Jesus Wants the Rose

Christians have often been accused of being angry. High atop our ivory towers, we look down on a wicked world and loudly proclaim their condemnation from above. This accusation has been a grievously common summation of how the rest of the world perceives followers of Christ like me.

And, in an honest confession, I’ll admit that I am angry. I am angry at the individuals who look at my friends and neighbors in disgust and who do so in the name of Christ. Like Chandler, I am angry at the people who would plug their nose and declare to the person living in the slums, “You’re filthy” and then turn on their heels and walk away. Christ spent his life living amongst the “un-desirables” of his culture, inviting crude, unkempt shepherds to cuddle him at his birth, befriending prostitutes and corrupt city officials and uneducated fishermen, and even welcoming a bloody criminal to join him in paradise as he hung naked on a cross. Who would’ve wanted a relationship with these people? Jesus did. That’s the point of the Gospel. Jesus said it best, “it is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick”. The problem is that all of us were broken and dirty and barely getting by in the slums, and Christ came to bear the punishment for our misdeeds so that we could have a relationship with God. He saw us in the mess we were in, and because he loved us, he climbed into our messed up world and died for us, while we were still sinners.

I was the battered, broken, worthless rose. I had nothing to offer. But Christ wanted me anyway. And truth be told, we were all in that very same condition. And, yeah, I get angry sometimes. I get angry whenever someone bearing the title “Christian” takes a broken, tattered, wasted life and says, “Who would want this?” The Christian should know best – Jesus does. And, in my moments of heated, righteous anger, I look at those poisonous hypocrites who misrepresent the Christ that I love and I turn to Jesus in disgust and demand, “Who would love these people?” And Jesus simply responds, I do. 

Jesus is an Elephant...?

http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/224128/april-09-2009/bart-ehrman?xrs=share_copy

If you checked out the video from the link above (and I hope you have), then you saw an interesting dialogue between funnyman Colbert (apparently a devout Catholic), and agnostic scholar Erhman (formerly a Christian theologian!).

Erhman is professor at UNC Chapel Hill, just down the road from my seminary, and I have several friends who studied New Testament under him during undergrad. He's not just a smart man, he's a really really smart man. And in this interview with Colbert, he certainly makes several points worth considering if one is going to claim to "follow Jesus". How do we know the Bible, and what is says about Jesus, is true? Who of us hasn't asked or encountered this question before?

Erhman points out that the four gospels give differing perspectives Jesus' crucifixion, and he also mentions that the first three gospels don't claim that Jesus is the son of God. What Erhman does not acknowledge, however, is the degree of similar and repeated material between the gospels. They all chronicle his birth, life, death, and relationships with disciples and friends in like ways. They repeat stories that occurred throughout his ministry, and they connect to the Old Testament in a way that the public would have recognized at the time. Not only that, but as the gospels make Old Testament references, they expect that their readers will recognize this as a claim that Jesus is the messiah, or the son of God, that Israel has been waiting for. So, these four books by written by four men at four times have a lot in common. I would actually love to find a neutral reader to pick up the gospels, read through them, and tell me if they felt these books were telling the same story about Jesus or not. Any takers?

Colbert's response brings to light another logical reality - people tell stories differently because they interpret things uniquely. The parable of the four blind men and the elephant illustrates the point he's getting at. In fact, one may ask the question, shouldn't we be more worried if all four were exactly the same in every way? Because this would imply that the gospel writers had either gotten together first to decide on a story, or that they were repeating a potentially fictitious story that had been crystallized into a myth or parable. I don't know, but that's just a thought.

All this to say, I enjoyed the dialogue, particularly because Colbert is hilarious, but also because he is able to have a smart conversation with Erhman without getting offended, flustered, or perturbed. Conversations like this should happen more often, eh? Additionally, if you're interested in learning about how the Bible was put together, I recommend the book "Reinventing Jesus", which tackles head on the major issues that Erhman and other scholars have raised about the Bible. It's full of intelligent information but is written in a really down to earth way.

Maybe in the future Colbert will interview the Dahlia Lama or Bin Laden, and then I'll really have something to blog about.

Welcome to the Table

  There is something about the dinner table that brings people together. Something about breaking bread with others helps us to open up and engage in better, richer conversation. I don’t know what it is, but I know it’s true, enough so that when I want to get to know someone and build a connection of friendship, I invite them over for dinner. Over dinner, I can offer a guest my (very) sweet tea and we can relax over a good meal and enjoy talking with one another. That’s part of my motivation for starting this blog. Recently, I’ve been having a lot of conversations with people about who Jesus is. If you know me, then hopefully you know that I’d say I have an actual interactive, influential relationship with Jesus. So, I’ve loved having the chance to talk with all kinds of people (some who are Christians, some who aren’t) about this man, Jesus, who has changed my life. Jesus enjoyed breaking bread with people too. He was known for going to the houses of notorious rebels and outcasts in his society, and for sitting down with them to share a meal in their own home. Jesus knew that at the table he could talk to people in a real way.

  This is a model that I’d like to follow. As I’ve gotten to talk with different people about who Jesus is, I’ve wished every time that I could follow up our conversation by having them over for dinner and talking some more. Unfortunately, I’m at a place in life right now where many of these friends are scattered across the country and across the world, and most don’t have the means to hop on a 12 hour flight to come over for a bowl of Chili and some corn bread (they also most likely know that my cooking wouldn’t be worth the trip). So, this blog is my Plan B. I want to invite friends here to engage in a conversation with me, to hear about the Jesus that I know and to hopefully respond via e-mail, phone, Facebook, Skype, or the next time they see me in person. Most of all, I hope for this blog to be a conversation, not a personal exercise in venting or a one-way monologue.

  So, consider this your invitation to dinner. I hope you feel comfortable responding, sharing, and engaging with me in conversation here. And most of all, I hope you feel welcomed.