Yes, that is what I would say to my children when I felt I was at the end of my rope! You were not listening to me and the four of you were noisy and messy and I did not know what else to do. You were always better for your dad and in many ways he was more relaxed; even if he did take care of you he was not handling washing and cleaning and cooking at the same time. I think now a days both parents are more involved and that is a blessing for mom and for the children.
The history of Christianity has been built on waiting. Waiting for a powerful end to the world as we know it and for goodness to overcome evil and for all people to live together in peace and plenty. This will take a cosmic catastrophe when the power of evil will be destroyed; and Christ will return on the clouds of heaven to complete the work of salvation.
The words of Jesus as written down for us support these claims as they were what people believed. Paul, who became a great teacher believed the end was coming. Even today as we look at all the disasters in the world we can believe that one day this world as we know it will collapse and be destroyed.
The church that started out in small groups came under the authority of Constantine so that there would now be no separation of church and state. Bishops, elder, deacons claim power and authority as they declared what was the correct teaching.
What then shall we believe? Who really wrote the gospels? The Old Testament belonged to the past to be replaced by the new vision of God. Jerusalem was declared a holy site which needed to be taken back by the real believers. The heavens opened up to reveal the sun as the center of our universe not the earth.
New knowledge in the realm of history and geography began to question the authority of the Bible. We now are living in an age where the Bible has been replaced all together. "Science and philosophy have together advanced reason as the primary mode for attaining truth and have, thereby, changed forever our understanding of the universe and of mankind." -The Future of Christianity. God is now no longer "up there" or even "out there."
Time for a change in the language of the church. People experience the presence of God within their souls and may be too embarrassed to share this experience. This changes deep feelings within and there is a desire to live out of the beauty of that moment, to find peace within and without.
I pray that there will be an openness to others who sense this conscious presence of God. I grew up in the church and my hope and prayer is that the church will realize how vulnerable it is and that the authority it once had it no longer has.
"The atheist staring from his attic window is often nearer to God than the believer caught up in his own false image of God." -- Martin Buber. It is time to stop making God in our own image!
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