"Muscular" Christianity
The passage for yesterday's message, "The Imitation of Christ," was the Christ hymn of Philippians 2:5-11.
In the sermon I spend a good amount of time describing the narratives of power that likely shaped the imaginations of many in the first century world of the Scriptures, namely Greece's Alexander the Great and Rome's Caesar Augustus. Paul is appealing to the church at Philippi to behave towards one another in a way that is different than the surrounding culture would have understood.Tempted to follow the pattern of selfish ambition and vain conceit modeled everywhere around them, Paul instead desires that they follow the way of Jesus.
There is an implicit contrast between those men in Paul's world who were divinized according to their success and power and the trajectory that Jesus lived: being divine he emptied himself of his power and embraced his humanity. It was his humility, obedience, suffering, and death that commend Jesus as God, according to Paul. Such a reality was profoundly counter-cultural to those in Paul's day. This is why Paul writes that the cross is a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks. It is why Jesus is constantly having to renegotiate the expectations of his closest followers (Mark 10:35-45). It is no less so today. We prefer a messiah who lives (and will return) in the spirit of Alexander and Augustus, if not the Terminator! I am afraid we have the eschatology of the Left Behind series of popular books to thank for this particular understanding of the "End Times," though there are many more who likewise hold such views. I imagine that sometime in the next year we will take the time to study the book of Revelation. I really look forward to doing so.
Anyway, there is no need for me to re-preach the sermon. If you want to listen to it, you can find it on the JW web-site here (actually, it is not yet posted, but will be shortly I believe). My point in bringing yesterday's message up is to share an image I stumbled on last week on some blog or web-site (I can't remember). I wish I had remembered and used it yesterday. Alas. But that is the beauty of blogs: follow-up. So I give you this image of how I think many of us imagine Jesus - not the Jesus revealed in our Scriptures, but Jesus as interpreted through the lens of power (and perhaps revenge?). Scary. At least it is to me...
This is a great post -Blessings!
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Posted by: Christian Tshirts | October 07, 2008 at 10:53 AM
A muscular, rippling depiction of Jesus is completely offputting to me. Giant turnoff. The idea of a subversive Christianity DOES turn me on: surprising reversals of power -- like when my mom used to get really quiet and intense when she was upset.
All this to say I would welcome/encourage/bless a sermon series on Revelation and the supposed muscle bound return of Christ. I'm probably a heretic for viewing Revelation as a 1st century allegory, full of epic poem/comic book ideals, with a sense of urgency to motivate 1st century Christians; I'd love to see that idea shaken up. Thanks for challenging us to see ALL the posibilities in these scriptures.
~Grace and Peace to you~
Posted by: Vanessa Pierson | October 07, 2008 at 11:09 AM
I almost e-mailed you yesterday wondering if we might cover Revelation soon. I was raised with the typical (at least I've always thought of it as typical) LaHaye understanding and I've found it troubling for a long time, yet I have no firm grasp on an alternate understanding. I look forward to it.
Posted by: Darren | October 07, 2008 at 11:27 AM
Christianity Today Sept '08 issue has an article that I don't want my friend to overlook. "The Father of faith Based Deplomacy" Doug Johnson. He met with The Taliban in 07 as a Christian. His words meant a great deal. They were receptive and more interested in talking to him than and secular deplomat. Be true and strong in your faith in Christ and respectful of the enemies faith. Read and see a mighty Christ working through an old man living out his Faith, visiting Pakistan. Blessed are the peacemakers. Tim I love your Sunday message!! Alyce
Posted by: Alyce | October 07, 2008 at 04:42 PM
It seems we, as Americans, always read the scripture from the point of view of the Romans, and change it to suit (our) Roman ways.
Posted by: Larry | October 07, 2008 at 04:51 PM
Does Revelation not depict Jesus coming back in power? It seems to me that there is a real sense of Jesus coming back in power... Separating the righteous on the right and the unrighteous on the left and then judging accordingly. Am I missing something? He is not coming back to pat everyone on the back.. The Bible is clear that we will all be judged according to our deeds...
Posted by: Matt Svoboda | October 14, 2008 at 07:22 AM
Hi Matt,
Thanks for your question. It does indeed, but what kind of power? This is why I say that we need to spend some time investigating how we have framed our interpretation of the book of Revelation. You might be surprised by what you find there. Stay tuned...
Tim
Posted by: Tim | October 21, 2008 at 07:35 AM