faith, and so on!

We don’t like tension.  We like to understand and to resolve things. But perhaps this pericope is not meant to be totally resolved, at least with literal words and understanding.

In his book Falling Upward, A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, Roman Catholic Franciscan priest Richard Rohr explores what he calls the ‘two halves of life’.   Perhaps this can help us to make more sense of this troubling gospel passage.

Rohr says in the first half of life, we are taught to value, our traditions, respect for authority, civil and church laws, a sense of goodness, do correct rituals, the special importance of one’s ethnicity, country, and religion.  In this half, we are in the pursuit of success, happiness, security, looking good to others…. and pursuing things of merit such as degrees, awards and other types of external validation.  As well, we are mostly ego based.

Interestingly, Rohr says most of organized religion tends to live inside of these first half of life issues …. but not only organized religion, but also our culture and society, and most cultures and societies in the world!

Richard Rohr says that as a priest of 40 years, he has found that much of the spiritual and pastoral work done in churches is often about keeping status quo and keeping people content… not so much about challenging people to real transformation and spiritual growth. 

In short, he says, we have not found a way to do incorporate both first half and the deeper spirituality and issues of the second half of life into religion.

So, how do we get there?

Inevitably, for some of us, we get to that place in life where we begin questioning… wondering….  A sense of uneasiness comes over us, there has to be more to the picture … the things that used to make sense and satisfy us no longer seem to work.   

If you are questioning or wrestling with your faith, or wondering why we do certain rituals and prayers and say certain creeds … then I say, good for you!    This is a good thing!  Really!

For some of us, we are pushed by a major and unexpected life event that can many times be very painful.  We usually don’t or won’t leave our little comfort zones willingly!

And for each of us, that life event, or events may be different, but the experience rocks us to our core.  It jars us awake. 

But not for everyone.  We all have known people who have been through horrific life events, or have lived many decades, and still remain unchanged, asleep.  So, the “second half of life” deeper spirituality is not necessarily attained just by chronological age. 

Rohr says true and deep spiritual growth does not come by memorizing bible verses and doing correct rituals, or by our own willpower or moral perfection…it comes by making mistakes, and or going thru the dark night of the soul.  It comes by going thru the fire.  It changes us.

Suddenly certain scripture passages that never seemed to make sense before, now make sense!  “The first shall be last and the last shall be first”, and “when I am weak, I am strong”.  We begin to gain spiritual maturity.  Our eyes are opened to things we could not see before.   

All those rules we learned, all those bible quotes, all those correct prayers and rituals… the things that gave us a basic structure can seem to go right out the window when we get to the second half of life!

But we would not have gotten to this point of spiritual growth without having gone thru learning all those rules, correct prayers and rituals in the first place!  And with second half of life wisdom, these time tested rituals, prayers and creeds now bring much deeper meaning to our lives.

So, getting back to where Jesus says he came not to bring peace but to bring fire, conflict and division…

Perhaps, this passage is better understood in the totality of the gospel story, the bigger picture and the interplay between the ways of God and the world of human history.  In this light, we could say that this passage is descriptive, rather than prescriptive. 

It is not Jesus’ purpose to set children against their parents, or to create conflict and division.  Rather, it seems to be the way of human nature.

When I was in seminary, I remember a discussion I had with some fellow students.  We wondered what would Jesus say if he came back today and saw all these denominations that have evolved over the centuries in his name, and all the arguing, fighting, wars, etc. done in the name of God and his teachings,  Jesus would say to us, “Guys, this is not what I was talking about!”

What does this passage mean?  Contemplate this Zen Buddhist story:

”When I first set out on the spiritual journey, mountains were mountains, rivers were rivers, the forest was the forest, and the ocean was the ocean.  But then, as I travelled down the road of life, mountains were no longer mountains, rivers no longer were rivers, forests no longer forests, and even the ocean was no longer the ocean.  But then, even further along the journey, much further… mountains once again became mountains, rivers once again became rivers, forests were again forests, and the ocean was once again, the ocean.”  

Let us pray.  Oh Lord, open our eyes.  Help us to grow and see, help us to see what we cannot see.    

Amen.