fur or agin or...

One of the listservs available through our church life is called "Daily Scripture." This is the posting I had for Dec 9th.
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Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?" Jesus said to him, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. -- John 14:5,6 (ESV)

Quotation: How can we know that what Jesus has shown us of God is the truth; or how do we know when we look into the face of Jesus that we are looking into the face of God? The answer is so plain and simple that it is a marvel how intelligent men can manage to miss it as they do. Look at what Christ has done for the soul of man: that is your answer. Christianity is just Christ--nothing more and nothing less. It is a way of life, and He is that way. It is the truth about human destiny, and He is that truth. ... R. J. Campbell (1867-1956), The Call of Christ [1932]

Too many folks use this passage as a way to condemn "Christianity." That might be valid from the way it has been used to condemn others. However, when this was first communicated as we study the language, the literary style, the political and social context...it wasn't condemning, but inviting and freeing. My sense is today that little of what we call Christianity is truly about Jesus Christ. There are many who desire to be in the body of Christ and yet go to great lengths to avoid or even deny what has been at the heart of the confession of the Christian church since the 1st Century. That denial and avoidance has happened since the 1st Century as well. Some will seek to use new historical findings to try to reshape or change the central faith of the living Christ in the present. They can do that, but...that isn't the Christian Church then. The body of Christ is the reality of the living Christ that has been known for 21 Centuries. The living Christ has done more than any other being to free humanity from its slavery. The forces of power and control have sought to contain and revamp that reality. And, I usually find, that those who are attempting to revamp or deny the living Christ who is the Savior of the world, know very little about the Judeo-Christian scripture or the history of the church. They presumptuously think that what they know now is more true than the reality that has been known for these 21 Centuries. And they use only the negative side of Christian history for these 21 Centuries to claim that the church and thus Jesus Christ isn't all he is cracked up to be. I have learned in 15 years of being around 12 Step recovery meetings that there is much history happening of lives being changed and freed that are not making the headlines nor the history books!!!

The living Christ is known more in our lives than in intellectual thought. Intellectual thought can "lead" us, but it can't ultimately claim to be the living Christ. This is exactly what Jesus confronted in the 1st Century...those who sought more through their intellect than through their whole being...body, mind and spirit...to try to use him for their own purposes. They tried to reduce him down as a "mini-denial" of his messiahship. Again, they can do that. But they can't claim then to be part of the body of Christ as it has been for these 21 centuries. Even with all the differences there are in the Christian church, the essential kernel or heart of being a Christian is the profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Before we seek to accomodate who we want Jesus to be to our own desires...lets first study and learn the tradition (not the supposed tradition that is talked about for good or for ill in our present time in the popular media). This Christmas, get to know Christ! Don't simply reach for a sentimental, easily accomodated sense of Christ, but truly love Christ by committing your life to getting to know him! Otherwise...why celebrate Christmas rather than to make ourselves feel good? There's no reason to do that in the church...the body of Christ.