Grace Changes Everything
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The Christmas season of 2009 is almost over but for those of us who celebrate the season from a religious aspect, the celebration will continue. Or, it should anyway because what we’re celebrating – what we’re remembering and reflecting on – is the day grace became a baby born in a manger and changed everything.
The implications of that day are really the heart of this celebration. After all, babies are born every day and they are all special and unique. But this baby was different in that he was the embodiment of God. He was the fullness of perfect love, mercy, beauty, truth, light, grace, justice, compassion, goodness and righteousness that are God in human form. He was also fully human with thoughts, emotions, needs, desires and questions. Heaven and earth came together in this child, true spirit joined with flesh and bone. He called himself Son of God and Son of Man. He was the heart and mind of God but was one of us too. Just think of that: Emmanuel – God with us.
Perfect love is with us. Perfect mercy and compassion are with us. Perfect beauty and light are with us. Perfect goodness and righteousness are with us. The truth is with us. And not just with us in some intangible, ethereal, incomprehensible, elusive manner, but in the flesh and blood of Jesus. We can talk with Love. We can cry with and cry out to Mercy. We can wrestle with Truth. We can ask forgiveness of Goodness and Righteousness. We can grow through and with Beauty and Light. This is the life of the follower of Jesus Christ and it goes far beyond the celebration of one day in December.
For that birthday led to a deathday. On that deathday, Jesus laid his sinless self upon a cross, a Roman instrument of torture, in order that the price for sin be paid and all things be made new, most especially our hearts. Is there anyone who will not confess that a civil war rages inside our hearts and minds? Humility wrestles pride on one front while selflessness battles selfishness on another. Kindness and patience grapple with meanness and fear. Generosity gives way to greed and industry to sloth. The battle rages on. We know what is good and right, but we do not do it. Then again, sometimes we do. Or we know what is evil and wrong, yet this we do. Then again, sometime we don’t. This is the human condition and the entire world bears the devastation of the war: poverty, exploitation, slavery, injustice, murder, racism, specieism, sexism, war, genocide, theft, homelessness, and ecological devastation.
But the manger and the cross bear a promise. The promise of the manger is that we are not alone. God loves and cares for us, knows how we struggle in this war and sent his son Jesus to help us win it. He wants us to win! The promise of the cross is that no matter how many times we lose a battle, no matter our failures and sins, God’s love and grace will pick us up, dust us off and lead us on to victory. The promise is peace, for each of us and for the whole world. This is the Kingdom of God and Jesus is the Prince of Peace:
The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. – Isaiah 11:6
All that is required of us is to agree with contrite hearts that we need help and then to receive that help, to believe that this is God’s heart towards us and to live our lives as a response to this wonderful gift and promise. Is there one of us who hasn’t looked with regret and remorse at parts or moments of our lives? Who among us hasn’t wished for another chance? Who in all humanity possesses an unbroken heart and an unscathed soul? God’s grace through his son gives that second chance and heals our hearts and souls with extravagant and unconditional love.
What then is our response to this gift of a savior and promise of peace? We can’t through our good works or sins make God love us any more or less than he has and does. God IS love and he can’t be or act less than what he is. But we can gratefully be his partners and live life as celebration; secure in the promise of peace and the kingdom of love to come. We can be as holy (not holier-than-thou) as we can be in every area of our lives, confident that even as we stumble and fall, we are forgiven, healed and made ever new by Grace and Love.
So what does this have to do with veganism? Just this: veganism is peaceful, compassionate, selfless, sacrificial, merciful, generous and loving. It is a path to holiness. It heals and renews. It is beautiful. It is a way to live in the Kingdom of God, here and now, and draws us closer to the heart and will of our Father. It is gracious, and Grace changes everything.
This article was contributed by Leslie Strovas.
So the book espousing the virtues of blood sacrifice of animals and man-gods is pro-vegan?
Finally! I am so glad you pointed out the reason for the season. Actually the word ‘holiday’ means holy day. I applaud this article and I also applaud the managers of this forum for posting it. For me, I became Vegan after having gone as far as I could go in loving mankind more. I knew that something basic was missing and I found it in Veganism.
Harry Hebert´s last blog ..Words Used by Commentators
If we ever hope to eradicate speciesism, we need to free our minds of religious dogma and recognize humans as members of animalkind.
“Putting Christ Back in Christmas: Is Jesus the Reason for the Season?”
http://atheism.about.com/od/christmasholidayseason/p/JesusReason.htm
“What is the real reason for the season?”
http://www.religioustolerance.org/xmas_conflict5.htm
Brandon Becker´s last undefined ..(Enjoy 10 returned posts for Christmas)
Brandon, I’m an atheist and so I understand your point about religion. However, I don’t think anyone needs to believe anything in particular in order to adopt a vegan lifestyle. Both theists and atheists are perfectly capable of NOT torturing and killing animals.
Leslie, thank you for your contribution. Even though I don’t see veganism as a path to religious enlightenment as you see it, I do see my veganism as connected to my path on becoming a better person and living a more enriching life.
Steven, I know what you mean. There are certainly things I wrestle with in the Bible, things I wish it didn’t say. But, I think the thing to remember about it is that it was written a very, very long time ago by people who lived in a specific culture, society, ecology and economy. The Bible is the story of them and their encounters with God, and not entirely a guide about what we should think and how we should live, as many people make it out to be. The Bible is open-ended and open for interpretation, just as it should be. What’s compelling to me about it is that although those stories in the Bible happened a long time ago, they still happen today. Today, animals are sacrificed to the gods of greed, lust (appetite and power), gluttony, and indifference, so not much has changed. So, what does one do with that tension? I choose to live in it and let it teach and shape me. Actually, I find the tension – the paradoxes of life – to be the place I live most joyfully and humbly.
I want to point out that being a Christian doesn’t mean having all the answers on how to resolve the tensions and conflicts of life, contemporary or historical, although I think many Christians give the impression that this is the case. What it does mean, and what the Bible is overwhelmingly clear about, is that the seeking is the important thing: asking questions, being intellectually and emotionally honest about our doubts, wrestling with them, living in the paradoxes, accepting that perhaps we will never have the black and white answers we seek.
Steven, you’ve hit on a very profound and much discussed topic, so profound that there is an entire theology around it and many tangent forms of thought and writing. It’s certainly not something that can be adequately addressed in this forum and certainly not by me. If you are interested in delving more deeply, check out Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell.
Brandon, Harry I didn’t post this article “to put Christ back into Christmas” or to make any claim that Christmas was just for religious celebration. As the articles you provided point out Brandon, the contemporary Christmas celebration is a mish-mash of customs and traditions pulled from various religious traditions. I, for one Christian, could take it or leave it. This is why I pointed out that for Christians, the celebration – the reflection, the meditation – should be a daily thing. There really are people who seek to live the way Jesus demonstrated for us in every area of their lives, every day. We are not waging a culture war or seeking any privilege; we’re just living our lives, doing our best to be loving, merciful, compassionate, gracious, humble, generous, responsible and kind.
There is no “religious” dogma. Dogma is simply a prescribed doctrine, therefore, there is only dogma. If one believes certain things and lives a certain way, that’s dogma. Everyone has beliefs of some kind and lives accordingly, so everyone has dogma. The only way to be freed from dogma is to have and understand absolute truth and since we do not, dogma is essential to human existence. Our minds can not be freed from dogma any more than air can be freed of oxygen and still be air. In this sense, veganism is no different than Christianity or any other religion. It’s a way of living, based on certain beliefs, that achieves a certain result for certain reasons.
There ARE ways of living that are better for the world than others. This is why we claim that there is truth to our dogmas and everyone should subscribe to them. Veganism and Christianity share many of the same dogmatic values: Joy is better than sorrow, generosity is better than greed, mercy and compassion is better than violence, love is better than hatred, grace is better than judgement, honesty is better than lies, health is better than illness, forgiveness is better than revenge, etc.
The difficulty comes when we want others to adopt our dogma and try to force them to do so. That’s not to say that the dogma is bad nor our desire that others should also reap the benefits of living according to our dogma. It is good that we desire better lives for ourselves, others and the whole world. And yet, which of us, Christian or vegan, doesn’t try to do just that? Isn’t the whole motive behind our activism/evangelicalism, marketing and soapboxes nothing more than us trying to bring others around to our way of thinking and living, to our dogma? Atheists insist there is no god, Christians want atheists to believe there is a God. Vegans want omnivores to stop killing and eating animals, omnivores want vegans to kill and eat animals. It’s Dems vs. Republicans, young vs. old, male vs. female, city vs. country. All of our lives are us vs. them. All of life is dogma vs. dogma. The only question is which dogma we’ll choose, who or what we follow, and that choice will be based on what is in each individual human heart. This is a question with which Christianity is primarily concerned and which the life and way of Jesus seeks to address. Jesus claimed he had come to preach good news to the poor, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for captives (all captives), and release from darkness for prisoners, to comfort those who mourn, and bestow beauty and gladness, and replace despair and devastation with praise and renewal. THIS is the good news of Jesus: a free, abundant, enriching, joyful, giving, healed life.
Which is why we’re talking in shades of gray when we distinguish between religious enlightenment and a path to becoming a better person and living a more enriching and abundant life. They are the same thing because the point behind them both is to grow in love and compassion. If a difference exists it’s that religious enlightenment acknowledges the limitations of human ability to live this life by its own strength, knowledge and vision and claims a source of help outside of our own efforts. This has been my own experience in my life which is why I’ve chosen the way of Jesus.
Thanks everyone for your comments. I just love these conversations! Even more, I love that I’m among some great and wonderful company who are truly loving, compassionate people and growing ever more so.
Happy New Year everyone!