Boutique religion is a popular way to do spirituality — you take from religions that make you feel good about yourself, so you achieve peace, harmony, balance.  So far I've shared the problems with popular spiritual ideas from yin & yang to karma.  Now it’s time to share what I've been hinting at, how Jesus breaks down the karmic cycle.

Karma is the idea that you get what you deserve.  If you put good energy into the universe, you get good energy back.  Or, as my mom used to say to me when I was young after I pushed my sister and got hit in return, "You do bad things and bad things come back to you." Karma has different marketing campaigns, masquerading as "The Secret," "an eye for an eye," "The Law of Attraction" and "The Power of Positive Thinking."  But regardless of karma's trendy new look, it is not an idea that can coexist with who Jesus is, what he did and what he taught on earth.

Karma says that an impersonal universe balances itself out, as long as you put goodness in, you will get goodness back out.  I've heard people quote Galatians 6:7, "People reap what they sow" as proof that the Bible teaches karma.  But when Jesus was on earth, he showed us that God is not only about doling out what we deserve.   

Jesus taught that God "causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous" (Matt 5:45).  This is peculiar, our God is totally unlike the gods of this earth, the god of science, of money, of power, of fertility, who say, "Do good and you get good, sacrifice to us and we'll see that you get your cut, too." Our God gives out blessing to those who are evil and good, he sends good weather, both sun and rain (keep in mind that rain was very good because it kept away famine and drought) on the just and the unjust. 

In the Jewish Scriptures we read stories about our God, who sent sunshine to those who would do evil, to Eve before she took the fruit, to David before he slept with Bathsheba, to Judas before he betrayed Jesus.  Today God still sends his sunlight and blessing to people who will do evil, the wife who betrays her husband, to the mother who abuses her children, to the man who will molest his daughter.  He sends food to them; he opens his hand and satisfies the needs of people who are evil.  Why do good things happen to bad people?

Jesus came to help us understand that.  Jesus teaches us about God's goodness, regardless of deeds.  Our God is good to us, even when we sow horrible things.  This is quite different from karma.  Karma means that everything that happens is because of what we have done.  If a guy cuts you off in traffic, you deserved it.  If a child is abused, then she deserved it.  Every thing happens because of a previous action.  You, not God, not your situations, not your family, are ultimately responsible.  And this is partially true; of course we do things that end up biting us back.  However, so much of the goodness in our lives is not because of us. 

Jesus taught that God has woven his goodness into the fabric of our reality.  God does not remove himself from us because we've failed today or yesterday.  God doesn’t turn off the blessings because we mess up.  That's the amazing teaching of Matthew 5:43-48.  Jesus knows we need a God like this, he knows we want a God like this and he knows humans are designed to operate like this.  Jesus wants his followers to be as good as their God.

You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbor and hate your enemy."  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.  He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous (Matt 5:43-45).

God is opposed to karma and he wants his followers, those who want to "be children of your Father in heaven" to do good like he does good.  God doesn't work goodness on this earth to get good out of us. God doesn't do good because he's afraid of consequences.  God doesn't do good because he feels guilty of his past mistakes.  God does good because of who he is. God wants us to do good because of who we are, whole humans, made in his image.  Jesus wants us to live according to reality, a reality where our God will work good though the stars fall, though the mountains be thrown into the sea, though this candidate becomes president, though our husbands fail, our children stray, our finances collapse, our leaders corrupt, though we get singled out for injustice.  Jesus wants us to be strangely unthreatened by evil to live with firm, gentle warmth towards those people who are prickly, cruel, short, dismissive, insulting, too cool for school, apathetic or bitter. Jesus wants us to be like God.  "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect."

God does not operate according to karma.  Our God does good to those who are evil.  This should strike us as both absurd and paradoxical and good, good news.  For the evil is not just out there, among the dregs of society, evil runs through the heart of me and you.  How can we escape our bad karma unless God is more magnificent, even more peculiar than even we’d imagine?

Think about Jesus' life, his choice to empty himself (Phil 2:7), to take on vulnerable human flesh, to stretch out his body in death, to take on sin.  What motivated him?  It wasn't for good karma with his Father back home.  Jesus and the Father didn't make a deal that Jesus would get extra inheritance or more power in the Trinity if he suffered a tortuous death.  When Jesus stretched his arms out on that cross, he was breaking the karmic cycle.  He knew we could never escape the cycle on our own.  Bono, the lead singer of U2 put it like this,

You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. ...And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that "as you reap, so will you sow" stuff.

Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I've done a lot of stupid stuff.

In Bono’s words, Grace "travels outside of karma."  The laws of karma don't make sense with this God of grace.  If you want to embrace karma, you must leave Jesus, his teaching, his life, his death out of your life.  Jesus died so karma would die, too.

[If you have any questions/comments, simply reply to this email. And don't forget "Ask! LIVE" on Wednesday evenings for questions or puzzling situation.]

© 2008 Dale & Jonalyn Fincher