That Cra-zay Jesus

So many things are on my mind right now. I'm having a sort of reigniting of my passions--for God, for the Kingdom, for radically loving others--for the Gospel. And I'm really grateful for it. It's too much to write about in a little blog entry. Really, I'm not totally sure I have words yet for what God is doing with me right now. But I feel like it's a definite igniting of some sort. And I think it will probably take me some places that are uncomfortable for me...but I am still feeling like this is a very good thing.

One of the themes of the Christian life that I'm coming back to now in a new way, and which has come up for me over and over through the years, is the idea that following Jesus makes us do so many things that are counter-intuitive and make no sense apart from the reality of the Gospel. Jesus is such a subverter of how we view everything in this world.

And the mainstream American "Christianity" is really bugging me lately. Not that it hasn't always bugged me, but it's bugging me in a new way. But I'm not just being critical of the ambiguous them outside myself. I am really aware of how complicit I am in that whole structure. No, I don't give a f*ck whether you say "Merry Christmas", "Happy Holidays", or "Go blow yourself." I am not complicit in that way. Rather, it is just so easy for me to be comfortable. It's easy for me to find friends who are like me. It's easy for me to love other people when I'm feeling up to it, and then only according to my terms. It's easy for me to love those who love me.

But Christianity is so SO SOOOOOOOOOOO not that. Following Jesus doesn't mean being uncomfortable for the sake of being uncomfortable. That's stupid, and it's just idolizing discomfort. But it does mean that as a rule I look out for the needs of the people I encounter, above my own comfort. It does mean that I welcome and love people who don't often get welcomed and loved in this world. It does mean that with some of the people I hang out with, it makes no sense that we should even know each other, much less love each other. It means that I love my enemies in real, concrete ways. I know this is nothing new to any of us who follow Jesus. On paper, in my brain, in a sermon, it's really not that big a deal. But actually doing it...that is where all sorts of CRAZY stuff happens. Crazy Jesus stuff.

When I was going to All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena (the church that was getting investigated by the IRS a few months ago because they were mentioning politics in the pulpit) I remember the preacher saying that when someone looked at the life of a Christian, it shouldn't make sense. There should be things about the life that, apart from the truth of the Gospel, seem totally odd and ridiculous. I am not sure I have that life now. But I want that life.