Why! You're Almost a Christian!
I know I tend to write heavy posts, but even though this isn't heavy...it has been on my heart to share this story from the Bishop today. Any errors in the relating of the story are mine...
The Bishop often has to face people who have a misunderstanding of what Catholic means or what we mean when we say we are Catholic. One of the stories he shared with us in the past had to do with a funny, friendly Southern Baptist woman who (bless her heart) had decided that the Bishop needed some good old fashioned 'converting'.
She started earnestly explaining to him who Jesus was and telling him that Mary was "only Jesus' mom" not God or anything. He smiled and nodded and responded mildly to her statements by saying, "Yes, Mary was Jesus' mom. No, Old Catholic's don't believe she was co-redemptrix. Yes, we consider her a saint, but then again, doesn't the Bible call her 'blessed among women'?" She told him why infant baptism was wrong (he explained why it wasn't). She explained why praying to "dead people doesn't do anything" and he explained that praying for others to pray for you is inviting those saints to pray with you for God's intervention and doesn't she believe that those saints live through Christ?
After she went through her entire conversion litany...I suppose you could say a light came on over her head and she declared to him, "Why! You're almost a Christian!"
I wonder how often we all judge the state of one another's salvation...and isn't declaring whether someone is a Christian or not doing just that?
Sharing the Good news is just that...sharing the good news of Christ's rebirth and our ability to be reborn with him through our repentance. Let us all repent and share the GOOD NEWS that HE IS RISEN, HE IS KING and we brothers and sisters are one in his body. Let us not let our divisions seperate the body, but let our individual gifts bring ever greater glory to Him instead.
Alleluia! God bless!
The Bishop often has to face people who have a misunderstanding of what Catholic means or what we mean when we say we are Catholic. One of the stories he shared with us in the past had to do with a funny, friendly Southern Baptist woman who (bless her heart) had decided that the Bishop needed some good old fashioned 'converting'.
She started earnestly explaining to him who Jesus was and telling him that Mary was "only Jesus' mom" not God or anything. He smiled and nodded and responded mildly to her statements by saying, "Yes, Mary was Jesus' mom. No, Old Catholic's don't believe she was co-redemptrix. Yes, we consider her a saint, but then again, doesn't the Bible call her 'blessed among women'?" She told him why infant baptism was wrong (he explained why it wasn't). She explained why praying to "dead people doesn't do anything" and he explained that praying for others to pray for you is inviting those saints to pray with you for God's intervention and doesn't she believe that those saints live through Christ?
After she went through her entire conversion litany...I suppose you could say a light came on over her head and she declared to him, "Why! You're almost a Christian!"
I wonder how often we all judge the state of one another's salvation...and isn't declaring whether someone is a Christian or not doing just that?
Sharing the Good news is just that...sharing the good news of Christ's rebirth and our ability to be reborn with him through our repentance. Let us all repent and share the GOOD NEWS that HE IS RISEN, HE IS KING and we brothers and sisters are one in his body. Let us not let our divisions seperate the body, but let our individual gifts bring ever greater glory to Him instead.
Alleluia! God bless!
posted by Dancer | 4:35 PM
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