Mmmm....BACON!

I was listening to NPR during my half hour commute to work the other morning. Of course they had a few stories about the H1N1 virus, and I got to thinking.

Do you find the news fascinating? It's not even so much the stories for me as it is which stories are chosen, how they're presented, where they are placed, what they foreshadow, how they function in culture and what they mean for me and you and that guy over there doing a crossword puzzle from yesterday's paper.

Anyway, not the point.

The story that grabbed me was about how the H1N1 virus is affecting religious places of worship. There were interviews with pastors and priests and rabbis and imams and all of them talked about how their religious rituals had such a high potential to spread the virus-- from sipping from the same wine glass for Communiun to shaking hands to pass blessings. They were, of course, concerned about virus propogation; however, the primary concern for all of them was the spiritual well-being of their respective parishoners. (For the record, I belive that's as it should be.)

But I have a problem with that position too. Because, these spiritual leaders were more concerned that their flocks would miss out on something each god supposedly accomplishes only via each religious tradition far more than they were about the health of the individual.

I'm all for tradition and spiritual ritual, for that matter. My church serves Communiun each week and I believe my spiritual life is better for it. But you know what I'm also for? Using your brain.

Why spread a virus when it can be easily avoided by abstaining from particular traditions for a season? I mean this concretely, but doesn't it apply abstractly as well? Lent is a spiritual tradition in the Christian faith where believers choose to abstain from something (food, TV, internet, whatever) for a season of forty days, the purpose being to prepare yourself for Easter-- the celebration of the death and ressurection of Jesus. Would it not also be true then, that for the sake of our faith, God may call us to abstain from other things for other seasons?

I believe that God gave us intelligent minds that have developed in knowledge and creativity as time passes. Part of that is the world of medical understanding we currently live in. Doesn't it stand to reason that if God has given us the brain power to understand that spreading germs spreads viruses and disease, he also maybe intends for us to be smart enough to try to avoid doing it, even if only for a season?

Maybe not. Maybe for some, spiritual practices are completely necessary for deepening the spiritual life. But I wonder, what kind of god are you serving when your spiritual well-being is dependant upon completing various rituals? What kind of faith is it that needs physical affirmation in the form of rituals?

Perhaps that kind of faith is the one for you, but don't you ever long to be free? I don't believe I could ever serve a god whose desire was to limit my freedom, to put me in bondage. What kind of god forces you to serve him?

Consider it this way: wouldn't you prefer to be married to someone who chooses to love you, even amidst your flaws, than to be married to someone who is with you out of obligation? The best kind of love is that which is freely given, not the kind that is forced. (I don't think true love can be forced anyway.) The God I serve does not demand my love, but he gives me the freedom to choose to love him, the freedom to choose to live and walk daily in his love for me. I believe that Christ came to set me free from sin, but also from the obligation of spiritual rituals, tradition, and all forms of legalism.

Galations 5 calls it "The Life of Freedom."

Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.

I am emphatic about this. The moment any one of you submits to circumcision or any other rule-keeping system, at that same moment Christ's hard-won gift of freedom is squandered. I repeat my warning: The person who accepts the ways of circumcision trades all the advantages of the free life in Christ for the obligations of the slave life of the law.

I'm not trying to claim that traditions are bad. I believe that some traditions are designed specifically to give us necessary reminders of what God has done for us. But I fear that rituals in the name of Jesus too often replace relationship with Jesus. And can I just tell you? There's nothing like relationship with Jesus.

2 Corinthians 3:16-18

Whenever, though, they turn to face God as Moses did, God removes the veil and there they are—face-to-face! They suddenly recognize that God is a living, personal presence, not a piece of chiseled stone. And when God is personally present, a living Spirit, that old, constricting legislation is recognized as obsolete. We're free of it! All of us! Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.

I like the sound of that.

P.S. If only

House was a real person... God knows I love that fictional man. Also I have no idea why this is showing up bold. Maybe my computer thinks the point should be emphasized.