God’s grace is never limited to a particular race or religion.

God has chosen all the world for friendship. It is a friendship that is discovered not in doctrinal formulas or creedal statements but in the act of loving others.

The ramifications of this realization are enormous.

Everyone can think of non-Christian people we know or have read about who are far more "Christian" than most folk in the church. I meet them frequently and I am convinced that they are as chosen for the friendship of God as I am.

I often think of a wonderful story told by Dr. Ed Steimle of a Jewish tailor he knew in New York who forgave his Nazi brother-in-law and in so doing revealed the Christ in a unique and powerful way, a way that Pastor Steimle had rarely seen among his own Christian community.

The Swiss psychotherapist, Karl Rahner, spoke of those outside the church who act in such Christ-like ways as being "Anonymous Christians", an appellation that embraces the truth that Christ appears in the most unorthodox of manners.

Such appearances, of course, are what led to his murder and continue to do the same today.