Losing Our Religion

One of the most unlikely hit songs of the 1990's was recorded by the Georgia-based rock band R.E.M. It's hard to believe it's been more than 30 years since "Losing My Religion" was released in 1991. The song was nominated for several Grammy's, mainly because of its popular music video that played on MTV. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine listed it at #169 among the 500 greatest songs of all time.

The song itself really didn't have anything to do with religion, though I'm sure the counter-cultural theme probably struck a chord with many listeners. The title, from the main refrain, comes from a common southern expression that generally means losing one's temper, or being at your wit's end. Like, "Traffic today was so bad I thought I was going to lose my religion."

For us as Christians, we weren't sure what to think about that song when it came out. On the one side, it seemed like yet another secular statement from popular culture bashing religion. But on the other side, losing our religion is something we as followers of Christ have all been trying to do for a while. It may have become a bit of a cliché by now, that "Christianity is not a religion, but a relationship." But that doesn't mean it's any less true. 

One of my favorite passages of Scripture that illustrates the point is found in the apostle Paul's letter to the Philippian church, where he recounts his own religious heritage as a Hebrew and a Pharisee--"as for legalistic righteousness, faultless"--and then says, "I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord." (3:8)

He was saying, essentially, I have had religion, which was empty and worthless, and now I know Christ, and it's made all the difference in the world. I gladly "lose my religion" if I can trade it in for relationship, because of the difference Jesus makes in my life.

Of course, Paul was not the first to espouse that kind of teaching. Jesus had radically exposed the external religious observance of the Pharisees of His day, and pointed them to a heart-level relationship with God the Father, through Himself. He figuratively turned over the tables of their religious thought, and introduced His first-century followers to a whole new way of thinking about God, and themselves.

But it was the apostle Paul that helped to define what that faith looked like in the early days of the New Testament church, and that's what many of his epistles were about. None more so than his epistle to the church at Galatia.

This Sunday, we are going to begin a new series of messages from that book. In fact, we as a church will be studying a New Testament epistle for the fifteenth fall in a row, and as per our custom during that time, our adult Life Groups will also be studying through the book in conjunction with our sermon series. So you'll be getting a double dose of truth from the same passages in Galatians each week, and I sure hope it will stick!

Here's hoping our study through this book will help us lose our tendency to focus on external religion, and deepen our faith in Christ. I hope you can be with us this week, and every Sunday this fall. I am praying for you, and I look forward to seeing you Sunday.

--Pastor Ken