Celebrating Christmas and Witnessing for Christ
Progressive Christian Version
How do we serve as witnesses to Christ’s love on Christmas? For many Evangelicals and Fundamentalists Christians that looks like trying to convert people to accepting a specific narrow form of Christianity and a long list of beliefs. However, how do those of us who have rejected Fundamentalist and Evangelical Christianity and who do not believe in a deity that sends people to burn in hell for arbitrary reasons such as not believing the “right” things, interpret verses about serving as witnesses for Christ?
While proselytizing is no longer a key aspect of my faith, I do believe in sharing Christ’s love through my actions. Not to “convert” other people into Christians. Since rejecting the idea of a cruel, manipulative God who sends individuals to be tortured for not ascribing to a set of highly debatable theological beliefs, I no longer feel the need to try and force people into accepting Christianity as the only “true” religion.
Instead, I am interested in a world where violence is a thing of the past and where all human beings throughout the world can live freely and joyfully without worrying about imprisonment, death, or oppression. I long for a world where even though we disagree, we still care and advocate for one another. For me, my faith is what nourishes my thirst for justice.
To be sure, there are plenty of atheists and agnostics who do not need any type of faith in a deity to advance their concern for social justice. And I celebrate and honor these folks. But for me, my faith is what animates me and inspires me to continue advocating for a more just world, especially when despair threatens to overtake me.
Witnessing for Christ today means taking tangible steps to advocate for a world where people of all ethnicities, sexual orientations, gender identities, religious traditions, or lack thereof, can exist and thrive. It means pushing back against the values of empire: values that seek to ensure that the majority of people remain in poverty, that state that the wealthy are blessed and favored by God, and which seek to create a world that divides people into “worthy” and “unworthy” lives
For Christians, Jesus’ birth is the story of God’s incarnation, of God becoming one with humanity. It is the beginning of God contradicting the values and systems of empire. It is also the beginning of God’s promise of being with us, of co-creating a just world. Too often Jesus’ birth, life, death, and resurrection are conflated and reduced to “fire insurance.”
For many Christians, the sole purpose of Jesus’ existence is to ensure a select group of individuals avoid spending an eternity burning in hell. Other Christians add an earthly dimension: Jesus saved us from hell in the afterlife and wants us to be wealthy and rich in the here and now. Both interpretations of the gospel are distortions and provide fodder for various forms of abuse and manipulation. These interpretations reinforce empire values, rather than contradict them.
However, the gospel calls us to protest and push back against empire, whether it’s the Roman Empire of Jesus’ times or the very many empires of today that exist to reinforce oppression. The gospel is not just for some faraway future nor is it about amassing individual wealth, instead it is about a collective liberation for all in the here and now. It is about freedom from the powers and principalities of this world that continue to reinforce a cycle of violence.
Jesus’ birth continues the long tradition of God reaching out to humanity and yearning to give us abundant life, not necessarily material wealth but one where all are taken care of, where no one is hungry or destitute.
As Christians, we witness for Christ best when we put aside our egos, reject the idea that we have to force others to accept our version of faith, and instead focus on building coalitions to create a more just world. Christmas is a recognition of a God who becomes one of us to show us a different way of living- a way of living that is filled with hope, that challenges systems of oppression, and that shows us a new way of being.
Image: silhouette of baby Jesus in a manager and a woman, perhaps his Mother Mary, kneeling before the baby. Text: As Christians, we witness for Christ best when we put aside our egos, reject the idea that we have to force others to accept our version of faith, and instead focus on building coalitions to create a more just world.