Christmas Reflection no.1
Saturday, December 16, 2006
Christmas, more than anything else, reminds me every year that this thing I'm in - this movement of people after Jesus, this insitution called Christianity - is for the whole world. I can spend an entire year drawing lines, defining boundaries, treating "non-believers" different from "believers", and shoring up the flying buttresses of Christianity. But the minute December rolls around and I start reading again what the Prophets had to say about the Messiah, and what He actually said, I've got to throw away my boxes and categories and open my arms just a little wider than the year before. God did it so many times that by the time John wrote his gospel, He had His arms around the whole world in love. This is not an argument for universalism, as I hope you can see - this is simply a call to the Church and myself to BE the good news we talk so much about - to obey Christ and fulfull God's promise that His people would be a blessing to all peoples, not just those on "our side."
Posted by Benjamin Washam 10:22 PM
Labels: Christmas, General Reflections, Scripture Reflections
An excellent post. On Sunday, we talked about this very issue in Sunday School as it related to the conversion of Cornelius in Acts 10.
Just last week, CNN posted a guest commentary entitled: "What the hell happened to Christianity?" The theme of the commentary was the church was becoming so exclusionary if anyone differed from their opinions that Christianity had forgotten to love those that differ.
It is time we open our arms to those that differ or are different, without compromising our beliefs, in a spirit of love in order that Christ may be preached to the entire world. Thanks for being a living example of this principle in action.
Merry Christmas!
Derek