I've had a wide variety of exposures to denominations, this doesn't talk about the Baptists in the family or the Jehovah's Witnesses either...there's more.Nothing is intentionally irreverent, hopefully no one is offended. :)
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The Pink Room: Thoughts About Intentional Living
Chapter 4/ Shifts. (The Slowly Evolving Jesus.)
Part 1 (Previous post contain the previous parts/chapters.)
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When I started learning about faith and God I thought that somehow people all grew and understood the same way. I thought Jesus would reveal himself similarly to everyone, that we'd all know and experience the same guy. Maybe, how it really is: I know the Jesus from the Midwest who is interested in people and art. I think that my sister knows the Jesus who understands moms with four year old twin boys. As with all other relationships, we will only know and receive what we can at the time. For example, I know my parents one way and they know each other a very different way.
I had a wide array of church experiences beginning Catholic, a visiting Lutheran on Mom’s side for special events, in early high school I went to a Pentecostal youth group, then a Non-denominational one, then to a Methodist college and church while there, and I stayed with a roommate’s Presbyterian family regularly—and then to that church.
Let me just say: Catholic masses are not good preparation for a Pentecostal youth group. People were serious about the salvation message, altar calls, speaking in tongues and being baptized in the Holy Spirit. My Catholic confirmation class told me I was baptized in the Holy Spirit there too. I didn’t see anyone speak in tongues in CCD. Actually, the leaders were lucky if any of the kids spoke at all, much less in a foreign language or one of angles.
The Pentecostals were also really excited about the risen Jesus. The Pentecostal Jesus was always alive and I dare say, excited. Sometimes I felt like the people were trying to convince Jesus to do things. They prayed a lot and for a long time. Not bad, just not the memorized prayers I grew up with. I went to a “drama” at the Pentecostal church once (exactly like a play) at Eastertime—it was about the death and resurrection of Jesus but didn’t go through the killing part as much as the raising from the dead part. I noticed this because in the Catholic Church, every year, we’d read the whole story from the beginning to end in the Bible, it often was broken down for a few weeks before Easter, and that was very important in that denomination.
The “drama” had a giant foam cave made out of the pink stuff you insulate houses with. A grown man, playing Jesus, fit inside. They also had a giant painted foam cave door, you could see pink wherever it had gotten dinged. A Roman soldier, in an uncomfortably short costume, came and pushed the door to the side, sort of picking it up a little and side-stepping it over…which is not what the Bible says, nothing about pink foam or picking up the door.
I mostly heard about Jesus dying while I was growing up. In the Catholic Church, there was a big reminder of this in the form of a fifteen foot tall crucifix on the wall. It would get covered with a white cloth at Easter and sometimes Christmas. Catholic Jesus was alive at Easter, pretty much on the cross the rest of the year.
The Lutheran Jesus seemed to be about grace. When we’d visit my uncle’s church they’d talk about it. This unmerited favor thing was brought up—all people, undeserving of the gift of Jesus’’ sacrifice, something you can’t earn but can receive from Him. Their cross was empty, he’d risen, neither here and dead or alive, but risen.
Then there was the Non-denominational Jesus, He seemed to about understanding, He was a friend—sometimes it seems too casual like a buddy. When I first started attending, I missed the reverence part of the story and realized over time that thinking came with maturity. As a Catholic, there was a relationship where you revered the sacrifice and with the
With Non-denominationalism, Jesus was sometimes all too human. There was a doll around that time called “My Buddy.” Maybe a little of that and a little of the Jesus from Dogma but what was good was that they stressed relationship, and I didn’t get that piece anywhere else. They also talked about leaning less on your own effort and more on him—that we can’t do this life without him.
In college, I hung out with a lot of Methodists and went to that church. They talked a lot about predetermined grace with infant baptism. About determining, in faith, Jesus will show up in the child’s life because they took steps to have the child baptized. I learned about Wesley and Calvinist and circuit riders. And those people were amazing, did a lot of work and believed Jesus would be present if they got their hands dirty. They believed in grace so much that they began the conversation of opening minister positions to homosexuals, of the Methodists churches have, others have not. The Presbyterian believed in grace even more than any of the rest, even more than the Methodists, they believed anyone could come exactly as they were, no need to change anything and Jesus seemed to be about accepting people where they were in life and however they did life—and their churches, if the pastor is morally okay with it, will even marry homosexuals.
And all these people and churches, with kind-hearted
people who are seeking after Jesus also all believe their church is doing faith
right (not always saying other are doing it wrong.) I thought I knew a lot
about Jesus when I was young and as I got older and saw all these different
relationships with Him, the less I felt I really knew.
I was very glad I read the whole Bible, and
knew the Jesus in there.
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Jesus reveals more to us with each new
experience. Just like any other relationship it is important to be open to all
the parts of the person that make them who they are. Assumptions about a person
because of something you’ve heard, or a family-member’s experience or a rumor
generally does not turn out to be totally true, in my experience. I have nearly
lost out on knowing someone great because of other’s opinions. I needed to discover
and suspend judgment until I take to the time myself.
Jesus slowly reveals Himself and as we are
able to see what He is revealing, we can embrace our new understanding. It is
like any other relationship where a person changes in the light of time and
shared experiences.
Each one of these groups had something
valuable to offer. Colossians speaks of this to some degree. Corinthians speaks
of parts of the body. I believe that as long as each group is worshiping Jesus,
the small differences do not have to matter; Jesus can sort out the details on
the other side of death. Hopefully someday we can celebrate these and embrace
each denomination as a part of the body of Christ. Hopefully we can celebrate
what we agree on. My prayer is that people will know Him fully, and will be whole
by his transnational love—if that happens all these other details will sort
themselves out.
