tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25535068.post9078732642639633196..comments2023-10-07T01:07:32.493-07:00Comments on A Watchman's View from the Wall: A parallel universeWatchmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16074753807595569032noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25535068.post-45133676738560618992008-12-11T10:53:00.000-08:002008-12-11T10:53:00.000-08:00I would frame this a bit differently. The Church a...I would frame this a bit differently. The Church as we Know it does "Crushes" on Jesus very well. Crushes require a unique language. Everyone who is initially in love uses a language that outsiders to that relationship find... let's say annoying. This is not unique to the Church. <BR/><BR/>What the Church as We Know It does not do well is intimacy with Jesus. This is especially true if you are male. <BR/><BR/>The language required for intimacy is much more action oriented, much like marriage. As I grew out of my Crush, the Church offered me very little ways to express the new intimacy I had found, and the initial language I held dear become less meaningful. <BR/><BR/>The more I moved away from Church (but not community) the more I had to rely on Jesus and The Father to teach me how this works.Leshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13381075058567587929noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25535068.post-78128332650009546152008-12-10T19:39:00.000-08:002008-12-10T19:39:00.000-08:00Excellent! Is not the point of the incarnation tha...Excellent! Is not the point of the incarnation that Jesus took on the language of our world? How ironic that, in response, we create one that keeps us apart. I wrote something a week ago that was feeling some of the same things, in a sermon on the shocking sheep and the goats parable:<BR/><BR/>Consider our songs of worship as a measure of what matters to us. Here are some titles and first lines. See if they reflect this passion for dishonored sufferers Jesus has been preaching about:<BR/><BR/> 1. “How beautiful!”<BR/> 2. “You are my hiding place.”<BR/> 3. “You are here, among us.”<BR/> 4. “Jesus, you are the one, gives me hope when the day is done.”<BR/> 5. “I’m trading my sorrows.”<BR/> 6. “We want a new passion for Jesus - one that will burn in our hearts, like never before.”<BR/> 7. “Open the eyes of my heart, Lord - I want to see you” [especially amusing, given today's gospel story about how the good guys were the ones who served <I>without</I> seeing Jesus]<BR/> 8. “I’m here, to meet with you. Come and meet with me.”<BR/> 9. “Lord, I lift your name on high - Lord I love to sing your praises” [why?] “I’m so glad you’re in my life - I’m so glad you came to save us.” [I'm so glad I work for Honeywell - or whomever]<BR/> 10. “You-ou are, forever my friend.”<BR/> 11. “This is the air I breathe - your holy presence, living in me . . . and I’m lost without You.”<BR/> 12. “Every move I make I make in you, you make me move Jesus.”<BR/> 13. “As the deer panteth for the water so my soul longeth after thee.”<BR/><BR/>Nope. They’re about ooey-gooey with Jesus, as if no one else on earth existed. [...]<BR/><BR/>But wait - didn’t Jesus picture himself standing at the end of time dividing the gentiles sheep from goats <I>based upon how they cared for wounded people?</I> Would you think that would at least appear <I>somewhere</I> in our hymnology? [...] I wonder if our theological bias has displaced our Jesus? <BR/><BR/>The sermon's at <A HREF="http://masbury.wordpress.com/2008/12/01/jesus-ooey-gooey-onion-sermon-of-nov-23/#more-1600" REL="nofollow">Jesus, ooey-gooey, and The Onion</A>, if you like.<BR/><BR/>Where to go from here is a constant bafflement to me. But I am grateful to hear another voice saying, "Hey wait! Does this even make <I>sense?"</I>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25535068.post-46241351367705955202008-12-09T20:34:00.000-08:002008-12-09T20:34:00.000-08:00Heaven help us if "I need to feel your arms around...Heaven help us if "I need to feel your arms around me" is considered a core part of orthodoxy! Seriously, you make a very good point. I find myself questioning a lot of things I hear in church just at a "does this make any sense to anyone" level. Quite often my answer is no.Mariahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08264143140028197973noreply@blogger.com