Deep Fried Jesus

Ever feel like God might be hitting you with a metaphorical hammer to try and bust off all of the spiritual garbage you accumulate?

yeah, me too.

I have entered a new phase of faith, for sure. It's a skeptical phase, no doubt. Thing is, it's not skeptical of Jesus. I really love that guy. It's everything that we print his name on. It's the way we package and sell him. And it's the way we use him to get famous or find our meaning.

Im kinda sick to my stomach with the way America has packaged him. I am going to start calling the phenomenon Deep Fried Jesus. We take good old Plain Jesus and dip him in pancake mix and deep fry him so he tastes better and goes down more smoothly. Don't forget to top him with jelly and powdered sugar. Consequently we also cook out all of his nutrients and an otherwise healthy addition to our lives starts to make us fat.

I've absolutely always been this way. I haven't been in a Christian book store since the 90s because I refuse to pay 100% more for something because you put a cross on it. I have never enjoyed a Christian movie. I don't enjoy most modern Christian literature. Throughout my skeptical journey you have heard me rant about just about everything, church size, money, fame, materialism, all kinds of stuff.

I'm not really in the mood to do that anymore. Mostly because it's exhausting. And I know many of you are pretty tired of it. And I sound like a tool. It's not nice. And I have hurt some people's feelings. I don't like doing any of those things. And I've realized that life is less about complaining about what you don't want and more about speaking about what you DO want.

So here's what I want.

I want Plain, Raw, Unrefined, Unprocessed, No preservatives, Jesus. I want Jesus fresh from the ground, drawing in the dirt. I want Jesus devoid of American Evangelicalism. I want the Jesus who would have made sermon illustrations that didn't forget about single people. I want the the Jesus who talked a lot about losing our lives to find them. I want a Jesus who is more concerned with the contents of my heart than my wallet. I want the Jesus who turned over tables when people got materialistic. I want the Jesus who spoke boldly to outcasts to the horror of all the holy guys. I want a relationship with a God who explains me to myself. Who shows me daily that he loves, loves, loves me. I want and unlimited supply of peace, but not temporal happiness. I want to be friends with people who are tearing away the superficial cultural ideas about sex and works and prayer and money and marriage and family and fashion and diets like they are a rotten orange peel because they are searching for the meat and pulp of faith.

I want a Jewish Jesus who looked more like my image of a terrorist than Jim Cavesiel. I want him to speak Aramaic and have revolutionary ideas about women. I want him to call me out on my shit in a way that makes me repent. Not because he's judgmental and threatening me with hell on a billboard or bumper sticker but because he's just kind...with a kindness beyond my ability to imagine. Big kindness. Big love. Kindness and love that would DIE to prove itself.

And I want passionate friends. Friends that have been revolutionized by the revolutionary. I want friends who sweat and cry about what they really think about all this stuff. I want friends who worry very little about the number of people who visit their blog or donate to their mission. I want friends who can love. Hard. By hard I mean unconditionally, and when it hurts. Love people that make them cringe. Love people that never love them back. Love people that do yucky things to people in ways that they find creepy. I want friends who shout from the rooftops that God is Amazing instead of about how amazing God is making them.

I feel like this is the Jesus I was promised. It's the Jesus I'm still running after. Does ANYBODY have THIS Jesus?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

listless

I'm not sure what is going on in my head, but i'm very uninspired lately. i feel like there is so much more I should be doing, but its like i'm watching life from through a window. like i have no real impact on the story, i just sit and watch it unfold and hope the story starts getting adventurous. I'm chosing to call it uninspired because that still leaves the door open for me to have some kind of impact. Like if i could just muster up some passion for something I would be able to find some great purpose and meaning in what I'm doing. I'm thinking about all the kids going back to school and the college students heading off for a new year, and I'm finding that I'm jealous. My life doesnt cycle like that anymore. There is no rise and fall with the seasons. There is no connection to the calendar. Everyday bleeds by in the same numbing pattern. My clothes barely even change with seasons anymore. everyday finds itself looking exactly like the last: wake up l...
Read more

whats your self worth?

People have said, something is only worth what someone would pay for it. If what you're selling, no one is buying, then what you have is pretty worthless. But there are stores out there that sell all kinds of things and so the market makes room for them. People are the same. Some people are beautiful, but useless for more than their looks. Like a painting they are worth a lot because people see them as rare.But, some people can go their whole lives without decorating. Some people are useful and so are worth a lot because they fulfill some purpose. Hardworking, or smart, they are seen has having some value that makes them worth the investment. Then there are people I'd characterize as novelty people. You buy them because you've just never seen anything like them. They're especially entertaing or unique. They don't cost a lot, so you can't pass them up. Then there are bargain people. They don't cost much, arent worth much and don't last long. They fill a s...
Read more

Musical Unity: A response to Michael Gungor

When I first started listening to Contemporary Christian Music (CCM) the only people around were Amy Grant and Michael W Smith. Maybe Kathy Tricolli and Sandi Patty...Any maybe Carmen, but why mention Carmen? Shortly before I started listening to CCM there was no such thing as CCM. The 80s were just about a barren wasteland for Christian entertainment. We had a handle on good old Gospel and regular people started writing worship music. My life wouldn't be the same without Keith Green. But then came the 90s. WHAT an AMAZING time!! Right? DC talk, Audio Adrenaline, Newsboys, OC Supertones...Holy Music COW! If you were a young Christian, you could turn your radio up proudly and still feel cool. It was EPIC. From 15-21 I didn't listen to much other than CCM. Only the cool CCM of course. The stuff that the local Christian radio station only played on Friday Nights. Then I hit 21 and was, practically overnight, too cool for CCM. I bought a soapbox on top of which I declared ...
Read more