Christianity, for me, is about humans’ stewardship of the creation that God made and entrusted to us. It is about showing concern for other people and wanting them to have all the good things we have. It is about having the humility to understand that ministry is a two-way street. We don’t just give to those “in need”: a true act of ministry involves our receiving from them as well and understanding more deeply our own neediness. And, yes, it is also about knowing that when we miss the mark, God is ready to forgive us even before we ask.
Often, though, the Christianity most visible in the United States seems to me very focused on the individual: on personal salvation. It is exclusive, concerned only with God and me, or at most with God, me and my like-minded neighbors.
Acceptance of Jesus’ overflowing, infinite, unbounded love and its power to change us is crucially important for those who claim to follow him, but what it does for us is less important, I think, than what it enables us to do. Through it, Jesus’ followers become, by degrees, true disciples, able to walk Jesus’ walk and to love as he loved.
There is a lot of love and kindness in this but also a sort of false dichotomy, I think, that accepting Jesus as a personal savior turns one into a self-righteous, sanctimonious person. I hope Sarah gets to spend more time with Evangelicals and learn more about them in love.
Evangelicals are surely worth loving, even though some of them make theological mistakes about how God loves non-evangelicals.
I enjoyed the eirenical tone of the piece and there is surely much to agree with. It saddens me that it concludes by not following its own appeal to learn to find what is loveable in those “others” with whom the author evidently disagrees.
Cursillo might be helpful here.