True Religion
James 1:26-27
Introduction
I remember very clearly a time approximately thirty-five years ago at Brock University in Ontario, early on in my undergraduate studies, sitting around with a group of friends between classes. Somehow, the question came up about whether any of us were religious. This question surprised me because religion was not a common topic among this crowd. As the question was asked, I had to take some time to decide how to answer. On one hand, the answer was no. At that point in my life, I still considered myself to be an atheist and I was not attending church at all. But on the other hand, three quarters of my life had been spent in church, not just attending but actively participating in various parts of church life. While my lifestyle at that point in my life was not consistent with a “religious” person, I did share with them about my religious past, hoping to shock them with how different I was at that point.
How would you respond if someone asked you if you were religious? I find that many Christians are a bit allergic to the word “religion.” Being described as a religious person has a negative connotation to it both inside and outside the church. Many people equate religion with hypocrisy and with arbitrary rules. Within Baptist circles, part of it has to do with our history. People see Christianity emerging out of the “religion” of Judaism and Protestant Christianity emerging out of the “religion” of Roman Catholicism. These perspectives are based on the belief that something fresh and live emerged out of something dry and dead. I do not think that is fair to either Judaism or Roman Catholicism. Plus, there are other groups that would contrast themselves as the real faith in contrast to the “religion” of Baptists.
Let me ask again. How would you respond to the question: Are you religious? I will give you some advice about answering questions like that. Ask them: What do you mean by that? If someone means by religion, something like a belief in God and following an ethical system based on that belief, I think that most of us would agree with that. There might be other parts to their definition of religion that we may or may not agree with. It might surprise some, including Christians who are reluctant to identify as religious, that the New Testament defines religion and it presents religion not as a foil to contrast “real faith” but as something to strive for. That is what we are going to look at.
Widows and Orphans
When many people think of religion, it is probably something along the line of certain rituals or items such as candles or tables. And yet James begins by defining religion in terms of treatment of widows and orphans. James is one of the most Old Testament books in the New Testament, especially when it comes to justice issues. What you will find in the Old Testament is a focus on care for widows and orphans. Why those two groups? Ancient Israelite society was a patriarchal society and the prosperity of the family was most often dependent on the provision of a male figure, either a father or a husband. Having this figure in your life did not mean that you were rich, but not having one often meant that you had significant struggles. A married woman who was widowed had more than grief to face. There were no pensions or survivor benefits. Hopefully a widow was young enough to remarry or had an adult son who could take of her. And children losing both parents were in an even worse position. There were no children’s aid societies. There were some adoptions, more so in the Roman world, but adoption was usually not for poor children. Again, the best hope was that someone in the extended family would take the child in but there was a good chance that the child would go into slavery.
Widows and orphans are used in the Bible both literally and also as shorthand for anyone who is marginalized. Whether we like it or not, people in both the past and the present face more challenges than others. Not everyone is on a level playing field. But what does that have to do with us? It’s unfortunate that some people have it worse off but we cannot help everyone. While that may be true, from the very beginning, Christians were known for their care for the marginalized. When a newborn baby was left out to die by exposure, there were two groups that would rescue them. One were the slave traders who would make a profit on them if they survived to the right age and Christians who wanted to give them a chance to have a life. Christians also had an extensive program for helping widows, hints at which we can find in Paul’s letters.
Our question to ask is what does this look like in our context? It may be literal widows and orphans and we can think of examples of this. But our widows and orphans may be other marginalized groups, people who have a disadvantage and who need some help. Much of my interest has been in advocating for people with disabilities. But there are plenty of other groups that have a disadvantage, not just financially, but even in just fitting in and being seen as important parts of the community. It is our job as a congregation and as individual Christians to discover who the widows and orphans are in our community and care for them.
Unstained by the World
Caring for widows and orphans in their distress is fairly easy to understand but what does it mean to be unstained by the world? The concept of “the world” is rather confusing. There are plenty of passages in the New Testament that warn us about “the world” but we are also told that God so loved “the world.” Obviously there are multiple meanings. In one way, the world means what we generally mean by the world, that is all of humanity. But there is this other meaning.
I attended a church that had a very clear meaning for that type of world. They equated the world with being secular and applied it primarily to entertainment. So some of the first things I was taught was to exchange all forms of entertainment from the secular to their Christian alternative. The danger of not doing that was that we could become stained by the world. The problem I had with this is that there was a lot of inconsistency with what had to be Christian and what could still be secular (e.g. sports). Another problem is that this division between the secular and the religious realms is only a modern invention. The original readers of the New Testament documents would not have understood this concept. In fact a very good principle for reading the Bible is trying to understand how the original readers would have read it.
What those New Testament writers seem to be talking about by the world is that value system that opposes the kingdom of God as taught by Jesus. A good way to understand that bad sense of the world is trying to imagine what society looks like once the Jesus’s teachings are removed. And it is not hard to imagine that. What happens when we remove the Golden Rule and loving not only neighbours but also enemies? What happens when we ignore what Jesus says about putting the needs of others before ourself?
This is where we see the connection James is making about true religion. The world says that we should use our resources solely for our own pleasure and for helping ourselves. And when we help others, it is to be done with the goal of creating leverage so they can one day help us to get ahead. But this Jesus idea of helping those who are not in a position to help us back, that does not make sense. At least it does not make sense to the world.
And James wants to remind us how easy it is to get stained by the world. I see worldliness in so many church and Christian organizations. Instead of living out the values of the kingdom, they slap a Jesus sticker on worldly values and call it Christian. There is so much more for us. Think about how easy it is for a clothing to get stained. The only way to avoid it is to keep away from that which creates stains. Doing that in our world is not about boycotting the secular and embracing the Christian. It is about think through every decision, in every area of life and asking if this fits with the teachings of Jesus. When we fall into the world’s mode of thinking, it is time to repent and realign ourselves with Jesus.
Conclusion
Are you religious? I am in the general sense of religion in terms of believing in and worshiping God. But I actually want to strive for true religion. True religion is about helping widows and orphans in their distress and keeping ourselves unstained by the world. I value our traditions and or ceremonies and our church buildings and everything else. But ultimately we are called to live generous and charitable lives, especially to the marginalized. We are also called to realize that there is a world out there that expects us to think and live a certain way and there is also a kingdom of God taught by Jesus that has a very different plan for our lives. I won’t say that any of this is easy. There is very little in James’s epistle that is easy. But it is important and true religion is worth every effort.
