What's It About?

It’ll be about me, and you, and the ways that we are holding fast to the One Who is Good in big stuff and little stuff. I’ve been through stuff. You have too. Sometimes it’s been a rush, sometimes a jarring ride, and at times we ended up in the drink. I don’t know about you, but with the help of some friends, I’m in training to weather the ride by ”holding fast to that which is good”. The ride isn’t over, and I invite you along on the journey. I think too much, that’s all.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Status Whoa! 3.9.11

This week's offerings were somewhat sparse, both for Go and Woe posts. I'm not sure whether that's a good thing or not: are we, as Christians, as aware as we ought to be of the potential of the platform available to us on FB? I didn't have a lot to choose from on my newsfeed, and no one submitted anything from their own newsfeed...so that makes me wonder if good, conscious use is being made of FB statuses that belong to Christians.

Or perhaps it is that all my friends found out that their status could very well end up on a Woe post, and decided not to post at all for fear of that? But why not? No one is going to make fun. We just want to think carefully about our posts and see if we can increase the quality as well as the quantity of Christ-exalting, gospel-preaching posts.

Just a reminder: you can't submit your own status, but you can submit a friend's. Just email statuswhoa.holdfast@gmail.com. If you think the status is a GO!, then submit the name along with the text of the post. If you think it's a Woe, then don't submit the friend's name, just the text.


This week's Status GO! Post showed up on my newsfeed on 3.6.11, and was posted by my friend Michelle Lee:

"The danger of self-esteem is that it tries to persuade us that we are good enough, capable, and worthy. We need the gospel precisely because we are not good enough, capable, or worthy. Salvation does not give us a righteousness of our own that we can esteem. Salvation gives us Christ’s righteousness that we might worship Him with reverent, grateful awe." Brad Hambrick

Congratulations, Michelle, and keep up the good work!

Status WOE for this week was a quote from a sermon by a person named Allen Hood:

 "Jesus hates religion because it keeps people at a distance in their pretend righteousness."

I checked scripture, making as thorough a search as I know how (since I don't know Greek or Aramaic, it's possible I missed something). Jesus never said anything about religion, one way or the other. So isn't it a bit presumptuous in the first place to say He hates it when He didn't state that? I don't know, maybe it's just me.

I did notice, however, that scripture defines pure religion which is undefiled before God. Would Jesus hate something that is undefiled before God? It also defines worthless religion. If, perhaps, "religion" was defined as that which is worthless in the above quote, we might be able to make a case for Jesus hating it.

What about the reason given that Jesus supposedly hates religion? Does religion (all religion, mind you) keep people at a distance? At a distance from what? From each other? From Him?

About the only part of this statement I can appreciate is the "pretend righteousness". Now, Jesus DID hate that, and spoke about it often. But that isn't religion...or at least it isn't ALL religion.

Seems there's "religion", and then there's "religion", dontcha know.

I don't know Allen Hood from beans, but I sure would like to offer him a better idea about what Jesus hates, and what religion is, and whether there's good religion, and what's so awful about pretend righteousness. Can I get some help here?

find the good...and HOLD FAST!

2 comments:

  1. "Jesus hates religion because it keeps people at a distance in their pretend righteousness."

    Agh. I hear this one a lot, I think -- because people are falling all over themselves to prove something that most people already believe: Jesus isn't about Rules, but about Relationship! It's like this is the only error out there, and anyone who thinks the opposite-wrong way (Jesus isn't about Relationship, but about Rules) simply doesn't exist, or we don't need to worry about it.

    Close cousin: Jesus only fought with the Pharisees because they were all about the Law and He was all about Love. Argh. I've begun to think this myth is even worse than "Judge not, never ever ever ever" is the sum total of Jesus' teaching!"

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree, Stephen. How can we change this status to help make it more clear?

    ReplyDelete

I'm the Mom. Play nice. Don't make me come down there. The rules? The way to find out what they are is to break them.