Fifth Sunday of Lent: God is not a Computer

[This homily is based on the readings for Cycle C but contains a reference the to story of the woman at the well from the Cycle A (Third Scrutiny). As always, your constructive criticism is invited. Send your comments to me at jms48@fuse.net. Thanks, Fr. Jim.]

How many people here this morning love computers?
How many of you couldn’t imagine life without your computer?
You depend on your computer.
You rely on your computer.

Let’s see your hands:
How many here love their computer?

Okay.

Now, how many of you hate your computer?
It’s old.
It’s slow.
The hard drive crashed and you lost all your documents.
Be honest, how many of you have come close, real close,
to hurling the thing out the out the office window?

Okay.

Now, how many of you love and hate your computer…at the same time?

Well, whether or not you happen to be on speaking terms with your computer these days,
that machine of yours
is going to teach you something about your religion this morning.

The first thing it’s going to teach us is that God and religion are not the same thing.

Some people don’t know that.
Some people get the two confused.
We Catholics are particularly prone to this problem.
We occasionally have trouble recognizing the difference
between God and the Church.

I’m not saying that God and the Church aren’t essential.
They’re both essential…
but they’re not the same.

God is a person,
The Church is an institution.

You relate to God like a person.
You approach an institution like a computer.

Unfortunately,
some people approach God like a computer.

They think that if you
push the right buttons,
type in the correct password
hit the right command…
presto, you’re connected,
you’re “connected” to God.
You know the correct doctrines.
You can surf the catechecism.
You know prompts that tell you when to stand and kneel at Mass.

One of my favorite writers, Max Lucado,
calls this approach to God “computerized Christianity.”

Another name for it is “Software Salvation.”
You do your part,
The Divine Computer does his.

No need to pray…
Because you control the keyboard.

No need to weep or kneel or get emotional
Because it’s just command-response;
info in…info out.

God as Almighty Google,
A gigantic search engine to get whatever you want.

So far, so good.

But, be careful.

If you make a mistake,
If you hit one wrong key,
If you forget to save the document
If there’s an unexpected power surge…

Well, tough luck,
too bad,
you’re on your own, buddy.

That’s what happens when you replace the heart of God
with a electronic circuitry

That’s when you replace love with a spread sheet

It’s what happens when you replace the sacrifice of Christ on the cross
With human manipulation.

God is a person, not a machine.

Take a look a the scene in today’s gospel
and you’ll find some seemingly intelligent folks
raised and educated in the institution of religion
who, unfortunately think God and religion are one and the same.

Here are these religious leaders,
These pastors in a chat room with the Son of the God
And all they want to talk about is rules and regulations.

This woman committed adultery.
Her system has a virus.
She forgot her password.
Her hard drive has crashed.
We’re removing her from the listserv.

Tough luck,
too bad,
you’re on your own, sister.

Religion without God
is as a cold and impersonal as a computer.

This scene today is taken from the Gospel of St. Luke.
Flip ahead a few pages to the Gospel of St. John
and you’ll find a similar situation when stops at a well
for a drink of water
and ends up engaging in a conversation with a woman
who not only has committed adultery
she’s made a habit of adultery.

I’m talking about that woman who was dumped by five husbands
and was now just living with some guy.
Who can blame her?

The institution of marriage failed her
and now the institution of religion
wasn’t proving much help either.

Like the misguided pastors in the Gospel of Luke,
she too approached God the way you approach a computer:
Info in, info out.

“Sir,” she asked, “are we supposed to worship
in this temple or that temple?”

In other words,
Just tell me what I need to know.
Just tell me what I need to get by.
Give me the password.

After all, it’s all about me
and what I want.

That’s the attitude you develop
when you approach God like a computer.

But do you remember what Jesus said to that woman?
After all her questions and after all her attempts
to deflect his attention away from her messed up life,
he said, “If only you know who it is who is talking to you.”

If only you knew that God is a person
not a computer,
not an institution
not some cold, heartless big bang at the start of the universe.

God is a person
and longs for us to relate to him as a person who has a name
and a face
and a heart
and a soul.

And that person’s name is Jesus Christ.

Now, if you want to meet to someone who went from
computerized religion
to a personalize relationship with Christ,
St. Paul’s your man.

He was a legalist to the hilt.
The followers of Christ threatened the institution he loved and served.
He went so far as to hunt Christians down.
He was determined to do all he could
to stamp out the movement.

But, if you listened to his letter today,
you find a man with a changed heart,
a man with a heart for the heart of God.

This is what he wrote in his letter:

“I consider everything in my life as worthless
in relation to my relationship with Christ.
Compared to being in Christ
Everything else is rubbish!

I want to gain Christ.
I want to know Christ.
I want to get inside his head.
I want to get inside his heart.
I want to share in his sufferings…

and experience the power of his resurrection.

My life, my possessions are nothing.
My only desire is to be possessed by him.”

No one’s ever talked to computer like that.

God is a person.
His name is Jesus
and he wants to talk to you.

Not about the possessions in your house,
but the dreams in your heart.

Not about the sins you’ve committed,
but your soul and the healing it needs.

Not about the past but about what lies ahead.

He longs to share in
so you can share his…today, tomorrow and all eternity.