“God, I thank you that I am not like other people…especially that guy over there…”
“What was that God? What did you say? Now just hold on for just one second! What’s the point of religion if I can’t look down on someone else? What good is that? Why be virtuous if I can’t be better at it than somebody else? What else is there to do if not to mock and hold contempt over someone? What else is there to do with my spare time and attention? What else would I think about all day? How else would I pray if I didn’t pray about how others are so much worse than me? There wouldn’t be anything to say! What would we talk about all day?”
“God, let me tell you how religion is supposed to work. Here’s how it is, the whole point of heaven is to enjoy watching everyone I don’t like burn in hell. Burn baby burn! That’s the general idea, Lord.”
“What’s that Lord? No, no, no! That mercy and humility thing will not sell, you’ll never grow the Church that way. It is what is known as a “bad business model”. Folks will only join up and pay up if they get to hold someone else in contempt! That’s what religion is all about after all…”
Sound familiar? How often do we fall into the trap of religious contempt? It is one of the most dangerous spiritual poisons.
Not much has changed since Jesus first told this parable. The religious impulse still gets twisted into something full of ridicule. It is so easy to sink into that pit and it is so hard to escape from it.
Once faith becomes a means to ridicule, mock and hold in contempt it is almost like an addiction that can’t be cured. Maybe we should start a 12-step group, call it Religion Gone Bad Anonymous.
Perhaps that is what the gospel is really all about: a recovery program for this world that has fallen into the habit of ridicule and contempt.
The Gospel: a different kind of faith, not about contempt and exclusion, but about humility and invitation.
The Gospel: the good news of God’s humility, of God becoming one of us, that we may share in God’s fullness, the eternal invitation of triune hospitality.
Imagine faith that is not about contempt and exclusion. Imagine faith that is about the good news of God’s invitation, of self-humbling, of love that serves.
That is something worth praying about.