Religion: can’t live with it, can’t live without it…
Wrong, good, better, and true:
In the faith convenience store,
Just what is a fellow to do?
Should we even bother any more?
Religion: man worshipping God.
And where man is, God tends to recede.
There’s good and bad, mainstream and odd;
And when bad, it can be very bad indeed.
Humanity’s beacon of salvation?
War and bloodshed, rivalry and deceit;
Moral and emotional annihilation;
A track record of shocking conceit.
Human progress seems so often at odds,
With the conservative dogma imposed,
By an elderly male junta for God’s
Spirit to discern – should they be deposed?
Faith tells us we are made in His likeness.
Does this swell us up with airs and graces,
Way above our pale blue dot commonness?
A eucharist of humble pie for our disgraces?
Does faith in God then necessitate
Any form of organised religion?
Especially when differences spawn hate,
And witness is spoiled by disunion?
Whatever religion is, or should be,
It is not private, to be kept behind
A facade, stamped ‘reserved for me’.
Religion is faith shared – as God designed.
For it’s ‘we believe’ and not ‘I believe’,
As some would have us believe… for
As we, we sink or swim, as we receive
Him who is our unity, now and evermore.
For without communion, one with another,
The rumour of God in our secularisations,
Passed parent to child, brother to brother,
Wouldn’t survive a couple of generations.
Is church then, the faith-baton passed
In the relay race of life, each holding
The graced wood, privileged and tasked,
For the next person to continue running?
Can different creeds come together then?
Could they focus on the living deity,
To hold fast to what lasts, even when
Local and cultural forms differ greatly?
Religion: flawed faith of saint and sinner,
Will never cease, as God will never cease,
And mankind will respond to that inner
Voice – His Spirit prompting grace and peace.