Matthew 18:20 (New King James Version)
20 For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
Not twenty or thirty. Not two or three hundred. Not two or three thousand. Not two or three million.
Two or three.
But be not ye called ‘Rabbi,’ for One is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren.
But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your teacher, and all ye are brethren.
The failure of Carl Lentz and The Hillsong Church is the failure of much of what the world calls Christianity.
Herd intoxication is not worship.
I am, have been and continue to be everything conventional Christianity turns its back on.
Charlie Chaplin grew up white trash in the slums of London, England. In his book, MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY, he wrote that he thought the doors open to the children of the rich closed to him until he read Ralph Waldo Emerson’s essay, ON SELF RELIANCE. He wrote, “After reading it, it was as if I had been handed a golden birthright.”
Here is a small part of what inspired Chaplin: “The reliance on Property, including the reliance on governments which protect it, is the want of self-reliance. Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you only have an extemporaneous half possession. That which each can do best, none but his Maker can teach him. No man yet knows what it is, nor can, till that person has exhibited it. Where is the master who could have taught Shakespeare? Where is the master who could have instructed Franklin, or Washington, or Bacon, or Newton? Every great man is unique. The Scipionism of Scipio is precisely that part he could not borrow. Shakespeare will never be made by the study of Shakespeare. Do that which is assigned you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much…Whoso would be a man, must be a nonconformist. He who would gather immortal palms must not be hindered by the name of goodness, but must explore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind. Absolve you to yourself, and you shall have the suffrage of the world. I remember an answer which when quite young I was prompted to make to a valued advisor who was wont to importune me with the dear old doctrines of the church. On my saying, ‘What do I have with the sacredness of traditions, if I live wholly from within?’ my friend suggested, ‘–But these impulses may be from below, not from above,’ I replied. ‘They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil’s child, I will then live as one from the Devil.’ No law can be sacred to me but that of my own nature. Good and bad are but names transferable to that or this; the only right is what is after my constitution; the only wrong what is against it…I am ashamed to think how easily we capitulate to badges and names, to large societies and dead institutions.”—Ralph Waldo Emerson, ON SELF RELIANCE.
These words, “They do not seem to me to be such; but if I am the Devil’s child, I will then live as one from the Devil,” put the fire into me.
Why? Because they are filled to the brim with courage.
That failure is the failure of the accusers. It is the failure of the documentary film makers themselves.
It is the failure to hear and understand the message of the gospels.
We don’t need to know more about Jesus than the Lord’s prayer.
In particular these words: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
All of us, myself, miss the mark on that.
Yes, I know some hideous wrongs are aired in this series.
What does Scripture say?
Isaiah 1:18 (New International Version)
18 “Come now, let us settle the matter,”says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.”
For over two decades myself and others have been under personal attack from from people who call themselves “Christians.” These attacks are made through anonymous street posters plastered on every available surface in the city.
Now here’s rub: Jesus calls us to forgive those who trespass against us, to return their evil with good and to pray for them.
Now consider the Crucifixion.
Nothing has been done to myself nor to anyone involved in the making of this documentary series that comes remotely close to what was done to Jesus.
Nothing.
Not one of us has been physically beaten to within an inch of our lives.
Not one of us has been hung naked on a cross (the most ignominious of deaths) for all the world to see.
What did Jesus say? Did he say, “EXPOSE THEIR SINS AND RAIN FIRE DOWN UPON THEM!”
No.
He said, “Forgive them, papa, for they know not what they do.”
They didn’t know then. They don’t know now.
We all know that King David committed adultery with Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite whom he had murdered so that he could conceal his sin and marry her.
However, Bathsheba was the mother of Solomon.
There is something much deeper happening.
Most seem to be unaware of that.
GOD chose Bathsheba to be the mother of Solomon.
Truly, our sins though scarlet are made white.
What can you do? What can we do?
We can start by doing what Jesus calls us to do.
What is that?
Accept no man as our teacher for GOD alone is our teacher.
Let no one call us teacher.
Forgive those who trespass against us.
I have a full sized, authorized replica of THE TURIN SHROUD hanging here.
You can say it’s a fake.
It isn’t.
It testifies more powerfully than any words can to what was done to the man whose image it bears.
We are told that not once during that trial did Jesus call out for help.
We are told that he prayed until his sweat ran with blood that he be given the power to endure that trial.
So too we.
In David Mamet’s book BAMBI VS. GODZILLA I read “St. Francis said, “Preach Christ constantly. Use words if you must.“
We have had more than enough words.
Be still.
Forgive those who sin against you that you may be forgiven. Pray for them. Do good to them. Why? Because when I return evil for evil I become evil.
Jesus said, “Where two or three are gathered I am there.”
If you can’t find one or two to gather with you know that neither can I.
One with GOD is a majority.
Be one with GOD.
Henry Miller wrote in AN OPEN LETTER TO SURREALISTS EVERYWHERE, “One man operating alone on faith can accomplish what a trained army can not do.”
This, I know from experience, is 100% true.
In Christ there is neither male nor female, Jew or Gentile, Black, brown, red, white, yellow or if it pops up green.
Neither is there gay nor straight.
We are one family.
The first time I got drunk I was fourteen.
My mother said, “Where did you get it?”
“Under the back door of a church,” I told her.
She said, “You lie.”
I did not.
There were three 1.5 litre bottles.
I saved some folk from sinning that day.
I took their sin upon myself.
Churches that forbid sow the seed of hypocrisy.
Jesus did not turn water into grape juice.
In an agonizing moment Paul wrote, “The good that I would do I do not. The evil that I would not do, that I do.”
If Paul struggled and failed is it any great surprise that we do? That I do?
Nonetheless, a man’s reach must exceed his grasp.
I got kicked out of a church for saying that.
That church, including its minister, rose as one, said, “We won’t have that here!”
The cab driver who picked me up asked, “What happened there?”
When I told him he said, “My God, they are all losers.”
Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.
Jesus said, “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven in bread.”
Bake bread to understand that.
When the dough first rises it is filled with air bubbles.
It must be pounded down.
Each time it rises it must be pounded down until it achieves the right density to pass though the fire.
So it is with you. So it is with me.
Call no one teacher. Let no one call you teacher.
We have one teacher: GOD.
It is truly written: “The nearer the church/synagogue/temple the farther from Allah/The Buddha/God.”
Mass media is gossip.
Gossip is a sin. It is a deadly sin.
You want more?
“Now therefore, there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one against another. Why do ye not rather accept wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?”
Come the day when we stand before THE LORD many are going to find the life they thought they lived right was completely wrong.
This is hard.
It is not as hard as what Jesus endured.
Amen.
–Reg Hartt 2023-05-30
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