Religionless Christianity

A friend of mine recently commented on the source of what he saw as my social conscience. Having attended my mother’s funeral, and hearing the remembrances of her, which all stressed her practice of caring for the poor and less fortunate, he concluded that I am attempting to live out that which was instilled in me from an early age. Frankly, I had never thought about it that way before, but in hindsight I have to admit that I have always been concerned with the mistreatment of the “small man.” The thing is, that from very early in my evangelical sojourn, from just before my twentieth birthday, that which was instilled in me by mom made me uncomfortable in a church that did not have a similar concern. That discomfort has become almost full-blown, to the point of a total malaise, especially since I have found out that my mom’s concern is more biblical than the practice of my evangelical tradition that emphasizes the spiritual to the detriment of the physical and practical.
What is even more disturbing to me is that though my mother was not a churchwoman, her lifestyle was more biblical than that of many good, church going Christians. She had very little patience for persons who spent a lot of time in church. She maintained that she was a woman of faith, always praying and seeking to know what Bible passages meant, and even commented to me a few months before her death that she had accepted Jesus “a number of times” when she was a little girl. But for her what was more important than the “practice of religion” was that she should care for people, especially those that could not help themselves.
The Bible does say that we “should not forsake meeting together as Christians (Hebrews 10:25).” Thus, the idea of Christians gathering together to bolster each other is quite Biblical. What our churches often miss is that the “practice of religion” is very often an easy distraction from that which is more necessary – living daily as God would have us do in this world. And it seems quite evident that many of our churches have become distracted by their religious observances. Weekly prayer and fasting service, Bible study, choir practice, early morning prayer meeting, praise and worship, door to door witnessing, men’s and women meetings, Sunday school, youth fellowship, as well as leaders meetings, when added together means that the active Christian does little else than go to Church. When coupled with the number of hours s/he spends at work, life consists of working and going to Church. There is very little meaningful social interaction with people outside of these spheres, and because the emphasis is so “heavenward” there is little commitment to practicing the faith practically now.
I believe the Church must change this orientation, if we are going to impact the community in necessary ways. I can’t help thinking of my favourite theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and his emphasis on “religionless Christianity.” There is still some amount of debate as to what Bonhoeffer meant by the term, but it seems quite evident that he was concerned with the Church’s emphasis on the ritual aspect of Christianity to the exclusion of it practical obligations. He believed that the practical obligations were more important than the ritualistic, and so he called for a “worldly Christianity,” which would live out Christ’s concerns in daily life without needing the ritual to identify it as Christian. One of his solutions was quite radical – sell the Church buildings and use the proceeds to care for the poor. I am not certain that such is necessary, but we must find ways of becoming more practical, as this ought to be the greater emphasis of our Christianity. I thank my mom for being a good Biblical example in this regard.
As usual, what do you think?