We have just entered the season of the church calendar known as Epiphany which began January 6th. This is when we are meant to celebrate the revealing of Jesus as God. We rejoice in the fact that through his entry into human history Christ’s lordship over all creation is revealed, made manifest and unveiled. We are also reminded that Christ is still present among us as a messenger of hope for all peoples and we are encouraged to embrace God’s call to “come and see, come and follow, go and tell others” about the God who loved us so much that he sent his son to live amongst us.
One question I have pondered this morning as I browsed through some of my favourite blogs was “What does it mean to go and tell others?” For many evangelical Christians telling others about the good news of the gospel means evangelism, which is certainly an important way in which we communicate the good news of God. But there are other ways too in which through our words and actions we make people us of God’s message of freedom, justice and love.
We tell it through our decisions about how to spend and even to invest our money. Ethical or socially responsible investing is becoming more popular amongst Christians but I find that may of my friends have never even heard of it. As Andy Wade commented this morning on my last post, where we invest our money and where we speak out against injustice can have a huge impact on life for the poor and on our witness for God’s kingdom. I was horrified when I discovered that most jewelry is made from gemstones (not just diamonds) whose purchase finances war. Eugene Cho has a great article on this today. My friend Greg Valerio in the UK has started CRED jewelry as an ethical jewelry firm to address this problem. This he sees as part of his Christian witness
I believe that bearing witness to the the good news of Jesus Christ challenges all of us to educate ourselves about the world around us and how our actions contribute to what I call the anti shalom forces that are at work around us. During this season of Epiphany I would challenge all of us to “come and see, come and follow, go and tell others” the good news that Jesus Christ has come into our worl. “Your throne O God, will last for ever and ever, a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom.” (Psalm 45:6)
Filed under: Christianity, Fair Trade, Kingdom of God, Poverty, Religion, spirituality | Tagged: Christianity, epiphany, ethical investing, Fair Trade, jewelry, Justice, Kingdom of God
[...] to respond to that revelation like the Magi did by coming to Him and manifesting Him to others. As Christine Sine put it in her blog (as a side note for those of you who enjoy reading blogs I highly recommend hers, [...]