Shouldn't we be acting as members of the body of Christ, trying to heal the body, rather than consumer/shoppers who reason, "This isn't meeting my needs, so I'm outta here"? What is my responsibility? What should I do?
I'm not a Christian, but I'm going to have a guess at this anyway. The church I sing at had its gospel reading yesterday on the missing coin. It seems to me that the woman searching for the coin - she was searching for the *coin*, not a particular wallet she wanted to keep it in. And it didn't say anywhere that she had to keep all her coins in one place, just that she didn't want to lose it somewhere irretrievable. Same with the sheep - it doesn't say if he corralled them all together, just that he wanted them all to be safe. And the parable doesn't show the shepherd being greatly concerned about pasture his sheep are grazing on, just the sheep. If he had ninety-nine safe and one missing, he'd search high and low until he found that hundredth sheep, and then he'd rejoice.
I mean, I might be wrong, but it seems to me that Christ must love every single person in your church very much, and want you to love each of them as you love yourself, but that's not the same thing as insisting they stay in the same group.
Or I might be out of my depth. Is there an uninvolved priest you could ask?
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Date: 2004-09-13 12:54 am (UTC)I'm not a Christian, but I'm going to have a guess at this anyway. The church I sing at had its gospel reading yesterday on the missing coin. It seems to me that the woman searching for the coin - she was searching for the *coin*, not a particular wallet she wanted to keep it in. And it didn't say anywhere that she had to keep all her coins in one place, just that she didn't want to lose it somewhere irretrievable. Same with the sheep - it doesn't say if he corralled them all together, just that he wanted them all to be safe. And the parable doesn't show the shepherd being greatly concerned about pasture his sheep are grazing on, just the sheep. If he had ninety-nine safe and one missing, he'd search high and low until he found that hundredth sheep, and then he'd rejoice.
I mean, I might be wrong, but it seems to me that Christ must love every single person in your church very much, and want you to love each of them as you love yourself, but that's not the same thing as insisting they stay in the same group.
Or I might be out of my depth. Is there an uninvolved priest you could ask?