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Female Red-Bellied Woodpecker
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Thoughts on nature and the Christian faith - 4/5/22
"And in Antioch the disciples were first called Christians." - Acts 11:26
This is a female red-bellied woodpecker, a favorite visitor on our property. These woodpeckers, however, are poorly named. Their bellies have a faint touch of orange, not red, and the only red is on their heads. They should be called red-headed woodpeckers, but that name was already taken. Sometimes names can be misleading. The same thing can be said of the name Christian. Jesus never called his followers Christians. He used the name disciples. In fact, the name Christian came from others and could very well have been a term of derision. But eventually the followers of Jesus began to refer to themselves as Christians instead of the earlier designation as people of the Way. The Bible often uses the word saints, or the church, or the elect. Today, calling someone a Christian can mean almost anything. To some, the term has more to do with political positions or to bigotry and narrow-mindedness than to allegiance to Christ. If Jesus were here today, he probably would treat many so-called Christians the way he treated Pharisees in the first century, as hypocrites. It is time we redefined the word Christian. To be a Christian is to be one who believes in, and tries to emulate, Jesus. Can a Christian be a Democrat or an environmentalist or a pacifist or an advocate for racial and social justice? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. The Christian faith has to do with what you believe about the person of Jesus, not what you believe about countless other things that divide us. The church of Jesus Christ includes people of all races, languages, cultures, politics and opinions. If Jesus could befriend a tax collector as well as a zealot, a prostitute as well as the pious, the rich as well as the poor, the left-leaning and the right-leaning so should we. Being a Christian is not dependent upon the labels we might wear but by the One in whom we trust. - John
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