They are homeless because they came back from war to find their family had grown up and moved on without them.
They are homeless because they cam back from war and didn't trust themselves to stay with a fragile wife and delicate children.
They are homeless because they came back from war to find no jobs left for them
They are homeless because it is easier to be homeless than to be hit.
They are homeless because mommy's depression means she can't remember to pay the bills.
They are homeless because their house burned down.
They are homeless because people say, "We aren't helping them, they are homeless for a reason."
Today, while you are dressed in hundred dollar outfits and spending hours in the kitchen cooking a large family meal, Jesus is homeless. While you participate in a fertility ritual that predates Christianity because you're not smart enough to realize what eggs are and that if you want a Savior born in December then somebody better get pregnant, Jesus is homeless. While you are singing about how blessed and saved and righteous you are Jesus is homeless. Yes, today is totally about how great you are. Totally about how you just got a free ticket to heaven. Totally about how super duper awesome Jesus thinks you are.
Jesus is homeless. He is worn, weathered, dirty and alone. He is full of scars and scratches. He is homeless. He does not go to the temple and announce that he is back. He does not wave a flag and march through town. He simply wanders in the direction he feels his friends might be.
If you think that when Jesus returns he is going to have some sort of concert in your multi-million dollar religious complex with the basketball court and 3D movie theatre, Jesus is homeless. Homeless people don't hang out there. They generally aren't allowed to. If you think Jesus is coming back wearing pristine robes that match your Dolce and Gabbana pink Easter purse, Jesus is homeless. If you look back at Jesus' history, he has always been homeless.
Next Easter maybe for Jesus' sake, you could study a little. You might enter the church with some knowledge of Ostara and Ishtar. Maybe you could wear something a little less formal and more humble. Maybe you could be prepared to meet Jesus out on the street where he is wandering. Maybe you could even read his own words...John 18.36, "Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence." This scripture also frees the Jews form years of bigotry that followed by idiots that scream, "the Jews killed my Lord." Once again, good Christians who have never studied their Bibles.
Maybe next year you could check you lipgloss at the door. Maybe you could care that Jesus is homeless. Maybe you could show a little character and act like you know what he did and what he said. Rather than telling everybody how great your next life is going to be, why don't you do something of value in this one. Why do you not go meet the homeless man that is your Savior?
~ if you ever wonder why people don't go to your church or why people look down on religion, it has nothing to do with what you believe. No one calls you stupid because you believe in a Savior/G-d. All religions do. What people don't like is that you celebrate with pre Christian holidays and then scream about how they belong to YOU and only YOU. What they think you're wrong about is not your passion for your G-d but your hate for your fellow man. Jesus was a homeless Jewish man of Middle Eastern descent. You would call the cops on him today if you saw him in your neighborhood. It's the multi-million dollar religious arenas and the two thousand dollar suits that people are appalled by. In the world or of the world? It's the hypocrisy, children. Stop screaming about your persecution as Christians when you have brought it upon yourselves with such hypocrisy. ~
Showing posts with label lip gloss Christain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lip gloss Christain. Show all posts
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Saturday, March 30, 2013
A Little Lipgloss to Brighten Your Sorrow.
And Jesus wept.
As anyone who is terminal does, there is bargaining. There is begging. There is hope for a reprieve. How can someone so young willingly roll over and be still while death stalks them? Most can't. Jesus didn't. There were prayers. There were tears. There were plans. There were friends.
Each year as I sat in Maundy Thursday service I would weep. The guilt and the fear were very real to me. Each year I wanted to stand up and say, "No, I can carry my own burden. I can be responsible." It wasn't until years later that I would learn that I actually did have to carry my own burden and take my consequences squarely on the jaw; but as someone still immature to the world Thursday broke me. What also broke me was that Jesus' friends fell asleep while he prayed. They were either resigned to the fact that he believed he would die or they thought he was wasting their time. We will never really know.
On Sunday morning I would walk into church to see an all out celebration and hear singing and chanting and people saying, "We won! He won the battle for us!" The battle. What battle? The battle over death they would say. I would reply with something along the lines of, "But he still died."
I was not being naïve. I was being honest. Have you ever sat with a cancer patient and watched the struggle. Yes, death would probably be easier, but damn, life means kids and books and TV shows. Living means a chance to do something different. What is death?
We have no idea what death is, but we know how people react to it. I call it the "clawing". Imagine a cat thrown into a bathtub. He digs his claws into the porcelain hoping, hoping, squeezing his little paws. He really doesn't want to go. I have a cat and he loves fish. He does not love fish enough to jump in the lake and get his own. I know that people are fascinated with what is on the other side of death, but very few willingly go simply because they know they can't come back and tell us. Once it's done, it's done. I have seen people clawing to stay here on earth just one more minute. Knowing your fate is different than accepting your fate.
Jesus wept.
What I want to know is, regardless if you believe him to be a real person or not, do you understand the emotion of Thursday? Not Easter, not Ostara, not the beauty of Ishtar, not the sun shiny happy eggs...do you understand the weeping? Do you understand (and I say this with respect, even if you believe it to be a story) that Jesus would never be human again and on some deep level that pained him. Look at his relationship to Lazarus. Jesus was full of mourning for his friend. Jesus felt real emotion. He lived a full life. He literally put his hands on people, not to heal but to feel.
So what pains me about Easter? The "get over it" Christian attitude. The attitude of people that believe that someone died for them yet they celebrate- all out party- on the Sunday after their best friend just died. "He has risen and we are blessed". My father never let me have a crucifix because he said as Christians we do not focus on the death. Well, duh. When my father was diagnosed with cancer he certainly focused on death. He prepared for it. He paid for it. He gathered his friends around. They mourned, they prayed, they stayed up all night. That's what real friends do. Today they still call, they still say they miss him. They know that death means 'a not returning'. To sit in Jesus' seat and know that you will not be returning. It is a great and holy narrative on what life should be: Friends, a last supper, a tear in the dark. And then repeat. Repeat it every single day until you are taken by death.
For Christians who have for centuries waited with baited breath for Jesus to return so that they can go to heaven and be "happy", I ask you this: What if he doesn't return in your lifetime? Are you staring at the sky each day waiting for him so you can "get over" this life and move on to something better? Or are you mindful of what he gave up for you? Are you mindful and respectful of what the Bible tells you? Or are you blessed and chosen and allowed to party and then sleep while Jesus begs his Father for a reprieve?
How you view death is important. How you view someone else's sacrifice is what makes you either a friend or a worthless disciple.
As anyone who is terminal does, there is bargaining. There is begging. There is hope for a reprieve. How can someone so young willingly roll over and be still while death stalks them? Most can't. Jesus didn't. There were prayers. There were tears. There were plans. There were friends.
Each year as I sat in Maundy Thursday service I would weep. The guilt and the fear were very real to me. Each year I wanted to stand up and say, "No, I can carry my own burden. I can be responsible." It wasn't until years later that I would learn that I actually did have to carry my own burden and take my consequences squarely on the jaw; but as someone still immature to the world Thursday broke me. What also broke me was that Jesus' friends fell asleep while he prayed. They were either resigned to the fact that he believed he would die or they thought he was wasting their time. We will never really know.
On Sunday morning I would walk into church to see an all out celebration and hear singing and chanting and people saying, "We won! He won the battle for us!" The battle. What battle? The battle over death they would say. I would reply with something along the lines of, "But he still died."
I was not being naïve. I was being honest. Have you ever sat with a cancer patient and watched the struggle. Yes, death would probably be easier, but damn, life means kids and books and TV shows. Living means a chance to do something different. What is death?
We have no idea what death is, but we know how people react to it. I call it the "clawing". Imagine a cat thrown into a bathtub. He digs his claws into the porcelain hoping, hoping, squeezing his little paws. He really doesn't want to go. I have a cat and he loves fish. He does not love fish enough to jump in the lake and get his own. I know that people are fascinated with what is on the other side of death, but very few willingly go simply because they know they can't come back and tell us. Once it's done, it's done. I have seen people clawing to stay here on earth just one more minute. Knowing your fate is different than accepting your fate.
Jesus wept.
What I want to know is, regardless if you believe him to be a real person or not, do you understand the emotion of Thursday? Not Easter, not Ostara, not the beauty of Ishtar, not the sun shiny happy eggs...do you understand the weeping? Do you understand (and I say this with respect, even if you believe it to be a story) that Jesus would never be human again and on some deep level that pained him. Look at his relationship to Lazarus. Jesus was full of mourning for his friend. Jesus felt real emotion. He lived a full life. He literally put his hands on people, not to heal but to feel.
So what pains me about Easter? The "get over it" Christian attitude. The attitude of people that believe that someone died for them yet they celebrate- all out party- on the Sunday after their best friend just died. "He has risen and we are blessed". My father never let me have a crucifix because he said as Christians we do not focus on the death. Well, duh. When my father was diagnosed with cancer he certainly focused on death. He prepared for it. He paid for it. He gathered his friends around. They mourned, they prayed, they stayed up all night. That's what real friends do. Today they still call, they still say they miss him. They know that death means 'a not returning'. To sit in Jesus' seat and know that you will not be returning. It is a great and holy narrative on what life should be: Friends, a last supper, a tear in the dark. And then repeat. Repeat it every single day until you are taken by death.
For Christians who have for centuries waited with baited breath for Jesus to return so that they can go to heaven and be "happy", I ask you this: What if he doesn't return in your lifetime? Are you staring at the sky each day waiting for him so you can "get over" this life and move on to something better? Or are you mindful of what he gave up for you? Are you mindful and respectful of what the Bible tells you? Or are you blessed and chosen and allowed to party and then sleep while Jesus begs his Father for a reprieve?
How you view death is important. How you view someone else's sacrifice is what makes you either a friend or a worthless disciple.
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