[note: I speak centrally of the Church below, because that is the subject
of this piece, and NOT because the Church is negatively or positively part of my life
now - it is not - irrelevant. It could become central again in my opposition
to what it does - if Our Parent ever calls me to that. Think of me as
Dr. S below and you'll understand, if you like.]
Start's Horror at "Jesus Saved us." Then, what of those 3 Crosses on your
head???
Huh? Start, you've got His cross on your forehead. You profess that Jesus,
along with your biological father Saved YOU! So what could possibly
be your "Horror at 'Jesus Saved us!?!?!?!?!?!?!'" Well, if I can help
you see, this is how:
Dr. Albert Schweitzer CERTAINLY is one of the "Christians" that Jesus
will recognize. Well, the following is an imaginary story. Imagine
that Dr. Schweitzer, in the farthest recesses of Africa discovered a
massive outbreak of disease that was due to unclean water. He
determined that boiling the water would end the massive outbreak
of a horrible disease. So he did so - he set up a massive cauldron
of water, and a fire in the center of the village - day in and day out
fired the cauldron, boiled hundreds of gallons of water, provided it
to the townsfolk, and after only days, the horrible outbreak was
ended, and Dr. Schweitzer left saying, "Do this in memory of me."
His tireless efforts there had all but killed him.
Weeks later someone from the village traveled many, many days
to find Dr. Schweitzer and said, "Dr. Schweitzer, it is horrible, as soon
as you left the village, the disease came back just as strong as before!"
"Well, did you continue what I told you to do?" "Yes," the villager
insisted!
Upon returning hurriedly to the village the first thing Dr. Schweitzer
saw was a huge alter with a statue of his figure above it. Next he
saw a tiny cauldron of water on the alter, ringed with rare flowers,
with people singing near by, with a fire underneath.
And then to his horror he saw mothers returning from the fetid pond
with their jars filled with water for the houses.
"What are you doing!?!?!" he asked the townsfolk? "We are doing
everything you said, in memory of you, who "saved us." "Including,"
they said, "we've established a special day, Sunday. On Sunday we
pray about what you did, all that boiling, we drink boiled water during
a one hour gathering on Sunday morning, and we pray about boiling
water other days too, but of course, you are the special one from
God, so we cannot possibly do what you did, boil water every day.
We are sinners, you are pure.... But because you did it to Save
us, and because we profess that, we are Saved!"
They thought that Albert did it FOR them so they would not have to!
They thought that what he told them was "mystical ritual," when
what he taught them was LIFESAVING PRACTICE!!!!!
Dr. S learned that it wasn't quite as benign as that. Turns out that
there was a Holy Man in the village, a truly nice man, the smartest
of them all. As soon as Dr. S left the holy man said to the
people, "Dr. S, Saved us! He is the special one, from God.
We need to build him an altar. We need
to worship him; we need to profess him our Savior, and we will
LIVE! Otherwise we will die. Now, go and get your drinking water
from the pond." "WHAT?" shrieked the townsfolks?! "Have you no
faith in Dr. S" the Holy Man shouted to shame them? "Have faith! If
you believe in him, and profess him as your savior you will be saved!!!"
Turns out that A. The Holy Man never grasped the truth of the fetid
water, so he could only imagine that it was some mysticism. But there
is more. 2. His livelihood depended on the Sacred tax he was paid
on the pond water; 3. The village was part of a Kingdom funded by the
Sacred Tax on the water and all the villagers would be killed if they
stopped drinking the water and paying the tax. And, 4. THE PEOPLE DIDN'T
REALLY WANT TO BELIEVE IN THE NEED TO BOIL WATER BECAUSE THAT
WOULD REQUIRE A MASSIVE CHANGE IN HOW THEY LIVED!!! Nicea. Alexander.
Selfishness - THE GREAT DECEIVER - DENIAL AND DELUSION.
The Holy Man was Truly a nice man. The Holy Man was truly a mass
killer. The Holy Organization was made up of Truly nice folks. They
were responsible for massive carnage. The people were Truly nice
folks. Their clinical Denial murdered their children.
If Dr. S became frantically opposed to their actions, would this be
hate, or harshness on his part? He saw what the rest could
and WOULD NOT SEE!!! HE WAS MORALLY BOUND TO ACT ON HIS VISION,
OUT OF LOVE.
The Jesus that Saves me did so at the point that, after decades of study,
prayer, trial and
error,
I TOTALLY REJECTED the notion that what Jesustaught has ANYTHING to do with ritual, codes, professions, Church.... NO, IT DOES NOT, NO MORE THAN DOES BOILING FETID WATER.
Boil, or die. Love the least of these as Immediate Family, or die. Simple.
Jesus showed us how to Live, how to escape Death:
* "Do unto the LEAST (not lesser) of these ALL that you wouldhave them do unto you."* "Love as I have Loved."
* "Lay down your life for the least (not lesser) of these."
'Love your enemy, and the stranger, EXACTLY AS YOU LOVE YOUR
IMMEDIATE FAMILY - NO DOUBLE STANDARDS - NO HYPOCRISY.'
* "If you Love me you will do greater works than these."
* 'Pick up your cross and carry it, always - central, committed,
dedication to the needy.' If your life is not carrying your cross,
you are not following me.
Albert Schweitzer, as with EVERY great healer, brother, friend, Family
member, DOES NOT WANT TO BE WORSHIPED, BUT RATHER, WANTS
TO BE JOINED IN HIS PRACTICE, IN HIS WAY OF BEING, HIS WAY OF
LIVING, HIS WAY OF SERVING!!!!
YES, Dr. S SACRIFICED HIS LIFE FOR OTHERS. JESUS TOO! BUT
NOTINSTEAD OF OTHERS DOING THE SAME, BUT RATHER
SO THAT OTHERSWOULD DO THE SAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!In recent decades my study included Teresa of Calcutta and Francis
of Assisi. In two books, one on each, written by different authors,
decades apart roughly the same comment was made in the introduction:
"She/he simply took Jesus at His word." Me too.
"The greatest obstacle to someone being a Christian is people that
preach the Gospel but do not practice it." Teresa
"I think that a Christian should resemble Christ." Teresa.
Christian (def): Christlike
"We must preach the Gospel all day long, and occasionally use words
to do so." Francis of Assisi
NONE of these speaks centrally of the "profession" of what Jesus did
for us - BUT RATHER TO THE PRACTICE, TO WHAT WE MUST
DO!!!!!!!!
And Jesus -
"Do unto the LEAST (not lesser) of these ALL that you would
have them do unto you."
"Love as I have Loved."
"Lay down your life for the least (not lesser) of these."
'Love your enemy, and the stranger, EXACTLY AS YOU LOVE YOUR
IMMEDIATE FAMILY - NO DOUBLE STANDARDS - NO HYPOCRISY.'
"If you Love me you will do greater works than these."
"Do this in memory of me." This saying I only "got" a few years ago.
Did He mean - do some ceremony? NO, NEVER centrally.
He meant - GIVE YOUR BODY, GIVE YOUR BLOOD FOR THE LEAST OF THESE,
IN MEMORY OF ME. AGAIN. AGAIN. AGAIN. AGAIN....
How did Start live totally away from Jesus for most of his adulthood?
Because the Church, and our "Christian" culture drove him away from
Jesus words - telling him that THEY - Church and Culture - not Jesus
words, words that are sooooooooooo clear, would tell him the
Truth. Well, when Start tried everything under the sun to find Life
AWAY FROM JESUS WORDS, he found only Death, the exact same Death he found
and finds in the Church, part of his Family. And THEY DON'T SEE IT AS DEATH. AND
NEITHER DOES THE ALCOHOLIC, CRACK ADDICT. NO, rather in each of these
cases they insist that what Start sees as Death IS LIFE! Have some
wine, have some crack, have some Church! In the last 10 years he has thrown
off the deadly errors of the Church, for the Truths of Jesus words,
"Love (Live) as I have Loved (Lived)." In doing so Start has found what he can only
describe as TOTAL Joy, Life, Love, Peace-of-Heart that surpasses all understanding,
Truth AND PERSECUTIONS, EXACTLY as Jesus taught.
Start is NOT hung up in semantics. Start IS TOTALLY HUNG UP THAT THERE
IS A TRUTH, A WAY OF LIFE, A WAY OF LIVING THAT CAN SAVE US!!!!
"Love as I have Loved," is that Truth. THAT TRUTH IS NOT -
* I Loved as I did SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO; or,
* I AM THE SON OF GOD, SO YOU CAN TRY BUY YOU WILL FAIL AT
LOVING AS I HAVE LOVED. NO. THAT IS NOT
WHAT HE SAID, AND HE DIDN'T DECEIVE US - HE DIDN'T TELL US TO DO
WHAT WE WERE INCAPABLE OF. "If you Love me, you will do greater
works than these." WE ARE CAPABLE OF, AND CALLED BY HIM TO
GO BEYOND WHAT HE GAVE US - NOT SIT IN SELF DEPRECATING "WORSHIP!"
"Whoever claims to abide in Jesus AUGHT TO LIVE JUST LIKE JESUS LIVED."
2 John, Ch. 2
'You said Lord Lord, but I don't know you.' This is the church
today - He does not know it, or know today's Christians. They
do NOT Live as though the Poor WERE THEIR IMMEDIATE FAMILY. AND THEY
DEMAND THAT THIS IS NOT WHAT JESUS DEMANDED OF THEM, and they they are
but poor sinners, incapable of doing so!!!!!!!!!!! B*ll Sh*t.
Do I care that folks talk of Jesus dying for their sins? No, I care that they
speak of it centrally, as though that is EVEN SLIGHTLY CENTRAL. Does Jesus have
some ego problem? Did Albert Schwetzer? Schweitzer didn't care if they
knew that he was the one that saved them. HE JUST WANTED THEM SAVED!
SAME WITH JESUS, ONLY MORE SO! AND BOTH KNEW THAT THEY COULD NOT,
COULD NOT, COULD NOT, COULD NOT... SAVE THEM. THEY COULD ONLY
SHOW THEM (US) HOW TO SAVE THEMSELVES !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Although it doesn't prove the point, I am sure it is about the point - the
parable of the two sons - one of whom "says" all the right words - 'yes
father I will do what you want!' But he does NOT LIVE THE PRACTICE.
And the other son who says "NO!" But he DOES the Life's practice.
Jesus teachings are FULL of examples of the Saved -
Peace Makers...
Poor...
Meek...
Those who have done the works of Love...
NOT JESUS BUT THE CHURCH is the one that MAKES FIRST AND FOREMOST
PROFESSION OF JESUS AS SAVIOR, AND THE LIKE.
NO, I stand with Jesus.
If with the above I am unclear, I have little hope of explaining. Sorry.
Your brother,
Start
ps: I'm described as Harsh. IS A FIREFIGHTER HARSH WHEN HE SCREAMS AT
FOLKS TO GET OUT OF A BURNING BUILDING? IF HE FORCEFULLY GRABS THEM
AND YANKS THEM TO SAFETY? Wouldn't he be living "Dead" if he did not?
DN! The Wrecking Crew (2): Thomas Frank on How Conservatives Rule 
