now brewing

It's been a while since I put anything on here other than some critiques and sarcastic shots at the church. I think that comes from a deep skepticism of the church. People in the church have always told me to read the Bible and when I do I don't see the Church functioning much like it says it is supposed to in the Bible. Everywhere I've been the church has looked much more like the conservative side of the immediate culture, Jackson, Mt. Vernon, Sidney, Olathe and New Albany. Christ Community seemed the most like the church described in the New Testament, based on worship and service. All that to say that even though I have committed myself to the church I remain skeptical of the institutional church and I continue to criticize it more than I should. Maybe this should give me a clue as to why I don't seem to find a way of making Christian work my vocation. I have a hard time reconciling the fact that many people that I believe are committed Christians were saved in and continue to attend churches that are program-based and have spectacle-based worship services. My frustration comes from knowing that Christ came to give us something more than a church that caters to our consumerist lifestyles. He offers us something simple and our culture doesn't do simple. He came to give us access to the kingdom right now. The ability to let God's will be done in our lives as it is in heaven. But we want more and if this church doesn't offer me a good product I can go down the street and get a better product at the same low price. There is no price for being a Christian in America. The Religious Right is inventing ways in which gays, pro-choicers and liberals are destroying the gospel in general. They make other Christians disgusted by their neighbor’s sin and they make other Christians prideful of their self-serving piety. This is not the kingdom of the heavens that Christ came to give us access. Christians are followers of Christ and citizens of the kingdom, to borrow from Sojourners; God is not a Republican or a Democrat. I'm tired of Christianity being a religion of politics in our country. All of this makes me weary and ready to walk away from the church, as I know it. There is not a prophetic word being spoken by these leaders, all they are doing is defending a conservative Christian lifestyle, trying to protect the good ol days. There were no good old days in America there have always been atrocities in our country and many done in the name of God, i.e. slavery and extreme racism, the genocide of the Native Americans, women's lack of rights and opportunities and so on. That is no excuse for the vulgarity of our culture at the present but please let's stop talking about a time when America was innocent and safe for the family. But there are too many good people who have not been shown the kingdom by the Christian leaders in this country. In The Divine Comedy-Inferno, Dante comes upon the sarcophagi of famous leaders and asks Virgil,

"The people who are lying in these tombs,
Might they be seen? already are uplifted
The covers all, and no one keepeth guard."

and Virgil replies,

"They all will be closed up
When from Jehoshaphat they shall return
Here with the bodies they have left above.

Their cemetery have upon this side
With Epicurus all his followers,
Who with the body mortal make the soul..."

Dante ask one of the leaders why he is there and is answered,

"With more than a thousand here I lie;
Within here is the second Frederick,
And the Cardinal, and of the rest I speak not."

These were great leaders of men, heretical leaders who were now buried in an open sarcophagus, buried with the thousands they had led astray. The leaders of the Religious Right should be warned. Anyone who is spewing hate in the name of God is worthy of special form of punishment. Do not continue to lead good people away from the Christ who came to show us the kingdom is available NOW. The kingdom gives us access to a life of reconciliation and peace in world full of war and discontent. It is time for the Church to rise in America. It is time for the body of Christ to announce the kingdom, love God and to love neighbor. This my only hope for the church but I am still at a loss as to how I fit, maybe I don't fit or maybe I'm asking the wrong questions.



now playing: Bob Marley - Exodus