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Reflections
Every
so often we come across a thought provoking article,
a meditation, or just something written by someone
that shows a deep insight. With their permission,
we'll publish them here at irregular intervals.
LEAVING
HOME
I'm
off!
I
must leave the political and ethical compromises
that have corrupted the faith of my Jesus.
I
must leave the stifling theology, the patriarchal
structures.
I
must leave the enduring prejudices based on our
God-given humanity, the colour of my skin, my gender
or how my sexual orientation is practiced.
I
must leave the mentality that encourages anyone
to think that our doctrines are unchangeable.
I
must leave the belief of those who insist that our
sacred texts are without error.
I
must leave the God of miracle and magic.
I
must leave the promises of certainty, the illusion
of possessing the true faith.
I
must leave behind the claims of being the recipient
of an unchallengeable revelation.
I
must leave the neurotic religious desire to know
that I am right, and to play at being God.
I
must leave the claim that every other pathway to
God is second-rate, that fellow Hindu searchers
in India, Buddhists in China and Tibet, Muslims
in the Middle East and the Jews of Israel are inadequate.
I
must leave the pathway that tells me that all other
directions will get me lost.
I
must leave the certain claim that my Jesus is the
only way to God for everyone.
I
must leave the ultimate act of human folly that
says it is.
I
must leave the Church, my home.
I
must leave behind my familiar creeds and faith-symbols.
I
can no longer stay in an unliveable place.
I
must move to a place where I can once again sing
the Lord's song.
I
must move to where my faith-tradition can be revived
and live on.
I
must move to a place where children don't tell me
what I believe is unbelievable but tell me they
can believe what I believe.
I
must move to a place where they are not playing
at moving the deck chairs on the decks of an ecclesiastical
Titanic.
I
can never leave the God experience.
I
can never walk away from the doorway into the divine
that I believe I have found in the one I call the
Christ and acknowledge as "my Lord."
I
must move to dangerous and religiously threatening
places.
I
must move to where there is no theism, but still
God.
I'm
off! But to where, God only knows.
-
David Keighley,
Priest
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