December 2020

Advent is the ideal time for Jesus followers of all political persuasions and partisan alliances after this difficult election cycle and in the midst of the lingering pandemic to set aside our differences, coming together in unity to reflect the mind and heart of Christ. To experience the new this Advent season, to find our “next,” we must let go of the old. Old habits and ways of thinking must be replaced with new. The “mindset” and “attitude” of Christ Jesus that the Apostle Paul described to the Philippians must supersede our own prejudices, presumptions and partisan ideologies.

In another one of Paul’s letters, he reminded the Christians in Ephesus about the necessity of renewed thinking: You were taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness (Ephesians 4:22-24). What is remarkable about this admonition is that it may have been written from a Roman prison cell. Paul knew how to practice what he preached.