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December 23, 2008
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=========================== TODAY'S ARTICLE ==========================
What Christmas Teaches, by Rubel Shelly
There is a wonderful line from the American scholar Stephen L. Carter
that is appropriate to the Christmas season: "Religion is, at its
heart, a way of denying the rest of the world." He is surely, astutely,
and gloriously correct.
Faith's view of this world is strangely skeptical. No, more than that.
It is a posture of unequivocal distrust leading to rejection! When the
world recites its mantras -- you matter only if you are beautiful, the
most important thing is money, winning is everything, Look Out for
Number One -- faith protests them all. It adopts a posture of doubt and
incredulity. It lives in skepticism and disbelief.
I refuse to believe that selfishness is acceptable or that it is
permissible to resent another's good fortune. I will not swallow the
world's way of thinking in order to justify prejudice, aggression, and
hatred. No believer can be anything but incredulous about the claim of
this world that she is entitled to anything she can get her hands on or
that he should feel no guilt in exploiting others.
So distrust the alleged certainties of sense that cancel the mysteries
of faith. Dispute the tendency of the masses to look forward only for
the sake of declaring the impossibility of living with hope. Deny
altogether the inevitability of such greed, hatred, and violence that
we cannot prove the reality of love.
So let Christmas deny the hold of this world on your heart.
The Bible warns against being blinded by this world and speaks of the
danger of the blind leading the blind. That warning puts us on notice
that things, people, and ways of thinking totally rooted in the finite
world of time, space, and matter will keep us from discovering,
experiencing, and delighting in the greater realities of God, spirit,
and eternity that can only be known by faith.
Faith isn't self-deception. It is neither wish projection nor wishful
thinking. It is our willingness to hear and stand with the things God
has shown us through events and people as awe-inspiring as a trembling,
smoking mountain in the desert and as modest as a baby's first cry in
the village of Bethlehem.
So let Christmas deny the hold of this world on your heart. Let it open
your eyes to what the willfully blind will never see, your ears to
things the incorrigibly deaf can never hear. See Immanuel -- and know
God is with us. Hear the song of angels -- and receive God's peace
given to anxious hearts. Hold the confusion, cynicism, and antagonisms
of this troubled world suspect -- and choose God's reign as your way of
affirming the true realities. Merry Christmas to all!
---------
(c) 2008 Used by permission. From Rubel Shelly <rshelly@rc.edu>'s
"FAX of Life" printed each Tuesday. See Faith Matters for
previous issues of the "FAX of Life."
RELATED LINKS:
* It's Still Christmas
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200712/20071227_stillchristmas.html
* Home for Christmas
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200312/20031217_home.html
* What is It That You See in Christmas?
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200612/20061224_seeinchristmas.html
* RubelShelly.com
http://www.rubelshelly.com/
This article can be found on the web at:
http://www.heartlight.org/articles/200812/20081223_christmasteaches.html
=========================== FEATURED PRODUCT =========================
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