Born to Reproduce

If there are no ‘newborns,’ things cease to exist, don’t they? This goes for plants, animals, people, and people of faith!  

 

Many years ago, there was a religious group who were fervent in their Christian faith and lived isolated from the world as much as they could. 

 

They were called ‘Shakers’ because one of their religious rituals involved a sort of dancing that involved a very rhythmic shaking while they held a strict formation. They were known for moral purity and love for others; they became famous because their simple lifestyle, unadorned with fancy decorations, led them to design and build a type of furniture highly admired for its beauty and simplicity. Another characteristic they had was that they, as a group, were committed to a life of celibacy. Not only would there be no sexual contact among the group, but there would also be no newborn babies or children! As you can imagine, this caused all sorts of problems. Obviously, the group would slowly but surely, get older, with fewer and fewer young adults; finally, though, they would cease to exist, as there was no ‘birth replacement’ within the group. There would be a few that would continue to attend, and there were occasionally new families who joined this group. Still, the lack of births ultimately led to their demise. At last count, after more than 200 years since their inception, the group numbers less than an individual.

 

Without some form of reproduction, the group simply faded away!

 

Reproduction, interestingly, is part of God’s plan for all living things. 

He created all things: plants and animals, people, and groups, to reproduce. To reproduce is to bring life; to fail to reproduce is to invite death! 

 

This is true for all forms of life, including religious groups.

 

In the book of Acts in the Bible, there are multiple stories of individuals in the early church who had a burden to ‘reproduce’ in the faith. At one point, two disciples of Jesus, Peter, and John, were arrested for preaching the message of Jesus. The leaders couldn’t get away with killing them, but they wanted to stop their efforts to bring new people into the faith. They said they would let them go under the condition that they stop talking about Jesus. 

 

Their response was clear and very simple: “We cannot stop speaking what we have seen and heard.” In other words, they would ‘reproduce’ people of faith everywhere they went!

 

The rest is history:  Peter and John and most Christians proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus after that. At one point, a small group of disciples became one of the largest religious groups in human history – The Church!  

           

From the beginning, this was God’s plan: Jesus would be crucified and resurrected and form The Church from his followers. Then and forever after, members of the church would insistently share the message of Jesus and bring others into the faith. People would be ‘born into’ a relationship with Christ, and they, too, would take up the banner of Jesus.

           

Let us all take up this ‘banner’ of the cross. 

 

People everywhere need Jesus; we who know him can lead them to faith and everlasting life!

  

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Thank you for listening. We will see you next week.