Reconsidering the essentials

As most of you know (from previous articles) Lindsay and I have a lot of stuff. We are in the process of downsizing so moving is not such a pain. Everyone has to do it from time to time. You sift through your stuff, throw out what you have not worn in a while, replace or forget and repeat. One hundred years ago people would have said that you needed, food, shelter, heat, and clothes. Now we say you need entertainment, style, gift cards, and music. None of which will keep you alive or sustain you at all!

We seem stuck in an endless cycle. We start with the essentials and begin accumulating till the closet, floor and budget can’t hold anymore and then we purge only to begin again. It is like material bulimia. It feels good to own stuff and it feels good to own so much that you can through it out. We have actually begun to reconsider our move into a house. Did we do it for the right reasons or only because we had accumulated so much junk we needed space to hold it? We actually miss apartment living because you had to actually make decisions about what you allow in the home and what you do without because you can’t hold it.

We were talking about all this stuff over coffee and I began to feel very guilty. I could not really explain why until I began to see that this cycle has had me in its grip for years and it is more than just material. I do this to Christ all the time.

At its heart following Christ is about life and living as opposed to death and unliving (see/read Philip K. Dick’s A Scanner Darkly for an interesting dichotomy between living and unliving). Simple choices made day by day to follow God in the form of Jesus. We make it about so much more. We make it about looks, “Do I look and act Christian enough”, music “Did you get the new “prom songs” to Jesus album?” or voting “Vote Christian, Vote Republican” and a host of other crap that is associated with Jesus but is certainly not essential. It is time for a purge.

What kind of associated junk have we given Jesus that was never essential? Here is my list, what do you think?

Consumerism: “Jesus wants you to have health, wealth, and prosperity.” As I read it Jesus had nothing. Paul had nothing. Job had something and it was all taken away. Same story with Moses and Elisha. “The love of money is the root of all evil.” I can’t stand it when I hear that Jesus wants me to be rich. I like money and possessions and they are not evil in and of themselves but I am not sure they would be the aspirations of your prayer life.

Style: “The pope may be French but Jesus Christ was English!” A silly quote from a silly time but we are still arguing the same junk. One side says we should have Hymns and the other Choruses. Some even say they have scripture to prove which is right. People in my generation whine and pine in house churches and the old folks sit in the pew and get older. Can we please get over it? Jesus was in his 30’s but found it in himself to reach out and give responsibility to 15 year olds. He also drank wine and he might have even danced. Stuffy stick-up-your-butt services and cybered up techno worship he neither endorsed nor condemned. Sometimes we miss “worship in Spirit and in Truth.”

Partisanship: “If you want to be elected you need a cross around your neck.” Jesus has turned into a brand name and a catchphrase. You have to admit that he was political. He said some very hot political statements but he was never partisan. In many ways he pissed off all political parties off equally, which made him a hero to the poor and the oppressed. If he were around today he would be the only person who could get a Democrat, Republican, Green, Libertarian, and Islamo-Facist to agree on anything…they would all want to kill him.

I am sure that it could go on for a while but I don’t want this to be an indictment of the system or the “whine and pine” I mentioned before. I want this to tickle your thinker so we can begin to undress our religion and embrace our faith. What are some things that we have bound to Jesus that need to be loosed? What are some things we have done away with that you would like to see back?

Talk amongst yourselves