Anonymous Coward User ID: 44109482 United States 01/27/2014 09:57 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | When Jesus beckoned at Peter in the boat, he got out, but sank in the water. He wasn't able to stay above the prevailing spirits of the world. It isn't entirely a bad thing, and it made Peter suitable to be friends with many sorts of people. He was an ideal foundation.
He was instructed to feed the sheep, passing on Jesus' words. For most of Church history, Paul's church has been concentrating on watering the sheep. I can't say how well that has worked for them. Is the Church repentant yet? Is it swimming or drowning in repentance? Is it lying on the beach, gasping and coughing up repentance? Or is it huddling in the boat, and fearing the coming storm?
When I was young, a woman told me she had a dream of me painting the Church red. She looked at me like I was responsible for the dream, or she suspected I was planning to burn the Church down. I kind of liked it. I'm a cowboy, and all I thought of when she told me of her dream was High Plains Drifter. A cool movie. I'm no arsonist, but if I could baptize the Church with the Holy Spirit, I would, without delay.
When I was a child, I rambled around to various churches of all sorts. I did it mostly on my own, or when invited, because my family wasn't religious. I didn't like it. I saw so little of the Holy Spirit in any of them. I preferred to go out in nature where I saw the Holy Spirit everywhere. I saw some churches that tried really hard, and got people worked up into a frenzy, but not really of the Holy Spirit. Other people try to do the same things in football stadiums and rock concerts. The only advantage churches have is Jesus, front and center.
The Catholic Church had an impressive magic spell, complete with costumes, scents, colors, magic ceremonies, honorifics, and strange words. Like practiced con-men, they diverted everyone's attention, while the real magic went on automatically among the laity, who blessed one another with the Holy Spirit. But they might have done it more effectively if they were just put out in a pasture somewhere. The people imagined their feelings came from the magic show, and not from one another.
Jesus called himself the door because he knew how Paul's church would use him. People are urged in to the handsomely decorated threshold of the door, and there urged to pray, observe ceremonies, smell the incense, admire the priests, listen to the music, feel profound, and drop something in the collection plate. Then they go home, and return next week to bask in the presence of the door once again, and feel a little more baptized. To go through the door, they need to really read and understand Jesus, then live him. The priests don't even go through the door themselves, because they like to camp out in the door, and shake their cups.
I've been coming and going through that door all my life. I do paint it too. I've tried every color of the rainbow, depending on who I was talking to. Priests always looked at me like the way the woman who dreamed I was painting the church looked at me. They fear the fire, and they like to stay in their boats.
As far as color schemes go, Jesus liked white. It divides into all colors, when necessary. No matter what color glasses people are peeping out of, they can see some part of God's promise in Jesus' people. Most priests seem to prefer black. Is it cool? To figure out why they defy Jesus, we would have to consume volumes of theology. The dead saints under the altar cry out for vengeance, but that isn't the right color. Jesus wants them dressed in white robes. He urges us to buy white robes from him. It is symbolic, of course. White is a consolidated rainbow and a reminder of God’s promise, not of vengeance. (If the priests won’t buy their white robes, you might have to drop some in their collection plates.)
Meanwhile, the church baptizes and baptizes and baptizes you, and waters you with it tears. Some people say it pisses on them and tells them it’s raining. Either way, it hasn’t moved on to baptizing people with fire, which comes after water. (As Jesus demonstrated with John.) Jesus may have to walk all over this wet church when he returns. He might even bruise a heel. But until then, the church can go on doing John’s work, sprinkling water on people’s heads, or washing their feet. Forget Paul, and call it John’s church.
In Revelation, the dragon doesn’t breathe fire. It attempts to drown the church in water, perhaps because Jesus will have already begun to baptize it in fire. It will be a time to buy gold tried in the fire, and not to sink and drown in water baptism. The earth will swallow up the water, as it did Abel’s blood. It seems to suggest that baptism in water will no longer be necessary once you have been baptized in the fire of the Holy Spirit. The dragon would have you think otherwise and come after you with a flood. It’s not at all like John’s call to come to a stream in the wilderness for baptism, but more like a raging inquisition.
Don’t expect Peter to get out of the boat again and walk on water this time either. |
Anonymous Coward User ID: 52045921 United Kingdom 01/27/2014 10:05 PM Report Abusive Post Report Copyright Violation | Re: Walking on Water Baptism I wanted to be baptized once. I knocked on a massive church door. A lady answered and asked me why I wanted to be baptized. I cant remember what I said but she basically told me to go away. Since then I have had one dream in my life where a rat or vole was running through some marshy greenery, then the words John the Baptist lit up the sky. Thats about it really. |