The Quest For Eden

I was ecstatic to hear the beginning of a recent podcast about a church in a large city that sought to serve. The leader of the congregation asked the mayor of the city, "how can we serve?" The mayor sent them to the parks' manager who set the congregation to cleaning up MANY local park areas and a lot of public-works projects. When the parks' department ran out of tasks, the congregation moved on to cleaning up abandoned property and picking up trash city-wide. Then... Then the city made some political statement about equal rights for the gay community. The congregation then felt it was important to print up leaflets to "proclaim the biblical truth regarding homosexuality." This turned my stomach. Why? Why can't we just serve? Did Jesus call us to judge? Nope. So. Don't. Love.

When we described, with excitement, the benefits of following the Christian faith, we often focus on one or more of the following: We serve/have a risen Savior!  Our God is alive!  We are saved from hell!  We will benefit, in the end, by "earning" heaven! We focus on these things, because they have been the focus. This is, to me, like when a tourist comes to visit my local area. If the tourist was to ask, "what should I see here?" we might tell them about the local things we like or the local things that we know are intended for tourists. We seldom seek to find out what the tourist values, wants, needs, or desires. Sure, we have internationally famous chocolate and bologna. But, if the tourist is allergic to chocolate or is a vegan, why are we trying to sell it to them? People who are not immersed in the Christian traditions that many of us were dragged though might not: Have any fear of death. Care about an after-life. See a "sinful nature&

"The Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil" Wait. If that's what it was, that means: Adam and Eve had no concept of wrong/right or good/bad. Before they bit the fruit, the idea of "disobedience" would not have been consciously a "wrong" choice. God did not want them to see a difference between good/bad. God did not want them to bear the shame of feeling "wrong." I am claiming that God never wanted us to feel a difference between what various actions we may take in life. I am claiming that God only wanted us to know what Paul eventually wrote to the Church at Corinth:   New American Standard 1977 I Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything.  I am claiming that, from that point on, the ideas of sin, punishment, and worthlessness are all our own ideas; not God's.

I remember being taught that "Christian" meant "little Christ;" someone who lives as Christ would. This is not what I hear any church preaching or teaching today. I hear that to be a Christian we need to define wrong/right, choose sides, and live lives of constant repentance. I'm not sure that's what Christ lived or taught. I shall be re-reading the Gospels over the next few months. I'm pretty sure, though, I will find that Christ did not focus of sin, repentance, or punishment.  I'm fairly certain Jesus did not promote the fear of hell. My belief is still that we, as Christians, missed Jesus' message altogether. I believe His message was that we all had it wrong from the first time we offered sacrifices to "cover" our sins, I believe His message was that God loves all His children in all of creation; the end.  I believe that, when it was obvious that even His closest Disciples weren't getting the message, He had to sacri