If I had a nickel for every time someone says to me "I'm spiritual, I'm not religious," I would be wealthy. People usually say that when they find out that I'm a minister. It always comes across as self-justification, as if there is a reason they must explain why they don't go to church or join with a community of faith. What confuses me is that, I don't think a person can be either spiritual or religious. It's not as if "spiritual" can be separate from "religious." It's as if these folks who declare their spirituality but not their religiousness are saying, "I'm a nice person, but don't expect me to make a commitment." The people of Athens were being "spiritual but not religious" with their shrine to the Unknown God. It was their Default God, the one in a bundled package of gods to cover what might fall between the cracks. More than "just in case," the unknown God was a way to avoid responsibility for commitment. Why commit to one God when, "I'm spiritual, I'm not religious" covers the bases. In a world of "failure to take responsibility for your actions," it's too much like work to commit to a community of faith and allow oneself to be held accountable for putting hands and feet to what Jesus requires of his followers.

"Requires." We don't like to think that Jesus requires anything of people who claim to be Christians. Isn't Christianity about love? Isn't love unconditional? Isn't love a feeling? You can't command a feeling, let alone make requirements of it. If that's true, where does Jesus get off, talking in John today about "loving obedience" as part of being a disciple? Jesus has just made that outrageous statement about doing whatever we ask for in his name, and the very next words out of his mouth are a condition for his keeping that promise: "If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

That's the sort of thing they say in made-for-TV movies. "If you love me you'll stop racing." "If you love me you'll go west with me." "If you love me you'll get out of this hospital bed and walk." You can't achieve love, but Jesus makes love a requirement of following him. If you want to get past "I'm spiritual but not religious"-or the other, "I'm religious but not spiritual"-you've got to be both. That is what the gospel of John says today. How to be both religious and spiritual sounds simple: a relationship of loving obedience with God, living out that relationship in community. Or, in other words, love-whose natural consequence and proof is obedience-love is obeying Jesus' commandments, the most important one of which is the one about love. It sounds redundant. Redundant or not, Jesus isn't talking emotion here. This is about how one acts, something one decides to do, for the good of the loved one. If you want to know what love looks like, Jesus says to his disciples, look at God. You remember God-the One who loved us so much that God's own Son was sent to give us eternal life. You remember the Son. He's the One who died because of us. This Son "commands" us to love-and to love like God. Is it reasonable to expect this would be something humans can do?

When I was a little girl and my Uncle Doug was returning to college one fall, we went to Grama's house to say good-bye to him. As the farewells swirled, my favorite uncle in the whole world leaned towards me in my mother's arms. "Give your Uncle Doug a kiss good bye," he asked. I refused. He teased, "Why not?" I said, "I've run out of kisses." My Uncle Doug gave me one of my first theology lessons then. "The more kisses you give," he said, "the more kisses you have to give away." Jesus says the same thing in John, only he says it in Biblish. In plain English, Jesus says, the more we love others, the more aware we are of God's love. The more we are aware of God's love, the more we love others.

I got an email recently, one of those stories that people send to everyone in their directory. The story is a written as if you-are-there. A deadly epidemic is sweeping the globe, killing everyone exposed. A vaccine can only be developed from pure, untainted blood of a certain type. Civil defense calls everyone to hospitals to be tested in the search for the "perfect blood." Your child is the only one in the world who fits the bill. The world is saved! How much of his blood will be needed? All of it. That'll kill him. But if he dies, it will save all of the rest of the world. He's the only one. The story goes on to draw the obvious parallels to Jesus, asking readers to wonder how God must feel when we're too busy to say "thanks" or when we are blasé about this gift. John says that is the kind of love God had for us, therefore it is the kind of love Jesus expects of his followers. I can do that in theory, but-so sorry Jesus-I can't do that in reality. I have trouble finding time just to get to church. You should see my calendar! I'm gone every night of the week-volunteering at the community center, driving kids to lessons and games or working extra hours so I can get out of town to see my parents. I never get a moment's peace for myself. It's "community enough" to see folks at church once in awhile. I guess I'm over-committed, but I'm doing everything I can.

From the book of Acts: "I see how extremely spiritual you are in every way. For as I went through your towns and countryside, I looked at your calendars and your checkbooks, I looked carefully at the objects of your worship. I found among them an altar with the inscription, 'To an unknown god.' What therefore you worship when you have time, this I proclaim to you."

Paul's interpretation of the Default God doesn't scandalize his listeners until he gets to judgment and resurrection. Up until then, the Athenians are open-minded, tolerant, unwilling to exclude any possibility. Paul makes Jesus' abstract talk about "loving obedience" concrete. Paul tells his listeners that there is only one God. You can start to see this God by noting the beauty and order of creation shown in the Cascades. You can be aware of-and even grateful to-some hand in the universe preserving your life and sustaining you. But if you stop there, you are still trapped in idolatry. You are stuck at the idolatry of "spiritual but not religious." If your God is in your own image, if your God is only for the care of your life and those whom you love, if your God depends on you to manipulate it or advise it about what you need-you are limiting God to your spirituality. If your God is only about what you know or care about, you are religious and not spiritual-and that too is idolatry. Any God limited to the here-and-now can't begin to keep the promises Jesus makes to his disciples. Christians are resurrection people. We believe in-are willing to stake our lives on-the one who was dead and is now alive. We will not be able to "achieve" love-because of the resurrection. But in the community of resurrection people, we practice "loving obedience" in relationship with God. We learn how to receive love from God and love from each other. We learn how to love in return. The more we learn about love the more we discover we can't achieve love. But we do learn that wonderful thing my Uncle Doug taught me so long ago: that the more you give away, the more you have to give.