10 things they never told me about Jesus|| The religious reprobate

Jesus was continually up against the religious establishment of the day since it always seemed at odds with the intentions of the Kingdom of God. He subscribed to the former while trying to proclaim the latter. It was a continuous struggle. To start this off, I think John Bell says it best:

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"Where does his loyalty lie? With the institution of religion that has formed him, cradled the scriptures, nurtured generations of teachers and scholars, and wishes to remain unshaken? Or is he called to speak to and for those who are usually absent from the palaces of religion, whose experience of life is more of social injustice than spiritual security?" (63).

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People of faith are just as much about defying God as anyone else. Jesus' understanding of faith brings us to a place that encompasses our entire being-- spiritual, moral, intellectual and economic. Our being must be "laid open to the gracious amendment of God. Anything less is a partial faith for disintegrated people" (71).

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Where does your loyalty lie? Are you so caught up in the church because you feel safe and protected there? Is that where you have always been and you can't bear to leave because it will bring you out of your comfort zone? Are you surrounded by people that bring you down because they aren't fulfilling the Kingdom of God the way you think Jesus is calling us to? Is your religious establishment (not your church) taking the easy way out?

OR

have you stepped outside those four walls and attempted with every ounce of your being to fulfill the kingdom of God? Are you encouraging people, despite what others say, to stick with their faith and stick with God because you know the transformative power that God has in our lives? Are you exposing your entire being for the one who exposed his entire being for you?

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Are you going to be a part of "that which bears witness to the Savior of the world or that which indicates the continuing need of the world to be saved?" (61).

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Christian Family Values?

So, this could get all political and we could talk about Republicans and Conservatives.. or we could just stick to the Bible... Sound good? First, though, list the Christian Family Values you can think of... Now, figure out when Jesus talked about them..

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John Bell did a little experiment during one of his workshops as an attempt to discover Christian Family Values in the Bible. One group looked up values that Jesus looked towards that were of the patriarchs and ancestors. Another group looked to Jesus and his own family to see what was displayed there. The third group looked at what Jesus had to say about family values.

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Group 1 (Ancestral): Found things like David who had 700 wives and 300 concubines... Jacob who tricked his father into giving him his blessing... Abraham passed off his wife for his sister... Joseph, whose story is crammed with issues of jealousy...Moses who was a murderer and fugitive had a poor relationship with his wife... Well, it looks to me like we don't have many good examples in Jesus' ancestry to show what Christian family values really are...

Group 2 (Jesus' Family): First of all, there isn't much evidence in this section because the Gospels aren't so much a biography of his family life, so that already proves to be unhelpful. But let's look anyway. Joseph is (according to Matthew) a descendant of Abraham which could tell us why Joseph was so inclined to be a helpful caretaker to Jesus even when he almost divorced Mary for suddenly being pregnant. He was invited to be taken out of his comfort zone... as were so many of his ancestors. His relationship with his mom, Mary, was not ideal. I mean, when he snuck off to the temple his parents were worried but they were upset. He also turned on his mom at the wedding a Cana in a fit of exasperation. Someone comes to him (Luke 11:27b) to say, "Happy is the womb that carried you and the breasts that suckled you!" and Jesus is like, "That has nothing to do with it." So, what we see here isn't convincing that his family modeled the ideal family life.

Group 3 (Jesus' sayings): So, even if his ancestors and his family didn't model these values we're looking for, perhaps Jesus said something that was helpful to this conversation. (I'll give it to them anyway, they were all Jewish......... :]) In at least four instances, Jesus tells people that they will and should be rejected by their family if they follow him for nothing else should matter besides their following him (Matthew 10:21-22, Matthew 10:34-37, Mark 10:29-30). So does Jesus not value family responsibility? Not quite... I mean he asks the rich young man whether or not he honors his parents (Luke 18:20), and he warns against child abuse (Mark 9:42), AND he encourages honest confrontation and forgiveness (Luke 17:3)... So here are three values I suppose. He also enjoys being IN households, right? Lazarus, Susana, Joanna, Peter, etc. He likes being in community, and if a family is supposed to be a community, well then, there you have it. (Besides, family units were way different back then and there were several people in a house.) Jesus says nothing about relationships between same sex couples, male or female, but he does have a word to say about divorce... This is ONLY because someone asked him about marriage. Jesus tells them that a man cannot divorce his wife for any reason, but must be proven adultery. (And I would also say abuse, but women (most times) don't abuse their husbands, and the person asking asked about a man divorcing his wife... stupid superiority complex.) So, we don't really see anything of much value (no pun intended) here in Jesus' sayings.

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So then where do these values come from? Well, it doesn't help that a family in first century Palestine was much different from twenty-first century America. If we're going to take the Bible literally, then one-parent families would be the norm because the death rate there called for the average age of death to be 30. With this is mind, Jesus was not so concerned with all of these issues, but rather created a "family unit" of belonging. Jesus was continually inviting people into "a larger family that is defined by commitment to the Kingdom of God rather than bondage to ancestral tradition" (56). I think he would have been a proponent of the notion "it takes a village to raise a child." We are to be loved by our families, but are also to be in community with others. Marriage nor family life can be mandatory for all people... God calls us to different things.

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So Christian Family Values are a crock... right? The way we think of them today, yes. We all belong to each other and are called to take care of each other. Christ didn't have to say anything about specifics because it is enough to be living with and for each other, outside our family unites.

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"The encouragement that we receive from other people of faith should be a means by which our horizons are extended and the potentials unrecognized by our biological family are identified and affirmed" (57).

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Fully Equipped

So, the first chapter was about Jesus' genealogy, the second was about his birth... and in the life a Jewish boy, what comes next? Yes, that's right... circumcision. So this chapter was... well, I guess not so much about circumcision but about the fact that Jesus had genitalia, just like every other Palestinian boy. He was no different, and we know that because he was circumcised. For some people, this chapter would have been radical. Bringing up the idea that Jesus had a penis and the fact that he was a human, is just something people haven't ever really thought about. Since I would conclude that Jesus was "wholly divine and wholly human" I have no problem with this notion.

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However, let's think about this. We do not hear anything about Jesus' life from the time he is born until the time he is preaching in the temple (age 12ish) and then not again until his baptism (roughly 30ish). So, we don't know what he did... and people have assumed he became a buddhist and got his ego up to the point where he could just go and feel like he was the Messiah... others have assumed he was really BAD and that's why nothing is written in the Bible... others have written he was performing miracles when he was a teen... others have said he was out being a sexual being and a hormonal teen...

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Does it matter? This is one of those mysteries that I am fine to leave alone... We don't know what he did. I would assume he was a normal teenager. AND as discussed yesterday, no one knew he was coming into the world, so maybe they got the hype built up for his birth and then after that people sort of forgot about him, so then no one bothered to record his life. I can accept that answer. I don't know why it matters that we know what he did during those years. Since we can never know, we might as well not agonize over it, right? Maybe I'm just being pessimistic or "unscholarly" (funny, since I was just inducted into TAK, the National honors society for religion/theology yesterday....) But I really just don't feel like getting frustrated over it.

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Jesus was "fully equipped" and Jesus was a human and Jesus was wholly divine.

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Must we really know?

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| A birth, not a babyfest

Let's rethink Christmas shall we? Why do you like Christmas? What is it about Christmas that makes it Christmas? The songs? The giant creche? The pageants? the candles? What does it for you

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For most people, I think they would say the songs and the creche or maybe perhaps the candles and the calmness of the sanctuary at 11:58 when you have all finished silent night and are awaiting the blowing out of the candles. At least, that's what I would say. That calmness, to me, is the moment when I know God has been made present in the world. Well, John Bell thinks differently, and for good reason too.

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Before we go on, let me quote that which he says to help us understand first and foremost what Christmas is all about: "It is the time when the Creator of heaven and earth decides, out of love...to forgo the distance and safety of heaven in order to experience the risk and joy of life on earth in solidarity with humanity. This is God forgoing privilege... becoming one of the crowd and doing so in the person of a peasant girl's son" (27). I think this is something upon which we would all agree and do, to some extent, all recognize but can never put into words. With that said, let's carry on.

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Nativity plays: These are just calling for havoc, right? You have all of these kids participating in it running around as donkeys and sheep and angels and shepherds and magi and mary and joseph... But guess what? Kids probably weren't present at Jesus' birth... besides baby Jesus and teenage mother, Mary, no kids! Also, why is it that Elizabeth and Zecheriah, Ceasar, Herod, and Simeon and Anna rarely make it in the story? "Christmas is about old people. That is the Gospel truth" (26). God is doing amazing things in the lives of the older people, and here we are, in the 21st century, making it about kids. Besides, the Shepherds that were out at midnight tending the flock would have been men, not boys; and wise men in the ancient Middle-Eastern cultures considered wisdom not as something that comes with having piled-upon degrees, but "experience, reflection and longevity" (26). So, this story is not about kids.

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"Silent Night...": Yea, it totally wasn't. I mean, think about it... you have all of those animals lying around! No... those animals have been written in. Go read the birth narrative in Matthew or Luke... animals do not exist. The closest we get is the flocks over which the shepherds are tending in the Luke narrative, but sheep are dumb and most likely wouldn't have followed their shepherd. And most likely, the shepherds would not have brought ALL of their sheep with them... So back to this quiet situation that didn't exist. See, it was census time. People were coming and going, to and from various places. Bethlehem wasn't necessarily a town in the middle of nowhere. We hear of other people (in the Gospel) that were from Bethlehem. So, it wasn't the middle of nowhere. Besides, just because Jesus is Jesus doesn't mean he didn't cry... Thanks, "Away in the Manger", but no thanks. Plus, if the hotels in the area were so full Mary and Joseph couldn't get in, well, then that means even more people running around. Bell is sure to point out, also, that no one knew the Messiah was being born... Angels had to go TELL the shepherds... otherwise, no one would have ever known! It wasn't this grand production where Jesus was made the center of attention throughout ALL of Palestine, as we like to think... It was bustling with busyness... people didn't know. (Even in his baptism, people didn't recognize him...)

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Now that we have debunked two of the greatest myths of Christmas... :] Bell says one more thing that really grabbed me, in terms of Christmas... It is about the incarnation... Emmanuel, God with us, in this world where we are imperfect beings, where we have denied God in so many ways... But God did it anyway. Perhaps December 25 is about allowing "ourselves to marvel at God's risk, trust and surprise" (34).

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Here is "O Little Town of Bethlehem" as switched up by John Bell to speak the truth:

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O little town of Bethlehem,

how rowdy you appear

as homecome emigrants ar buoyed

by sentiment and beer.

The long-haried tearaway returns,

grandfatherly and grey,

and former glamour-pusses' pasts

emerge in all they say.

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Who knows if Ned the publican,

whose rooms could take no more,

would pleasently or angrily

greet strangers at the door?

Who knows if he had cats and dogs

around his cattle shed,

or whether robins twittered on

or even Mrs. Ned?

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But if he let his stable out

to be a labor room

for some expectant teenage mum

and her embarrassed groom,

the breath and stink of tethered beasts

would set the midwives wild

if keen to minimize the risk

to Mary and her child.

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And would poor shepherds, when disturbed

from midnight peace and calm,

presume a newborn baby boy

would want to hold a lamb?

And if the Magi from the East did "enter in all three"

was it true they, in homage,

bent a single knee?

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And did the baby never cry, and was the mother mild

when Herod sensed that he'd been duped

and let his men run wild>

And was the father pre-progremmed

to take the passive part

when one old man foretold the child

would break his mother's heart?

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Christ was not born at Christmas time

invoked by practiced choirs,

embraced by plastic mangers

and fulfilling our desires.

No kindergarten was his home,

no drummer-boy his page,

no earth had frozen snow on snow

when God had come of age.

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Instead, on the periphery,

eccentric through decree,

the power behind the universe

was born a refugee;

a refugee from heaven above

became the world's creator,

and chose an unknown peasant girl

as host and liberator.

10 things they never told me about Jesus|| Skeletons in the Cupboard

New book time! I'll be reading "10 Things they never told me about Jesus" by John Bell. This book is an exploration of the personal life, relationships and ministry of Jesus that is seldom talked about in church. I would like to be relating this more to personal life... or at least talking more about the wider context rather than summarizing the book, so we'll see how that goes.

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Firstly, have you actually read the full genealogy of Jesus? You know, "The Begats" in Matthew 1? They're boring... for the majority of the time. Otherwise, they're incredibly intriguing. There is, for the most part, simply a list of "So and so begat so and so who was the father of so and so who begat so and so......" on... and on...

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BUT this is intersting because there are only FOUR women mentioned in this lineage.

Tamar: Dressed up as a whore to coerce her father in law into sex so that she could bear a child.

Rahab: A prostitute from Jericho who helped some Israelites after they helped to hide her.

Ruth: Daughter-in-law to Naomi who convinced Ruth to seduce Boaz, the owner a field and an older man.

Bathsheba: She had an affair with King David and became pregnant. They sent for Uriah (her current husband) to be killed in battle so he would not know of this and David and she could be married.

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So we see these women in the genealogy... but why these women? Bell gives suggestions, but I want to talk about the implications of one of the suggestions. So maybe they put this in there because they felt that if Jesus came from a long line of virtuous people, this whole idea of accepting him as human (as well as divine) would never happen. Bell says the flawed lineage of Christ is "about God immersing [Godself] in a deficient world and among fallible people because [God] knows that through impartial love all can be redeemed" (22).

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I would agree with this, but I hate the fact that the women are those pointed out as the "flawed" ones. I suppose that is what happens when you have these men writing the Bible. You just can't really get around that. More so than that, though, I think it's also about this impartial love of which Bell speaks. This love of God conquers all. This love of God is open-minded, if you will. Had they not spoke of these flawed characters in Jesus' past, there are prostitutes out there who may have never realized that they could be welcomed in church just as much as the next person. But then again, it isn't just about prostitutes. It's about all of us. We all have skeletons in the closet and we aren't proud of them. But God knows and wants us to know that we are loved... we are God's beloved. All of us. No matter who we are. Or what we do.

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That is the beauty of my denomination, the United Church of Christ. We understand that all people are welcome and while we may have a hard time getting to that point of accepting all people as they are, God's got it covered.

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All people are children of God, no matter what. Even Ruth... Even Bathsheba... Even Tamar... Even Rahab. We are all loved by our Creator and nothing can strip us of that.

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The UCC says, "No matter who you are or where you are on life's journey, you are welcome here" (and I would add) and you are loved always.