CHAPTER XIV

THE WONDERFUL SIMPLICITY OF RELIGION

We have found that Jesus' ideals of goodness were quite revolutionary in his day. Now we come to the problem, What is real religion? Young people find this a confusing question, because religious people answer it so differently. Some try to separate the "sacred" from the "secular." To some, religion is chiefly a Sunday matter; they do not mix it much with business, politics, or society. Others talk as if religion were just something to die by rather than to live by. Can it be that its purpose is just to get us into heaven? Why do some folks make it such a funeral, while others seem to get real joy out of their faith? And then what about all the creeds? Must we believe what we cannot understand, and assent to a complicated creed? Or is the religion of Jesus simpler than the churches have sometimes made it? We can find the best answers to these questions by discussing Jesus' own personal religious life and his simple ideal of religion.

Not mere tradition or formal ritual.-In our study of sincerity as Jesus' test of everything in life, we found how he rebelled against the sort of religion he found all around him. It was largely lip-service, the meaningless repetition of ritual. As he boldly said to his critics, the Pharisees and scribes:

Truly did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, when he said, "With their lips these people honor me, while their hearts are far away from me; but their

worship is useless, while they teach as doctrines the precepts of men."

You neglect God's commandments and cling to mere human tradition. Praiseworthy indeed, to nullify divine commands by your own traditions! -Matthew 15:7

Jesus hated mere lip-service, the loyalty of the lips without the love of the heart. This kind of worship was like taking the name of God in vain-it was real profanity. Then it troubled him that the religious teachers made so much of the opinions of the scribes on petty matters. These fussy little rules in the Talmud they tried harder to enforce than the splendid moral teachings of the Old Testament. This put their whole religion into false perspective. They lost sight of what was really important in God's sight.

Alas for you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you pay the petty tithes on your garden herbs-mint, dill, and caraway seed; but neglect the more important matters of the law-justice, compassion, and good faith. These last you ought to practice, without neglecting the former.-Matthew 23:23.

To complicate the great simple things of religion with a thousand man-made traditions was bad enough; but what Jesus most resented was their neglect of the real heart of religion itself, while they were fussing with their petty little tithes.

Yet there are Christians in our own land still who are just as foolish. What do you think of a religion that finds its chief enthusiasm in wearing hooks and eyes instead of buttons? Do you think the superior holiness of not wearing neckties or jewelry or modern-style clothing really atones for the neglect of the more important matters of

the law-justice, compassion, and faithful living? What would Jesus say to the tradition that requires little children as well as adults to wear long black clothes and poke bonnets as tests of piety? Well may we ask, What is real religion, after all?

Jesus' own religion was simple and spiritual.— It is refreshing to find that Jesus' own religion had nothing in common with such petty rules of conduct. People have a perfect right to act that way if they wish; but let them not call it religion, for there is nothing religious about it. It is wholly external, not spiritual. Jesus' religion was very simple. There was no millinery about it, no elaborate ritual or complicated rules. When confronted with the complex regulations about what a religious person must not eat or drink or wear, with exquisite calmness he said,

Be not anxious about your life, about what to eat or what to drink, nor yet for your body, about what to wear. Is not life more important than meat and the body than clothing?-Matthew 6:25.

While this passage primarily refers to trust in God's care, it also shows clearly Jesus' opinion on the subject we are discussing. His personal faith was as simple as sunlight. But through the centuries since his religion has grown so complicated with creedal theories and strange forms of worship that even Peter and John would never recognize it as the religion of Jesus. The elaborate ceremonies which the historic church has added to the original gospel's simplicity seem like silver-plating gold, or gilding the perfect flute to get a purer tone!

Just friendship with his Father-God. The good people commonly called Quakers call themselves the "Society of Friends." It is hard to imagine a more ap

propriate name for Christians, for the simple religion of Jesus was just the practice of friendship. Christianity too often has been interpreted as the religion about Jesus, and theories about him have caused sad quarrels between his followers. When we get back to Jesus' own religion, by which he lived so victoriously and died so heroically, we find the essence of it was friendship with God and

men.

Back of the beautiful life of Jesus was his intimate friendship with his Father in heaven. He never for a moment seemed to forget God. Daily, nightly, constantly he talked with him. Before every taxing task, in every emergency he consulted him. In his prayer life he found constant renewal of energy and strength. How intimate this friendship was, we see perhaps most clearly in his wonderful prayer in John 17. A study of this prayer shows the beautiful simplicity of his faith, his unquestioning trust in God and the perfect intimacy of his friendship with him. It was Jesus' great hope that his disciples might grow into this mighty friendship with God and with one another. How frequently he reminded them that love was the fulfillment of all God's laws!

This is my command to you, to love each other, just as I have loved you. There is no greater proof of love than this, to give up your life for your friends. You are my friends if you obey my commands. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant knows not what his master is doing. But you I have called friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have shared with you. Thus I command you to love one another.-John 15:12-.

And so it came to pass, in the early days of the Christian Church, other people used to remark to each other,

"How these Christians love one another!" The hopes of the Master were fulfilled. Friendship has been the beating heart of our religion. Christians have loved each other because of the holy bond of their mutual love for their common Master.

How simple the religion of Jesus seems in terms of friendship! His alluring vision was of a coming world of friendly workmen. His spirit, self-forgetful, strangely powerful, was sacrificial love. His method was friendly sympathy expressed in life-sharing service, while the overflowing life he shared found its eternal springs in friendly prayer. A Christian, then, is simply a friendly comrade of the Jesus Way, one who has caught his vision, shares his spirit, and is living by his method; whether he calls himself a Christian or not.

Religion is also horizontal, social. This dying request of Jesus, for his friends to love each other, shows how anxious he was that their religion should not be merely a vertical, priestly religion, interested only in God. His great, brotherly heart overflowed in sympathy for all manner of human suffering and need. His whole ministry was a campaign of organized kindness, and he passed this mission on to his followers. Lyman Abbott says the one outstanding characteristic of Christianity is kindness, in which it stands unique among the world's religions. If we would follow the Christ who was so fond of teaching, "You must love your neighbor as if he were yourself,” we must not let our faith go up simply in incense and express itself only in worship. Every church of the Nazarene must live for the glory of God and the service of men, or be false to its Master.

Nothing is "secular." Religion is life.—If we have caught the idea of what his religion really meant to Jesus, we must know now that it was not any mere fraction of