Greetings Dear Reader,
I would like to consider a word in context for a bit. The word is Jesus. We hear often that this word is unwelcome in
our culture. That is not quite
true. One may say Jesus all he or she
wishes as long as it is an expletive or if one is complaining about Christians. If, however, I wish to speak to you about
Jesus, the Son of God, I am somehow being improper.
That alone is a difficulty.
Jesus is a name you will have to deal with in the latter context
eventually whether you wish it or not.
That is not my focus here. Since
we are discussing context, I wish to remain in the context of our primary topic;
clear vinyl slipcovers. You see, we have
put Jesus into a clear vinyl slipcover.
Not just theologically but socially, we have defined Jesus in our
culture. We do not all define him the
same but I am concerned with some of the definitions his follower put on
him.
The entire idea of reaching a definitive understanding of
who Jesus is boggles my mind. I may be
able to articulate some of my understanding of who Jesus is. That articulation, however, is limited to my
ability to express things as a flawed human.
Let us consider a few of the ways in which we have turned Jesus Christ,
Son of the Living God into Buddy Christ.
In some churches, Jesus is nothing more than the Djinn from Aladdin’s
Lamp. Prayer is our lamp rubbing and
wish-making. We think we can name it and
claim it and Jesus is our all providing Amazon minus the pay button. Instead of obeying the command for God to
provide all of our needs we use him as the granter of all our wants and then
blame him when we do not get it.
Another aspect of our Buddy Christ treatment of Jesus is that
he is more like a vinyl doll in a box to us.
He sits in church waiting for us to show up and sacrifice a couple of
hours of our weekend to visit him. We
sing and dance, telling all our fellow believers that we love him and he loves
us. We shout amen and waver our hands. Then we curse at the guy in the parking lot
who cuts us off and argue with those in our car over where to go for
lunch. To some of us, Buddy Christ is
nothing more than the smiling, thumbs up image of our idolatrous dogma. We think we are the ones who sacrifice something
by showing up at the Jesus museum we call church.
We have placed Jesus in some cases into the role of being
too human. We must never forget that he
is also completely and definitively God, the Creator. Although this is something else I struggle to
comprehend, Jesus is completely human and completely divine all at once. We cannot contain him in the clear vinyl
slipcover of our casual uses of him.
That is the true definition of taking the name of God in vain. That is the act of using God for our own
purposes Dear Reader.
None of the things I have said are wrong in the proper
context. It is good to ask Jesus to
provide for our needs. It is awesome to
stand together, shout, dance, sing, and praise.
All of these things must be in the context of recognizing that we are
interacting with the one who sacrificed all for us because he would rather die
than live without us. It is even OK to
picture Jesus smiling and giving us a thumbs up like the vinyl Buddy Christ
doll on occasion. We can do that in
those moments when for an instant we grasp the depth of his love for us and
everyone else and employ that love in faith and following. In those rare moments, he is both God and our
buddy, but there is no vinyl to any of it.
What I must do is treat Jesus like the friend he truly is. I must see that he is with me in every moment
loving, supporting, correcting, and guiding me.
He is constantly there to ask that I love him and my fellow travelers
with all that I am. In the moments where
I succeed I do not need a thumbs up because the act of following provides its own reassurance.
Playing
Marbles with Diamonds – Steve Camp
Waking up to a very different world
We got mud on our flag before it’s even been unfurled
Our heroes have fallen and a leader is hard to find
The clock is running out and we’re casting our pearls before
swine
There’s a whole lot more than preaching to the choir
Kneeling at the altar and paying our tithe
We’ve been treating God like he’s happiness for hire
We’ve been playing marbles with diamonds
Isn’t it a sin how his name gets thrown around
We pat God on the back like a buddy from out of town
We thank “the man upstairs” for the things people praise us
for
We give God the glory but we’re happy to take the award
There’s a whole lot more than raising lots of money
Building our churches and spreading our faith
If faith is just the dice you roll to get lucky
We’ve been playing marbles with diamonds
There are precious things of God
And we must guard them with our lives
Like an unborn baby’s dreams
Like a husband love his wife
May the hope of his returning
May it glorify our faith
As we hold onto his holy word
May the chaff be blown away
Can we ever live up to the things we say we believe
Because the world is watching looking for some honesty
Are we riding down a freeway instead of a narrow road
We turned the passion for the lost into the business of
saving souls
There’s a whole lot more than preaching to the choir
Kneeling at the altar and paying our tithe
We’ve been treating God like he’s happiness for hire
We’ve been playing marbles with diamonds
There’s a whole lot more than raising lots of money
Building our churches and spread
If faith is just the dice you roll to get lucky
We’ve been playing marbles with diamonds.
Wishing you joy in the journey,
Aramis Thorn
Mat 13:52 So Jesus said to them, "That is why every
writer who has become a disciple of Christ’s rule of the universe is like a
homeowner. He liberally hands out new and old things from his great treasure
store.”
(͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
Contacts for Aramis
Thorn:
Bookings: aramisthorn@aramisthorn.com
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