Today’s Lectionary Readings: Psalm 99; Isaiah 9:18-10:4; John 10:31-42; Hebrews 10:19-25; Psalm 82
Little by little, I’ve detected a shift in the public face of Christianity over the past six or eight years. For the better part of the 1980’s and 1980’s the public face of Christianity (at least the public face that the media portrayed) was of a people who were moralistic, judgmental, mean-spirited, and power hungry. At times during those two decades it seemed as if Christians only cared about two things: abortion and homosexuality. Little if anything was ever said about other concerns like the growing environmental crises or the growing economic disparity between the rich and poor. Needless to say, it was often difficult for me to identify with the public face of Christianity since that face looked so little like Jesus’ face. But then things started to change. Values like love and compassion started coming to the forefront. When a shooter shot and killed the young girls in a school house in Pennsylvania last year, for instance, the first words out of their Amish community were related to love and forgiveness. As the reality of global warming continues to set in, more and more Christian leaders from all theological camps are talking about the issue – not just as a matter of right and wrong but as an expression of faith. And last week when a 19 year old gunman ended several lives in two faith communities, the first scripture some of the relatives of the deceased turned to in reaching out to the family of the gunman was 1 Corinthians 13 – commonly known as the love chapter! With each passing day I become more encouraged as I see more and more of the spirit of Christ present in Christianity. Little by little, it would seem, we are collectively living into the words from today’s passage from Hebrews 10:24-25: “Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching” (The Message). In face of these promising collective steps, I encourage you to get inventive yourself as you find powerful new and transformative ways to love one another and help one another out. Til next time…
Little by little, I’ve detected a shift in the public face of Christianity over the past six or eight years. For the better part of the 1980’s and 1980’s the public face of Christianity (at least the public face that the media portrayed) was of a people who were moralistic, judgmental, mean-spirited, and power hungry. At times during those two decades it seemed as if Christians only cared about two things: abortion and homosexuality. Little if anything was ever said about other concerns like the growing environmental crises or the growing economic disparity between the rich and poor. Needless to say, it was often difficult for me to identify with the public face of Christianity since that face looked so little like Jesus’ face. But then things started to change. Values like love and compassion started coming to the forefront. When a shooter shot and killed the young girls in a school house in Pennsylvania last year, for instance, the first words out of their Amish community were related to love and forgiveness. As the reality of global warming continues to set in, more and more Christian leaders from all theological camps are talking about the issue – not just as a matter of right and wrong but as an expression of faith. And last week when a 19 year old gunman ended several lives in two faith communities, the first scripture some of the relatives of the deceased turned to in reaching out to the family of the gunman was 1 Corinthians 13 – commonly known as the love chapter! With each passing day I become more encouraged as I see more and more of the spirit of Christ present in Christianity. Little by little, it would seem, we are collectively living into the words from today’s passage from Hebrews 10:24-25: “Let's see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on, especially as we see the big Day approaching” (The Message). In face of these promising collective steps, I encourage you to get inventive yourself as you find powerful new and transformative ways to love one another and help one another out. Til next time…
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