A Second Look at the Christmas Story
Posted on Sunday, December 24th, 2006 at 16:44.
My great-aunt Brenda once glowingly reminisced about me telling the whole family the Christmas story. I don’t recall doing that, but other family members have told me that I did. Next month, I will turn 23. I’m not a child any more, but I would like to retell the Christmas story.
Once upon a time, God saw His Creation burdened by trivial atonement rituals. Man would never be perfect and the rituals only proved that humanity still acknowledged His authority to condemn. He knew that His Creation would never be perfect and that a persistent fear of incurring His wrath proved ineffectual in persuading humanity to love. Alas, love was the missing element.
God decided to change the rules. He gave the world a perfect example of love. This love withheld judgement, was angered by injustice, willingly assisted others, and promoted the well-being of everything in Creation. Most importantly, this love created contagious zeal, unlike the threat of His wrath.
As far as the Bible’s reporters were concerned, Jesus never preached His own death and resurrection as the basis for anything. Jesus said that He was the only way to God, but some have confused this as another trivial atonement ritual. He only had time to promote love and loving is the only way to create the Kingdom of Heaven.
Amen.
Hey man, never thought about atonement rituals. Great way of putting it.