Post by angli_fan on Dec 18, 2009 13:36:53 GMT -5
[from Episcopal Life Online]
By David F. Sellery
Love one another as I have loved you. John 15:10
"Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas": take your pick. For years now the armies of inclusion have battled the troops of tradition. No year passes without a breathlessly televised crèche controversy or a school pageant showdown.
Naturally, I've always been a "Merry Christmas" man myself. But this year I think it's time to step up the game.
"God loves us" captures Christmas for me. It packs a wallop. And it's even four letters shorter than "Merry Christmas."
God's love in the gift of Christ says it all. It inspires us, surrounds us, sustains us. It consoles our pain and crowns our joy.
As John Paul II preached in Central Park: We must go to this Child, this Man, this Son of God, at whatever inconvenience, at whatever risk to ourselves because to know and love him will truly change our lives.
The Christmas story is our portal to the love of God made flesh in the life of Christ. As Luke tells us so beautifully, the shepherds were the first to have their lives changed by the loving presence of God gloriously proclaimed across the skies and focused on the child in the manger.
More at:
ecusa.anglican.org/80050_117826_ENG_HTM.htm
By David F. Sellery
Love one another as I have loved you. John 15:10
"Happy Holidays" or "Merry Christmas": take your pick. For years now the armies of inclusion have battled the troops of tradition. No year passes without a breathlessly televised crèche controversy or a school pageant showdown.
Naturally, I've always been a "Merry Christmas" man myself. But this year I think it's time to step up the game.
"God loves us" captures Christmas for me. It packs a wallop. And it's even four letters shorter than "Merry Christmas."
God's love in the gift of Christ says it all. It inspires us, surrounds us, sustains us. It consoles our pain and crowns our joy.
As John Paul II preached in Central Park: We must go to this Child, this Man, this Son of God, at whatever inconvenience, at whatever risk to ourselves because to know and love him will truly change our lives.
The Christmas story is our portal to the love of God made flesh in the life of Christ. As Luke tells us so beautifully, the shepherds were the first to have their lives changed by the loving presence of God gloriously proclaimed across the skies and focused on the child in the manger.
More at:
ecusa.anglican.org/80050_117826_ENG_HTM.htm