A short commentary today from one in our rapidly expanding community of subscribers and readers in the United States, Richard L Walters. Seemingly inspired partly by Bishop Geoffrey Robinson's book and partly by Tom Lee's commentaries, Richard poses some questions about the sort of Church we ought be trying to create, or get back to...

Before the first Pope…

Try for a moment to take yourself back two thousand years to a much simpler time, a time when a man named Jesus met quietly with his friends to celebrate a Passover meal in the tradition of the Jewish faith. As he broke the bread and passed the cup he was foretelling of the consecration of his body broken and blood poured out for all mankind for all time into eternity by his coming death and resurrection. And he reminded them that each time they came together to receive and enter into that union with him in each other they were doing it in remembrance of him.

Put yourself in the picture of the Lat Supper Painting of the Last Supper by Cin

Just think of all the things they had no knowledge of, nor were these things to be a concern in their lifetime:

How did all of these things come about? Whom do they service? Who gained by their invention? Since they were of no concern to Jesus and his friends on that fateful night why are they of such a concern now? How have these things increased the spirituality of God’s people? How has it increased our connectedness to the universal and eternal God? Have they been instrumental in bringing the people of the reign of God into one family filled with peace, joy and love for one another?

Maybe we have lost sight of who Jesus was and why he came?

As thinking Christians maybe we need to ask ourselves these questions…

• Maybe we have lost sight of who Jesus was and why he came?
• Maybe we have lost the essence of the message about the reign of God and for whom it was meant?
• Maybe we as God's people need to take back Jesus' concepts of love and brotherhood and stop this self-righteous exclusivity of institutionalized salvation we have been practicing on each other for nearly two thousand years?
• Maybe we ought to reach back to the ekklesia (gathering) of the earlier followers of the Way and the agape meal?
• Maybe we should remember how he told us to pray and enter our inner room and close the door and immerse ourselves in the love of his eternally universal Father?
• Maybe we ought to learn anew how to love as he loved?

Richard L. Walters
Redmond, Oregon, USA

IMAGE CREDITS: The Last Supper image is a painting by Cin Picton-Barnes, Oil on Canvas, 2007 given as a wedding present to Brian Coyne and Amanda McKenna by the artist. The image of Jesus with two female companions was also a wedding present and we're not sure who the artist is.