Are You a Christian?

Forgive me dear reader, this article may not be what you expect. There are too many writers of glossy paperbacks who omit the undeclared subtitle: How to be  a Real Christian like me (i.e. the author). This is not like that.

When we die and meet our Lord, He will not ask: Are you a Christian?, but instead Do you love me?. And by that He will not mean do you believe that He was born of a virgin, or that His mortal body ascended into heaven. He made it absolutely clear what loving Him means: If you love me you will keep my commandments. He made these clear too: quoting the Old Testament Summary of the Commandments and adding with all your mind to heart, soul and strength and also adding (subsequently) a New Commandment that you love one another. By the way, it has occurred to me recently that we never put it into the first person and say I love you with .... Perhaps we should! Certainly, given His addition of with all your mind we should give time to thinking about how to love God with every ounce of our being. I will leave that to you dear reader as I must, but recent experiences make me want to explore further the second and third commandments.

Love your neighbour as yourself. The story of the Good Samaritan tells us who our neighbour is, and elsewhere, especially in the parable of the sheep and the goats, it is made perfectly clear that we are to love these least and in so doing we shall minister to Christ Himself. I have been studying Saint Francis  and he well understood what is required. According to Francis, not only was justice due even to evil-doers, but justice must be preceded by courtesy as by a herald. Courtesy,  in the saint's understanding, was the younger sister of Charity and one of the qualities of God Himself, Who of His courtesy, he declares, gives His sun and His rain to the just and the unjust. This habit of courtesy Francis ever sought to encourage in his disciples. Whoever may come to us, he writes, whether a friend or a foe, a thief or a robber, let him be kindly received .

Love one another as I have loved you. Jesus was talking to His disciples and followers.  It is, therefore, simply not allowed for any group in any church to to despise or think ill of any other church, person or group. And more widely than that: anyone who claims to believe in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour, whatever "make" of church they find conducive, should be able to count on our love. Of course we may be saddened if one such appears to us not to have been fully melted by the love of God and then we should pray fervently that they are and soon, but please, we are not allowed to say he or she is not a christian because they do not conform to our particular set of experiences. Saint Francis heard a voice from the crucifix in Saint Damian's chapel near Assisi. John Wesley had his heart strangely warmed hearing some words of Luther's read. Both can be said to have saved The Church Universal (The Body of Christ) in their respective times. In our own time some individuals continue to have single life changing experiences, others can point to no particular "conversion" date but continue in faithful service. Some seek the ministry of The Holy Spirit, others meet the Risen Christ in Holy Communion. All usually succeed in avoiding the more obvious sins, but we are all susceptible to The Sin of blindness and lack of compassion. And we need frequently to remind ourselves of what The Commandments actually mean.

The Church had not split in the time of Francis and it was due to his unfailing courtesy that it did not as a result of his intervention. As we enter the Third Millennium since the birth of Jesus, we should seek to answer Our Lord's prayer that we should be One. And, since we all like Christmas, we can thank Saint Francis for the invention of The Crib Scene and indeed Nativity plays. Luther provided Away in a Manger which brings tears to many eyes when little ones sing it. And  Wesley's Covenant Service is a wonderful way to make the Fresh Start, the world and The Church certainly needs.