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| God, coffee and soul-satisfying conversation. (Original illustrations by Sunha Yoon for love, -j.) |
Why is Jesus
important, one thousand nine hundred and eighty one years after he changed the
course of human history? I recently ruminated this and other topics (including
American Christian culture, sex, art and the benefits of dirty
language) with my dear friend and fellow blogger, Erika Abdelatif (The Trees Will Clap).
“You know why
Jesus is relevant today?” Erika offered. “Because he brought all kinds of
people to one table to teach us that it isn’t about who is right and who is
wrong (which is one way Christians miss it all the time).”
Amen.
With Easter fast
approaching, I’ve been thinking about why, as a Christ follower, Jesus’ death and
resurrection is important to me. His victory over death (and not just physical
death but death in the metaphorical sense: fear, hopelessness, pain, suffering,
strife) becomes my victory. And my freedom
from death (again, both physical and metaphorical) gives me the power to act on
the things that really matter: love, generosity, righteousness, humility,
forgiveness.
Frankly, these
are things I wish I saw more in the Christian community. Rather than wasting
energy on the divide and conquer method, we ought to spend our time engaging
and uniting the world (after all, it's not about winning the argument, it’s about winning the person). And the more genuine
conversations we share (like the one below, for example), the more we will grow
in our understanding (and hopefully, compassion) for one another.
“Let me tell
you why you are here,” Jesus says in the Book of Matthew. “You’re here to be
salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth.”
Easter 2014: A conversation between two Christians
By Erika Abdelatif and Jennifer Cho Salaff
Erika
Abdelatif: The Church is a funny thing to me right now. I feel like Christians
are generally afraid to have hard conversations or sit in tension, which is
ironic. If Jesus is our truth, why are we so afraid?
Jennifer
Cho Salaff: I totally know what you mean. I think it’s American Christian culture.
It offers a very safe, very predictable, very sanitized version of Christianity.
All too often the
culture informs us: “Do this and you’ll live a prosperous life. Go to church on
Sunday, check it off the to-do list and you’re set.” A lot of rules and A plus
B equals C. But life doesn’t always work out that way. I mean, it does if you
live in a bubble. But I think it's important for
Christians to be in touch with the real world. To want to see things and experience
things that are uncomfortable, messy-- how the real world is. And to not be
afraid to engage it.
EA: No, that is exactly my
frustration. I feel like my faith expands when I'm in the world, interacting
with culture, wrestling with big questions. But the Church seems to look so
negatively on that and when you try to suggest, "Let's talk about
this!" it's not welcomed. That's a very big challenge for me.
For
instance, I had this awesome work meeting recently about an idea for a book. My colleague told me he
presented a manuscript about the LGBT community and one of the head people
said, "This is an interesting proposal, but what is LGBT?"
I was like, WHAT?! How can you live in this day and age and not know that?!
JCS:
Oh my. See what I mean??!!
EA: Which is why Christians make
terrible art when we should be making the BEST. We are afraid of EVERYTHING.
JCS: We talk about that ALL THE
TIME!!
OK, don't mean to be a hater, but
I agree: Christians make the WORST art ever!!
I remember
going to a Christian conference in San Diego and walking through a convention
hall filled with all these booths hawking merchandise. I just about died. It
was like walking through a time machine to 1985. They were awful. The graphic
design was terrible. Out of touch. And CHEESY!!
EA: OMG. I know.
I will never forget a particular
booth that was selling a CD with one song (for children!) that said, "Stop,
drop and roll... To quench the fires of hell."
What?!
JCS:
Ah!!!! OMG. I'm dying.
EA: Speaking
of being afraid of everything, I
recently had a conversation with a friend where I got "in trouble"
for saying, "That's f*cked up" when I found out friends of ours broke
off their two-year engagement over something really sh*tty.
To which I told my friend, LANGUAGE
IS A TOOL. Right now, F*CKED UP is the only thing that adequately describes
this situation.
JCS: For the record: I love that word.
It's one of the best words ever invented. But it is powerful and should be used
with responsibility.
EA:
Seriously. If it's overused it loses its power. If it's underused it's given
too much power. But in the right moments, it needs to be said.
But that's just the thing. We
shouldn't be afraid of language. Ugh. I've rolled my eyes so much during this
talk that my eyes hurt.
JCS:
Don't injure yourself.
EA: Ha!
JCS: Your experience about using the F
word reminds me how so many Christians are spending their energy on all the
wrong things. We are fighting against gays, we get all worked up over words
like f*ck, we protest and picket and say awful things about people. And the
worst part is, these horrible things are done in the name of Jesus.
EA: When we
should using our energy to
make a difference in the world.
And
make good art, for Christ's sake!
JCS: Yes! The
church used to commission the world's best art. Michelangelo, for instance.
EA: I was
just thinking about that yesterday!!
And don't
get me started on how Christians treat the gay community.
I always laugh about being in the
closet about my support of marriage equality.
It's
pretty much open news now that I'm a supporter, though. Many hard conversations
with people who didn't like that. I've
got some gray opinions about homosexuality as a sin, to be honest. But I'm just
a big heretic.
JCS: I’m
totally out of the closet about marriage equality, too. I say, “Equal rights for all!” I still wrestle
with whether or not homosexuality is a "sin." I mean, we all know
what it says in Leviticus, but I really doubt Jesus would approve of his
followers quoting Leviticus 18 as a reason to spew hate.
What I have
a problem with, regarding sex, is promiscuity. And that goes both ways-- in the
gay AND straight communities. Promiscuity is dangerous and destructive and
harms the soul.
EA: EXACTLY!!!
Girl, you're speaking my language right now.
JCS: OK, since we're on the topic of
sex and sin, etc. Let’s
talk about another topic that gets Christians hot and bothered (pun intended):
pre-marital sex. Full
disclosure: I don't think sex before marriage is a sin. I mean, where in the
Bible does it say that? I've met so many Christians who quote that as Scripture
and I'm like, "What?"
I’m not condoning premarital sex. I've
just always been puzzled as to why the church is so preoccupied with this
issue. Why are we not appalled by greed? Apathy? Jealousy? Wrath? Instead of
talking about the “sinfulness” of sex before marriage, why are we not talking
about the body as a temple of God? Why are we not having honest discussions
about sex and relationships?
EA: Not to
mention these are all things (language, sex, homosexuality) Jesus didn't explicitly
talk about.
And yet things that he did talk
about--money, the poor, the marginalized—we tend to avoid.
JCS: It's
much easier to judge others and tell them what they are doing wrong than to
look in the mirror and say, "You know, I should help people more. I should
go and talk to that person over there and LISTEN to him; I should share my
money and my resources; I should fight for peace and not start a war.”
EA: Mmm,
preach girl. Preach.
JCS: These things are HARD to do. Many
times I ask God, "Really? You want
me to love my enemy? You want me to put others before myself?" S
ometimes, I think I am not fit to
be called a Christian. Because when I think about what it REALLY means to be a
Christ follower, I feel totally overwhelmed and unequipped.
EA: It totally is hard. But you're
not doing this all alone and you're not doing it over night. The whole point of
walking with Christ is to constantly become more aware of yourself and others
and to do something about it.
And nine times out of
ten, you might choose to be selfish. But on the tenth time, Jesus is like, “YEAH!
You did it! Let's talk about THAT.” That's growth.
JCS: Totally. Jesus gives us the power
to do that. The goal isn’t perfection. It never was. Why live an existence
where you’re constantly setting yourself up for failure? I love that Jesus
takes that burden from us, so we can live free. Free from fear, free from hate,
free from hopelessness. Love is the goal, right?
EA: BOOM!
JCS:
Bada bing!
EA: Well, we just solved all of Christianity's
problems.
I think we should blog this
transcript and title it, "Read this, and shut the f*ck up."
JCS: Haaaa!!! Ok, stop it. I'm
dying!!!
Seriously, we should post our
conversation on our blogs.
EA: HAHA, really? I think people will
lose their sh*t.
JCS: AWESOME!! People need to lose
their sh*t. No, but seriously, bringing it back to Jesus. What are you
meditating this Easter?
EA: Honestly,
for me, it keeps going back to delving into relationships with people who are
different than me--theologically, socially, etc. Realizing that Jesus unifies
people, and that I always have something to learn from those who are most
different than me -- even though it's tempting to push them away. I mean,
that’s resurrection in a sense?
JCS:
Oh I love that. It's totally resurrection. Bringing back to life the
relationships you might have "put to death" because of differences
(like the ones you mentioned: social, theological, etc.).
EA: I
mean, you think about the followers of Jesus all huddled and hiding together in
the house after his death. Imagine that gathering! Such diversity unified under
one roof and one cause.
JCS:
And then those followers leaving the "safety" of that roof to tell
others -- people from all walks of life -- about Jesus' resurrection.
EA:
Boom.
JCS:
For me, this Easter is a meditation on faith. The kind of faith where you trust
that even the impossible can be possible.
I
just survived a cold, brutal, oppressive winter here in Cleveland. At times, it
crushed my soul. I would wake up and look out my window and it would be another
day of snow, another day of gray skies, another day of gloom. It was hard to trust that the sun would shine
again. It was such a metaphor. Sometimes, life is a dark season. Sometimes
things feel impossible.
But
today the skies are blue and the birds are singing. The spring flowers are
fighting for their spot in the sun. And I know, deep in my heart, things are
going to be OK. Human beings live for a triumphant ending. We want to
believe in purity and goodness and light. And Jesus' victory over death is
proof that triumphant endings are indeed real.
EA: Aw,
I love that. Hope. Take heart, because Jesus has overcome the world.
JCS:
Yes, he is risen!
***
Thank you to my wonderful sister-in-law (and sister in Christ), Sunha Yoon Salaff, for her original illustrations for love, -j. XOXO, Sunha!
I wanna sit down and have a cup of coffee with Stephen Colbert. (Relevant)
