Catharsis #3

We share a difficult Gospel. We share a good news that runs against everything we believe. We must constantly fight against the human impulse of inertia. We must fight against the lazy attitude of an easy gospel.

We cheapen the good news when we impose rules and regulations on to simple faith.
We cheapen the good news when we put study and discipline above simple faith.
We cheapen the good news when we deny the simplicity of the faith.

The Christian faith has fallen to the Biblical Literalists. The problem with this line of thought is that anything can be proven with the Bible. When we fail to take the Bible as a whole and choose to categorize every line we end up with as many faiths as people and the notion that only one person (usually said with a finger pointed in) has it right.

When we take the Bible as a whole and in context we see that there is only one faith ... with a whole lot of un-important fringe issues. The fringe issues are not part of the faith.

The difficult gospel teaches grace. It teaches that whores will get into Heaven before the religious establishment. It's hard to accept the grace of God. It's hard to give the grace of God. It's hard to offer the grace of God to people who don't look like us. It's hard to offer the grace of God to people who haven't followed the rules we have put in place.