Sights and Insights
Devotion for Dec. 15, 2020
Fight the good fight of the faith; take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called and for which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. In the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, I charge you to keep the commandment without spot or blame until the manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ – 1 Timothy 6:12-14 (NRSV)
This week was the week for updating my computer virus protection. It is not a task I relish. Last time I needed to do this, I went with a 3-year subscription so that I need not deal with figuring it out again for a while. The three years are up later this month though, so it is time to review the options again and decide which one is best for our needs. We have gotten several new computers recently anyway, as the old ones had worn out, so it was a task that was due. Still, I do not enjoy looking through all of the different products offered by different companies, accessing all of the various risks that being online entails, and figuring out which types of protection are needed and which aren’t, and how much I’m willing to pay for those services. Taking the time is a necessary precaution for managing our continually growing online existence and safety, though.
I can’t help but wonder how many people might view religion the same way that I view virus protection software. I don’t like dealing with it, but it is better than the consequences of not using it. I suspect that there are plenty of people who think that the value of religious life is to prevent something horrible from happening. It may be that they are hoping that God keeps diseases and accidents away, keeping the worst possibilities from happening. It may be that they feel that it in the off-chance that heaven is real they might as well go to church now so that they are on the right side of eternity. Either way, religion in general and church participation more specifically are things to be endured in order to keep bad things from happening. While it is not an enjoyable thing, it is still possible to shop different companies – or religions, denominations, congregations, etc – in order to find the one that offers the best package of services for the money to make sure that you have the protections in place that you want.
Of course, this is a drastically reduced and distorted view of what the religious life is and what the value of participation in a religious community brings. Being involved in the life of a church is not about the services and protections that I can shop around for, but rather comes out of the ways that God is present to us and calls us forth into a transformed life. The God who is present with us in all things speaks to us through our involvement in the life of a church community. We come to see God at work in our lives, and that insight moves us to live out the love for others that we see in Christ. That participation gives a meaning to our lives. Following Christ, then, is not primarily about protection against something bad happening in our lives, but rather gives joy and direction to our lives. This is not something we can shop for, but rather something that forms us so that we may be used by Christ in the world. When that calls moves through our lives, then we can be confident that God is a God of grace and love who will be faithful to us into eternity.