Honoring the Source of Life and Love
Read John 6:32-35a
Our new Book Study group at church has been reading and discussing John Shelby
Spong's controversial book, Why Christianity Must Change or Die. While
there is much in the text that challenges my thinking, as far as I have read, I
lend my unbridled enthusiasm to Spong's support of the life-giving nature of our
God. This season is the time when we are most fully aware of the life that was
so completely manifest in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, Jesus, who was
given to and for us by our God-Jesus who was and is.
My tiny grandson is a new creation of the life-giving force of our God. Small as
little Bradley William is, he is a being with unlimited potential. I can look at
him and know that, as God is manifested through him, Bradley will progress
through his years to become a mature human being, continuing to grow and develop
so that whatever the Lord's purpose is for him, he will be on his way to
becoming that person. Surrounded by the love of friends and family members, he
may develop the special God-given gifts that are unique to him. He may go on to
expand the love and ability that he has internalized and developed so that
others may receive many gifts from him, gifts with which the recipients may
communicate and connect, that they might grow and expand with all of the
limitless possibilities that are open to them, becoming the people that God
would have them be.
By the nature of my grandson's uniqueness, God has been and will continue to be
revealed to me in new ways, as will God be to others. We can know all this
because of what we have learned from the life of Jesus, and because God is
working with all of us through our lives. We can then have a growing awareness
of the possibilities of all those around us, everyone whose life we touch. As we
impact one another and still others, each of those "others" will
affect us in some way, and the world will become a different place because of
our interactions.
It all seems so basic and simple-yet God is very much a part, which lends it all
a potential that we cannot even begin to visualize or fully comprehend. We learn
that as we grow to understand the nature of God and Jesus Christ we must not
limit either of them-or ourselves or any others. Maybe the question for all of
us is, instead of "Must Christianity change or die," must we change?
Whatever conclusions we arrive at from our study of Spong, we need to be
thankful to him for the changes that will occur in each of us because of the
searching and growing as we reflect upon his thoughts, knowing that God is with
him also. Thanks, too, for the birth and life of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the
difference that life has made for each of us and all of us!
May your Christmas and your life be merry!
--Carol M.