Last week my team and I went into Uzice, Serbia (the town that we are living in for this month of ministry). Our goal for going into town was to get acquainted to where everything was and to prayer walk as we visited significant locations. Knowing very little about this country I quickly became intrigued by the culture here…. woman dressed very nicely, children running around the streets and parks without parents close by to keep watch of their safety, and the narrow roads you drive on leave you terrified in the back seat of your taxi. But what caught my attention and interest more than anything else here was the church and the religious rituals that take place there.
Walking into this beautiful yellow church place in the center of town you see a cross at the very forefront of the space. Beautiful pictures of faithful men and woman of the Old and New Testament surround the room and the silence there allows you to feel removed from the busyness of life so you can be still before the Lord.
But stay long enough and you will start to see much more. You also see person after person entering in the church by kissing the doors and making the mark of a cross in front of their bodies. Men, women and children come into the church and kiss picture after picture of saints (mostly whom are not saints from the bible but rather are ancestors or family saints) and leave small gifts. Candles are purchased from outside the entrance of the church and then lit inside the church for prayer. An elaborate screen is hanging between the 2 sides of the church to separate the part of the church where the people “worship” and the area that the priests preform all their ritualistic duties.
When further explained we learned that the religion that is practiced here is Serbian Orthodoxy. We learned that many of these people believe that kissing these pictures and performing these routines will cause them to be closer to God. Many people here think of prayer as an act of lighting a candle or speaking with a priest so he can present their request before the Lord. They often don’t read their Bibles because they feel this it is “too holy” for a layperson to read and that priest should be the only ones reading the Bible.
Have these people lost sight of the cross in the midst of their rituals? Didn’t Jesus remove the veil and bridge the gap between God and man once and for all? Why then has there been another barrier/veil been placed between the people and God? When did Christianity become about following rituals and less about a personal relationship with a loving father? Where is the freedom in this?
I sat in front of the church pondering these questions when a water fountain immediately caught my attention. In front of the church you can see a water fountain that is free access to anyone who wants to drink from it. While sitting there I saw men, woman, children and even a street dog come up and drink from it. Just as this fountain was providing life to anyone who wanted it (from the well dressed businessmen to the dirty and nasty dog) Christ gives life all who accept him. The water fountain was free flowing LIFE and that is exactly what Christ is. He is accessible for everyone. He is for the priest and the dog alike. He brings life…he brings freedom.
My prayer for this city and for the people we are encountering here, is that they would experience that life. That they would no longer be bond by religion and moral acts, but instead that they would be freed of a life of “doing” by the cross.
