{"id":652776,"date":"2014-06-10T06:07:01","date_gmt":"2014-06-10T06:07:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/?p=652776"},"modified":"2018-01-17T16:55:06","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T21:55:06","slug":"whitewashed-tombs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/whitewashed-tombs\/","title":{"rendered":"Whitewashed Tombs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"White-Washed-Tombs-Andy<\/p>\n

I lost my faith<\/a> well before I started seminary.<\/p>\n

Ya know, now that I think about it, I\u2019m not sure if I lost my faith so much as I just suppressed my faith.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t believe in God anymore, it was that I wanted nothing to do with this Christian God anymore. I don\u2019t think I necessarily wandered away from the pack so much as I decided to up and leave the pack. I was that \u201clost sheep\u201d in which did not want to be found. I was alone because I wanted to be alone.<\/p>\n

Looking back at it, I was lost, definitely lost, but at least I was free.<\/p>\n

Free from the status quo.<\/p>\n

Free from this lie.<\/p>\n

Free from the guilt and shame.<\/p>\n

I could finally breathe\u2026<\/p>\n

I was invited into other \u201cpacks of sheep.\u201d Invited to this <\/i><\/b>church or that <\/i><\/b>church and promised that their <\/i><\/b>church was not like any other <\/i><\/b>church\u2026 but they were, they were all the same.<\/p>\n

They meant well, most of them at least, but do good intentions justify a destructive ignorance?<\/p>\n

I was reading this pericope in Matthew, where it\u2019s nearing the end of Jesus\u2019 time. At this point He has his 12 disciples \u2013 large crowds are following Him, and Jesus stops and turns to the crowd and seemingly goes on this rant against the Pharisees and scribes. He calls them hypocrites, blinded guided fools, greedy-self-indulgent-whitewashed-tombs\u2026<\/p>\n

As if this was not enough, to get His point across He acknowledges that they tithe, and abide by the Deuteronomic law but yet neglect\u00a0\u201cthe weightier matters of the law:\u00a0justice and mercy and faithfulness [Matthew 23:23<\/a>]\u2026\u201d and He, Jesus, drives it home by telling them they are responsible for the prophets murders, that their righteous blood is on their dirty hands.<\/p>\n

Reading this one would assume Jesus was drunk. I don\u2019t think He was, but who knows\u2026 [someone reading this just thought,\u00a0\u201cGod<\/em><\/strong> knows!\u201d #smh]<\/p>\n

Either way, I think it\u2019s stuff like this that got Jesus crucified<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You know, holding up a mirror to the privileged and verbally describing to them how\u00a0horrid they look. The hardest part of\u00a0hearing a critique is when the critique, at its very core, couldn\u2019t be truer.<\/p>\n

I felt like this is who I was turning into,\u00a0\u201ca greedy-self-indulgent-whitewashed tomb.\u201d I feel like this is what the majority of Church pulpits are filled with, greedy-self-indulgent-whitewashed tombs.<\/p>\n

The thing is \u2013 when Jesus said these things we have to remember He had poured His life <\/i><\/b>into spending time with these Pharisees and scribes in the temple since he was just a child, eating meals with them as an adult, and continually interacting with these supposed teachers-of-the-law.<\/p>\n

This might sound weird but I think that this was the most loving thing Jesus could have said to them. It was possibly His last-ditch effort in which He knew would lead to His death. In other words, Jesus was not only willing to risk <\/i>but actually\u00a0to give up\u00a0<\/i>His life in order that these men can see later on through his death and imminent resurrection, just as the centurion did at the Cross that,\u00a0\u201cSurely He was the Son of God!<\/span>\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I really don\u2019t like religion.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I honestly don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever return to what we know as \u201cthe Church.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019m okay with that though.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think I\u2019m lost anymore so much as I\u2019m just wandering through life. I don\u2019t know where I\u2019m going, but at least now I know who I\u2019m following.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I lost my faith well before I started seminary. Ya know, now that I think about it, I\u2019m not sure if I lost my faith so much as I just suppressed my faith. It\u2019s not that I didn\u2019t believe in God anymore, it was that I wanted nothing to do with this Christian God anymore. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2493,"featured_media":656361,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,16,78,21],"tags":[721],"class_list":["post-652776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church","category-culture","category-justice","category-millennials","tag-whitewashed-tombs"],"yoast_head":"\nWhitewashed Tombs<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Whitewashed Tombs I felt like this is who I was turning into, a greedy-self-indulgent-whitewashed-tomb. 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I think this is what the majority of Church pulpits.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/whitewashed-tombs\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Andy Gill\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-10T06:07:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2018-01-17T21:55:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/604\/2014\/06\/White-Washed-Tombs-Andy-Gill-copy-e1516225997455.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"550\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"253\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andy Gill\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Andy Gill\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/whitewashed-tombs\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/whitewashed-tombs\/\",\"name\":\"Whitewashed Tombs\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-10T06:07:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2018-01-17T21:55:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/andygill\/#\/schema\/person\/4db132075291b01585ac509973439e59\"},\"description\":\"Whitewashed Tombs I felt like this is who I was turning into, a greedy-self-indulgent-whitewashed-tomb. 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