Love shall be our token;
love be yours and love be mine;
love to God and others,
love for plea and gift and sign.
(Love Came Down at Christmas, verse 3)
My late father-in-law had an interesting way of talking about the church. He described it as having a center with no circumference. The center is Jesus Christ and the lack of a circumference represents a diminished concern for walls and barriers that would keep people in or out.
My religion professor at Central Michigan University, Rev. Dr. Bruce Epperly, includes in his book, Praying with Process Theology: Spiritual Practices for Personal and Planetary Healing, this statement:
As a wise teacher, once stated, “God is a circle whose center is everywhere and whose circumference is nowhere. God’s love encircles our lives and embraces our yesterdays, todays, and tomorrows to bring healing to us and the world.”
In Australia’s vast outback it is impractical for ranchers to build fences to keep their cattle from wandering away. Instead they just dig watering holes, since they know the cattle won’t wander far away from their sources of life (Andrew Ross, as quoted by John Longhurst, Winnipeg Free Press, March 2005) (Jack Heppner, retired educator; Edgework blog). The same concept is explored in a business setting here: https://www.firedupculture.com/the-waterhole-vs-the-fence/.
This is a challenging concept for our faith and our understanding of how and why the Church grows. What if God has established such a compelling and nourishing center of love in Jesus Christ that we can direct our attention to that center more than the fences that we think we need?
Love Came Down at Christmas is a beautiful hymn. While it emphasizes the downward movement of Christ, that love also awakens love in our hearts and communities and congregations, and moves all around the world even turning it upside down as Nick Springsteen, our Missions Team Chairperson consistently tells us.
Christ is both the boundless expression of God’s love for and in the world and the center in which we all can gather for strength to love.
May we be drawn to Christ this Christmas and sent out to love. Merry Christmas.