The Myth of a Christian Religion

by Gregory A. Boyd

  CHAPTER 3: THE REVOLT AGAINST IDOLATRY

  Return to the Source. We can only be free from idols to the extent that God meets our core needs. Resolve to find all your worth, significance, and security from Jesus Christ alone. Set aside special times during which you imaginatively see, hear, and sense the Lord expressing his perfect, unconditional love for you. Remind yourself daily of these truths and pray them back to God. Join with others in engaging in the classic spiritual disciplines, for they deepen your capacity to experience God in transforming ways.

  Picture God. The story of Eve’s succumbing to the serpent’s temptation teaches us that a false, untrustworthy picture of God is at the root of our idolatry. We can’t get all our Life from a God we don’t trust. Everything about the Kingdom, therefore, hinges on the accuracy and beauty of our mental picture of God. Jesus came to reveal the true God. “If you see me you see the Father,” he said. Honestly ask yourself, “Do I believe this?”

  Here’s an exercise I engage in to keep my picture of God centered on Jesus. Sit in a darkened room. Put on soft music if that helps. Then envision Jesus dying on the cross. Beneath him are vulgar guards, laughing as they cast dice for his garments. See Jesus looking down at them with loving eyes as he says, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34). Then see Jesus, still on the cross, looking at you. Hear him say something like, “[Your name], will you trust that I am the perfect expression of what God is like? Will you trust that my sacrifice reflects what you mean to God?” (Hebrews 1:3).

  Prayerfully reflect on your thoughts and feelings as you experienced Jesus saying this. Is there a part of you that resists believing that God is this beautiful? Do you have competing, un-Christlike pictures of God in your mind? Identify these mental pictures and then set them aside, reminding yourself that God looks like Jesus, dying on Calvary for the people who crucified him. Exercises like this help turn mere information about Jesus (for example, that he loves all people and died for the sins of the world) into transformative truth (that he loves me unconditionally and died for my sins). As we appropriate the truth of Jesus at this deep, existential level, it truly does “set us free,” as Jesus promised (John 8:32)!

  Cultural idols. Reflect on and discuss with friends what you believe are the central idols in our culture? What do people crave? What do they live for? How do television shows, commercials, movies, billboards, and so on, illustrate these idols? In prayer and in dialogue with friends, explore ways you may be unwittingly influenced by these idols and what it would look like to live in revolt against them.

  Take an idol inventory. Here’s a way to get in touch with the idols in your life. Make a list of everything that you love and enjoy: people, possessions, abilities, personal attributes, and so on. Then go through the list and picture yourself losing that person, possession, ability, or attribute. Because you love and enjoy each thing, you would obviously experience grief if it were taken from you. This is natural. But honestly ask yourself: Would my core sense of being fully alive be diminished by this loss? If so, you may have an idolatrous relationship with that person, possession, ability, or attribute.

  If you do, don’t slip into self-condemnation. Rather, ask God to help you get all your Life from him. Picture the cross of Christ as you remind yourself that this is what your Creator thinks you’re worth. Prayerfully imagine Jesus telling you, “[Your name], I give you this person [or possession, ability, or attribute] as a gift to love and enjoy. But I alone am your source of Life. All you really hunger for is found in me.” Begin to walk in this reality.

  Live with open palms. Life is our education for eternity. And one of the most important lessons God wants to teach us is how to let go of the world and cling to him. Slowly—and sometimes not so slowly—everything we cherish is being taken from us. We’re all in the process of dying. Grief over these losses is as natural as it is inevitable, but to endure this process gracefully, engage in the following exercise now and then. Again make a list of everything that you love and enjoy: people, possessions, abilities, personal attributes, etc. Go through the list and imagine your hand tightly gripping each one. Then imagine the Lord lovingly and gently opening your hand. As he does this, he says, “[Your name], this is yours to enjoy—but never to own. Are you ready and willing to give this back to me?”

  When you reach an item you have trouble releasing, ask the Lord to help you. Hear him remind you, “[Your name], I am all you really want and all you really need. Love and enjoy this thing, but don’t cling to it.” Ask the Lord to teach you whatever else you need to learn about your relationship with the person or thing you have trouble releasing.

  Rehearse your death. Here’s a prayer exercise I’ve benefited from for the last twenty years. Use prayer to rehearse your own death. Close your eyes and imagine you’ve just died (perhaps in a car crash or due to cancer). Experience what it feels like to have everything except the absolute core of your being taken from you. Family, friends, possessions, achievements, abilities—everything gone. Then imagine Jesus standing in front of you, radiant, smiling, with open arms. He welcomes you and embraces you, saying, “[Your name], I could not love you more.” Try to experience the fullness of life, joy, and peace your heart craves. Then ask Jesus to help you live this way right now.

  To experience the fullness of Kingdom Life, we have to die to everything else as a source of life. Practice dying—so that you may live.

  CHAPTER 4:THE REVOLT AGAINST JUDGMENT

  Return to the source. The mustard-seed Kingdom must be planted in the human heart before it can begin to branch out and take over our minds, behavior, families, neighborhoods, and the broader society. Too often people try to change the world without changing themselves. It never works (and usually makes things worse). Change must begin in our own hearts. The most fundamental question is: What is my source of Life?

  It is impossible to revolt against our addiction to the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil until we are getting our worth, significance, and security from Christ alone. In the midst of the busyness of our lives, we must set aside times to drink deeply from the wellspring of the beautiful love and mercy that flows from Calvary. Envision the Lord embracing you as he tells you it gave him joy to give his life for you (Hebrews 12:2) and that you are his precious work of art (Ephesians 2:10). Throughout the day remind yourself that Calvary expresses God’s estimation of you and that all you really hunger for is found here. Remind yourself that Christ alone is your source of Life. Often I say to myself: “My Life is Christ, so nothing else really matters.” Reinforce right priorities in your life and deepen your capacity to experience true Life by occasionally fasting from food, television, communication, or anything else as the Lord directs. Join with your friends in embarking on other spiritual disciplines and enjoying the presence of God in worship.

  The blessing prayer. The first thing Jesus told his disciples to do when they came to a stranger’s house was to pray a blessing on it (Luke 10:5). I believe this is still our first and most fundamental task in relation to every person we encounter. We are to express our basic agreement with God that every person we encounter was worth Jesus’ dying for by blessing them—even if they curse us and mistreat us (Luke 6:27 – 28).

  In this light, I encourage you to cultivate the habit of blessing people throughout the day. If you need to, put up Post-it notes in strategic places reminding you to do this and enter into a covenant with friends to remind one another. With every encounter during the day, simply think or quietly whisper, “Lord, I agree with you—this person has unsurpassable worth. Thank you for creating them and dying for them. I pray blessing on their life, in your name.”

  Try going to a crowded place (mall, downtown, a fair) and spend an hour or so agreeing with God that every person you see has unsurpassable worth. Pray a blessing on each one. Notice how this discipline affects your feelings and attitudes. On occasion you may experience an explosion of Kingdom Life as I did in the mall over a decade ago. Not
hing releases the abundant Life of the Kingdom like hoping, believing, and praying for the best for people (see 1 Corinthians 13:6 – 7).

  Here’s another idea. Several people in the church I pastor have a ministry they call “prayer stalking.” They go to crowded places, as God leads them, and adopt certain individuals to pray for. They discretely follow them at a distance, blessing them and praying for them as they feel led. It has resulted in some amazing, unintended evangelistic opportunities, though the primary purpose is simply to agree with God that each person has unsurpassable worth.

  Set aside judgment. As you engage in blessing prayer, you will become more adept at noticing how many non-blessing thoughts you have. As you discover these, don’t judge yourself. Passing judgment on yourself is no more appropriate or helpful than passing judgment on others. That’s why Paul said, “I do not even judge myself” (1 Corinthians 4:3). Instead, simply remind yourself that God alone is judge and that your only job as a Kingdom person is to agree with him that every person you see has unsurpassable worth.

  Love enemies. Think of the person it is hardest for you to love. Perhaps they have harmed you or continue to harm you or other people in some way. Now, it’s okay if your feelings about this individual don’t change right away, for Kingdom love is not about feelings. It’s about agreeing with God’s assessment of people’s worth. So ask God to help you love this person as God loves you. Remind yourself that Jesus died for you when you were his enemy, and ask him to empower you to have this attitude toward your enemy (Ephesians 5:1 – 2). Then, as you envision this person in your mind, express your agreement with God that this individual has unsurpassable worth by praying a blessing prayer for that person. Finally, ask God to give you his wisdom about how you can express this person’s unsurpassable worth to them in more concrete ways.

  Note that loving a person as Christ loves you doesn’t necessarily mean that you trust them, want to be their friend, or even want to be around them. I may wisely mistrust my neighbor or even a relative to babysit my grandson, for example, but I’m still commanded to love that person. You may discern that it’s unhealthy for you to be in relationship with a certain dysfunctional or malicious person, but you’re still commanded to love them.

  CHAPTER 5: THE REVOLT AGAINST RELIGION

  Return to the Source. Like everything else about the Kingdom revolution, if we’re going to manifest the scandalous grace of God and revolt against religion, we must begin with ourselves. The task for each one of us is simply to be the Kingdom. We can’t hope to help others get free from religion and manifest the beauty of God’s indiscriminate, relentless agape-love unless we are being transformed by God’s scandalous grace and freed from religion ourselves. So long as our hearts are hungry, we can exchange our idols but can never be truly free from them.

  The only way to get free from religion is to continually get Life from the one non-idolatrous source of Life there is—Jesus Christ—and resolve in our minds that all of our worth, significance, and security comes from what God thinks of us, as demonstrated on Calvary.

  We can only love others as Christ loves us if we regularly experience Christ loving us. It’s imperative, therefore, that Kingdom people take time to allow the Spirit to open their hearts and minds to the beauty of Christ’s love for them, for as we behold this beauty we are transformed into this beauty ( 2 Corinthians 3:17 – 18). Imaginatively see, hear, and sense the Lord reminding you that you were bought with an infinite price and thus have unsurpassable worth (Mark 10:45; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 7:23). Experience the Lord tenderly assuring you that you are completely forgiven and have been given the righteousness that comes from him (Romans 5:1; 1 Corinthians 6:20; Ephesians 1:7; Colossians 1:14). Envision the Lord interacting with you like this throughout the day, as you offer up words of praise and gratitude in response. Engage in the spiritual disciplines with those you share life with and spend quality time together worshiping and basking in the presence of God.

  Get free from theological idolatry. Ask yourself, “If I were proven wrong about all my beliefs—except my core belief that God’s attitude toward me is revealed in Jesus Christ—would my sense of worth be lessened?” If the answer is yes, it’s an indication you are using your beliefs as a source of Life. It’s okay to regard beliefs as important. They are. But Christ alone is our source of Life. If your identity is wrapped up in the rightness of your theology, I encourage you to spend more time experiencing God’s perfect and unlimited love for you—a love that is unwavering even if every theological opinion you have turns out to be wrong. 2

  Unmask religion. Prayerfully reflect on your life and that of your community of Jesus followers. Do you individually and collectively attract or repel those most judged by society and religion as “sinful”? If the honest answer is that you tend to repel them, ask yourself why this is so. Is religious idolatry suppressing the unconditional love of the Kingdom in your life or the life of your faith community? Discuss with your community of Jesus followers how you can start communicating God’s love to those most judged by society and religion. How can you start befriending and “washing the feet” of gays, transvestites, drug addicts, prisoners, and others who have traditionally been judged harshly and rejected by Christians?

  Wake up to religious judgment. Alone and with friends, prayerfully reflect on and discuss the following question: Are there certain types of sinners you habitually feel superior to? Are there certain types of sins in other people’s lives that you feel you’re condoning if you don’t show your disapproval of them? For example, it has been my experience that many evangelicals feel they are condoning gays if they don’t express their disapproval of them. Ask yourself, would you feel this way if these people were guilty of other types of sin—if, say, they didn’t share their wealth with the poor (greed); if they talked negatively about others behind their backs (gossip); or if they ate more than they needed (gluttony)? If you find that you tend to judge some sins more harshly than others, ask yourself why this is. If you’re ruthlessly honest, you’re likely to discern that it’s because you’ve been conditioned by religion to condemn some sins (such as homosexuality) more harshly than others (such as greed, gossip, and gluttony). Let this serve as a sign that you are still in bondage to religion and need to drink more deeply from the bottomless well of God’s love. Repent (turn) from your judgment and ask God to give you the humility that genuinely sees your own sin, whatever it may be, as a plank while viewing other people’s sin, whatever it may be, as a mere dust particle (Matthew 7:1 – 3).

  Wash feet . Get a mental image of Jesus washing the dirty, smelly feet of his disciples, knowing they will deny him hours later (John 13:1 – 5). Since you are called to imitate Jesus in this activity (John 13:14), imagine yourself washing the feet of the people you tend to judge as being the worst of sinners. As you do this, hear Jesus say to you, “As I have loved and served you—and not judged you—so you are to love and serve others and not judge them.”

  Did any part of you have trouble with this picture? If so, it may indicate a stronghold of judgment in your life. Bring that thought captive to Christ by reminding yourself that your sin is worse than any sin you may see in others. If your common sense screams that this is ludicrous—such as, “No way is my greed as bad as that person’s homosexuality!”—remind yourself that you’re called to live in obedience to Jesus, not to the “common sense” of your religious or cultural conditioning. Remind yourself that your main job in life is to imitate Jesus. Pray and discuss with friends how, together, you can concretely “wash the feet” and express God’s humble, servant love toward those you are tempted to think are worse sinners than yourself.

  CHAPTER 6: THE REVOLT AGAINST INDIVIDUALISM

  Return to the Source. It may seem ironic, but it is impossible to enter into relationships that reflect the love of the triune community unless we ourselves are getting our Life from God. We all need deep, meaningful relationships, but they are not to be our source of Life. When our need for worth, significanc
e, and security isn’t met by our relationship with God, we end up using people to try to meet this need. Kingdom relationships shouldn’t be a means by which we get Life from others. Rather, relationships are meant to express and share in the fullness of Life we receive from God. Not only this, but as long as we’re living life in a hungry mode, we will find it impossible to resist the continual pull of our consumer culture. We unwittingly buy the lie that our worth, significance, and security are rooted in what we can acquire, possess, and achieve. This in turn motivates us to make striving for things a higher priority than cultivating deep, but often time-demanding, relationships. So long as we’re hungry for Life, we will lack the motivation and capacity to participate in genuine Kingdom communities.

  I encourage you, again, to continually return to the one true source of Life. Make time to rest in the unconditional love of God, envisioning him holding you, healing you, and rejoicing over you. Individually and with others, engage in spiritual disciplines that deepen your capacity to empty yourself of worldly clutter and make more room for God’s presence.

  Introspect. Prayerfully reflect on the extent to which you have been conditioned by Western individualism and consumerism. Are you in authentic “Kingdom relationships”? Have you committed to loving and serving a community of people? Are there people in your life who know you well enough to notice when things are wrong and who care enough to address it? Are there disciples of Jesus whom you trust enough to give permission to point out aspects of your life that are possibly not consistent with your commitment to the Kingdom? Are their friends with whom you’re willing to submit significant life decisions for discernment? Do you have a community of people who share your Kingdom vision and with whom you minister to carry out this vision?