Chapter Five ReJesus by Katie Kevorkian

For as long as I can remember my family has had the same nativity scene that went on display day after Thanksgiving and went back into the box on New Year’s Day. When I came home from college, I was surprised and thrilled to see that it looked quite different.

With an empty nest and no one to stop her, my mother had painted the Holy Family. The once pale white, blue eyed and blonde haired family now looked a little more like ancient Jews.

I was the child of the closest thing to a mixed race family that I knew for most of my life. My Armenian father, with his olive skin and dark features, is part of the less than three percent of people who are identified as not Caucasian in our small New England Community (really, that is what the pie chart says). My mother, a native Vermonter, identifies with the other 97%. I was somewhere in the middle, even though I looked like a white kid and enjoyed the same lifestyle and privileges as most of the population. When there is very little diversity, it is easy to pick out who is different.

I knew there was something that wasn't quite right about the nativity set for a long time, at least since I had some idea about the connections amongst geography, race and ethnicity. My father's family was decidedly not white and blonde, and Armenia looked like it was pretty close to the Holy Land on a map. Thus, I decided that Jesus must have looked Armenian. I like to think that I wasn’t that far off, but looking Armenian and being Armenian became very intertwined in my mind.

"If our conception of God is radically false, then the more devout we are the worse it will be for us" (Kindle loc 2170).  I thought first of the Westboro Baptist Church when I read this, and then Islamic Extremists. But I wondered how we can avoid being radically false. So much of our conception of God comes from our own experience- and where else would it come from? We can only imagine our God from what we know. The dinner table conversation from Talledega Nights was funny, because it is an over-the-top version of what many people do: The beautiful blonde Holy Family, Jesus as a loving father, or even viewing "Self as God" (loc 2314) (or Armenian as God, in my case).

The Shema prayer is a practical way for Christ-followers to ground ourselves in the one-ness of God amidst a society and culture that demands worship as consumerism, and value based on possessions. Lavishly decorated churches equal respect for our faith and our God, and success is measured in wealth, possessions and appearance. When we value things, God is not at the top of the pyramid, as in Hirsch’s drawings, or all the lines are squiggly and confused. We lose direction.

Valarie Kaur, an interfaith leader and civil rights lawyer, told the story of her faith journey at a youth program I helped coordinate. As a child and teenager, Valarie felt out of place with her Sikh family and Indian heritage. While singing Christian hymns with her vocal coach, she said, the realization of the one-ness of God washed over her, and she understood how to live her faith, to fit into the Sikh faith in a place where she was a minority. The one-ness of God that she was proclaiming through a hymn granted her the understanding of faith that would allow her to produce a documentary film, obtain a law degree, and now travel the world to speak about peace building and religious tolerance.

I recognize that Valarie's story is not a Christian one, but it was one of the most powerful testimonies that I had ever heard in the subject of faith and works. The recognition of the one-ness of God can be life changing; though we are told that God is One, though we profess that belief in the best of times, Christmas rolls around a few months later and we begin to worship the things we don't have, the things others have, the things we want. Of course, Christmas isn't the only time of year that we consume, but we see consumerism with much more intensity in November and December.

Questions: How do you experience the One-ness of God?  If God is One how does that change what it means to be created in God’s image and likeness?  

-Katie Kevorkian is a young adult leader and the Field Coordinator for Imagine No Malaria in the Cal-Pac Conference. Learn more here: https://www.facebook.com/imaginenomalariacalpac

ReJesus Chapter 3 Reflection by Cedrick Bridgeforth

“His words and his example are the constants as we leave our old traditions and look to bring the church and the gospel into new contexts of traditional radicalism” (Pg 102) begs the question of whether an institution can truly bear the name and expresses the power of a leader and affect as powerful and engaging as Jesus.  With all that we profess to know of Jesus, entangled with all that we have engaged in and created under the banner of “The Church,” as an organization, Hirsch leads us to the brink where we, the Church, must wonder if we have created something so perfect that the imperfections of any human construct cannot even begin to hold or exhibit the character and purpose of the one after whom it was modeled. He writes:  “The authority to bring transformation to the church does not rest in the person of the leader or group but in God’s calling. If this is so, then the key to the revitalization of religious organizations is to reappropriate, or recover, their founding charism” (Pg 101).

As I read stories of the First Century martyrs and those who were gifted enough to have their stories be told beyond a generation, there seems to be a commitment and purpose to their living within the larger community that gave their individual perspective meaning. They were a part of a movement, not an organized, well or even haphazardly run organization, and their very lives and livelihood depended on the grace of the community to survive. “…the pragmatic and the traditionalist. The institution of the church (traditional and contemporary) is not without God, beauty, or blessing. And we recognize that deeply spiritual people have tirelessly worked for their advancement” (Pg 81). I am hard-pressed to determine if this what Jesus intended for those who decided to follow Him, which was always about following his teachings and living up to the ideals and consequences such a life would bring. There was power found in being one of “the Way” or one who follows Christ, but as time marches on the ethos of the movement changes, and the central figure in the movement shifts from Jesus to what Jesus said and eventually back toward a trite but true pondering – “what would Jesus do?”

To have an organization there are rules and policies in place to maintain order and to signal direction and inclusion. Hirsch points to some of the trappings the Church; such as, “running programs and services and/or guiding the laity through liturgical complexities in order to help people get to the God they are all meant to access directly through Jesus anyhow” as one way we have divided the community into classes and categories to serve a function that may not have been intended. Of course the early church set aside individual for service and for serving in varities of ways according to their gifts, but there is not a sense that some were superior to others based on professional credential or financial status. In fact, status is a blurred line in the early writings and seems to be frowned upon in Jesus rhetoric and expressions of inclusion and engagement throughout his ministry. He paused for the young and the old; the known and the unknown – all for the sake of showing love and extending grace where needed. “At the beginning of this new century, we have never needed so desperately to rediscover the original genius of the Christian experience and to allow it to strip away all the unnecessary and cumbersome paraphernalia of Christendom” (Pg 83). This is a challenge to strip away all of the extras that create barriers between Jesus and the movement that directs others toward him and his witness, which is what ultimately allows all to experience him.  But, people encounter Jesus and interpret their experience in ways the project a necessity of like-experience upon others without acknowledging cultural or social location as a platform for experience. Hirsch address this in the following: “What happens in the beginning of a movement is that they people encounter the divine in a profound and revelatory way, but with successive generations this encounter tends to fade like a photocopy of a photocopy of a photocopy” (Pg 86). Successive experiences dampen or weaken and thus ritual and writings are created to shape experiences, but those rituals and experiences are removed from the original source and may not reflect the original intent or expression of the Jesus who made it all possible. “But for the disciple, the simple truth must remain; one cannot bolt down, control, or even mediate the essential God encounter in rituals, priesthoods, and theological formulas. We all need to constantly engage the God who unnerves, destabilizes, and yet enthralls us. The same is true for our defining relationship with Jesus” (Pg 87).

It is obvious the Church, as an organization has sought to do good in the world and in the lives of those who venture in and dare to bear the name and character of Christ. However, what seems to be missing and lacking in our present age is not new to the organization. In fact, what we experience today was noted in the 17^th Century by Blaise Pascal who  “uttered these incisive words about the spiritual condition of the Christianity of his day: “Christendom is a union of people who, by means of the sacraments, excuse themselves from their duty to love God” (Pg 88). If we, on some level, did not believe we, as an organization or church, has strayed away from the path set by the Jesus we want to know, love, immolate and share, we would not be reading a book with this title. There is a longing to right the organization and move in alignment with what God intended and with what Jesus said and did, but, as Hirsch writes, “To reJesus the church, we must first look in the mirror and ask ourselves whether the strange and wonderful God-Man has invaded our life with purpose and freshness. If Christianity minus Christ equals religion, then Christianity plus Christ is the antidote to religion”(Pg 93). We must strip away the pieces and parts of ourselves that make us comfortable being a member, leader and participant within an organization that stands over-against the principles of the Man and the Movement that started what has diverted from original intent and effect.

Are there obvious organizational trappings do you experience that make it impossible for the Church as you know it to be a true reflection of the Jesus you want to know or once knew?

How can the Church, as you know it, be place where relationship and experience of Jesus is so profoundly different from every other experience in one’s life that individuals are able to revision and reconnect in ways that allow for and encourages the kind of faith which unites with Christ and inspires beyond a set moment in time? 

Cedrick Bridgeforth is an elder in the Cal-Pac Conference and is the District Superintendent of the North District.

Chapter 2 Blog Post – ReJesus by Bonnie Piazza

A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church.  What?  What?  A wild Messiah?  I am thinking more like passive but stern, displaying tough love when necessary.  The only wildness I would point to is His rant in the temple over the selling of goods in His Father’s House.  I have to admit the word wild scared me a bit, but I decided to read on anyway.

Chapter 2 Titled ReJesus and Personal ReNewal sounds like something I could handle reading and writing reflections about.  It may be helpful for you to know I am one of the laity writing this blog post so my perspective is from a theological perspective. I have spent my life in the church, which is another story as it relates to this book and comments I make here and I have not “studied” the scriptures. So I am asking for a wee bit of grace as you read my excerpt.

After a lifetime in Christian churches you would think I would have a pretty good sense of what The Great Commission is all about right? Well….I am a bit embarrassed to admit I don’t.  It has only been in the last 15 years that I have even heard the term (thanks to my UMC family), but still am not motivated to act.  Hmmm, why?  This is not a poke at you pastor folks, but more of an observation I think many Sunday Christians experience.  Well yes, I could have sought out the meaning as I do when I have other questions about Christianity, such as forgiveness, grace, death etc.  As I read it was helpful to understand that the things of this world, capture my imagination (p.45).  You name it, kids, work, what’s for dinner, driving, etc, etc. These things, worldly things, just as those living in the time of Christ dealt with their own day in and day out list of to do’s, tend to constantly pull my attention away from focusing on Jesus and seeking to become more like him.  So what is one to do?

The authors use the concept of rebooting to Jesus.  It means just what you think.  When our computers get messed up and we get frustrated with all the reasons why and all the crap we did to it over its lifetime, sometimes you just have to start over from scratch.  So we reboot back to the way it was originally and hope it fixes the problem.  Now we all know the only real fix in life is Jesus.  So who couldn’t use a reboot to Jesus every now and then? So this is a concept I like and can relate to.  But yet I am challenged to find out more about what that actually looks like.

I am not much for movies so I haven’t seen the movie they referred to in this chapter. The authors talk about the movie “V for Vendetta” (p.49) to describe how the leader got his followers to replicate him in order to overtake the government.  He talks and talks to them and before you know it they are marching towards the government, dressed just like the leader with a passion to overtake. They translate this scene to Jesus and discipleship saying that the more we as individuals become like Him, we grow together into a group (church) and then into a movement (discipleship together as church).  They go on to say that having a pastor simple state “go and make disciples” isn’t enough.  In order for Matthew 28 to be effective it must become an act of love and grace not an order.  When you are a devoted follower, you just live out the Great Commission without realizing it.  I love page 54, the authors’ reference:

 “Jesus does not disciple people by generating information, developing programs, or implementing plans. Rather, Jesus’ discipleship always involved a deeply personal process of being drawn into becoming more like the image, or form, of Jesus.”

To that I say AMEN.  Fully understanding that through these plans and programs we can disciple to those who participate.  So just what is being said above?  I wonder what should I focus on if I am to strive to Re-Jesus”?  And in good form we get the tables on pages 56-58.  Hallelujah!  This I can do.  This helps me start somewhere on living out my faith and spreading the gospel.  This table is a list of core truths about Jesus that he laid out for us as a guide map.

I encourage you to study this section row by row.  Maybe one per day or week to see how it feels to work the examples into your life. 

At the end of the day, I believe this chapter is trying to help one reset back to the basics of what Jesus asked us all to do.  Once that is understood, and we follow suite, the end of the chapter begins to focus on what the Missional Jesus did in order to prepare us for what Re-Jesus looks like for us a church.  (Whew! Was that a run on sentence?) The last paragraph on pg 61 makes reference to just that:

“Renewal will begin with each of us…it will have consequences for the renewal of the church as a whole.”

-Bonnie Piazza is the owner of Piazza Childcare Solutions and Piazza Consulting. Bonnie lives in Tustin with her husband and two kids.  

Chapter 1 - ReJesus

It is interesting for me to recognize that, among all the Jesus books on my bookshelf, that the book that has most shaped my desire to know and follow Jesus more faithfully is a work of historical fiction: Silence by the Japanese novelist, Shusako Endo. Silence is set in the historical context of a Jesuit missionary effort to Japan in the early 1600’s. About 40 years after the first Christian priest arrived in Japan in 1549, Japanese rulers grew hostile to Christianity and expelled all Christian missionaries; missionaries who defied the expulsion order, along with their Japanese converts, were subjected to extreme torture.

From the beginning of the Jesuit mission, until the year 1632, and in spite of crucifixions, burnings, water-torture, and the like, no missionary had ever apostatized. However, in 1632, after six hours of torture, Fr. Chistovao Ferreira became the first missionary to give the signal of apostasy. To make matters worse, it became known that Fr. Ferreira was collaborating with his former persecutors.

This is where the historical imagination of Shusako Endo takes over. The protagonist of Silence is Fr. Sebastian Rodrigues, a Portuguese priest who believes he will redeem the failure of Fr. Ferreira by entering Japan secretly, to minister to Japanese converts in a small rural fishing village. Warned that Japanese authorities are aware of his presence, Fr. Rodrigues is encouraged to escape and hide. But from his hiding place, Rodrigues is able to see converts being arrested, tortured, and killed. As he watches his flock suffer, Rodrigues becomes frustrated at God’s silence; that God will not answer the priest’s heartfelt prayers on behalf of those who are suffering for their faith in Christ.

Rodrigues is eventually captured and prepares himself for noble martyrdom by concentrating on the image of Christ that he carries in his mind’s eye. Standing before his captors, Rodrigues refuses their invitation to renounce his faith by stepping upon a bronze image (‘fumie’) of Christ. But Rodrigues is surprised to learn that his captors have no plans to torture or make a martyr of him. Instead, he’s detained in a cell where he hears the tormented cries of converts who are being tortured for their faith. Rodrigues learns that it is their suffering -- the suffering of the Japanese peasants – that will come to an end, if only he will step on the image of Christ as a sign of his apostasy.

As Rodrigues weighs his decision, he is confronted by the apostate priest, Fr. Chistovao Ferreira. Ferreira says to Rodrigues, “You make yourself more important than [those being tortured]. You are preoccupied with your own salvation. If you say that you will apostatize, those people will be taken out of the pit. They will be saved from suffering. Certainly, Christ would have apostatized for them.”

Brought once again before the bronze image of Christ, Rodrigues hears Jesus’ voice breaking through God’s long silence:  “Trample! Trample! It was to be trampled on by men that I came into this world. It was to share man’s pain that I carried my cross.” 

At that moment Rodrigues discovers Jesus is very different from the Christ he had imagined. Rodrigues reflects, “I know that my Lord is different from the God that is preached in the churches.”

…

In the first chapter of ReJesus, Frost and Hirsch seem to be making the same point as Endo; that when we really encounter Jesus, he is much different from what is preached about in the churches. The purpose of ReJesus is to reintroduce this wild Jesus so that we will become captivated by his agenda. The authors’ assert, “this book is dedicated to the recovery of the absolute centrality of the person of Jesus in defining who we are as well as what we do.” (p. 8) Frost and Hirsch then state, “Today, we need to accept Jesus as our guide, as well as our Savior. And only a savior as human as the one portrayed in the Gospels could ever be our guide.” (p. 22) (Here, Frost and Hirsch to seem push back against a ‘one-or-the-other’ argument between competing atonement theories by saying that Jesus both ransomed us from sin and death, AND emphasizing that his redemptive life was lived to transform our mode of living.)

What happens when we are captivated by Jesus’ agenda? Well, he changes everything! Frost and Hirsch focus on how, when we align ourselves with Jesus’ agenda, we begin to see God differently, the Church differently, and the world differently. Here are a few of the observations that I highlighted as I read about how Jesus changes our way of seeing in each of these three areas:

1.) You Will See God Differently. Frost and Hirsch note that when our imaginations are taken captive by Jesus, we begin to see God as “one who sends himself to us rather than waiting for us to come to him” (p. 24) and “…we see a God so devoted to his broken planet that he issues himself forth to redeem it.” (p. 27) (The Parable of the Prodigal Son comes to mind.) Additionally they claim, “Through Jesus’ death God has entered into our world for good. God will now no longer dwell in temples, but in the hearts of those who serve God.” (p. 28)

2.) You Will See the Church Differently. Echoing a common criticism of what the institutional church has become, the authors assert that Jesus “is antireligious, offering his followers direct access to the Father, forgiveness in his name, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, to be ‘reJesused’ is to come to the recognition that the church as the New Testament defines, it is not a religious institution but rather a dynamic community of believers who participate in the way of Jesus and his work in this world.” (p. 29) Quoting Robert McAfee Brown, Frost and Hirsch affirm that the task of this dynamic community is “to create foretastes of the Kingdom of God on this planet—living glimpses of what life is meant to be, which include art and music and poetry and shared laughter and picnics and politics and moral outrage and special privileges for children only and wonder and humor and endless love.” (p. 29)

3.) You Will See the World Differently. In speaking to this theme, the authors are not focused on the planet in general, but on how we see other inhabitants of the world who are not believers. They state, “The vision Jesus brings is one where the believers learns to identify and tease out [the image of God] in others.” Further, “If we reJesus the church, we will lead it toward a greater respect for the unbelievers, a greater grace for those who, though they don’t attend church services, are nonetheless marked by God’s image.” (p. 34)

This initial chapter of ReJesus concludes in the same way I began this reflection: by citing a work of fiction by Flannery O’Connor called, Parker’s Back. And in referencing this short story, Frost and Hirsch do much the same thing that Shusako Endo does in Silence; they highlight how difficult it is for one who considers themself a devout and committed Christian to actually understand or appreciate what God was doing in the incarnation.

As most of us in this ReJesus book study are ministers, or at least very committed Christians, we need to challenge ourselves with the question, “Where and how are we failing to understand and appreciate the incarnation?” Are we inclined to read or listen to those particular sources that prop up the beliefs we already have about Jesus? Or, are we willing to keep our eyes and hearts open, even to those whose images of Jesus are very different than our own?

-Robb Fuesler

Rev Robert Fuesler is the pastor at Aldersgate UMC in Tustin, California.  Robb has served at La Jolla UMC, Borrego Springs UMC and Atascadero UMC.  Besides spending time with his wife and children, Pastor Robb enjoys reading, golf, body surfing, cinema, and a good cup of coffee.