Back from France..

So I was only in two countries this weekend. (We thought about hopping in Germany just to say we had been in three.. but decided against it). We ended up in Mulhouse, France. There's really not anything there. No one bothered to tell us, until we were there, that the 15th of August is a holiday. Of course it is... right the 15 of August... It's Ascension Day.. I think.

We arrived and thanks to Couchurfing.com a guy from Mulhouse took us in for the night. It was a very good evening, involving good food, good wine, good cheese, good company, good beer, good jazz and good rum. Not in that order.

Sunday I walked around Mulhouse a bit and went to the Temple. Mulhouse, as we learned, is the only French City that does not have a Cathedral in it's central square. It has a Temple, which is the French word for a Protestant Cathedral. Apparently Mulhouse, is reformed. Sunday morning, I happened to be up and by the Church while the service was beginning. The music attracted me. So I went in. It is a beautiful church. As I walked in the pastor was just beginning his sermon.

His sermon was very moving. His main point was that when we try to analyze and understand the Bible we often miss the point. The Bible can be analyzed, but to have faith you have to accept and just wait with the Bible. It's not a question of head knowledge, but of heart knowledge. It's not a question of following all the rules, but it's a question of love. When we try to take the Bible and create rules and regulations based on the "clear" laws we end up creating a religion of death, not a religion of life. His story to illustrate this point is the passage in Luke where Jesus says something about entering through a narrow gate and following a narrow path. (I think). The pastor pointed out that this passage has been used, and still is used, by many Christians to condemn others. It has been used as a justification for moral snobbery. It has been used to make religion into a religion of death. Instead, he proposes that this path be read in an individualistic sense. Jesus is telling us that the path and the door for our own salvation is narrow because it is only big enough for us. We are individually saved. We cannot worry about the salvation of anyone else. Therefore our path is narrow, just wide enough for us. We should not look right or look left to see who else is saved, instead we must only follow our path. (I think this could be taken to an extreme position of not caring about the rest of the world - but he said that entering through the gate was only the beginning - the rebirth if you will.... so after you go through the gate things are different.. metaphorically of course).

Personally, I think I have been trying to analyze too much. I have been trying to fit God into my little box of what I can understand instead of just being with God and with God's Word, the Bible (or Jesus). I pray that I can spend more time just being.