Merry Christmas

It is Christmas Eve, we are between services at church, and I wanted to take a moment to say Merry Christmas to you and your families. May God's peace and love surround you, such that you may feel his real presence.

AMEN

Christmas Trees

Ok, those of you who know me know that I am super easy going, and stuff doesn't bug me too much. I'm willing to live with ambiguity, and can normally see things from every side (at least I make it a point to really try too). Some might call that "wishy washy." I call that "counterfactual reasoning." (look it up -- it's a real thing!).

Anyways, there is something that has just come up around Milwaukee this time of year that I must admit totally bugs me. What is it you ask?

Holiday trees.

Not Christmas trees.

Holiday trees.

Here's the thing, I'm ok with people saying "Happy Holidays" to each other at this time of year, recognizing that others are celebrating different religious events at the same time as we are (Hanukkah being the most obvious). "Seasons Greetings" works for me too, knowing that there are plenty of people we come into contact every day for whom Christmas is neither "Merry" nor do they really want to know or worship the Christ of Christmas (therefore maybe for them "Seasons Greetings" is more honest). And unfortunately, I think that sometimes Christians use "Merry CHRISTmas" as kind of an "in-your-face" challenge to any and all opponents of the messiah, and as a way to impose dominance on the rest of the world.

All that is to say I'm all for being sensitive to proclaiming the Merry Christmas message in a life-giving way, and for respecting others rights NOT to do so.

But...holiday trees?

As far as I know, trees have no place in any other modern day mainline religious context (especially around late December). Therefore when I hear it called a "holiday tree", I think to myself, what does that mean?

I guess I know what it means -- it means we have this anxious need to make everyone feel comfortable and not offend anyone (which I agree with in part. We should always be looking to give people life, not make them feel marginalized). But then the answer to that struggle is the troublesome part -- lets just change the name of the Christmas symbol so that no one will be offended. Let's call it a holiday tree instead, therefore everyone will be happy, and everyone's beliefs will be affirmed.

I guess that is where I disagree.

Because in the process of making the Christmas tree work for everyone, it ends up not really working for anyone. In fact, in the process of changing name of a symbol, not just Christian belief but everyone's beliefs are demeaned. It could be argued then that we should start calling public displays of Menorah's "Winter Candle Stands", or Manger Scenes "mini-motel prototypes"? Fact is, when we change the meaning of our religious symbols, we suck the power right out of them for the believer, and all of us lose in the end.

Here's what I wish we could do. I wish our city centers could have a Christmas Tree, a Menorah, a Kinara (a Kwanza Candle Stand), and maybe other symbols and representations of the religious communities of Milwaukee. I wish we could agree to encourage people to celebrate their own faith, with each of us even trying to find the best of what other people's faith has to offer as well. We could learn a lot from those different that us. Instead of watering everything down, I wish we could encourage others to celebrate their "holidays", and I wish they could encourage us to do the same.

That doesn't mean as Christians we have to accept others religious beliefs as the full truth. That doesn't mean we have to bow to any other God except the God of Jesus Christ. That doesn't mean we have to say, "All roads lead equally to God." That doesn't mean we can't use Christmas as a chance to share the best story ever told that God became incarnate in Bethlehem.

But it does mean that we need to respect each other enough to allow each other to celebrate and practice their faith. When we water down our differences, we degrade and demean each other. It is not being respectful.

And holiday trees are not respectful. I wish we could call them what they are, or just not have them at all.

That's enough on that. Wow, I must be cranky today! I promise a more hopeful post next time!

Have a blessed week.

jeff

What I learned from "Rent"ing

My apologies for my lack of posts these past few weeks...

This past weekend, Kristi and I went with some friends to see the film version of the musical Rent which just came out. For those of you who aren't familiar with the storyline, Rent is the retelling of Puccini's Opera La Boheme, but set in New York in 1989. It tells the story of a group of bohemian friends who are filmakers, dancers, musicians, drug addicts, drag queens, and other societal castaways trying to survive in a world that tells them that they are worthless unless they conform. Another main "actor" in this musical is HIV, which affects 4 of the 7 main characters, eventually developing into AIDS and killing one of them. HIV is the ominous "big brother" that you never see in the musical, but is always there -- a telling truth in the times that we live in.

Rent is a rough and tumble story, and not for the faint of heart. In many ways though, it has become the lens through which the Gen X, postmodern culture has been identified (it's longevity and Broadway, Tony Awards, Pulitzer Prizes, and cult following attest to that). If you want to know what Gen X looks like and thinks like, Rent is the poster child (in my opinion).

My guess is that 95% of Christians who have seen Rent absolutely hated it and think it is the worst of what culture and humanity has to offer in the 20th (and now 21st) Century.

But let me make a confession... I love Rent, and not just because I am a Gen X'er myself, or because I'm trying to be ultra hip or something. Instead, I must admit I am very thankful for this musical in my own life of faith, and listen to it (and now see it) in order to be a better pastor, and (hopefully) to be a better follower of Christ as well. Let me tell you why.

First, I must issue a disclaimer. There is much in Rent that I dislike and disagree with. The drugs, the sexual promiscuity and confusion, the extreme self-centeredness, the language...these elements are all in this movie (as they are in our society at large), and I don't condone any of them. WHEW! I'm glad I got that off my chest.

But if I can get past these elements on the surface, I believe there is a river running below the surface in Rent that feeds me and teaches me something about myself and God, and about what I think the church is called to be.

Rent is the tale of a community of broken people -- Broken by heartbreak, by poverty, by confusion, by an illness (HIV) that both isolates individuals as well as mortally wounds them.

Yet, it is in the brokenness of their dreams and in the ever present knowledge of their own mortality, that the Rent'ers come to see life in clear and sharp focus.

One example of this is in their experience of community and belonging. A number of the characters attend a "Life Support" meeting a few times throughout the musical (a support group for people with HIV/AIDS). Life Support is a place where people who have been broken and are alone come together to support and love each other. This group is their "church". At Life Support, they are able to voice their fears and be accepted by others. They are able to belong and know that others will not judge them for their pasts or their present. They know how they got into the situation they are in -- no one needs to remind them of that. They just need to be someplace where they experience love and community in a world that isolates them and tells them to live in regret and shame. These moments in the music and in the movie are holy moments of deep connection. These characters on screen are experiencing unconditional love (agape love as Scripture calls it) -- all in a community center.

As I sat and watched again this weekend, I was reminded once again at how much I wish and long for the church took that posture. In fact, that is what the church is supposed to be -- "life support" for broken people, not the country club for the religious elite. We believe that the source of real life, our life support, is in the embrace of Jesus himself -- Jesus who will love us in the midst of our brokeness, heal our brokeness, and then never walk away. Mark, Roger, Mimi, Angel, Tom, Maureen, Joann -- these characters give us a hint of what God's love for us looks like. Their love and embrace each other as the best of of what Christian community can and should be.

But I also know that even this community of love and acceptance that Rent has found will pass away (as happens in the story). It is full, but it is also empty. As a follower of Christ, I watch this and I envy their deep level of commitment and community, but yearn for them to know a relationship much deeper than human love and belonging -- being loved and knowing I belong in the embrace of Jesus himself, who will never leave.

Unfortunately, much like the critics of this musical who say it is unChristian in nature, we turn our heads to those who are Rent in our world, subtley telling them in the process that they must clean up their act before we will love them. Becasue of that, I am confident these Rent'ers would reject the church, as most of the postmodern, Gen X world has. They don't feel like they belong because our love has been conditional. This is a tragedy.

In that respect, Rent has it right and modern day religion has it wrong. Jesus himself was known as "a man of no reputation" (Philippians 2), by the wise considered a fool (as the old Rich Mullins song goes). "He welcomes sinners and eats with them", the religious elite scoffed at Jesus. (Luke 15:2). I can't help but think these sinners looked alot like these characters in Rent, and I bet Jesus would have loved them very much, and hung out with them often.

What about us?

If you are up to it, I'd like to issue you a challenge. If you choose to see Rent, as you watch it, try picturing Jesus walking with every character in the story. Picture him laughing with them when they laugh, crying with them when they cry, mourning with them when they mourn. Don't make any moral judgments (certainly, there is morality in Jesus' teachings, but for the moment focus on his love for them). Just picture him loving these "sinners."

My conviction is that we as Christians too often start with judgment instead of love. Yet, Jesus led with love, and in that love, sinners were changed (and even desired to stop living in their sin. One example being Zaccheus (Luke 19)). While Jesus never relaxed his standards of right and wrong, he always led with love and acceptance.

I believe if we can get down below the surface of this story, below the drug use, below the cross dressing, below the loose lifestyles, we might learn something, and maybe even see the face of Jesus in the process.

Tell me what you think.

jeff