CRCF””8-2-09
Killing the Two-Headed Monster of Religion
Luke 11:37-12:12
Introduction– Once the Devil was walking along with one of his cohorts. They saw a man ahead of them pick up something shiny. “What did he find?” asked the cohort. “A piece of the truth,” the Devil replied. “Doesn’t it bother you that he found a piece of the truth?” asked the cohort.
“No,” said the Devil, “I will see to it that he makes a religion out of it.” Klyne Snodgrass, Between Two Truths – Living with Biblical Tensions, 1990, Zondervan Publishing House, p. 35.
Karl Barth: “Religion is an abyss; it is terror. Death is the meaning of religion.”
God”™s grace and truth in Jesus lead us to a relationship with God that makes us as fully alive as we can be!
As we”™ll see this morning, we are all prone to pick up a piece of truth and create the two-headed monster of religion, which always ends up eating us alive, destroying real life with God!
Let”™s take a look at what Jesus thought of religion:
Luke 11:37-12:12 (The Message)
Frauds!
37-41When he finished that talk, a Pharisee asked him to dinner. He entered his house and sat right down at the table. The Pharisee was shocked and somewhat offended when he saw that Jesus didn’t wash up before the meal. But the Master said to him, “I know you Pharisees burnish the surface of your cups and plates so they sparkle in the sun, but I also know your insides are maggoty with greed and secret evil. Stupid Pharisees! Didn’t the One who made the outside also make the inside? Turn both your pockets and your hearts inside out and give generously to the poor; then your lives will be clean, not just your dishes and your hands.
42″I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God’s love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required.
43-44″You’re hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You love sitting at the head table at church dinners, love preening yourselves in the radiance of public flattery. Frauds! You’re just like unmarked graves: People walk over that nice, grassy surface, never suspecting the rot and corruption that is six feet under.”
45One of the religion scholars spoke up: “Teacher, do you realize that in saying these things you’re insulting us?”
46He said, “Yes, and I can be even more explicit. You’re hopeless, you religion scholars! You load people down with rules and regulations, nearly breaking their backs, but never lift even a finger to help.
47-51″You’re hopeless! You build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed. The tombs you build are monuments to your murdering ancestors more than to the murdered prophets. That accounts for God’s Wisdom saying, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, but they’ll kill them and run them off.’ What it means is that every drop of righteous blood ever spilled from the time earth began until now, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was struck down between altar and sanctuary, is on your heads. Yes, it’s on the bill of this generation and this generation will pay.
52″You’re hopeless, you religion scholars! You took the key of knowledge, but instead of unlocking doors, you locked them. You won’t go in yourself, and won’t let anyone else in either.”
53-54As soon as Jesus left the table, the religion scholars and Pharisees went into a rage. They went over and over everything he said, plotting how they could trap him in something from his own mouth.
Luke 12
Can’t Hide Behind a Religious Mask
1-3By this time the crowd, unwieldy and stepping on each other’s toes, numbered into the thousands. But Jesus’ primary concern was his disciples. He said to them, “Watch yourselves carefully so you don’t get contaminated with Pharisee yeast, Pharisee phoniness. You can’t keep your true self hidden forever; before long you’ll be exposed. You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known. You can’t whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day’s coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town.
4-5″I’m speaking to you as dear friends. Don’t be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies. True, they can kill you, but then what can they do? There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life””body and soul””in his hands.
6-7″What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one. And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail””even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.
8-9″Stand up for me among the people you meet and the Son of Man will stand up for you before all God’s angels. But if you pretend you don’t know me, do you think I’ll defend you before God’s angels?
10″If you bad-mouth the Son of Man out of misunderstanding or ignorance, that can be overlooked. But if you’re knowingly attacking God himself, taking aim at the Holy Spirit, that won’t be overlooked.
11-12″When they drag you into their meeting places, or into police courts and before judges, don’t worry about defending yourselves””what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there. The Holy Spirit will give you the right words when the time comes.”
*We must diligently work to kill the two-headed monster of religion whenever it rears it ugly heads among us, lest we be eaten alive and live for men rather than God.
“If we embrace Jesus as less than the insurrectionist he was, then we are sliding down the slope into the religious graveyard. Jesus did not come to start a religion. He came to blow religion off the map. Jesus did not come to tinker with our ideas about God. He came to show us who God really is. Jesus did not come to build cathedrals or pulpits. He came to start a revolution. Jesus came to initiate a way of life, a new way to live, that knocks the props from beneath everything else we have ever known.” (McBrayer, 36)
In order to not be eaten alive by the 2-headed monster of religion, we have know 2 things about the monster:
1. We must know what the two monster-heads of religion look like.
Head #1: Religious Pride (Luke 11:37-44)
37-41When he finished that talk, a Pharisee asked him to dinner. He entered his house and sat right down at the table. The Pharisee was shocked and somewhat offended when he saw that Jesus didn’t wash up before the meal. But the Master said to him, “I know you Pharisees burnish the surface of your cups and plates so they sparkle in the sun, but I also know your insides are maggoty with greed and secret evil. Stupid Pharisees! Didn’t the One who made the outside also make the inside? Turn both your pockets and your hearts inside out and give generously to the poor; then your lives will be clean, not just your dishes and your hands. 42″I’ve had it with you! You’re hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You keep meticulous account books, tithing on every nickel and dime you get, but manage to find loopholes for getting around basic matters of justice and God’s love. Careful bookkeeping is commendable, but the basics are required. 43-44″You’re hopeless, you Pharisees! Frauds! You love sitting at the head table at church dinners, love preening yourselves in the radiance of public flattery. Frauds! You’re just like unmarked graves: People walk over that nice, grassy surface, never suspecting the rot and corruption that is six feet under.”
A rather pompous-looking deacon was endeavoring to impress upon a class of boys the importance of living the Christian life. “Why do people call me a Christian?” the man asked. After a moment’s pause, one youngster said, “Maybe it’s because they don’t know you.” Source Unknown.
“We’re all like the moon, we have a dark side we don’t want anyone to see.” Mark Twain
The Pharisees hid their dark side behind all of their religious performance.
Jesus rebukes them:
“You condemn my dirty hands? You have dirty hearts. You brag about how much you give to the church? You have not given yourself to alleviate the suffering of your neighbors. You want to be seen and heard at worship and when you pray? God quit listening to you a long time ago.” (McBrayer, Leaving Religion, Following Jesus, 35)
Are we hiding behind religious deeds this morning?
He made free use of Christian vocabulary. He talked about the blessing of the Almighty and the Christian confessions which would become the pillars of the new government. He assumed the earnestness of a man weighed down by historic responsibility. He handed out pious stories to the press, especially to the church papers. He showed his tattered Bible and declared that he drew the strength for his great work from it as scores of pious people welcomed him as a man sent from God. Indeed, Adolf Hitler was a master of outward religiosity–with no inward reality! Today in the Word, June 3, 1989.
McBrayer: “The pride of the Pharisee is alive and well in the hearts and propaganda of many Christians today . . . When Christians become known as good people, religious and respectable people, it typically means that we are attractive, white, middle-class Americans who pay our bills on time, vote Republican, don”™t stay out past midnight, and eat lunch with the Kiwanis. It means we aren”™t like ”˜that”™. We cheat on neither our taxes nor our spouses. We don”™t believe in or have abortions. We don”™t spend our weekends in the bars, but in the house of the Lord. We never allow anything secular to cross our children”™s virgin ears, and we know if Jesus were here today, he would agree with our biblical interpretations and love the church we attend. Not so secretly, we position ourselves on the high and mighty throne of morality. Our religious zeal, and our success with it, empowers us to look down on those whose lifestyles and choices leave much to be desired, not only by us, mind you, but also by God.” (194-195)
Head #2: Religious Bullying (Luke 11:45-54)
45One of the religion scholars spoke up: “Teacher, do you realize that in saying these things you’re insulting us?” 46He said, “Yes, and I can be even more explicit. You’re hopeless, you religion scholars! You load people down with rules and regulations, nearly breaking their backs, but never lift even a finger to help. 47-51″You’re hopeless! You build tombs for the prophets your ancestors killed. The tombs you build are monuments to your murdering ancestors more than to the murdered prophets. That accounts for God’s Wisdom saying, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles, but they’ll kill them and run them off.’ What it means is that every drop of righteous blood ever spilled from the time earth began until now, from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was struck down between altar and sanctuary, is on your heads. Yes, it’s on the bill of this generation and this generation will pay. 52″You’re hopeless, you religion scholars! You took the key of knowledge, but instead of unlocking doors, you locked them. You won’t go in yourself, and won’t let anyone else in either.” 53-54As soon as Jesus left the table, the religion scholars and Pharisees went into a rage. They went over and over everything he said, plotting how they could trap him in something from his own mouth.
These experts in the law “are condemned for the crime of coercion and manipulation, of unmercifully intimidating and fear-mongering people into religious submission.” (McBrayer, 36-37)
How did they bully people? With rules””lots and lots of rules! In addition to the 613 commandments God had given in the Torah, these law-experts added their own rules by multiples. The oral tradition, later called the Talmud, translates into English as a 36-volume set of over 7,000 pages! And remember, they laid all of this on the backs of a society that was primarily a bunch of illiterate farmers and shepherds. “They locked away the simple understanding of loving God and loving neighbors, and they built roadblock after roadblock in the way of people just trying to get to God.” (McBrayer, 37)
Ronnie McBrayer: “I could tell you stories about how women in the churches of my childhood were publicly humiliated because people saw them out in the community wearing a pair of earrings or too much makeup or too short a skirt. I could rage about how the pastor and board of deacons confronted my own father because his job prevented him from getting to church on Wednesday nights. He was told he should quit that job ”˜in order to please God”™, and that not doing so was showing ”˜a lack of trust in God”™ to take care of his family.” (38)
Have you ever been the victim of religious bullying? Worse yet, have you, like me, have been guilty of religious bullying?
2. We must know how to kill the two-headed monster of religion. (Luke 12:1-12)
1-3By this time the crowd, unwieldy and stepping on each other’s toes, numbered into the thousands. But Jesus’ primary concern was his disciples. He said to them, “Watch yourselves carefully so you don’t get contaminated with Pharisee yeast, Pharisee phoniness. You can’t keep your true self hidden forever; before long you’ll be exposed. You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known. You can’t whisper one thing in private and preach the opposite in public; the day’s coming when those whispers will be repeated all over town.
4-5″I’m speaking to you as dear friends. Don’t be bluffed into silence or insincerity by the threats of religious bullies. True, they can kill you, but then what can they do? There’s nothing they can do to your soul, your core being. Save your fear for God, who holds your entire life””body and soul””in his hands.
6-7″What’s the price of two or three pet canaries? Some loose change, right? But God never overlooks a single one. And he pays even greater attention to you, down to the last detail””even numbering the hairs on your head! So don’t be intimidated by all this bully talk. You’re worth more than a million canaries.
8-9″Stand up for me among the people you meet and the Son of Man will stand up for you before all God’s angels. But if you pretend you don’t know me, do you think I’ll defend you before God’s angels?
10″If you bad-mouth the Son of Man out of misunderstanding or ignorance, that can be overlooked. But if you’re knowingly attacking God himself, taking aim at the Holy Spirit, that won’t be overlooked.
11-12″When they drag you into their meeting places, or into police courts and before judges, don’t worry about defending yourselves””what you’ll say or how you’ll say it. The right words will be there. The Holy Spirit will give you the right words when the time comes.”
a) Don”™t wear a religious mask! Be honest before God and men! (1-3) Honesty instead of Hypocrisy
“No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” Nathaniel Hawthorne.
Luke 18:9-14””“Then Jesus told this story to some who had great self-confidence and scorned everyone else: ”˜Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a dishonest tax collector. The proud Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer: ”˜I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else, especially like that tax collector over there! For I never cheat, I don”™t sin, I don”™t commit adultery, I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.”™ But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ”˜O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.”™ I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For the proud will be humbled, but the humble will be honored.” (NLT)
“Religion tricks us into putting confidence in ourselves and not God”™s grace.” (McBrayer, 198)
b) Don”™t let religious people bully you! Don”™t be afraid of them””fear only God! (4-7) Fear God not men
c) Be bold with the truth of Jesus! (8-10) Let it be known that your only boast is in Jesus!
Galatians 6:14””“As for me, God forbid that I should boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NLT)
d) Don”™t worry about the consequences of your boldness! The Holy Spirit will help you! (11-12) Trust God to take you through the consequences of your faithfulness that He allows
THAT is how you kill the two-headed monster of religion and give the world the wonder of a relationship with Jesus!
Be real and unashamedly allow “the wonderful grace of Jesus” to be your only hope and to steadily change you from the inside out to be more like Jesus!
Conclusion””
Micah 6:8–No, O people, the Lord has already told you what is good, and this is what he requires: to do what is right, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.” (NLT)
Ronnie McBrayer relates the following story of the most interesting revival service he ever attended:
“As I made my way to the front door, I passed a long line of Harley Davidson motorcycles. These were not the Baby Boomer playthings so many graying men and women ride today as a hobby or youthful escape. These were hardcore, gang-style cycles. And just inside the church, there on the back pew, lo and behold, the gang sat. Leather, studs, rippling arms, ponytails, tattoos: it was the complete Hell”™s Angels package, sitting in a Baptist church in Hollywood, Georgia. You can guess what my first reaction was. I said to myself, and then to my friend, ”˜Good. Maybe these heathens will get saved tonight”™ . . . I sat several pews away from them and found myself piously praying for their salvation because I just knew they were seconds from splitting hell wide open. After the service got started, the pastor called on one of the deacons of the church to come forward and offer a prayer and word of introduction. One of those wicked bikers rose from his seat and started down the aisle. At first I thought the call of his bladder had merely coincided with the pastor”™s invitation. And being a biker and all, I was certain he was short on manners and he did not know that prayer time was an inappropriate moment to visit the latrine. When the big mountain of a man turned for the pulpit, my pulse quickened as I thought he was going forward to cause a disturbance. He cause a disturbance, all right, but not like I thought. This chaps-wearing biker with a beard to his waist was the aforementioned deacon. I found out later that this biker-deacon was a self-financed missionary to the roadhouses, biker bars, strip clubs, and truck stops of America. Up and down the highway with his fellow laborers””his motorcycle gang””he rode his hors of steel and entered places where good Christian people would never be caught, not even to share the gospel. He went to places where people drank too much, showed too much skin, engaged in too much sensuality, and waged too much violence. But there he shared Jesus, led Bible studies, prayed for those who thought they didn”™t have a prayer left, and even baptized a few souls in the truck-stop showers when necessary . . . I left with a lesson scorched deep in my conscience: Never point a finger or a prayer at those you consider sinners. They may be more holy than you can imagine.” (199)
James 1:27””“Pure and lasting religion in the sight of God our Father means that we must care for orphans and widows in their troubles and refuse to let the world corrupt us.” (NLT)
Celebration of the Lord”™s Supper