Saving Jesus
Here's a sermon called Saving Jesus by the minister of our church. It starts ...Several years ago I was talking with a rabbi and comparing our two religions. The rabbi pointed out that there were more differences between us than I might realize. "But," he chuckled, "like you Unitarian Universalists, we Jews get a little nervous around Jesus."Christian UUs, of course, don't get nervous around Jesus. But a decent number of people in my church, including myself, do. (I was the "wincer" my minister commented on.) It's my goal to learn to stop.As Unitarian Universalists we do get nervous around Jesus. One church member recently said to me that whenever I mention Jesus, he "winces." I expect that he is not alone. Why is that? If I were talk about Buddha, you would be interested, at worst puzzled, but I doubt that you would wince.
I'd be pleased to hear any comments on this sermon, especially (but certainly not limited to) those who identify as Christian Unitarians.
posted by Paul Wilczynski @ 11:51 AM
3 Comments:
I at least can attribute the wincing I've done in the past (not sure if I continue to do so) over Jesus to the fact that he's so often been employed as a weapon of attempted disenfranchisement and spiritual violence in my presence, sometimes at me in particular over the simple fact that I'm a UU. But context is everything. I don't usually wince at Jesus automatically--after all, I'm generally a fan of the Gospels, which are the only records we have of him. If Jesus comes up at church, I assume the speaker means the Unitarian-Universalist Jesus I was raised with, who's a pretty nice guy, part mystic, part social reformer. But if Jesus is presented in the evangelical context, I tend to feel like I'm at risk of verbal assault. Perhaps UUs who wince at all times are conditioned by their experiences to think first or only of the evangelical Jesus or some equivalent.
I was a "wincer" for many years for two reasons: (1) everyone I admired thought that Christians who actually took Jesus seriously were a bunch of pancake-faced idiots, and politically dangerous and (2) I identified JC with the creepy, bloody, zombie aspects of the gospel accounts, and not with the living, angry, funny, subsersive Lover of Life and Humanity aspect of Jesus as revealed in the gospels.
I kind of had to date Jesus for a long time before we fell in love. He, of course, told me he was in love with me at the very start. He's a slut that way. I still date some minor Greek gods and goddesses and Buddha now and then, but he's way more cool and detached and doesn't always return my calls, leaving me to manage my craziness by myself. Jesus, on the other hand, not only returns calls but comes over and rubs my feet for me, while patiently listening to me grouse about how much anger and disappointment I have about certain people. So you know, it does win a girl's heart.
In the summer, though, I usually have a pretty serious affair with Dionysus.
On 23 March 2005, Paul Wilczynski wrote the following:
"As Unitarian Universalists we do get nervous around Jesus. One church member recently said to me that whenever I mention Jesus, he 'winces.' I expect that he is not alone. Why is that? If I were talk about Buddha, you would be interested, at worst puzzled, but I doubt that you would wince."
Paul,
I suspect that part of the reason for the "wincing" isn't theology, but may be better understood using anti-oppression work that we've done in other contexts.
Even with the increased visibility and vitality of UU Christianity within the UUA and growth of UU congregations with UU Christian emphasis, I don't think anyone would think that Christianity gains you much power or privilege in many UU congregations. It's quite the opposite ... saying you're a Christian in many UU congregation will bring you puzzled curiosity at best, scorn at worst.
These attitudes towards Christianity within UU congregations are a reversal of the attitudes one would find outside UU congregations where Christianity is privileged with respect to other religions.
Non-Christian folks in our congregations who hear about the non-UU versions of Jesus and are immersed in a Christian-centric culture for the 166 hours each week that they are not in a UU church may instinctively "wince" when they hear "Jesus" mentioned in a UU pulpit (even if the "Jesus" is a UU version of Jesus and not Jerry Falwell's Jesus).
UU Non-Christians who are prone to "wincing" need to remember that our UU Christian friends (and liberal Christian friends like our UCC cousins) didn't create this world where Christianity has unearned power and privilege. Like everyone else in North America, we are all inheritors of a situation that was around before we were born. The responsibility that we non-Christian UUs have is to acknowledge this situation in the spirit of love and not blame our UU Christian (and other liberal Christian) friends for a situation they did not create nor desire.
UU Christians need to remember that they are walking in the door of a church wearing a garment of "power and privilege" that was not freely accepted but rather forced on them by our wider North American culture. UU Christians joining a predominantly non-Christian UU congregation are (unknowingly?) engaging in anti-oppression work by giving up unearned power and privilege granted to them by the wider culture. This is the theological equivalent of an adult advisor working with youth where the advisor gives up some of the unearned privilege that comes with being an adult.
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