The Youth Ministry at Sugar Grove has been learning about various world religions by letting 2 of the teens teach a class each week about a pair of religions. Some of my kids have taught some of those classes so we have had some fun conversations at home about various religions as well as about Christianity in the last couple of weeks. During this same time period I have also had a great time reconnecting with a 'kid' from one of my youth groups who I have not been around in almost 20 years. She has shared with me her horror story about marrying a Mormon guy and the conversations with her bishop questioning her dedication to the Mormon faith since she wasn't having enough babies.
These conversations recall an ah ha moment I had about 18 years ago when I was teaching a religions class with a group of teens. As I taught through this class the question that began to surface in my mind was "What makes Christianity any different than any other religion in the world?" I had grown up learning that Christianity was about going to church on Sunday, being baptized by being immersed in water and saying the right words, not using a piano to worship God, and a few other things like this. As I researched and taught through this religions class it started to stand out to me that all religions were similar; you believe something about a deity, you have a set of requirements to do in a formal setting, and you have a set of requirements to do in life. And why do you do these things? So that the deity or the higher force will be happy with you and move you to a better place. In other words... you earn your way into the presence of the deity or a better place. The deity is important but ultimately it is what you do, not what the deity does.
The 'kid' from my youth group told me when she first married the Mormon guy that Mormonism has a much better set of rules than Christianity- their rules were much more concise than the rules she had grown up with in a Christian church- so that was why she was converting to Mormonism. This was for me another ah ha moment. If picking a religion is nothing more than finding the set of rules and beliefs that work best for you then what is the point? If it is simply about a set of rules and beliefs then the core of the religion is actually nothing more than a myth- the power of that religion is not in the reality of what it believes but simply in the rules you must follow.
In the class I had been teaching I had to confront the falseness of what I had been taught growing up- that Christianity was about doing the right things and going to the right church. This is not Christianity. It is a humanistic offshoot of true Christianity. True Christianity is different than any other religion in the world. True Christianity is not about what we do (even though we like to make it about what we do), it is about what Jesus did.
God made the world including us. Sin entered the world and separated us from God. God then began a process to ensure that we had the chance to once again be with him- to again walk with him in the garden. This process centered upon Jesus Christ satisfying the demands of sin. What is my role in this process? Accepting the gift He has offered. Period.
Viewing Christianity as a set of rules cheapens all that Jesus did. It is much easier to view Christianity as a set of rules. It is much easier to think that if we go to our priest on Friday night and confess our sins we are ok. It is much easier to think if we are immersed in water then we are ok. It is much easier to view Christianity as a legal requirement than a relationship. However the consequences for viewing Christianity as a set of rules are immense. We take the power from God and put it in our hands. And since we are not God we make our religion no better than any other religion and we end up in nothing more than a pissing match arguing about whose set of rules is best.
Christianity is not about rules; go to church, be baptized, take communion, don't do this, do this... But on the other side of this pendulum we also make a mistake in thinking that we can detach Christianity from boundaries, behaviors, and beliefs. We go to church on a Sunday morning not to satisfy the legal requirements of being in a worship service but to gain and give encouragement to other believers as we focus upon our God through worship. We are baptized not to meet the minimum required standards to enter heaven but to express through an outward symbol the passion within our hearts to accept the gift of grace offered to us through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Baptism does not save us, Jesus Christ saves us.
What makes Christianity different than other religions? It's not what we do, it's what Jesus Christ has done for us.
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