‘These things I command you.......love one another’ John 15

I think that there is a danger that the church positions faith in a way that the acceptance of Christ is viewed by many people as spiritual imprisonment rather than liberation. That the invitation of Revelations ‘ I will come to him and dine with him and he with me ‘ is to a restaurant with ‘ thou shalt not writ over the door’. For me the class room of life is an adventure playground not the traditional four dull walls and desks. Life is a journey and a series of lessons but the school master is the Christ that turned water into wine, who proclaimed the good news that creation is a manifestation of divine joy. Many traditional Christians would disagree with me saying it reduces our faith to ‘ a night out in the pub’. But  I  don’t think it does the problem with so much religion is that too many of the rules and customs are man made and clearly there for the purpose of control rather than worship. Look at the the fuss that some vicars make about communion being taken outside a church without an ordained priest. What happened to when two or three are gathered together in my name I am there? The church often pushes us into becoming birds in a cage rather than souls soaring on the winds. As children we shouldn’t be a congregation of the grim and solemn but as Coleridge wrote ‘ a little child a limber elf, singing dancing to itself’.

Why am I so convinced this is the case ? Because at the core of the Christian message lays the thing that sets Christianity apart ‘ love’ total complete unconditional and all giving. And true love as we know is totally liberating it has no man made rules it offers pure and complete spiritual freedom. It is the greatest blessing of all and offers unbounded joy. Love for one another,love for creation,love for life and love for God.It is the message from God that Christ came into the world to deliver.