Gleanings – Embracing the End of Christendom
Advent 1, December 6, 2012
I Thessalonians 3:1-13
“You yourselves know that this is to be our lot.”
Who knew that nearly 2000 years later we would find ourselves in the same place! Suffering and rejection is our lot.
Many at are a loss to explain our condition but it is actually quite simple. The age of Christendom is closed. The post-Christian era has begun. This does not mean faith is failing. It certainly does not mean the Father is not upon His throne. It means that people, mostly western people, are no longer born into culture that assumes Christianity binds us together.
It is simple to explain but not simple to accept. No one likes to play second fiddle. No one compete for that chair in the band. Christians are not exempt. What do you mean we are a minority? What do you mean we no longer reign in the halls of power?
Simple to explain it is. Easy to accept it is not. But we need to get over it and get back to the work of advancing the Kingdom one person at a time apart from the crutch of a culture that accepts Christianity as a foregone conclusion. Get over it indeed. “You yourselves know that this is to be our lot.”