Spirit Gives Birth To Spirit

     I want to address what I believe is a terrible bit of theology.  It is the tried and true belief that is still so present in Christian circles: the sacrificial Atonement of Jesus Christ.  It says that to appease God's wrath against man, Jesus had to suffer and die on the cross.  You still hear it in so many songs we sing on Sunday mornings about the blood (Jesus's blood) covering our sins.  And so we are made clean - "white as snow" so the songs go.  But many pastors worth their salt, in my opinion, have distanced themselves from this theology.  Of the four pastors in my life, I know three don't hold this view.  The fourth I have simply not gotten to know yet.      The idea of the sacrificial atonement came out of the old Jewish system of sin and sacrifice.  Many, perhaps the majority, of Christians believe that Jesus was a sacrifice like the flawless lambs that were offered for a sin offering in the Jewish r...

   In all my years of living in the church - in the community of believers, I never would have realized that I was the closest to God when I was a boy hunting for frogs in the marshes by the pond near where I lived.  After all the Christology and the Seminary and the dogma, I have found that God is not in any one place.  He is not in a church building only, but he is there.  He is not in the street corner ministry only, but he is there.  He is not only in the eyes of the needy, but there too, he can be found.  I find him most often now in nature. And I find him in the times I spend soaking to the music on my God mix of secular music.  I find him in the words of Bruce Springsteen  and The Fray and The Killers. I feel I share something with the prophets of the Old Testament, and the desert fathers who retreated to the wilderness and desert to commune with God.  And anyone can do this.  Anyone can go outside, find a quiet and beaut...

     Many of the evils committed in the name of religion are a result of drawing lines according to belief.  Jesus came to the Jewish people who were so burdened by the lines drawn in their belief system from the teachers of the Law. The Pharisees and Sadducees helped develop a complex system of restitution for sin that designated people as either "right with God" or "sinners."  In order to keep from being a sinner, one had to offer certain sacrifices to God in the sight of other men. It was a line drawn between "us" and  "them" and excluded people from many parts of communal life until they did certain things.  There were also groups of people who were designated sinners by their profession, such as prostitutes or, conveniently, tax collectors for the Roman Empire like Zacchaeus.  And there were the "unclean" (which often equated with "sinner").  A group of people who were considered unclean were people with Leprosy because...

      2 Peter verse 1 was the final stone to fall in the wall.  2 Peter says specifically it was written by Peter the disciple.  And goes on to say, " 16  For we did not follow cleverly devised stories when we told you about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in power, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.   17  He received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.” [ b ]   18  We ourselves heard this voice that came from heaven when we were with him on the sacred mountain. 19  We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable,and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. 20  Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own...

     Too many people read the bible like it is a modern history text book. Sure, there are some parts of some books, like Kings, that read like a historical account.  But there is widespread use of the Gospels like they were historical accounts like we would see in a modern high school text book.  What is wrong with this?  Well even a modern high school text book is biased and written to make a point.  Don't you think the Nazis would have written a different account of the war in their text books? But regardless, the Gospels are far removed from this.  I can prove it.  Look at your bible. Is it written in English?  Then the New Testament is a translation of a of an account of Jesus spoken in yet another language.  Or perhaps you actually read it in the original Greek.  Jesus didn't speak Greek.  He spoke Hebrew.  Greek trained scribes took collections of stories and compiled Mark.  Which was in turn taken b...

 All Christians everywhere are waiting in breathless anticipation of the second coming of Christ. It gives hope and bolsters us. It holds us up and presses us forward toward growth. It comforts us when we lose a loved one, because we will meet them again on the Last Day or when we go to Heaven, whichever comes first. It helps us remember what Jesus did for us. I firmly believe Jesus' death and what people call his Resurrection is the single most important event in human history. It overturned the rule of the world. It made the last the first, the least of these the greatest, as well as the first the last. It made death bearable, because it lost its sting. It inspired a movement that has lasted more than two centuries and brought countless good to the poor and underprivileged and outsiders of this world. But what if we are waiting for an event and missing the point?    What if the second coming of the Christ is not an event measured by the definitive date markers ...

     To grab on to God with both hands, one has to let go of religion.  I have been a Christian for more than 20 years.  And I think I can sum up the point of Jesus' ministry in a simple statement: "Let go of religion and hold on - with every fiber of your being - to God."  What makes me think this?  When Jesus came into this world, he came into a system of beliefs that had strayed far from the simple faith of Abraham.  It was a system of religious oppression headed by the Teachers of the Law: the Pharisees and Sadducees.  They required strict adherence to a set of laws as a requirement for men to commune with God.  There were strict rules of what sacrifices had to be made (doves, bulls etc) in restitution for sin in order to be right with God.  Jesus came and threw all of this out.  He upturned the money changers tables and sacrificial animal dealers that took up shop in the Temple.  He told people, including women, "You...