more muppets and some Jesus

So its been a while since I have written.  There is so much swirling in my head these days, I don't know what I hold to, and I certainly don't know what to say/write.

I just came across this quote from Paul Williams (long time colaberator with the Muupets) about the Rainbow Connection:
"I think that was Jim (Henson)'s message.  I think Jim’s message was not that I’m special, but that you’re special."

This to me sums up what I am learning here at seminary.  Chrisitanity with all its doctrines and dogmas, all its creeds and creditentials, is basically about how we see the "other."

Do we see them as other, as alien, foreign to us until they speak rightly, act rightly, think rightly.  Is it only when criteria are met that we can fellowship with them?

Is the "other" the one without, the one in need, the marganilized, the one I have to help, because I have all the answers?  I must have all the answers, I seem to have all the resources... again do we have to make them like us before we can understand them?

Or is the other the one who is loved by God?

Is the other the one who is marked with sin and yet washed in His blood?  Is the other just like me?  Loved by God, yet feeling alone, confused and full of shame.  Does the other need the physical representation of God (you know the Church) to not just speak truth but show truth?  To accept their wounds, their dirt, their sin, their core.  To wash and heal, to bind and repair, but to do so without worrying how they got this way.

Is Christianity maybe not about me, but about you, and about how special you are?
For God so loved the Church the world that he gave his only son...

--Serving Him alongside all of you, just from further away
--Jesse Letourneau

full article