Christians I have known ...

Last weekend was Easter, and a thoughtful one for me in many ways.

I listened to Armenian hymns.

I read about gardening.

A friend and I had dinner and spent a great deal of time talking about writing, concluding that neither of us are doing enough of it.

My writer friend is a christian, small "c". His faith is a practice, not a belief system. The metaphors of the bible deeply inform his actions, but not typically his conversations - unless he's talking to me. More than once I have been accused of holding church services in my home. (Only with those interested and willing.)

When I was a kid, there was a group of christians who eschewed buildings, ritual and dogma. We met quietly in each others' homes, and we read and discussed and looked for a way to make sense of the world, following the footsteps of "rebel jesus" as closely as we knew how.

The first pastor of this non-church was named Bentley, and we sometimes loosely called ourselves "the Bentley group". It was a radical form of christianity. Tything was done through individuals, for individuals. Bentley himself raised serveral foster children, but never once spoke as though any of us ought to have or develop similar spiritual convictions. Under his gentle influence, we drifted towards being of service.

And, in the uptight, deeply conservative community where I lived, there were 250,000 of these gentle, unorganized, non-judgemental followers.

That was the closest thing to at home I have ever felt in community worship.

None-the-less, I am a quiet follower of the man jesus. Perhaps that comes from early childhood exposure, I don't know. Of the existence of god I have no question. Why I came to think that jesus closely represents that god, I can only say that perhaps it is the story teller in me that is drawn to the parables, which make sense to me. Most other christian dogma, I have little patience for. That which excludes, which claims there is only one path to the sacred seems the least likely and least consistent with the jesus I have read, and the god who sings to my soul.

That wars were fought over whether or not jesus had a purse (and thereby condoned the ownership of vast property) seems so far away from the basic lessons christ taught.

Mostly I have learned christianity from chritians. Sort of like kung fu from a practicing master.