NOM

This spoke to me today.

***

We are the Christians who move on,
leaving behind what cannot be retained:
the creeds written to cement a long dead empire;
the justification for slavery, genocide and witch-burning;
the refusal to hear other people’s truth;
an idolized book, a man diminished to a god.

We leave these behind and move on,
not in arrogance, not unaware of tradition’s worth,
not creating new bigotries as bad as the old ones,
or so we hope!

We move on, carrying with us the free and timeless heart of Jesus,
faithful to what was said and done in love for liberty by him,
by those who follow him,
by those who give his spirit voice and flesh in every time and place.

We are the Christians who move on,
leaving even the name behind, maybe,
a name that Jesus never knew.

We are the Christians who move on,
Seeking and sharing the divine heart in everyone,
as Jesus did.

(Meditation by Cliff Reed, International Council of Unitarian Universalists Executive Committee meeting, Weston, MA, April 2002)

Thank you for your post, Reuben. For me this a good expression of a middle way, a trying to keep the baby while tossing the bath water.

a man diminished to a god.

That is a very interesting statement. I take it to mean that Christians overlook the richness of the character of the man Jesus by turning him into a two-dimensional superhero and making him an unrelatable idol, rather than a fellow-traveler?