Mini Message 3-22-09

If we want to go forward, sometimes we have to take move backward, to understand the forward motion. But we are moving backward because we want to know and define where we came from.  If you are a Christian then you are part of an ancient historical stream, thousands and thousands and thousands of years old. It is a stream of people that believe that we are not just here by random happenstance, but that there is a creator that put this world together. A Creator that has redeemed us, and a creator that has a plan for this world. So being a Christian is having a historic faith about how the world was created, and what it means to take action in the world with a God who made it.

All a Christian is a person that says: ‘there are these things that Jesus taught about compassion, and injustice, and mercy, and the interaction with other humans on this planet, and I am going to go with that”. I am going to base my world around those things. This is a beautiful stream to be connected with.

 So when we dive into our roots, we have to be honest. You will find in our roots really great things, but at the same time you will find things that are dark and that are not so good. So part of being a Christian is excepting the dark things that are also part of our history. The Crusades, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Hunts, American Slavery; these are all things that were done by other Christians in the name of Jesus, that Jesus had nothing to do with. It was dark, but it is a part of our linage. The bible has been used in the wrong way. It has been used to manipulate, coheres, defame, oppress and exploit other people, all done against the will of God.

We see ourselves in a long line a generations, taking part in the endless conversation between God and people. We believe the bible to be the voices of many that have come before us, inspired by God to pass along their poems, accounts, stories, and letters of response and relationship with each other and the living God.

To know where we are going, we have to know where we’ve been.

CHURCH