Monday, July 20, 2009

If Jesus Was a Jerk

If Jesus was a jerk (like me) we'd be best buds. I mean who doesn't like to sit at the mall and mock people who are walking by? The woman whose clothes fit 20 or 30 pound ago, the one with hair standing 6 inches above her head, the guy trying so desperately to look like a girly man or a manly girl with his manliner and skin-tight skinny jeans, the 50 year old woman dressing like she's Brittany Spears. Who doesn't love a good mocking-others session?

Ummm. Perhaps Jesus wouldn't enjoy it.

If Jesus was a jerk (like me) he would make us all laugh with sarcastic comments.

Ummm. He seemed to have saved his sarcasm for the self-righteous religious leaders.

If Jesus was a jerk (like me) he would be so concerned with how his feelings got hurt when they spit on him, or falsely arrested him, or held an illegal trial, or whipped him, or drove spikes through his hands and feet or the thorns through his scalp that he would have torn them apart with a word, with a flick of his finger or with merely a thought which blew their bodies apart (which he was holding together, by the way) or he would have called the armies of heaven to obliterate them in the most painful way possible.

If Jesus was a jerk (like me) he would be upset when we don't give him the praise that is his due, or thank him for all the things he does, like holding us together and giving us life and breath, as an example. He would want his accolades, his award ceremonies, a gold star on his report card. He certainly wouldn't spend three years! with guys who were so thick they didn't understand who he was and what that meant. He would find people a little quicker to understand his greatness and majesty. If he was like me.

Oh if only I would grasp his infinite greatness and the wonder of his incomparable gift. Perhaps then I would be better able to love people who can't pick the "right" shoes to go with their outfits, or who don't appreciate me, who hurt me with unkind words or deeds. Perhaps I would forgive graciously, perhaps I would serve unselfishly, perhaps I would use kinder words, if only I weren't a jerk like me.

For a Cure

What would we do for the cure
to the ills that haunt us here?
What pain endure, what comforts lose?
What burdens would we bear?
Or would I choose to bear the signs
of sin which brought on our decline?
I often think that pain's a tool
of a malevolent one
Whose hatred for me runs so strong
it would steal joy from my bones.

And when you said you'd lost all hope
I knew exactly what you meant
I knew you'd come to realize that you'd
soon leave your earthly home
I also knew that healing comes
if not on earth, than through the son
Whose resurrection made a way
For healing then if not today.
I held you tight and said the words
That hope was in another world.

But while in this fallen estate,
We face the ills of mankind's fate
The fate was sealed with Adam's fall
For one man's sin has doomed us all
But where one man's guilt has wrought destruction
One sacrifice healed corruption
And made it so we could escape
The bonds and ends of sinner's fate.

For by one man we all were doomed
and by one man salvation comes.
Salvation not just from our sin
But of sin's consequential ills.

Sunday, July 19, 2009

Attendance was down

Attendance was down in church today
The sun was out, and I hear the fish were biting
The band played, the singers sang their songs
The preacher preached. But the AC wasn't working.

But if we are his body, where were the people?
Where were the hands and feet? Where were his ears and temples?
In the seats were some new folks, wondering what was wrong here?
Sitting in a row by themselves, they wanted to run during greeting.

I sat and cried throughout the morning.
To know my time here is ending
The ushers and greeters were in place
Though I said goodbye to a lot of people
So many I love just weren't there.
They went away and I lost one more chance to see them.
It breaks my heart to lose a chance to say "I love you."

If we are the body we should be gathered together
For what are feet without ankles, a head without neck to turn it?
Maybe we should cancel services for the month of August
And meet on the side of a river
We'll fish for trout now,
We'll fish for people later
We want to play now
The sun is bright and shining
Souls will wait, for now the fish are biting.