"I Want My Jesus Back..."
an excerpt from Rev. Federici, 14 november 2004
the text is isaiah 65: 17-25
i want my jesus back.
i want my radical jesus back.
i want my christianity back.
i want my radical christianity back.
i do not understand how jesus became the spokesperson for a christianity that is afraid.
i do not understand how jesus became the spokesperson for a christianity that honors judgement, condemnation and smallness of mind and heart.
i do not understand how jesus became so graceless, so heavy handed, so like an unpopular kid who suddenly becomes a classroom monitor, a tattle tale jesus telling his father god who is good, who is bad, who is fooling around, a wet blanket , blue chip, risk free jesus backed up with a secret swiss bank account.
how did jesus get so boring?
how did christianity get so embarassing?
jesus and christianity need to be rescued from those who are using it in the service of fear, control, oppression, the keeping of the status quo.
jesus and christianity need to be rescued from being in service of the travesty of their counterfeit versions. those versions that pervert the heart of the gospel.
the wolf wearing sheep’s clothing.
underneath is simply an aberrant strain of hatred, cruelty and arrogance.
i want my jesus back.
i want my radical jesus and my radical christianity back.
right now.
i want to fly on isaiah’s coat tails---
and hold ourselves to this vision initiated by god in the words of isaiah....
behold today i do a new thing,
be glad in what i am creating,
no more shall there be the sound of weeping or distress
but houses that are inhabitated, the hungry will be fed,
those who work will be satisfied.
the wolf and the lamb will sit down to dinner together.
god’s kingdom, god’s queendom, god’s sacred creation, god’s reign will be rung in.
characterized by
an ethic and a practice of healing
an ethic and a practice of compassion, an ethic of justice, an ethic of inclusiveness and diversity.
a creation in which everyone matters.
where radical love matters.
radical love is
transgressive, almost violent in its effect.
it shakes away complacencies.
it awakens.
radical love opens up rather than shuts down.
and this, my dear friends, is the choice before us today.
at this point in history,
at this point in the history of our country,
will we open up or will we shut down?
will we live into isaiah’s vision of the reign of god,
or will we
whine, whimper and declare ourselves victims?
we do not have that luxury.
not while there are real victims around----
victims who need the voices of radical love
to assist them.
will we on the liberal left of religion,
will we who teach and live the right of private judgement,
the freedom and the responsibility of the individual soul,
will we who burn with the love of covenant
open up or shut down?
how can we enact a christianity that is without fear, without arrogance, without cruelty?
that does not glorify pain and suffering?
that does not shirk from lifting a prophetic voice?
that does not shirk from offering a prophetic ear?
how can we enact a christianity that understands that radical love is not about being sentimental and “lalalala,”
but is a transgressive, disruptive, shaking of our foundations.
but redraws the boundaries of our hearts?
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