Doing some nativity research I came across an article from last year written about Tony Jordan, the writer of the BBC’s nativity programme from last year.
He says some interesting stuff and it confirms once again the truth that people are quite happy with Jesus but it seems they have issues with the church. I don’t agree that the church is responsible for twisting the story of Jesus but I do agree that to it’s shame the church has allowed some people in the past to use its message as a tool for gaining power over others – not Jesus’ way at all.
I also like the image of the preacher insisting you come into church and suffer the service after which he will let you have a glimpse of the Jesus in the bottle. I hope that isn’t the way I come across.
However, it does raise the point that Jesus was not given to the church but the church comes from Jesus. We don’t own Jesus and have exclusive rights to use his name. The church needs to learn to open its doors a little wider and open the bottle (as it were). We have been given a task and its main purpose was always to make Jesus known and not to become a hurdle that people need to climb over in order to find Christ. Sometimes it feels like the church is more concerned over protecting its copyright than getting Jesus into the public domain as it were.
Perhaps the greatest challenge for the church is to find a way to become the place people look for Jesus rather than being the last place people would choose to look. We can’t expect people to just accept this we must do all we can to make it happen.