Report From India
Austin Thomas is a 20-year old from Reno, Nevada, who is traveling and serving in India for a month with Young Life. He’s the son of Lori Thomas, my friend and former Young Life staff partner in Reno.
Life here is saturated with Religion. Jesus stickers adorn the backs of a surprisingly large number of cars, and every store is either named after some Religious ideal/deity, or there are a bunch of scripture (Bible, MahaBarata, Q’ran, or otherwise) verses on the walls. Temples for various deities can be found on almost every street corner, and a vast majority of the people you see on the streets don some type of Religious garb. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before, and yet, it’s just more of the same. There’s still poor people…there’s still people who are unhappy, and need things like alcohol or drugs to numb their feelings..there’s still a middle and upper class that can’t find happiness or fulfillment in material things, and look to solve that problem by simply buying more stuff…there’s still all of the “bad” things that most Religions are geared towards wiping out.
It’s almost like Religion has been here so long, that it’s become just another part of this world, not separated from it in any way. This got me thinking about what it is that we (at least, those of you reading who prescribe to one religion or another) are trying to achieve. I know that in Christianity, we’re trying to change the world (mostly by conversion, or something along those lines), and from what I can surmise about Islam, Hinduism, Jainism, Bah’ai, etc…they are too. So why, is Bangalore, India, a society so permeated with Religion, a city which has gotten to the point that most religions hope to reach, just the same as Reno, NV, which many pastors call the most “unchurched” (whatever that means) city in the U.S., home to and famous for a ton of vices, not available in other places?
People, I think.
Which is exactly why Religion here in Bangalore has failed to change anything substantially. People. Religions are “run” by people, adhered to by people, affected by people, just as Wal-Mart is. As long as we (the Religious) operate by the same modus operandi of this world (partaking in a Religion that changes individual lives, and not communities), we’re never going to get where we want to go, which is, at least for Christians, God’s kingdom realized here on Earth..where there will be no poor, where there will be no crime, etc.
Which leads me to think that Jesus didn’t come to start another Religion. Yes, Religions are good and necessary and everything, and bring a great amount of relief to a great many people’s lives, in countless forms…but they can’t be the be all and end all. Just look at Bangalore…permeated with Religion, but no different than Reno.
What if, instead of a Religion, Jesus came to start a church (in the “Acts” sense of the word…a community…a movement)? What if that’s how we’ll change the world? By adhering to a community, a lifestyle, a kingdom, one that includes everyone who wants to come along for the ride? It’s certainly naïve, and romantic, and all of that (perhaps even childish?) to think that change this big can happen, but as I’ve been reading through Matthew and Mark this trip, it seems that that’s what Jesus is telling us to do. Change the world, and make disciples of all nations (and cultures, and lifestyles, and backgrounds, and Religions?)…through love, and nothing other than love.
Maybe we’ve been trying too hard to make nations of all disciples, just like every other king and ruler does. Maybe it’s time to set ourselves apart from the world, intentionally. Not through condemning them, or through our words, or anything of the sort, but through our own lives and lifestyles and communities? I don’t know. For now, I’ll just try my best to live a Kingdom life here, and figure out what that means along the way. But I think that situations like those that can be found in Bangalore warrant some thought. Is there a limit to what a Religion can do? Does the church that Jesus started require a move beyond Religion, to be what Jesus created it to be? Who knows? If we love God and love each other, the rest will worry about it self, or something.
June 27th, 2008 · 7 Comments
Categories: DE Thoughts
Helen said
am June 29 2008 @ 10:16 am
Austin, when you say ’set ourselves apart’ I assume you mean, be different - as in, be truly like Jesus, rather than, be separate - as in, form communities that exclude other people.
If so that sounds great to me!
Thanks for sharing your report from India with us.
Austin said
am July 6 2008 @ 11:21 am
Helen-
You’re right on the money. Reading back, there’s a couple of things that I could have made clearer or changed…I didn’t have a chance to read back through before I sent it out to Randy and the other people on my list (being in India and such)….so yes, thanks for clarifying that.
Jesus calls us to live a life that is different from that of this world (that’s what happened in the Hebrew Scriptures as well…God calling a group of people to live by different rules, etc.). He calls us to operate on standards that are generally foreign to this world, and sometimes don’t make a lot of sense in the context of this world and its kingdoms (love your enemies, the last shall be first, the children are who you need to model your faith after, the least of these are desirable and the beautiful, etc.), and he calls us to do so while living in the middle of this world, and loving everybody we meet or interact with in this world (not condemning them), and participating in the things of this world. Jesus was nothing himself if not a man of the everyday people, not the religious elite, and he calls his followers to be the same way…loving, caring, different, inside of a world that trys not to be those things sometimes. If we separate ourselves from the “outsiders”, we’re no better than the Pharisees that Jesus gets frustrated with. Our job is to create a community that invites everybody to participate in our loving, playing, dancing, differentness, not a community that shoos people away until the meet our standards.
Elaine said
am July 6 2008 @ 4:06 pm
Hi Austin,
Thanks for your post. And wow! it must be amazing to be there.
To respond to your post - all I can say is YES! For me religion has seemed to make something that Jesus made simple - complicated.
Don’t misunderstand my use of simple and complicated. Loving God and loving your neighbor is hard sometimes.
Religion makes it complicated and impossible. At least, that has been my experience.
When I am operating out of love - things just flow. I still have to make hard choices about how I spend my time and money - and I fail a lot. BUT it is pretty simple - am I loving my neighbor when I make this choice?
Elaine said
am July 6 2008 @ 6:52 pm
In re-reading my comment, I realize it may sound a little flip to some. I don’t mean it in a flip way.
It is that we humans have a tendancy to want “experts” to tell us what is the right thing to do, how to live our live, what the Bible means, etc. I just can’t fathom that that is what Jesus had in mind. He wanted to reach all of us…the whole world.
Love God and love your neighbor.
It is a short and very succinct sentence. I’ve spent most of my life trying to understand it and how I can live it. I fall short everyday.
Cynthia said
am July 14 2008 @ 5:51 am
I’m from Bangalore, and Austin may even have interacted with my children Alithea (12) and Abhishek (11) as they go to one of the Young Life groups in the Kammanahalli area - Interesting that I opened and read that post, I’d normally have passed it by.
Anyway, while religion is certainly behind the surprisingly large number of Jesus stickers on cars and bikes here, and yes, we sure do need a lot more love to go around than actually does, I feel that love alone is not enough in this religious climate. And being different may mean being excluded. There is a lot of conformism still, especially in “spiritual” not religious matters. Living the Zoe life is a state of being, not doing, and Bangalore is one place where living this Zoe life can indeed be a challenge! All the best to Austin for the rest of his stay here.
Randy Siever said
am July 14 2008 @ 1:05 pm
Wow…small, small world. Thanks, Cynthia, for your comments. I’m wondering if you could explain more about the “Zoe” life for us westerners?
Also, I’d be interested to know more about this statement:
Thanks!
Austin said
am July 14 2008 @ 1:32 pm
Cynthia-
Wow, it’s a small world! Yes, I definitely remember meeting Alithea and Abhishek at a couple of the clubs we had…you have beautiful children!
Thank you so much for your response, and I have to say that yes, being different sometimes means being excluded. It can also mean being thrown in jail, beaten, disrespected, and many other things. Look at many of the apostles, and other members of the early church, who were often thrown in jail because of their lifestyle choices. And God tells us to respond to all of that with a truly revolutionary reaction…love. After Bangalore, I had the opportunity to go visit an orphanage in one of the villages close to the coast, in what was a pretty seriously Hindu area. The Saints I met their (a man named Emmanuel and his family and church) get persecuted every day for their different-ness. And they show us an excellent example of how to respond, by continuing to love those who hate them, and by continuing to go about doing the Kingdom work that God has given them, ministering to widows, lepers, and orphans, and allowing nothing to get in their way. I’m not good at loving my enemies yet (but, I also don’t have many people trying to persecute me here in America)…but God will work through us all to spread his message of love!