What mother would throw her child into the cold?

Timothy Keller makes the point (The Reason for God) that every community is exclusive in some way. The right and the left of any issue form a community around certain beliefs and certain values that will exclude members of the community that rebel or don’t comply with them.
So to call Christianity an exclusive community separate from others is rather rich when a closer look at your own community will unearth a similar exclusivity. What should be considered in all communities is the value of how that community respects, love and care for other communities. What should also be carefully monitored is if the community condemns, violates, is aggressive toward and demonizes other communities not like theirs. No community is entirely inclusive of all people regardless of what their moral and belief structures are.

I would like to add that although Christianity is inclusive of all race, gender and class there is a value and belief structure that is expected of all its members. In saying that it is important to note that ‘grace’ is a fundamental doctrine of the Church and thus one often finds members who contravene the core set of values still being a part of its meetings and community life. It takes extraordinary circumstances for a mother to throw her child into the cold.

The indescribable described?

Have you seen indescribable? I was asked this numerous times until I eventually got to watching it. If you want to know who the presenter is check out his bio. on Wikipedia, click here. If you want to watch it on the internet click here. I enjoyed the pictures from the Hubble telescope and I enjoyed much of his enthusiasm for ‘astronomical grace.’ The only problem I have was the way in which he ties up this picture you see on the blog with the omnipresence of God. This picture is some distant image in a galaxy very far from us and just because it shows up in a cross we are to get excited about it? Come on, that is like the Christian finding the face of Mother Teresa in the cinnamon rings of a Chelsea bun. That kind of thing cannot get me excited, what if you viewed it from another angle, would it still look like a cross? And if God is indescribable, then lets stop describing God. If God is so indescribable then lets stop calling God “He” all the time. I also could not help but think how I would feel if I was a Muslim watching this show. I would feel unloved and cut off from God’s love. The astronomical grace of God could be understood in that God is beyond all our human preconceptions. Understanding how small we are might actually get us to understand how petty our differences are. It could open up channels of Interfaith dialogue but instead he describes and leaves others cold.

Offering and receiving

It is strange how associations of thought come at certain times. I was reading about John the Baptist and his declaration that he was unfit to untie the shoes of the one who was coming after him when another thought came to mind. It was electric the picture a little later in the chronology of the God-man. The time when the spoken of knelt at the feet of a follower and said that if you are not willing to have me wash your feet then you can have nothing to do with me. Peter had to expose his feet to be washed by the very one John would not see himself worthy of being of service to. Peter allowed the God-man to untie his sandals and wash those dry cracked heels and dirty nails. It typifies the call for us to worship God with reverence and with embarrassing intimacy. It is the balance of worship it is. The coming together of holiness and receiving the gifts of grace. Offering and receiving we interact with the God above, below and everything in-between.