What Do We Expect from Religion?

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Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk and promoter of a kind of meditation called centering prayer, asks this question in one of his videos on YouTube.

Ancient Israel’s expectation, says Keating, who died in 2018, was that religion would save them from the problems of daily life and bring about the glory of the kingdom of Israel.

“And that’s our expectation, too,” he says about the first of those ancient Jewish yearnings. “We expect religion to deliver us from the nitty gritty of daily life and put us in peace and security. But that’s not normally God’s way. God’s way is to join us in our daily lives.”

The Importance of Trust

Maybe it’s these expectations that partly explain why we believers get upset when things don’t go our way, despite all that we’ve heard and learned about the importance of trust in God. Our expectations are out-of-whack. We listen to or read the gospels week after week, year after year, and still believe that faith promises us a rose garden.

That should be a warning for all people searching for God. Faith will not give us immunity from the problems of daily life nor the tragedies that can befall us. So, what good is it? “None,” answer many people who have given up on God and religion.

But isn’t that like asking the value of the love of a spouse or child or friend? Their love doesn’t make us immune to the bad stuff, but who would say it’s of no use?

To that point, Keating has an interesting twist on one of Jesus’ parables.

Thomas Keating

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a marriage feast for his son” goes the story in Mathew’s gospel, “and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the marriage feast; but they would not come.

“Again, he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have made ready my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves are killed, and everything is ready; come to the marriage feast.’ But they made light of it and went off, one to his farm, another to his business…. 

"…Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the thoroughfares, and invite to the marriage feast as many as you find.’ And those servants went out into the streets and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good; so the wedding hall was filled with guests.”

A common Christian interpretation of this parable is that it pertains to Israel’s unworthiness to be “the invited” of God’s kingdom and that, instead, the possibility of entering the kingdom is open to all of humankind.

Keating sees it a bit differently. In the highly stratified, caste-like society existing in Jesus’ time, it means that God is not trying to bring everybody – “the good and the bad” – up to his level but that he is descending to theirs. He has already promised the Hebrews that he “would be their God and they would be his people.” Now, he is saying that he has become human - in the person of Jesus.

Extraordinary Love

Accepting God’s invitation is what matters, not merit, says Keating. And to accept the invitation is to accept the trials of ordinary life and lead that life with extraordinary love.

“The kingdom of God is now,” he says. “God is in total solidarity with us.”

This idea is good news for all of us searching for God. Maybe our expectations for religion – belief in, and loving, God and others – are not too high but too low. The invitation isn’t just to live an “ordinary life,” which would satisfy many people who focus on prosperity and good health, but to live a life in communion with our creator, one that brings true peace and joy.