The Un(Safe) Jesus
A letter I wrote to a friend about my latest church experience.
This whole ERT thing for our church just kills me. It's typifies American sunday morning Christianity, why you ask..(cuz I hear it.) Well heaven forbid we actually believe Jesus is who he says he is or we believe God says who he is. So since we cannot trust what they might be up to or doing, we get to take things into our own hands in the name of "safety" and "security" 2 thing God NEVER promised Israel, and 2 things Jesus NEVER promised his disciples or those he called out from their lives and asked to live a life of sacrifice and picking up their own cross and following him.
The idea that I go "TO" church and have to be at a place where doors are being locked or people might be trained with tazer's repulses me. Why are we doing this, for safety, we have fallen into the ways of our cultural trappings of believing that death is something to fear, and thus a fear of death and the fear of God doing his work; has allowed us to step in the face of God and take matters into our own hands.
Welcome everyone to the emergency response team, locker's of doors and carriers of tazers(well a select few who might get trained) Really...REALLY. Our God that we have agreed to sacrifice ourselves to is that small? Really...REALLY? Our God is so incapable, so weak so distracted that we must take our own life into our own hands?
Jesus taught that we must live willing to give up our life in-order to actually experience life...not be protectors of our life.
I want to believe that the Jesus I read about in scripture and the God I try to grapple with, that are supposed to be one in the same, that who they say they are is actually true, and I have professed faith in them and thus in what they have said.
I wish a community of faith, was truly that and wanted to live lives in the way in which Jesus called...
Ranting over:
Jonathan
I showed up to church this morning and found the typical door I enter in to the church was locked. Finally one of the emergency team members came and opened the door for me and mentioned that we had new security measures. There are now 6-7 guys roaming around with secret service radio's wrapped around their ears and down their sleeves. Making sure we are "safe."
Something I would contend Jesus NEVER promised.
This was written over a cup of typical church mediocre coffee made to taste tolerable with a packet of swiss miss.
This whole ERT thing for our church just kills me. It's typifies American sunday morning Christianity, why you ask..(cuz I hear it.) Well heaven forbid we actually believe Jesus is who he says he is or we believe God says who he is. So since we cannot trust what they might be up to or doing, we get to take things into our own hands in the name of "safety" and "security" 2 thing God NEVER promised Israel, and 2 things Jesus NEVER promised his disciples or those he called out from their lives and asked to live a life of sacrifice and picking up their own cross and following him.
The idea that I go "TO" church and have to be at a place where doors are being locked or people might be trained with tazer's repulses me. Why are we doing this, for safety, we have fallen into the ways of our cultural trappings of believing that death is something to fear, and thus a fear of death and the fear of God doing his work; has allowed us to step in the face of God and take matters into our own hands.
Welcome everyone to the emergency response team, locker's of doors and carriers of tazers(well a select few who might get trained) Really...REALLY. Our God that we have agreed to sacrifice ourselves to is that small? Really...REALLY? Our God is so incapable, so weak so distracted that we must take our own life into our own hands?
Jesus taught that we must live willing to give up our life in-order to actually experience life...not be protectors of our life.
I want to believe that the Jesus I read about in scripture and the God I try to grapple with, that are supposed to be one in the same, that who they say they are is actually true, and I have professed faith in them and thus in what they have said.
I wish a community of faith, was truly that and wanted to live lives in the way in which Jesus called...
Ranting over:
Jonathan
I showed up to church this morning and found the typical door I enter in to the church was locked. Finally one of the emergency team members came and opened the door for me and mentioned that we had new security measures. There are now 6-7 guys roaming around with secret service radio's wrapped around their ears and down their sleeves. Making sure we are "safe."
Something I would contend Jesus NEVER promised.
This was written over a cup of typical church mediocre coffee made to taste tolerable with a packet of swiss miss.
posted by Jonathan Myers at 10:14 AM
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