“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.” James 1:27 (NIV)
The word oxymoron implies a contradiction in terms which combines two opposing words to make a new comprehensible one. For example the term ‘tough love’ is an oxymoron because it combines two seemingly incompatible qualities – the toughness and gentleness of love to make another word that describe the kind of love to exhibit in order to maintain some sacred principles.
Here is another oxymoron of my own making which I believe encapsulates the heart of the passage above. It is ‘Engaged disengagement’. It describes pure or true religion as a simultaneous engagement with and disengagement from the world. This means that true religion is not just when we have our heads in the clouds, but also involves planting our feet firmly on the ground. Hence, while it is absolutely necessary for us to disengage from the sinful aspects of the world we live in, we are also required to fully engage with the world as we try to live out our faith before a sceptical world.
This implies that the act of true worship comprises of offering spiritual sacrifices to God as well as giving of ourselves in service to our fellow men, primarily within the Church, but by no means only to the Church. We can serve God just as effectively in the market place, for with God, there is no such thing as the secular-spiritual divide. This means that it is not enough for us to restrict ourselves to just preaching the Gospel in words while ignoring the essential deeds that gives our proclamation flesh. The problem that has characterised the Church, but which thankfully is now slowly being addressed is the dichotomy that has often existed between those fully focusing on preaching the word to the exclusion of doing righteous social deeds and those who have concentrated on the social mandate of the church exclusively to the detriment of her equally important spiritual mandate. Pure religion involves the merging of the two aspects of the Church’s mandate in equal proportions. It is opening our hearts to God while also extending our hands to the world. To do only one of the two is to woefully fail God and the world, which expects to see God manifest through us.
So, how do your neighbours see you? Do they know you as a Christian simply because they always see you heading to Church with your family in tow every Sunday or because your life has impacted theirs with the love of God as you seek to express your faith in ways meaningful and appreciable to them? In what ways have you been trying to ameliorate the hardship of the underprivileged or is your focus on castigating those who have made wrong choices or helping them through the repercussions of those choices? Remember Jesus’ parable of the sheep and goat and ensure that you will not be disappointed on the judgement day by extending a helping hand to those in need. It is only as you do this that you will be able to declare “The Lord is my Shepherd. I shall not want.” That is pure religion.
Prayer:
Father, may the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart and the works of my hand give voice to the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ and be acceptable in your sight in Jesus name. Amen