I work with a lot of really smart, progressive, modern people. I know that many of them are Christians, but we don’t usually talk about it.
Faith is private. Faith is personal. Let’s talk about something a little bit less controversial – like politics or sex.
Maybe it’s not such a big deal. I mean, as long as we’re all doing good work in the world, as long as we’re showing love to one another, why do we even need to mention Jesus? Is it really our faith in Jesus that makes the difference, or would the truth be just as beautiful if we named it Allah or Buddha or Light?
Do I really believe that God, the creator of the universe, took on human flesh and became one of us? Am I convinced that God came into the world as a baby, lived with us as a brother, and died for us on the cross outside Jerusalem?
And if I do, what then? What’s the practical impact on my life? What makes the story of Jesus so compelling that I’m willing to believe in things that seem ridiculous to the human mind? Jesus was raised from the dead and lives among us to this very day? Who believes that?
Well, as a matter of fact, I do. I have experienced his presence and resurrection body in my own life. I have seen him. God has raised him from the dead, and he is alive with me.
It’s a little nuts, I know. I have no idea how to justify my faith, my relationship with Christ, in terms that this world can understand, or that my mind can grasp.
Why does it make a difference that I follow Jesus – specifically Jesus, and not just any old universal God concept?
For me, it’s all about who God really is.
I understand why faith in a nonspecific, nameless, supposedly universal God/Spirit/Light is increasingly popular in mainstream American culture. A God without definition can, by definition, never offend anyone. It’s a God who is whoever or whatever we say it is. This God can be personal or nontheistic. It can justify war or bolster peace. This nonspecific God can be molded to fit whatever image we happen to want or need at the moment.
With Jesus, there’s a specific person involved. There is content to Jesus’ message that none of us can run from in good conscience. If we pay attention to the words that Jesus speaks, the actions that he undertakes, the life that he lives, we can’t stay the same. Rather than making a god in our own image, we are invited to be remade in the image of Jesus.
As crazy as it seems, I do believe in the resurrected carpenter from Nazareth. He has a personality that I can’t reduce to any bland universal theory about truth, love, or justice. It is in him that I see the face of God. When I look at Jesus, follow Jesus, become a friend of Jesus, I discover who God really is.
What’s your experience? Has Jesus – specifically Jesus – shown up in your life? What difference has that made for you?
Do you feel like you’re able to speak about Jesus with those around you? How do you get past the weirdness of following a man who was raised from the dead 2,000 years ago? What is it about Jesus that makes us willing to embarrass ourselves rather than accepting a bland, nondescript, unnamed God concept?
I am a Christian Quaker who does NOT insist everyone else must be one too. MY experience of G*d is that G*d is much more concerned with how we care for each other and the planet than what name we use for G*d.
I guess what I’m trying to say is it’s not about the name in the sense of *words*; it’s about the name in terms of *identity* – who God truly is.
My meeting recently had some tshirts made up that read God is Love on the back in various languages. It was suggested that I put it on the front as well but then I would have to choose a language which I didn’t want to do. So then I searched for a universal symbol of God as Love and eventually realized that the only one would be Jesus but decided not to add it on the front this time. (Not so sure I will not add a slain lamb the next time.) I believe in all my heart that divine love is the way, the truth and the life and the only way to come to God. Just as Esther had to be covered with spices and special raiments before she was fit to approach the King and just as the wedding guest at the Wedding Feast must be clothed with a proper Wedding Gown, so to must we be covered in His love to be one with God. However, having said that, there is no better way to experience such love as to be blessed with the presence of Jesus sometime in one’s life. That love casts out all fear because you truly understand what the scripture means that says if God is for you, who can be against you. Having experienced the truth behind the scriptures that tell us God so loves the world that He sent His only begotten son to die for us allows us to be open channels of that love to all we meet, friend and enemy, so long as we don’t block the channel with our own selfish desires. Remember, No love means no peace.
Beautiful. Thanks, Jim.
not a big fan of the pic of jc but love your blog post Micah Bales. resurrected jesus promises to be present with his people in a unique and intimate way. I’m so grateful the holy spirit stand at the center of our faith. The holy spirit is there, forgiving, speaking, listening and feeding us in worship.in many ways God comes down to our level. Isn’t so much about how we feel or what we do, but about what the holy spirit does for us. We simply respond in love and service.
The trouble is, people do — all too readily — make ‘Jesus’ in their own image. I know, he’s a real guy — but you know, we’ve got a real God; yet people see God — and each other — through whatever distorting lenses they’re accustomed to. (Remember the visions Luther used to get, back in his Catholic days? Sometimes Jesus would treat him lovingly; sometimes Jesus would chew him out. His confessor said the judgemental vision was an impostor… but what would Jesus have wanted to tell him later, when Luther was recommending the wholesale massacre of revolting peasants?)
So there’s an advantage to a name, if people will reference that to an actual person who said actual things in an actual situation. All too often, theologies block that.
Yet anyone would recognize Jesus in a dream…
Seek, and you find — as Jesus said — whether or not you call what you find ‘Jesus’, there’s a real Real there; and that is essential, both universal and specific.
Yes, I’m pretty sure our Daddy got him out of jail free… and that belief puts one in a world view in which the only constraints on God are those built into God’s nature… All powerful, and utterly trustworthy; so all will be well — but things could still look pretty scary meanwhile, yes?