Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Then there was Dec. 26
Almost anybody can be touched emotionally by the birth of a baby. But the church knows and remembers that the baby grew up and became a man who taught a revolutionary ethic of unconditional love and practical forgiveness and who overturned cultural convention by welcoming the marginalized and excluded. The church remembers that the baby grew up and got into trouble with the authorities for living out his notion of what God's kingdom looks like—a new social arrangement without all the old barriers and boundaries, an arrangement in which all are loved and welcomed at the banquet table. The church remembers that the baby grew up and challenged social convention by forgiving enemies, turning the other cheek, responding to violence not with violence but with love.
The church also remembers a part of the story in which the culture has no interest at all—that the shadow of a cross falls over the nativity scene.
Christmas has only just begun. Read all of "Christmastide," by John M. Buchanan, in The Christian Century.
--ER
The church also remembers a part of the story in which the culture has no interest at all—that the shadow of a cross falls over the nativity scene.
Christmas has only just begun. Read all of "Christmastide," by John M. Buchanan, in The Christian Century.
--ER
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The article reminds us that:
"The church also remembers a part of the story in which the culture has no interest at all—that the shadow of a cross falls over the nativity scene."
"...the church also remembers..."?
Think more on this metaphor: Jesus was born in a stable that was in a cave. He was laid to rest in a tomb that was a cave. Then he rose from a cave and ascended to heaven.
Christianity and Islam will have peace with one another when the central orthodoxies grow weary of the fringe fanatics and destroy their own. Other wise, the Jihad/Crusades will lead both Christianity and Islam to secular deaths at the hands of profits rather than prophets.
"The power of the profits shall always overcome the power of the prophets."
Hezekiah 14:6
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"The church also remembers a part of the story in which the culture has no interest at all—that the shadow of a cross falls over the nativity scene."
"...the church also remembers..."?
Think more on this metaphor: Jesus was born in a stable that was in a cave. He was laid to rest in a tomb that was a cave. Then he rose from a cave and ascended to heaven.
Christianity and Islam will have peace with one another when the central orthodoxies grow weary of the fringe fanatics and destroy their own. Other wise, the Jihad/Crusades will lead both Christianity and Islam to secular deaths at the hands of profits rather than prophets.
"The power of the profits shall always overcome the power of the prophets."
Hezekiah 14:6
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