Skip to content

religion

Irreligious: Forsaking Religion and Finding Jesus’ Law (Mk. 12:28-34) Chris Altrock – August 8, 2010

And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” (Mk. 12:28 ESV)  A scribe approaches Jesus in the temple.  This scribe joins a long list of people at the temple who have been verbally sparing Jesus.  The chief priests, scribes and elders have interrogated Jesus about his authority.  The Pharisees and Herodians have double-teamed Jesus regarding taxes.  The Sadducees have grilled Jesus about resurrection.  And now this scribe takes up the fight.  Matthew specifically tells us that this scribe has come to “test” Jesus.  Mark notes that the scribe has seen how Jesus handled the Sadducees.  Perhaps the scribe believes he can do a much better job than the Sadducees.[i]

 

Read More »Irreligious: Forsaking Religion and Finding Jesus’ Law (Mk. 12:28-34) Chris Altrock – August 8, 2010

Irreligious: Forsaking Religion and Finding Jesus’ Authority (Mk. 11:27-33) Chris Altrock – July 18, 2010

1L.1

Annie Dillard is a popular U. S. author.[i] When Dillard was a teen she attended church services regularly.  But one day she quit.  She couldn’t stand the hypocrisy of some of the church members who came on Sunday mornings just to show off their clothes.  So that morning, Dillard met with the assistant minister to officially quit church.  Dillard recalls, “He heard me out and then said, ‘You’re right, honey, there is a lot of hypocrisy.’” Then he handed Dillard some books by C.S. Lewis, a respected author who wrote thoughtfully about Jesus and the Christian faith.  The minister asked Dillard to read Lewis’ books, explaining, “This is rather early of you to be quitting the church.  I suppose you’ll be back soon.”  He was right. After Dillard plowed through four of the C. S. Lewis volumes, she returned.  Her rebellion lasted just one month.

Read More »Irreligious: Forsaking Religion and Finding Jesus’ Authority (Mk. 11:27-33) Chris Altrock – July 18, 2010

Irreligious: Forsaking Religion and Finding Jesus’ Sabbath (Mk. 3:1-6) Chris Altrock – June 13, 2010

During the first half of this year, newspapers and newscasts were filled with reports about potential abuse occurring within the Catholic Church.  Allegations have poured in from half a dozen countries, including 300 accusations from Germany, the home of the current Pope.  Many Catholics and non-Catholics are fed up with the Catholic Church.

 

Many more people are fed up with church in general.  Dan Kimball has written a book entitled They Like Jesus But Not the Church.[i] In it, Kimball reports that many today find Jesus attractive but not the church.  They feel that the church is too politically motivated.

 

And, in his book God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything Christopher Hitchens writes about the ills of all institutional religion.[ii] He states that religion is “violent, irrational, intolerant, allied to racism and tribalism and bigotry, invested in ignorance and hostile to free inquiry, contemptuous of women and coercive toward children.”

 

There’s a lot of hostility these days toward religion in general and toward the church in particular.

This is nothing new, of course.  Even in Jesus’ day there was ill-will toward religion.  Mark, one of the four biographers of Jesus’ life, focuses on this ill-will.  His Gospel includes 10 occasions during which Jesus and religious leaders got into conflict. This summer, we’re using these 10 conflicts to reflect on the difference between being religious and following Jesus.

Read More »Irreligious: Forsaking Religion and Finding Jesus’ Sabbath (Mk. 3:1-6) Chris Altrock – June 13, 2010