What Jesus was about had nothing to do with being religious. Read the gospels! He partied with the worst of sinners and outraged the religious. This is what got him crucified.
What Jesus was about was starting a revolution. He called this revolution, " the Kingdom of God."
This revolution isn't centered on getting people to believe particular religious beliefs and engage in particular religious behaviors, though these may be important, true, and helpful. Nor is it centered on trying to fix the world by advocating the " right " national agendas, theough these may be noble, righteous and effective.
No, the Kingdom of God that Jesus established in centered on one thing only: maninfesting the beauty of God's character and thus revolting against everything that is inconsistent with this beauty. The Kingdom is centered on displaying a beauty that revolts.
Jesus' death sums up the theme of his whole life. Every aspect of his life, teachings, and ministry put the beauty of God's reign on display and revolted against some aspects of the culture that contradicted this reign.
The central call of thsoe who pledge their life to follwing Jesus is to join this beautiful revolution and therefore to humbly live and love like this. " Whoever claims to live in him, " John says, " must live as Jesus did " ( 1 John 2:6 ). We're to manifest God's beauty by sacrificially loving our enemies, serving the poor, feeding the hungry, freeing the oppressed, welcoming the outcast, embracing the worst of sinners, healing the sick, just as Jesus did. And there is no way to do this without at the same time revolting against everything in our own lives that keeps us self-centered, greedy, and apathetic towards the plight of others. Nor is there anyway to do this without revolting against everything in society...and we shall see, in the spiritual realm...that keeps people physically, socially and spiritually oppressed.
So you see, the Kingdom has nothing to do with religion..." Christian " or other wise. It's rather about following the example of Jesus, manifesting the beauty of God's reign while revolting against all that is ugly.
It's a beautiful revolution that we are all invited to join. But to do so, we've got to loose our religion.
( Greg Boyd: Myth of a Christian Religion/ Zondervan 2009 ISBN 978-0-310-28383-6 )
