I was in Munich with my wife recently on a short city break… and while we were there they were getting geared up for Advent and their famous Christkindlmarkt. All over the place you could see nativity sets of all styles, sizes and sorts… Some were for sale, others were simply for decoration and/or devotion. Most of them had the usual suspects visiting Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus… angels, shepherds, and wise men with their strange gifts… but there was also an assortment of animals on display… sheep and lambs, brought in from the hillside by the shepherds, the cattle whose manger was commandeered as a cradle, the ever present donkey, a camel or two, which had presumably carried the wise men from the east, and on two occasions, elephants…
Now maybe you’ve been reading a different version of the Bible from me, but I’ve never read ANYTHING about elephants in Bethlehem… Although actually, if you read the gospel accounts in Luke and Matthew there are no mentions of camels either, or sheep or cattle, or even the ever present donkey in the stable where Jesus was born… Actually there’s not even any mention of a stable… but we’ll leave that for another day.
But if the sheep, or the camels can be there… why not an elephant? Because scripture tells us that Jesus came not only to save human beings… but the whole of creation… Indeed Paul tells us that the whole of creation is waiting in eager expectation for the sons of God, Jesus Christ and those who have been adopted into God's family through faith in him, to to come into their inheritance… (Romans 8: 18-21).
The whole of creation (elephants included) is straining on tiptoes to catch a glimpse of the coming Kingdom... and given the mess that we have made of it you would understand the eargerness...
(Another duly amended "Just a Moment" broadcast on downtown yesterday)
(Another duly amended "Just a Moment" broadcast on downtown yesterday)
Comments
The whole concept of a male God and his son wasn't novel to the world when stories of Jesus began to appear.
Most religions contain a male God of anger who speaks to his peole via his son. It's funny that our "one and only God" chose the same route.
Even funnier is the unoriginal nature of Jesus himself. Around 3000BCE the ancient Egyptians had a SUN GOD trinity of "Atum,(father) Horus,(Son) and Ra Holy Spirit???
The Egyptian book of "vivifying the soul forever" Jesus appears to be a mere carbon copy of Horus.
Both are said to be the "light of the world,the way the truth and the life everlasting.????
Also they are the good shepherd.????
Children of virgins????
Associate them with a cross and refer to them as Christ?????
Claim that they initiate their education at the age of 12????
and have 12 followers.
I understand that the comparison with other gods includes Hercules,Attis,Isis,Dionysos,Mithras,
Osis,Hermes,Prometheus and Perseus they all include sacred meals,fasting,wise men,temporary deaths,celestial births,virgin mothers,divine fathers,why is Jesus's origin so pathetically unoriginal?
Finally,Jesus's existence has not been historically established.No contempory documents of the event, no archeological proof, nothing certain exists today to attest to the truth.
No tomb,no shroud,except I read a sepulcher invented in 325 by St Helena,mother of Constantine. She also dicovered Golgotha? and the "titulus" wonderful woman don't you think.
Then there is the Turin cloth,which carbon-14 dating has situated in the 13 century CE and which onlya miracle could have wrapped around Christ's corpse more than a thousand years earlier?????
What exactly is this costruction named Jesus????
Regards Snauzer.