Friday, June 05, 2009
One Sentence Wonder
Culture 11 quotes John Shore:
I cannot think of any idea that better describes so much of what goes on, particularly in Christian blogging. We talk endlessly and with apparent "depth" about the most arcane of topics, but how much of it makes a difference in our day-to-day existence? How much of a difference does your particular view of the atonement matter when confronted with a grieving parishioner? How important is it whether you are pre- or post-millennial when tempted with internet pornography? Does the particular translation of scripture matter that much when you want someone to understand that Jesus died and was resurrected for them?
We seem to forget one essential fact - Jesus was a person - Jesus is a person - and being a Christian is all about being with that person.
During the heart of last presidential primaries, with my support of Mitt Romney, I heard over and over how Mormons worship a "different Jesus." I have never heard a more baffling statement in my entire life. Jesus Christ was an historical figure. There is only one. Now, admittedly, Mormons have a very different understanding of who he was in relationship to the rest of the trinity, and their understanding of His ministry is quite different than my own, but that does not make Him any different.
We really do complicate Christ. That does not, by the way, mean that all of the stuff we do is worthless, it simply means that we have to keep it in perspective. We have to remember the difference between what we are saying about Jesus and Jesus himself.
Sometimes I think that in our efforts to be all that we can be when it comes to Christ, we make Him entirely too complicated.in what may be the shortest and one of the most powerful blog posts I have ever read.
I cannot think of any idea that better describes so much of what goes on, particularly in Christian blogging. We talk endlessly and with apparent "depth" about the most arcane of topics, but how much of it makes a difference in our day-to-day existence? How much of a difference does your particular view of the atonement matter when confronted with a grieving parishioner? How important is it whether you are pre- or post-millennial when tempted with internet pornography? Does the particular translation of scripture matter that much when you want someone to understand that Jesus died and was resurrected for them?
We seem to forget one essential fact - Jesus was a person - Jesus is a person - and being a Christian is all about being with that person.
During the heart of last presidential primaries, with my support of Mitt Romney, I heard over and over how Mormons worship a "different Jesus." I have never heard a more baffling statement in my entire life. Jesus Christ was an historical figure. There is only one. Now, admittedly, Mormons have a very different understanding of who he was in relationship to the rest of the trinity, and their understanding of His ministry is quite different than my own, but that does not make Him any different.
We really do complicate Christ. That does not, by the way, mean that all of the stuff we do is worthless, it simply means that we have to keep it in perspective. We have to remember the difference between what we are saying about Jesus and Jesus himself.
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