Letter VI takes up the issue of substituting religion for God.
“- as if navigation were substituted for arrival, or battle for victory, or wooing for marriage, or in general the means for the end.”
Religion in this sense takes the focus off God, and on to us. It makes what we do, what we like the raison d’etre and not what God does and is.
“This department of life, labelled ‘sacred’ can become an end in itself; an idol that hides both God and my neighbours. It may even come about that a man’s most genuinely Christian actions fall entirely outside that part of life which he calls religious.“
‘Religion’ can be what stops a church exploring where it should be and what it should be doing, because it always has to keep an eye to what people want – not what God is calling us to.
‘Religion’ can hold people back, because it can become a relationship with how things are done, not with God, for whom they’re done.
‘Religion’ can keep us busy looking at structures when we should be looking at God and following his call.
Faith, worship, living a Christian life – all good things – when done for God and not their own end.
I’ve ‘taken up’ C S Lewis for Lent.
They’re a couple of books that I found when we moved, and thought ‘I must have another read of those one day’. Well in an effort to do something productive during Lent, ‘one day’ has come.
I started with The Screwtape Letters and now I’m moving on to ‘Prayer: Letters to Malcolm‘ , first published 1964. It must be about 25 years since I read it – and a lot of water has passed under this bridge since then.
I’ll share just some of my random thoughts as I work my way through it – hoping they might spark some thought. Feel free to comment!
