Sunday, March 25, 2018

Annunciation

Christians are supposed to believe in the Annunciation which is normally celebrated on this date.  What is it?  Well, it refers to God becoming human when Mary said yes to being pregnant by the Holy Spirit.  Now, none of this is of concern to nonbelievers but, for Christians,  I want to point out some logic here on a wider issue.  The teaching for Christians is that God became human at conception, not a fetus, that is not yet fully human as many modern people would say.  So, if God becomes human at the moment of conception, and we are made in God's image, as Christians believe, then why do so many Christians say they believe in Incarnation but hold that one becomes human only at birth?  Now one could argue that the fetus does not look human, as it has fins instead of hands or that the church teaching on Annunciation is hopelessly behind the times, all so that one can go on being a Christian but not holding to a core teaching.  Where does one stop?  It can become a slippery slope.  At least with the Sermon on the Mount, we agree that we just cannot do this teaching, that we are weak or selfish or whatever, but we do not deny the Sermon on the Mount as hopelessly out of date.  I find it is not very easy being a Christian.  It would be a lot easier if I could just drop some parts of it.  But I find it better for my growth to say Christian is a darn hard life filled with my mistakes and mess ups in my life.  I find that repentance works better for my transformation rather than writing things off.  I think that AA people would say that 12 steps work, but less than 12, not so much.  I try not to make up my own programs for spiritual growth.  It has not worked so far.  I am a follower, not a founder.

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