The Politically Incorrect Jesus

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Jesus were born and lived among us today? Joseph Girzone wrote a book a few years ago entitled Joshua that explored that very question. That book spawned a series of books about Joshua (which, by the way, is the Hebrew equivalent to the Greek name Jesus). I read a couple of them…I’m not sure how I feel about them to be honest with you…but one valuable insight that I gained was how unprepared we (not just we as individuals but we as a society) would be to respond to Jesus if He showed up in our town…because we have our preconceptions much like the Jews had theirs.

I suppose this journey into the hypothetical could go in a lot of directions, but one thought I have is how politically incorrect Jesus would be today if He showed up in most any American city. In our current climate of so-called “hate speech” and “hate crimes,” political correctness has gone crazy! Now, just in case you’ve been away on a trip to another planet for the last 20 years or so, political correctness is the belief that any thought, word, or action that could be deemed offensive should be eliminated and, equally, only the so-called politically correct viewpoints should be tolerated and allowed to prevail.

In today's politically correct environment where you have to be so careful to keep from offending anyone, we might all have to give reports like this fourth grader who reported on the origins of the Thanksgiving holiday. “The pilgrims came here seeking freedom of you know what. When they landed, they gave thanks to you know who. Because of them, we can worship each Sunday, you know where.”

The reason I mention how politically incorrect Jesus would be today if He showed up in most any American city is how politically incorrect Jesus was when He showed up on the scene almost 2,000 years ago. The Jewish leaders wanted desperately to assassinate Jesus for what they would have called “hate speech” if they had known our terminology. He came speaking words and espousing ideas that flew in the face of what Judaism had become, and the Jewish leaders were determined to stop it.

The apostle Paul asked the Galatian believers, “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?" (Galatians 4:16). Jesus became an enemy of the Jewish population because He dared to demonstrate and declare the truth of God.

The erosion of truth in today’s American culture should terrify us. Truth has become an endangered species…but do you know the difference between truth and the endangered Ozark big-eared bat or the endangered gray wolf? It’s open hunting season on truth! Our culture is so confused that up is down/down is up, black is white/white is black, good is bad/bad is good, right is wrong/wrong is right!

At the heart of my thoughts today is this: a fundamental question that every non-believer must ask himself or herself is: “Am I looking for reasons to believe or am I looking for reasons not to believe?” The answer is not a trivial issue! Thomas Aquinas put it well: “To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”

Do People See the Real Me...?

It's that time of year...when leaves change their colors. We're not seeing the change in Tennessee yet, but it can't be far away. But have you ever thought about what really happens when the sea of green becomes a bright rainbow of yellows, oranges, and reds?

We normally think of green leaves changing colors in the fall, don't we? But that's actually not what happens. In short, chlorophyll covers the true color of leaves and makes them green. That's actually very important for the trees...because without the chlorophyll in leaves, trees wouldn't be able to use sunlight to produce food.

But the point I'm making is that leaves don't change their colors, per se, in the fall...they simply return to their true colors. And when do people stand and stare in awe at trees' foliage? In the fall, of course! We're far more attracted to the eclectic mix of colors than the standard shades of green. We prefer to see leaves in their true colors more than when they're all the same color. There's a message in there for us.

How much time do we spend trying to be something that we're not...trying to be like someone else? Has it ever intrigued you that we'll spend big bucks to wear somebody else's number and name on our backs? We'll take a picture of someone else's haircut into the beauty shop and say, "I want to look like that!" We'll see a celebrity wearing a certain style of clothes or sunglasses, and we have to go out and buy the same.

Why can't we just be ourselves...our true colors? David wrote in one of his psalms that we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" (Psalm 139:14). God made each of us as unique individuals. Surely He did that for a reason.

So, I'm left with the uncomfortable question, "Do people see the real me or am I influenced so much by the chlorophyll of culture that I'm just like everyone else?" Ouch...

Understanding the Times

This past Sunday I preached a message that has been on my heart for years. I preached about our need to reach this generation. Oswald J. Smith said, “The only generation that can reach this generation is our generation.” Keith Green said something similar when he declared, “This generation of Christians is responsible for this generation of souls on the earth!” But how do we do that?

There's an obscure but appropriate verse that challenges us to reach our generation...1 Chronicles 12:32--“Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.” The part that's of special note is that phrase, “...men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do...”

I’m always fascinated when I hear the story of how at the end of World War II, Robert Woodruff declared, “In my generation it is my desire that everyone in the world have a taste of Coca Cola.” Today, Coca-Cola is sold from here to the farthest reaches on planet earth…all because one man had a vision of what could be.

If a soft drink company could set their sights on reaching their generation with their product, shouldn’t we have all the more motive to set our sights on reaching our generation with the gospel?!?

If we're going to understand our time:

• We have to understand the time in which we live. We can appreciate and learn from the past without living in it. We have to embrace the present. The past is behind us. The future is before us. But the present is upon us!


• We have to understand that times change. I'm continually amazed at how different the world is from when I was a kid. We want to believe that we still live in Mayberry, but Mayberry was taken up by the bypass! At any given moment when we put our feet into the stream of our society, we are touching fresh people. The past is water under the bridge, as the saying goes. Every generation has to be evangelized afresh and anew! Along with this, we have to accept generational differences. Perhaps I'll discuss that in another post.


• More specifically, we understand that while we’ve never had more resources at our disposal to make Christ known, our culture has never been more lost! Where I live and minister, We have 126,000+ people within the Clarksville city limits and 162,000+ people in Montgomery County…86% of whom are not going to be in any church on any given Sunday. That means that almost 9 out of 10 people you meet anywhere you go has no meaningful relationship with Jesus Christ.
  

Until we can get our hearts around these truths, we’ll never understand the times…

And then we come to the question of knowing what we should do in the 21st century as Christians. We must be real, relevant, and relational.

Real because my generation (I'm a Gen-Xer) needs to see authenticity. Generations before us told us about the American Dream, but they gave us an enormous national debt to pay and a broken social security system that we fully expect never to receive a dime from. We’re inheriting political parties that aren’t really about solving America’s problems but securing America’s power! Factor in the explosion of broken marriages, HIV/AIDS, and a host of other global issues…and you can begin to see life though younger eyes.

Of course, my generation has sought to build relationships and find intimacy…but we haven’t been very good at it. We’d rather meet in virtual places online with virtual friends and have virtual conversations. But all of this just leads to further isolation.

Relevant because we have to touch people where they are. One of the great dangers of churches in this generation is irrelevance. But I want to tell you, being relevant isn’t preaching on “10 Ways to Improve Your Golf Score” or “Overcoming Boredom in the Boardroom.” Being relevant isn’t singing Beatles songs in church. Being relevant isn’t compromising the message of the gospel.

Being relevant is about practicing and proclaiming the good news of Christ within the context of our current culture. What good is salt that never leaves the shaker? What good is a light that never gets turned on? What good is a church that never connects with its culture?

Relational...bottom-line, we have to talk to each other…and walk with each other…across racial lines…across socio-economic lines…across generational lines. Truth is…people in my generation and younger really are interested in what those older than us have to say. But we want them to be interested in what we have to say, too. We can learn from each other…and in the context of real relationships, we can share Christ effectively.

“…men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do…” Wow! Oh, Lord, let me be like the sons of Issachar...