166 Dec. 24,
Let me explain. I think I’ve been to eighty-one Christmas Sunday worship services. And was thinking of attending one this morning. Within walking distance there are Pentecostal, Salvation Army, Roman Catholic and United Churches. I’ve been to all of them since we’ve moved here, four years ago. I know what will happen in each.
The one self-identified as ‘spiritual’, evangelical, will begin with ten to twenty minutes of singing, declaring how great, good, perfect and holy, God is, alone in being worthy of our worship and praise. The assumption being, that God is nothing short of perfection and in control of all things. Very soon, being Christmas Sunday, in all the churches, the topic will be the Christ Child, who ‘came to earth’ to save us. From what? From sin, of course.
But wait. (It won’t happen.) Didn’t that sin come from God in the first place? Didn’t He (This God is always a He, for no heavenly Mother would be so cruel and unloving.) create them imperfect? But, as the official storyline goes, God, not being able to live with any imperfections, banished them from his presence, kicking them out of Eden. Not only did ‘He’ renounce and disinherit his children, God also created a totally new Hell where they would fry forever, just because he had ‘goofed’ in not making them totally perfect in the first place.
But wait, again. “In the fulness of time,” God decides to give the future children another chance. Apparently, God had had one perfect child, non-sexual, as it seems, who had been up there in heaven all this time. God decides to send him down to earth so that this perfect son(?) might be killed, dying as a perfect sacrifice to make up for all the bad that was inherent in his imperfect siblings and their descendants. If these understood and accepted this kind of ‘love’, they wouldn’t, henceforth, go to Hell, but to Heaven.
So, we are told, we should all go to church and give thanks to this most loving and gracious God for this gift of a saviour.
I ended up staying in bed until 10:30, then got up and started writing this. I just couldn’t bear to hear those wonderful and damning songs of traditional faith, songs I still sing, even though cringing much of the time.
The message of Jesus is there, but so wrecked by ‘Christ.’ The whole world needs the reality of love and non-violence being born anew, in every place, in every child. To couch it in traditional Christian terms is a detriment to us all. If there is a Satan, he must be very pleased. I know tomorrow will be better. It’s not Sunday. Just sharing and living.
Thanks for allowing me to share this personal struggle with you.
Anthony
