HEARD AT CHURCH:  

How to Make a Christ

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  

Today, the preacher said that the church reveals Christ to the world.  That is our mission.  

I could not help but think (to borrow from an atheistic criticism of faith in God) if Christ did not exist in the world, it would be necessary that we invent him.

Over the centuries, Christ has been absent from the deeds, thoughts, and doctrines of church people.  

Where truth is maligned, including scientific truth, Christ is absent.

Where kindness is seen as weakness, Christ is not there.

Where forgiveness is exclusive and not universal, Christ is far away.

Where violence is, Christ is not.

There does not have to be a particular belief about a god for love to exist.  The atheists are right about that. 

I've known a lot of infidels who were more decent and more humane than most of the Christians with whom I was raised.  

I've read the writings and watched the lives of many atheists who were more decent and more humane than the god and the life-in-Christ proclaimed by my Christian brothers and sisters.

Where there is love, there is Christ.  Where there is church, there should always be love.  

If the church is present, but love is not, then the church is fallen.  It trips up everyone else trying to go upward and onward.

The church which is not a building, but people who would reveal Christ in the world, can always be born again.  The church always has the potential to make a more convincing case for the presence of our God of love when we love as Christ loved. 

That is really all we must do and must believe.  If we cannot do at least that much, we knock a lot of other folks down.

So that was what I thought today after hearing a message about what God revealed when Jesus was born.

Blessings...