The Guide, OR Who Did Jesus Come For?

In Budapest, she took up her little banner and led us from the bus to the patriotic Hero's Square, and began. At once, we realized that our guide was NOT politically neutral, intended to hit LOTS of "hot buttons", and was passionately patriotic.

As we toured squares and churches, we asked each other, "I wonder what faith our guide holds?"  Bit by bit, while  we weighed the conversation, she talked about the decline of the church, and the heritage days of shamanism. Soon, our opinion began to firm. 


From a Catholic family, raised during the strictest days of Communism, never much to practice Catholicism, intensely patriotic with a love for Hungary's older heritage..........she had a deep respect for shamanism. And what religious element survived, within her materialism, was that ancient connection to the shaman.

The individual and community spiritualism in Hungary that endured the barbarians, the Huns, the Romans, the Turks, the Holy Roman Empire, the Nazis, the Communists, and now endured modern materialism took the shape of the "old reliable" and surfaced in her conversations.

She might only pray when she needed to, but when that happened, it seemed clear that it would be in the framework of the old gods. 


In our time, the football coach might say: "We gonna dance with who brung us." In every time, people go with who and what they trust. In our culture, materialism seems to be winning the day, with a polite nod to the Christian vocabulary, but material to the bone! In a culture, like Hungary (or ours!), that has been tossed from one set of absolutes to another, one of the systems will win.


So, the question: for her, who has every good reason to trust nothing OTHER than shamanism, does God turn away from her or still do His very best to love HER? She'll never use the LANGUAGE of either church or mosque, because she doesn't trust either one. 


BUT..........................................
And Jesus said: "I have other sheep not of this fold..........."
A very provocative short statement in John's Gospel............................ including WHO?

Judge? Nope. Just do my best to walk by the light given to me.......................


Jesus was born in Bethlehem FOR?   God so loved the WORLD that He gave His Son......  The whole world, all of it, in all its varieties and differences.  God loves the people who don't trust Him, just yet, because they've not seen a trustworthy DISCIPLE.  I wonder how God feels about that?


And I wonder if this is not the BIGGEST question for disciples .................... am I being trustworthy in the sight of those around me??????  Not really "Who's right?" and "Who's wrong?"  But.......do I show Jesus in a trustworthy fashion?


Blessings for Christmas, the gift that's still mysterious!