RE-LIGIO-ED

Again Jesus began to teach beside the sea...and he taught them many things in stories and parables...

- Mark 4:1-2    

Rootless.  Alienated.  Estranged.  Meaningless.  Our human condition can be a desperate mix of questions about the nature of our experiences in relationship to God and to one another.  Our longing for a sense of connection is at the root of the word, "religion."  The Latin re-ligio means to re-link; to reconnect.  To help reconnect, re-link and restore people to relationship with one another and to God is at the heart of healthy religion's purpose.  Much of what we do in our spirituality efforts are attempts to be "re-ligio-ed."

At the heart of the Biblical tradition is the notion that truth doesn't come to us primarily as fact, creed or scripture.  Instead, it is best conveyed through story.  The Christian tradition is rooted in the story of Jesus Christ but meaning within that story is conveyed through other stories.  The story of the Exodus connects us with our longing to be set free.  The story of the Exile speaks to our need for identity and purpose when the world around us seems foreign and unfamiliar.  The story of the Temple restores our connection with God through the forgiveness of sins.

While the temptation for each of us is to keep these stories safe by interpreting them as something that happened long ago, their real power is in allowing these stories to speak to us today.  What would it look like in our lives for the stories of Scripture to become the stories of our lives?  Perhaps we would re-ligio-ed with both God and our neighbor and in those connections know peace.