ReDiscovering Christianity

I recently came across what has become, to me, a great metaphor.
Between 1980 and 1994 Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel went through another restoration. For years artists and onlookers had assumed they knew what the paintings looked like. The restoration didn't reveal any new images. However, once much of the smoke and dirt that had accumulated on the paintings was removed the true vibrancy of the colors used by the great painter were realized.
"This restoration had a profound effect on art lovers and historians, as colours and details that had not been seen for centuries were revealed. It has been claimed that as a result 'Every book on Michelangelo will have to be rewritten.'" (Restoration of the Sistine Chapel frescoes, Wikipedia)

When I heard this story on the radio, it brought something alive in me. I recently started a new sermon series, "ReDiscovering Christianity." The discovery at the Sistine Chapel serves, for me, a metaphor of our discovery as we go through this sermon series. My desire is to begin to peel back, remove, shine, restore for my congregation (and myself) what true Biblical Christianity looks like. Christianity without all the trappings that we have added over the centuries. Christianity was never intended to be a religion, but a life lived in relationship with our loving, holy God and his Son, Jesus. Somewhere we, or at least I, have lost the wonder, the awe, the creativity, and the joy that come in serving God. I know it is there because I see it plainly in Scripture and in the lives of some who have gone before me. I just don't see it so clearly in my own life and relationships and I want to.

This is another one of those series that I prepared for others, but the Lord meant for me. Maybe mostly for me.

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