How much of your religion is cultural?

In discussions over the last few weeks this question has been bouncing around my head. How much of your religion is "true religion"? How much of it is rooted in The Word of God, the heart of Jesus? How much of it is nurtured into you from your culture, history, and geneology?

What if we gave up meeting in church buildings? Would that bother you? Why? The first century church met in homes.

Would it bother you to sell all you had that you didn't truly need, then entrust it to your Pastors to give out to each as he had need? That's what they did in Acts 4.

Would it bother you to kiss (preferrably on the cheek) your Christian brothers when you greeted them? We are instructed at least four times to "greet one another with a holy kiss" in the New Testament (Romans 16:16, I Cor 16:20, II Cor 13:12, I Thess 5:26)

What if capitalism and democracy are not necessarily God's preferred form of Economics and Government?

What if we took away hymnals? Praise Teams? Worship Bands? "Praise and Worship" music? Choirs? Musical Instruments altogether?

What if Jesus didn't preach in 3-point, fill-in-the-blank sermons that lasted less than an hour?

What if I told you the First Century Church didn't so much "sing" like we think of it. They more or less chanted responsive Psalms to each other. Not a lot of access to instruments as I understand it. Not a lot of room for bands in peoples homes. The leader might read from the Psalms "Give thanks to the Lord." and the church would respond "His love endures forever." and so on.

If you remember your music history from Music Appreciation in college, Gregorian Chant whatever century it came about was the birthing place for what we call four-part harmony now. If we used Gregorian Chant in most churches today, we would all think the Worship leader had been possessed or something.

What if we started hanging out with hookers, strippers, gamblers, drunks, and the like? What if we invited them into our homes. What if we invited ourselves into their homes.

What if I posed the possibility to you that Jesus danced and partied? He attended a wedding feast where he turned water to wine. The feasts usually lasted a week. There was LOTS of dancing.

What if I told you that I suspected Jesus would not align himself with Republicans? (or Democrats for that matter)? Jerry Falwell? Pat Robertson? Most governing church bodies (SBC, PCUSA, United Methodist, etc)? Most denominations? YOUR denomination?

What if I said Jesus probably wouldn't be fighting a "Culture War", at least the way our conservative evangelical selves are calling for it.

What if I said the only "Culture War" Jesus fought was against the rigid legal establishment of his day? Which I think closely resembles the American Christian churches of today.

What if I said Jesus might not picket abortion clinics? What if I said Jesus might not berate homosexuals? What if I said Jesus might not care as much about prayer in schools as he did praying with your family? Do you think he really cares if "under God" gets taken out of The Plegde when most of us don't live Under God's Purposes (except when it benefits us)? Do you think he cares that "in God we trust" is on our money when we hoard it from each other, the church and the poor? Do you think words matter when the hearts don't really care?
Do you think God favors Americans over other people? over Russians, Cubans, Pakistanis, Saudis, Iraqis, Iranians, whoever?

Do we even know how we came to the present belief structures we subscribe to? Do we care? Or do we just want to be "right"?

About 10 years ago I visited with a good-hearted, well-meaning young married couple. They came from families of different denominations (sort of). Actually their families attended two denominations that split over some minor differences, but originated in the same movement in the early 1800's. The couple decided one was more right than the other. They worshipped together in that particular denomination. They had trouble when they went to visit her parents, though, the couple wanted to go to the "more correct" denomination, not the one her parents went to. They were trying to reconcile this and decide whether her parents needed them to intervene to get them in the RIGHT church...or at least the MORE RIGHT church.

I mentioned the Restoration Movement from which both of these denominations originated. "Movement?" he asked. "I am talking about 'THE CHURCH'."he said...meaning his denomination. I mentioned its origin in the 1800's and the leaders and their thinking about restoring the New Testament first century church. He looked at me like I was an alien. He had no idea his church originated as a response to "denominationalism". Much less that those movements responded to the Catholic Church during The Reformation. He didn't know his church. Even though he seemed to put more stock in THE CHURCH and HOW they did things than in Christ.

He had no idea that he, and his church, were as much a product of their history and culture as they were based on The Word of God, the heart of Christ, and the movement of His Spirit. He never thought the way he was engaging and experiencing God (especially when he attended "church") was connected to centuries of cultural expressions and filters. He just thought what is always was.

Please let me be clear, I am not saying cultural expressions of the Kingdom of God are wrong or bad. I believe that God's expression of his love to the world will always be relevant to the culture (at least to the hearts he created and their deepest needs). Jesus used relevant examples in his teachings. He used the work and world they knew. He used agriculture, banquets and feasts of the day, household chores, and present day racial tensions as examples of what "the Kingdom of Heaven is like".

Paul even used temples built to Mythological Gods to commend his listners "spirituality". He used their "Temple to the Unknown God" as a means to explain the One True God.

I am just saying that we are often times as attached, if not more attached, to those cultural and historical expressions than the very heart of God.

Are we willing to ask God how he would like to express his love through us? Are we willing to ask God how he might like us to express that love back to him? Are we willing to accept answers that might differ from our religious routine? Are we really after God? Or are we just after a way to manage our lives, make us reasonably happy, and just basically validate our existence?

Do we really want to know God apart from our preconceptions and prejudices? Or do we just want to know a God that fits us?

Just wondering.....