Oceans and Rivers

“I can’t stand your religious meetings. I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions. I want nothing to do with your religious projects, your pretentious slogans and goals. I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes, your public relations and image-making. I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music. When was the last time you sang to me? Do you know what I want? I want justice- oceans of it. I want fairness- rivers of it. That’s what I want. That’s all I want.” (The message)

These words from God are taken directly from Amos 5. Pretty strong words if you ask me. Essentially, I’m getting the vibe that God pretty much hates religion that isn’t primarily about love and justice. Our songs of worship are just noise drowning out the sound of God’s love for the world, and it seems to kind of piss him off. So, I have to ask myself a life-altering question. Maybe you do, too. The question is this, “What does it actually mean to be a “Christian”?” One simple definition is to be a follower of Christ but in our mixed up society even that gets a little fuzzy, so here’s what it means to me. I believe and accept that God has established a right way of living which I have personally effed up countless times in my life. I believe that he loves each and every human so much that he chose to forgive us by taking our punishment on himself and dying in our place. And, well, that’s pretty much it.

I don’t see any other requirements or conditions for a person to be a Christian. “Well, what about _____________(fill in the blank with whatever addiction, failure, or struggle bothers you most)?” I’m pretty sure nothing can separate us from the love of God. No sin. No struggle. No misunderstanding. Nothing. Nada. This is exactly the kind of love that we all need. Love that isn’t snatched away from us the second we step out of line or say the wrong thing. This is a love that meets us in our frail and broken humanity and welcomes us all with open arms. No religion, no fund-raising, no preaching or hand-raising worship can heal the brokenness of our lives and hearts. Nothing but the pure and simple love of God can meet that need, and it is for everyone. Every. Single. Human. Israeli or Palestinian, gay or straight, gangbangers or politicians, conservative or liberal, ABC or XYZ. We ALL are in this together. Don’t let anyone fool you into thinking that “christian” is synonymous with a nationality, political party, or any other ideology, opinion, or rhetoric. If your religion is more about who you hate and what you’re against than it is about who God loves and what he’s done, you might wanna rethink things a bit. What God says he wants is justice and fairness, so if we’re going to follow him I’d say that’s our example. Justice- oceans of it and fairness- rivers of it. That sounds a lot like love to me.