Easter Sunday 2018. What are my thoughts? Honestly, while I have a deep joy that transcends all, I am grieved in my heart. Grieved at the state of things in the church, in the nation, in the world. I think to some degree this weird juxtaposition of seemingly opposite emotions should be normal among Christians. Violence, pain, suffering, hate. These should grieve our hearts. But I am especially grieved this season. Because I feel we are at a tipping point and if things tip the wrong way, we could be in for a season of hell on earth before things get better.

We have factions in the church that have so warped Christianity it’s almost unrecognizable. In my church. Yes. This unholy collaboration between empire (the political systems and the spirit behind it that runs this world) and evangelicalism must end. This present environment started back in the early 1980s with Jerry Falwell’s “Moral Majority” and the election of Ronald Reagan to the Presidency. Before that the church supported causes that brought liberty, justice and supported programs that cared for the poor and disenfranchised. That all changed in the 80s as abortion became the force driving conservative politics and the church latched on to this and aligned with the political right.

Couple this with the fact that since very early on in it’s existence, the church has completely missed the point of why it exists. Since early on the church has taken a position of the moral high ground, the doctrine police, the owner of “truth”, the enforcer of heaven, and the mediator between the holy God and filthy profane people. The church completely missed the point that the cross dealt with sin, 100% for now and forever. Instead it set itself up to be the place where people could come for absolution. It kept people in shame. It projected a view of God who was distant and who “could not look upon sin”, so He could not look upon such filthy people. The church sewed the veil back together. It put a wall between the holy and profane. It told the people that they were such filthy sinners in God’s eyes that Jesus had to die for them, and even then they still had to agree with the church’s ideas and beg God to forgive them at least once a week. Only then would they be grudgingly accepted by God. Men took over the church that Jesus began to build and used it to undermine the work of the cross completely. Fast forward 1,800 years and the thing we have now is so warped Jesus would not recognize it. And I am not talking Roman Catholicism. I am talking the vast hodgepodge of little kingdoms and enterprises that men have built and then tacked on the label “church”. And that’s not saying it does zero good. It does. But for the most part it keeps people in their shame and self-imposed separation from God. Yes even modern, American, charismatic churches that preach the Kingdom. They keep people in shame. It’s possible the Adam’s sin was shame, and that shame is the root of all sin. It’s shame that keeps people from being who they truly are. If we are honest we spend most of our lives trying to deal with our shame. It always comes back to shame. If we disobey, it’s out of shame. And yet the church for the most part shames us all the time. “You don’t read your Bible enough.” You don’t tithe enough.” “You don’t serve enough.” “You don’t pray enough or pray the right way.” “If you only had the faith the size of a mustard seed you would not be sick.” On and on and on. It never ends.

What separated Adam from God was not that Adam needed forgiveness from God (God pursued Adam after the fall) but that Adam needed to forgive himself. So he hid from God in shame. This friends is the root of it all. Not that God hides from us, but that we hide from Him. Because we have believed a lie about ourselves that we are unworthy of His attention. And the church, which is supposed to be the light of the world, has instead become the perpetuator of this lie. Jesus came to live and die to show that God has indeed not hidden Himself from us, and that He will go to His death willingly rather than hurt us. But the church has re-established the separation and sewn together the veil that was torn. The church has become a place for the shamed to hide from God. It’s time for the church to start being the church, not a place to hide but a place to shine. The city on the hill. If we really want to advance His kingdom as we say, we must stop hiding. We must stop putting things between us and God, like the Bible, the church, politics, nationalism, or certain leaders. We must learn to hear His voice. It’s time. It’s time.

I see streams get some revelation in this area then stop short of taking it all the way. I think the next big push is going to be for man to give up his hold on the church and let Jesus resume being the master builder. One reason we have not seen the miracles, healings and such in full measure is because Papa is not going to let this caricature of the church be validated. This is happening already with the millennials. The old guard needs to get out of the way. The millennials see right through you. The church will be restore to the place of true freedom and love. The city on the hill Jesus spoke of. Exactly how this looks I honestly don’t know. But I am pretty sure the pattern of the past 1,800 years is not it.