Trying to follow

I don’t know that I have any profound Easter thoughts. The latest is that, with an 8 month old, I’m finding a lot of the sort of foundational, theological stories of my faith, to be well, hard to explain.

Someone gave us a book about Easter, and though like all her books, the kiddo has no idea really what I’m reading, I still find it a little hard to stomach. On the one hand, I think being able to communicate ideas and stories on a level that little children will understand is hugely important. High brow academics that speak in a way only other intellectuals can understand does not appeal to me at all. At the same time, I sometimes wonder if our attempt to communicate certain foundational truths to little kids, maybe causes them to be too watered down and lose the depth of their meaning.

Like, do you use Easter to tell kids about how there’s this dude named Jesus who was dead, but then he rose again, and walked around and wasn’t dead anymore? It’s a pretty crazy story, but then, so is Humpty Dumpty, amongst others. Could we just tell that story and leave it as it is, maybe for the kid to understand many more years down the road? It doesn’t seem like we think that’s a good option.

Instead, we communicate to kids from as early as they can comprehend, not just the story, but the theological meanings. We tell them they are sinners, we try and explain how Jesus dying and raising from the dead somehow has something to do with them being bad kids, but now they aren’t bad anymore, or something like that.

I think if we look to Jesus as an example, there was a whole lot of stories he told that he didn’t explain the meanings, though for most adults, a lot of the meaning was fairly obvious. I’m not saying we shouldn’t help kids to understand the details of the faith, I’m just having a hard time figuring out when.

I was talking to a friend the other day who teaches a little kids Sunday school class, and she was looking up Easter lessons to try and do. Disturbingly, she found bunches of lessons which involved kids actually participating in the crucifixion process. One lesson was to get bread and Cheeto’s and have the kids hammer the Cheeto’s into the bread thinking about how Jesus must have hurt when he was nailed to the cross. Are you kidding me?! I’m sure the lesson went on to discuss deep theological implications such as ’substitutionary atonement’ and other foundational truths, but in kid friendly language.

Personally, I’m starting to think I’d rather just talk about the Easter Bunny.

(These are thoughts in progress, stuff I haven’t considered before but a friend pointed out yesterday.)

As you might know I think the idea of redemptive violence is a myth, that you can not bring redemption and good through violent acts (good guy kills bad guy, all live happily ever after). I began to come to this understanding as I was reading my bible, particularly Jesus’ words and life, and couldn’t reconcile that with the ideas of war and violence in general accomplishing peace.

What I hadn’t thought about until it was pointed out yesterday to me, is how much of our theology espouses the idea of Redemptive Violence through the role of God (The Father, rather than Jesus). The idea that God is violent and vengeful and had to kill somebody for their sins, but fortunately Jesus took our place. It’s a theology of redemption coming through a violent act, at least on the part of God killing Jesus.

Anyways, I’m not sure what to do with these thoughts since so much of my own understanding of theology, Jewish culture prior to Christ coming and then what I see Jesus saying and living; all of it begins to conflict and create tensions.

I guess I just share that to put it out there and point out what I’ve been thinking about recently on a theological level. I haven’t developed any complete thoughts on the idea. There is a book, The Nonviolent Atonement, that was recommended that I’ll probably read sometime in the coming months before I try and make any major revelations…

“You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.” -Hebrews 10:34

I talk a fair bit about giving things away, living simply, sacrificially giving and living in a way so that others needs are met. I’m no where near the place I would like to be in that endeavor but I hope that I am making strides. However, verses like this spur me on and point out how far I have to go in my effort to follow Christ.

I’ve had a number of things stolen from me in my life (mainly bikes) and I must say, that for me, there is a marked difference between my stuff being stolen and me freely giving it to someone. Much of that difference is in my attitude about the situation and what my focus is on. I’m fascinated by the attitude and focus of the Hebrews written about above, who joyfully accepted losing their stuff. I am amazed by what a testimony that is to where their treasure and joy lies, even now reading it 2000 years later, I can’t imagine the testimony that must have been to those taking their property and others watching their decisions to choose love, community and fellowship over worldly possessions.

When I really start to reflect on this stuff, the persecution that they endured, the persecution people endure today (The Heavenly Man), and the lack of persecution I feel I’m encountered with in my surroundings, I’ve recognized something about it. I think I’ve tended to think in very pure terms about the persecution of the early church. I have a tendency to think that the persecution they received was very clearly because they where following Jesus:

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.”

However, I don’t think it was always as pure a case as we tend to think of it as. Jesus wasn’t crucified because he was the messiah and the Roman’s knew they had to fulfill the Scripture, he was killed for creating political unrest. The disciples likewise probably did not simply experience persecution because they choose to claim themselves as Christians, but also because of the actions and life choices that their following Christ lead them to.

I say all this to simply just acknowledge that I have a long way to go to be in a place where I can follow Christ to the degree that I’m willing for it to result in people taking my stuff and me being joyful about it. And I’m not at the point yet where I clearly understand that choices I make to follow Christ might result in persecution that might not have anything to do explicitly with what religious allegiances I have.

(for some reason I don’t think a lot of this made much sense. Oh well.)

At a community group I was at a few weeks ago we happened to be discussing the topic of ‘community’ (go figure). It was a really interesting conversation, and I’m looking forward to building relationships with the many people from our neighborhood that attend. At one point in the conversation an interesting topic came up.

Basically, someone had shared a story about opening their home to a stranger and that person had then taken advantage of the opportunity and stolen some things. The attitude of the community group was really encouraging to me for a number of reasons. First, though it seems pretty clear in scripture we are to share with those in need, it’s seems so rare that I hear about a person from church opening their home, so the story itself was encouraging to me. Secondly, the response from others seemed to encourage the decision and acknowledge that sometimes those things will happen, rather then say things that might discourage people from taking similar actions of opening their home.

All this made me think about the example of Jesus, who became close friends with a person he knew would betray him. There has to be some insight we can gain from that example. I don’t even think the person betraying Jesus being one of his disciples was prophesied previously (not that it really matters, but some people use that as an explanation of why it wasn’t a ‘choice’ and thus not something we should then follow as an example for ourselves).
The relationship of Jesus and Judas adds a whole new dimension to Jesus’ commands to “Love our Enemies.” It challenges in many ways the notion of ‘safety‘ that often taints our ability to follow Christ’s teachings to the full.

If your interested in investigating Jesus and Judas’ relationship with this particular idea in mind, here are all the verses in Matthew referencing Judas. Let me know what you discover.

No, this is not a satirical post about a Box for sale that you can put Jesus in (though that might be funny to write sometime), this is about a new feature on the site I’m going to be adding to posts called the ‘Jesus Box’ (and yes it is supposed to be a little funny). I plan on posting the ‘Jesus Box’ at the end of articles I write about that are about social issues amongst other things.

The intent of the ‘Jesus Box’ will be to provide a short paragraph trying to articulate Biblical support for the issue I happen to bring up. The audience for this is not just ‘Christians.’ What I’d like to do is provide primarily Bible verses and references so that those who follow Christ will see where and what it is in the faith that is motivating me toward certain issues.

I also hope that those who read my posts about social issues but don’t personally follow Christ’s teachings will read and use the information given in the ‘Jesus Box’ to challenge and hold Christians to the authority they claim to follow.

This is what a typical Jesus Box will look like:

Jesus Box (Biblical Reasons for why I’m doing what I do)
Let’s say we are talking about the environment, I might reference this verse:
Psalm 19:1-4: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world.”

Look for Jesus Boxes in future posts.