December 2023 - LPNI

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December 2023

LPNI Devotion

Ordinarily religious or religiously ordinary?!

It happened again recently. I hadn’t experienced it for quite a while. (I don’t get out much perhaps!) It was a pleasant conversation with people I knew a little and who knew me less. A general conversation about all sorts of things and curiosity about ‘my world’ and God and religion. No agendas as such. They weren’t religious. (I don’t know what that actually means anymore!) I am obviously religious (whatever that means)! And when the conversation came around to families, there was a surface-level sharing – just little things – and I was asked about my family and I mentioned that I had five children around the world.

And there it was – that momentary quick surprise before polite composure returns. When people find out my occupation and then the number of children I have, it does seem to generate a surprise. (A long time ago I was once asked, “Is that allowed?”!) Maybe it is that God, religion, and ‘being ordinary’ just don’t seem to go together? Do people think you’ve got to be one or the other – religious (and somehow different) – or ordinary (and just like other people they know)?

‘Yes … and no!’ Christians are the same and also different from everyone else. Hopes, dreams, joys, sorrows, good moments, tragic times, good health, chronic disability, meaning and purpose, humility, pride, pain, and so much more are part of all of us. And yet there is a difference. OK, every religion or philosophy claims a difference, so that’s not so much the issue; but perhaps over time as Christians are observed and lived with, it can seem to the world that they are different – not perfect – definitely (hopefully!) not holier-than-thou – but somehow having a peace about life, not being fatalistic about suffering, and having a confidence and security that comes from being loved. The Christians themselves won’t see it! They’re conscious of their sins and failings and could-always-do-better and ‘help me, Lord’. One might say that Christians are religious and are ordinary. It’s relational they say – not rule-based or a code, but our religion is essentially a relationship with Jesus.

That shouldn’t be surprising considering Advent and Christmas. There is a story of a controversial pregnancy and a birth in poverty which is said to be about the glory of God. Jesus – laid in a manger, refugee, carpenter, itinerant preacher … someone who kept pointing to God, and if you had eyes and ears to see and hear you kept focusing on Jesus – is religious and ordinary! But it gets worse – not better – when he is declared a criminal and is crucified.

Religions claim gods are special, while Christianity proclaims Jesus is Immanuel (God with us) – ordinary, mortal – because God regards humanity as special (made in his image) and loved. We are so loved that God acted to rescue us through Jesus in his birth, life, death, and resurrection. And that empty tomb makes us do a double-take. What?! Everything ordinary Jesus said and did was real and true – Jesus is one of us – a human being – and also God among us?? Among us?! Now?! Yes!! Jesus is with his people in their lives – their real life – the one we actually live – the often ordinary one. Jesus is present to help us live well each day in our real – actual – life. Maybe that’s why Irenaeus (2^nd Century) once said, “The glory of God is a human being fully alive”.

The Rt Rev George Samiec

Chairman, The Evangelical Lutheran Church of England

chairman@lutheranchurch.org.uk