Considering Christ

Meeting Jesus again for the very first time

Most of directees — except for the few who are clergy — struggle with Jesus. They admire him. They think he offers some solid wisdom but they are not so sure about his people.

They have had some bad experiences of church. This is an understatement. They have had some truly horrible moments with followers of Jesus and those terrible experiences have not only pushed them away from the church but they are not really so sure about the person of Jesus.

So it surprised me when I suggested to a directee that maybe that thing they were wondering about might come from the deep well within them and their reply was, without question, “No, that isn’t in me. That’s all Jesus.”

That phrase has been echoing in my head ever since it was said.

That’s all Jesus.

Photo by Francesco Alberti on Unsplash

What does that mean for me right now? My directee has their own questions and ideas. God is up to something with those wonderings without any doubt but this statement landed for me like a punch in the gut.

I’m not really sure that I see that anything anywhere right now is all Jesus.

What does it mean that something is all Jesus?

How would I even define who or what Jesus is right now?

I reread an old sermon I preached in the church I was serving on Palm Sunday. It’s a day to wonder what it is that we are putting our faith in as people are waving palms and shouting for salvation. “Blessed is the one who comes in the same of the Lord!" they shout without ever really understanding what they dare to announce.

This was one of those rare congregations in my tradition that wasn’t so much considering Christ. My denomination is often teased with this consideration. We like Jesus but we don't really know what to do with Christ which is to say that we like the person but aren’t really sure what to do with the hard-to-explain stuff that makes Jesus part of the Trinity and not just a really great guy who showed people how to love more.

This congregation just didn’t know how to talk about Jesus in their own words. They defaulted to what they thought they should say rather than relying on their own experience. They could point to what happened in the Bible but they struggled to put Jesus into their everyday experience. I struggle with it too. Even now. Perhaps even more so now.

And so I preached many Sundays ago:

Jesus is... the Word, in your words. in our words as much as he might be in all our hopes and dreams. Jesus.. is the very logic of the divine. He is the flesh that reveals God's deepest wisdom. He is the reason and the order of God's love for this world and for its people. Jesus is.. the articulation of that love. He is the very expression of the reason that God loves, but it is a reason without logic. Or without our logic. God loves because God loves. That love has no beginning and no end.

Reading that again makes me realize that I am not so sure about the power of love right now. I am struggling to see it and need to pay greater attention to what Love is doing in the here and now.

Consider the words that you might use to describe who or what Jesus is for you. If no words come, you might consider one of these from the Bible: Light of the World, Good Shepherd, Bread of Life, Door, Gate, Way, Life, Truth, Vine, Healer, Redeemer, Hope, Love, Savior, Peace, Prophet, and Counselor. How do those words connect with your life experience? Are there other experiences that have altered or expanded your definition of who or what Christ is?

Pick one of those words from your wondering. One that perhaps calls to you most and walk with it through the world and see what you notice. Look for it in all of the expected and unexpected places and see what more of Jesus you might discover.

And for those times when you struggle to find Christ in the world around you, here’s a song to sing your deepest longing and hope.

If you are not a Christian and have no interest in Jesus whatsoever but still find yourself struggling with his followers, I commend to you the work of Rev. Angela Denker to understnad what Christianity has become in the United States in part of the Red States. I hope you can also play with the words and find that your own spirit needs in looking for hope, love, peace or whatever word captivates you in the world. The world is full of brokenness right now and it can be hard to see the forces of good. I pray we all find them.

My subtitle is taken from Marcus Borg’s book that was formative to me and I commend to anyone and everyone who wants to figure out how to do more than consider Christ.