I was then, but am now...

John 15:12-15

          As is my custom (even if it is a relatively new one), I read the story associated with the saint or holy person of the day. Today it is Absalom Jones and his is a very interesting story. I am sure there is even more to read. What I noticed is the fact that he was Methodist, then Episcopal. I find this interesting because I was Roman Catholic and am now Episcopal myself. Not unlike the Bishop of the Episcopal church on Long Island who was once a Roman Catholic Priest. And again, there is the book I recently read about Father Cutie in Florida who went from being a Roman Catholic Priest to falling in love with a most wonderful woman and subsequently became an Episcopal Priest. In a twist, I found out after Mass this week that the Franciscan Friars of the Atonement (Graymoor) had been Episcopal before they became Roman Catholic. I guess it fascinates me a bit, all these people that up and switch religions.  But when you think about it, Perhaps that is exactly what the Apostles did. They were all Jews and Jesus was a Jew. After Jesus was crucified and rose, basically it was a new religion, perhaps more so when the word was opened to the gentiles without having to convert to Judaism first.

           I keep rolling around in my head the notion that people up and change their religion.  But what is a religion anyway?  I suppose I was always really an Episcopal at heart. I mean, I never believed a whole array of doctrines that the Roman Catholic church puts forth, their nonsense about being gay is just one example. I know that several of my fellow seminarians also were not 'doctrinally pure' so to speak and yet they remained on as ordained Deacons in the church.  What is it that allows you to change.

             The late Thomas Merton, a Trappist monk, was famously welcomed by a wide range of seemingly disparate religions and one of the reasons was his ability to cut through the dogma (perhaps bypass is a better word) and focus on the essence of what religion is. This is same reason I think people can change from one religion to another, especially if one changes within the realm of Christianity.  I went to the Episcopal church for many reasons. One reason was the similarity of the worship. Some people call it 'the smells and bells' of faith. It is not the basis of Christianity and it is not the basis of Catholicism or even being Episcopal but it lends a familiarity to my worship. 

           So what is the theorized universal constant that allows people to dismiss all sorts of dogmas and switch religions?  It is just that, the dogmas are often not an "all or nothing" proposition in any religion. Barring walking into a Roman Catholic church hand in hand with my husband, no one takes a doctrinal purity exam at the door. Everyone is free to accept or not accept the dogmas. What allows people to switch religions and what allows doctrinally impure people to stay in a Catholic church (when they are probably more doctrinally Episcopalians) is that we have a faith in Jesus Christ. 

         When Jesus preached the message of love that is his Father, he did not preach about transubstantiation, the dogma of Mary physically taken up into heaven, the proper formula for making a host, the exact form for a liturgy or anything else. The Apostles did not go to seminary to become doctrinally pure.

          What allows people to switch is that they are pure in the real message. That message is God's love, the realization that God sent his son as a human being just like us and who died just for us. Jesus only gave two important rules and that is the Two great commandments. They may not be easy to live sometimes, but they are our real and unchanging template for salvation, no matter what exact religion you are.

‘This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.