Seeking the Kingdom

Here is an amazing quote from Thomas Cahill's book: The Desire of the Everlasting Hills ~ The World Before and After Jesus.

He writes . . . ‘the radical society of friends, of free and equal men and women, that came forth from the side of the crucified (an earlier reference to the blood and water that poured out of Jesus as the spear went into his side - the blood and water, the Lord's supper and baptism) was quickly overwhelmed by ancient patriarchy and has been overwhelmed in every era since by the social and political forms of the age’ (pg. 303).

So this community of love that Jesus envisioned and gave his life for has been usurped by some with different agendas. Well meaning, good people maybe, but still not in line with the purposes of Jesus. So it's been form over funtion and the the mission of Jesus is often subverted in favor of issues of power, status, expedience, structure, legacy, etc. It's very difficult for people to discern because religious language is used and the forms are taken to be the reality; "having a form of godliness but denying its power" (2 Timothy 3:5).