Superhero Jesus?

I wish I could take credit for this idea, but credit must be given where it is due.

I was carpooling back from Greek on Thursday and Tony shared with me about a blog he read from a pastor who had recently seen THE DARK KNIGHT. This pastor said that it was interesting to see how flawed and authentic Batman seemed in this movie. He was not evil in any sense of the word, just...human. He was as raw and hopeless as any of us are. He made good decisions and bad decisions. He wrestled with his demon's and questioned his identity. He was, in a word, real.

The pastor went on to note about how he routinely listens to a popular Christian radio station whose tag line is "Positive, encouraging...something the whole family can listen to." He made the comment that this radio station, and all of its DJ's seem to always give off this "everything in the world is great and as Christian's we are always happy" vibe. While this is a positive message of joy it is commonly received (by Christians and non-Christians alike) as disingenuous, fake, and inauthentic. And it is seen in more than just our radio stations, it is seen by our preachers, pastors, televangelists, church secretaries (ok, maybe not them...but you get the point.) The message sent by the Christian community is loud and clear. If you are not always smiling and happy then something is wrong with your personal and spiritual lives.

When will we (the pastor stated) as a Christian community wake up and realize that what this society is craving is flawed, imperfect, and genuine beings? (See Batman, Hancock, recent Superman, Iron Man, Maxwell Smart, James McAvoy in Wanted.) Those who struggle with the same doubts, demon's, imperfections, problems, insecurities, and shortcomings that we all have.

When will we wake up, stop the act, and start being real?

So...here's a note

When I first started writing in here I don't know if I ever planned on having anyone else read it. Frankly I am too insecure with my personal writings and the theology expressed within it. So if you by chance find this...through a link off facebook, a random conversation, or in another way...I ask for your patience. I don't claim to be a theologian (at least not anymore than all of us are in the sense that we have all thought about God at one point in our lives.) Nor do I claim to be a good writer...I can speak and prepare sermons well, but proper grammar should be left to those who didn't doze off in 8th grade English.

Regardless, I welcome your opinions, thoughts, opposition...and anything else you wish to offer.

I hope somehow to drastically change the world and simultaneously blend into its background unrecognized. If you can make sense of that please help me to also.

Who is Jesus?

He is more, yet he is less…he is more than a man and yet less than a man, the son of men, the subordinate unto all creation...he is God, but not God, a man, a man who made himself in the likeness of other men, and that is what makes him so great…because he is great he is greatness, and light and purity and perfection, and yet this man, this being who in the very nature of God believed that equality with God was not something that he could or should grasp. So he made himself less than, less than God, less than perfection, less than purity, less than man, he poured out all that made him God and greatness and awesomeness. He became less so that we could become more, he became less so that we could see more, he became us so that we could see him because we were so full of ourselves that we could not see God, so he became us. He became imperfect, flawed, he became what we are, who we are, experiencing what we experience so that we could know him. So that he could know us, he became the imperfection of man, he became blood, sweat and tears, pain and anguish, hurting and dying, death, even a death on a cross, the most humiliating of all deaths, and for what, for freedom, not his freedom, our freedom. Freedom from oppression, rules, regulations, systems telling us that whatever we do we can never be HIM because HE is so great, greater than we are, than we could ever be, than we could ever hope to be or accomplish. But at the same time, in our imperfections, in our flaws, in our weakness he is made strong in us, because he became one of us, loved us, lived with us, cried with us and died with us. He came to us that we could know Him…not just about him, but know him, who he is…everything about who he is what he is, when he is, how he is, where he is. He is within us because he loves us, we love him, but only because he loved us first, he is light, in him is light, he is our light, the light of men, without Him there is nothing and we are nothing, he us our light, the light of men, he is light and word, the word of men, the word of life, the word of love, the word of being, the word of action, the word of reason, he is more than word or words could comprehend, he is love, and beyond love, the epitome of love, a love with such a surpassing greatness that the love we think we have pales in comparison to this love, his love, the love of a parent to a child, unending love, undying love, unfailing love, uncompromising love, the kind of love that would never use, abuse, misuse, reuse or exist merely to amuse you…but the love that brings more, fulfillment, completion, creation, regeneration, life, light, hope, power, and all things good in the world. All the things that we could be, now can be, now will be, because of him and who he is, how he is, what he is. He is…Jesus.