Sunday, June 12, 2011

Discipline and Discipleship

Our father battered us
Our mother banished us;
These were the ways of their God.

Our religion, though called Christian,
Did not follow the example
Of their messiah who on this earth trod.

Discipline meant to do as they say.
There was no call for their children
To pay no attention to what they may do.

Leadership seemed to mean nothing
About showing one's own family the way,
And was bestowed only on the chosen few.

All authority was in the clergy.
Mere mortals could not be disciples
And have The Spirit simply enter their souls.

To keep all soldiers of the faith
Fighting for what the clergy deemed right
Seemed to be all of the religions' primary goals.

I have a brother-in-law who does a comedy routine about God being schizophrenic if we are to believe both the old and new testaments of the Bible. I have a soul sister who believes that God hasn't changed, but that our understanding of God evolves. Our only hope as a people seems to me to be an understanding that our story of faith did not stop evolving two thousand years ago, and that all of creation has the opportunity to experience the light of The Spirit of Wholeness (Holiness) in our individual souls.

1 comment:

  1. My experience was very different from what you describe. Yes, Dad was the authority in our home ... but Mom and Dad were PARENTS who loved us and we knew it. I was taught that the Old and the New Teatament were about the same subject and they were a whole. I agree with the comment that our understanding of the faith grows. Unlike the statement often heard among Christians, "the faith of a child is stronger than of an adult" the Scripture says, "Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God." Then the older we are the more we have heard (or should have heard) and therefore it logically follows that adults should have more faith than children. God desires to fill us with HIS Spirit (the Spirit of the holy) but He is a gentleman at all times and will never force Himself upon us.

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