Thursday, April 06, 2006
I got this excerpt from a book~ Its pretty cool and clears the whole concept of Christianity by going back to the basics... Check it out~
"It is safe to say that when most of us read the word Christianity we really read "Religious Institution" or "Old, Outdated, Arrogant Religious Institution" for that matter. Images flash into our minds, everything from the Crusades to the perpetually complex and powerful Vatican machinery to two millennia of steeples and pews and organs to cheesy, makeup-laden televangelists who want our money. That we say is "Christianity" , A religious institution, and a bad one at that. Surprisingly when the word was first coined it referred to something much more simple and provocative and shocking. To really understand "Christianity" we have to go back to the beginning to put first things first. For starters, Jesus was not a Christian.
He never asked anyone to become a Christian,
He never built a steepled building,
He never drew up theological treatise,
He never took up an offering,
He never wore religious garments,
He never incorporated for tax purposes!
He simply called people to follow him. Thats it! That, despite its simplicity is it.
He called people to follow him , The first two were brothers, Simon and Andrew. Regular guys, simple fishermen. The first two Christians ever. Those two brothers didn't think at all about "becoming Christians" or taking on a new religion. Here was this thirty year old man (a carpenter) who simply said "follow me". And they believed him!
So, in faith these two brothers gave their lives to him (literally) putting down their familiar nets and following him. Here was the birthplace of a way of life, of a reality that would change the world forever. Before hurrying on with words and centuries of theology , we must pause at the cradle of what we call christianity. It is never more than Jesus' call "Follow Me" and a response of dropping familiar nets and following, in faith, this sandaled Jewish man.
It is never more than that.
Two thousand yeards of words can do nothing to the simple, basic reality of Christianity. Those first steps taken by those two brothers, Simon and Andrew's theology was as pure as it gets.
"Jesus said, 'Follow me.' and we did."
This is the only starting place.
Presumption and pride in the cathedral grandness and stained glass intricacy of two thousand years of Reigning Religion must not fabricate a Christianity that is too eloquent for its simple beginnings.
Simon and Andrew are Christianity's blue-collar dirty finger patriarchs
( Who probaly never quite shook that smell of fish).
They are where this thing called "Christianity" begins, and where our understanding of it must begin.
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