Lauren Winner has written an appealing little book about how Judaism can influence Christian practice. Brought up Jewish, Winner has converted to Christianity. Her conversion though, hasn't wiped her memory of her Jewish background, or prevented her from determining where Jewish practice might well inform and deepen Christian practice. Written as a first-person account, the book isn't really biography as much as personal observation. One of her observations involves the Jewish use of a Mezuzah to mark a house or room as that of an observant Jew. She parlays that into re-using a junk sign affixed to her door to indicate to all passers-by that in her house lives a Christian.
What might happen if believers took their faith from inside their homes to the trim of their homes? Might it embolden us to live lives outside that are more Christ like? Might it help us to become less afraid or self-conscious about our faith when speaking in public - assuming we could do so without being belligerent about it?
Winner has some other twists worth reading in her little tome, and it would be worth your time to check it out.
What do you know, my library has it and I placed a hold on it. It seems to be popular.
ReplyDeleteWouldn't it be nice if a sign told the world what I'm too nervous to say myself? I suppose we "normal" Christians have stuff like that... a cross or a fish... stuff I've secretly considered to be cheesy and not PC enough to be wagging about anywhere except at church. There is a Jewish couple I know who have a Hebrew placard on their front door frame. I wonderful if it's the one your book is talking about.
I have heard that it is difficult for a Jew to convert to Christianity because of their deep family heritage. They feel like they are set apart and are a chosen people and are proud of that. I imagine Muslims to have a similar identity... one that is strongly tied to their family's faith/ heritage and that penetrates their lives beyond the mosque.
I hope to develop a strong identity with my faith like that. One to where it is completely obvious to the people I meet that I'm a Christian... and proud of it.
I wonder what might happen if Christians took their faith as their identity rather than the myriad of other things that seem to cloud our view.
ReplyDeleteIf being a God-follower, or rather a co-reconciler with God was the most defining aspect of our being, how would that change what we do?
And why wouldn't we be proud to be such?
This is why I was tempted to have Violet baptized as a baby. I wanted her to feel like a child of God from the beginning. You know that jailer who Paul baptized after being released from prison? His whole household was baptized that very day! All together! It was the family's new identity! I want Violet to have that same sense of identity. I want to welcome her into God's family as a child and teach her about our heritage as Christians. I want her to identify herself as a Christian from her earliest memories and to feel like she can't separate herself from that truth. In the end, the CofC in us caused us to settle for dedication and not baptism. (Didn't want to rock the boat) However, I plan to make a big deal out of her dedication. I'll write about it in her baby book and I'll tell her about it when she's older. Perhaps I'll even through a party. Then, when she's older and feeling broken and feeling like she wants to identify herself as a Christian, I hope she will choose to be baptized as a believer.
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