What have I to do with religion? Why have anything to do with it ?
These are deep and abiding questions that no one should ever ignore
IMO it's only by taking the deeply offensive elements of religion that we can see what killed Jesus and what still kills His spirit in men today.
What you see and hear may look OK or not ; we are called to listen and look more carefully .
Colin in the pulpit in Modra's church in Werben. Above his level there was the Lord of the Manor . Modra's served under him from 1600's till 1854 when both were kicked off their land .
The real subtly of celebrating Easter well is often well beyond us.
All religion seems to do for most Westerners is create division between people; Most well educated westerners want nothing to do with it and for some good reasons.
Worse than all that, with its outward nonsense, our religion seems to, even in my own being, naturally push to the surface the arrogance we all seem to have about our own opinion.
IMHO We should all see it clearly how our religion can " inspire " us to be far too comfortable and confident in projecting solutions to other people's problems.
This arrogance and ignorance can be just like those who worship political parties. The fact is religion can be far worse that politics because it gives that boost of confidence and power that raw power assertion cannot ever do.
We travelling bunch of hot air enthusiasms have seen it in our months of exploring castles and cathedrals - which, do YOU think has more power, and does any of it have any sustaining power?
The answer to that question is very clear - religion has more power with people but it's by no means a power used for good . Our Castles ( both real and in our minds ) fall down but our places of worship remain. Religious tyranny is more subtle and therefore more dangerous and well disguised .
Even the non Christians, like those at ARC conference and the leader , Jordan Peterson can see that.
The difference that cynical westerners need to face from PETERSONS TESTIMONY to the world ( which is largely what spawned ARC ) is that by following the science of psychological and practical psychiatrically, as Jordan clearly does, is that science says we all have a religion of sorts, According to the science of the mind in action, we all have our own religious demons to sort.
Within all the corruption and potential for corruption in these huge dead buildings. there is the tiny openings of real light and life along the way.
You can see a very very faint glimmer sometimes is the church noticeboard, but there is nothing like sitting in the pew on a Sunday and giving a gathering a chew test; see if anything these people do makes any sense, let alone supernatural sense. I leave that with you to do.
All I can say from turning up each week in England is that the witness of these small gatherings is sound. Whenever 2 or 3 are truly gathered in His name, Jesus is there amongst us. Unworthy still as we are .
All I can say after a week in the bus is that the evidence for the supernatural is often missing amongst us; we are all very human and not uncommonly like children ,
If any supernatural shows up ,it shows up briefly in a moment , not of prayer , but in tiny moments of true sharing when we sometimes are given that grace to forgive each other; I am myself,, as I have found on the trip, a most difficult person : until perhaps, as my father used to say of me ' good only when asleep ".
And while I would be last to promote a particular political party, for the many who want to have nothing to do with religion, at least political parties update their preaching and content. The subtlety of that is deep-- too deep for now.
There is so much to hate about religion when it gets out of hand,and it does it so easily and still does so daily.
this stark reality is so real here in Germany where we are here at Easter to celebrate a man dying on a cross. The buildings make look magnificent but the atmosphere around these places sometimes stinks.
8- 9% of a Germans salary is taken directly by the employer to support a tradition increasing numbers of its citizens are finding offensive. I find some aspects of that compulsion highly offensive because Jesus never forced anyone to turnup or pay up for anything. This compulsory imposition of an institution on its people ( the State Church) is what drove many of our antecedents to leave.
The rule of the State run church was one reason many of my antecedents left; The dead, rule only from the top, form of religion offended them deeply then and there are elements that still offends me today.
My forebears and I only want to celebrate the freedom of the heart set free.
The faith of many of my forebears was so precious and different from that preached by the State run church that they sought much, much better land where mind freedom to believe what you wanted was the top priority, just as it was for Jesus.
This respect for a man's mind freedom didn't stop the man Jesus from changing peoples minds, but i am not Jesus and maybe a little less attempting to change others minds would be welcome from me? I have to say I see that that truth is being driven home to me on this trip . If we want people to know what motivates us to seek attention, maybe we have to wait more and listen more. This is the substance focus of Lent; listening and waiting on God .
So what are we religious types doing here in Germany then ?
This bus load of God botherers, like those who abandoned the stifling oppression of a State run church, like the one that killed Jesus 150 years ago, still do things with mixed motives. Not one of us is perfect. Somehow by facing the later we can share the power of forgiveness that is the best way to celebrate Easter.
One thing I can say though about us as a group is that we do have moments when we share the joy that comes from seeing our faith in Jesus a very simple way. We do pray, we do sing and we do encourage each other in a good old Aussie way to try and humble each other ; the rest of the group give me heaps. I can't be objective about why that is cause it's blatantly obvious, whether I know things or not, that I want to tell them I do. Nothing new?
I have to say that I have learned the hard way in these weeks because there are so many insistent voices on the bus that mine should be more quiet . I have learned to love those like our bus drivers and my wife ,and our leaders,who try to keep quiet and smooth the path to pleasant conversation. When we are quiet and precise ( in addressing need ) we are at our best. We try and apparently, I am one of the most trying.
And yes we are just like children in some ways ; noisy insistent and wanting attention. God still loves us isn't that amazing!
More photos later .
