“A fundamentalist can see every person who’s wrong as a kind of Patient Zero in a potential pandemic of paganism…
Every year, like clockwork, a series of debates breaks out in Christian America. When Jesus was born in a manger, did that mean he was homeless? When Jesus fled with his family to Egypt to escape King Herod’s order to kill all baby boys in the region of Bethlehem, did that mean he was a refugee? And when his family entered and lived in Egypt until Herod died, did that mean he was an immigrant?
The core truth of Christ’s birth is that when God became man, he entered the world in a posture of extreme humility and extreme vulnerability, and that posture never changed.
My former pastor often used a phrase that has always stuck in my mind — “the upside-down kingdom of God.” I use it all the time as well. Yes, Christ is King, but of a very different kind of kingdom, where the first are last, where you love your enemies, where you bless those who persecute you, and where you sacrifice to serve your neighbor.
It was Christ’s humble birth that set the stage. It was the first lesson in a series: to oppress others is to oppress Christ, to hate others is to hate Christ, and to love your enemies can be the most dangerous and revolutionary act of them all.”
(I am not Christian but raised Christian)
WearyTravelers.net 