Jesus Among the Talking Heads--January 27, 2021

 Jesus Among the Talking Heads--January 27, 2021

"See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ." [Colossians 2:8]

It comes down to this: at some point in your life, you may have to choose between the way of Jesus and your feelings about the capital-gains tax... or between the mind of Christ and the current platform of the political party you have "always registered as"... or between the character of the Crucified One and the worldview of your favorite bloviating talking head on cable news.  When that time comes, choose Jesus.

For that matter, in this life we are going to have to make choices from time to time between the way of Jesus and whatever self-help gobbledygook is on the best-seller list, or whatever shallow psychobabble is trending on social media.  We may have to choose between the mindset of Christ and the ambiguous buzz-words on the mouths of pundits and celebrities, too.  And, again, when it happens, don't be surprised... but I'd recommend choosing the way of Jesus over all those others.

In fairness, of course, the problem is that so often, the difference is subtle, and rarely do those other voices announce how they run counter to the way of Jesus.  Only in rare cases is the contrast so outlandishly, cartoonishly glaring as to be obvious on the face of it.  I mean, sure, when the loud angry voices are shouting, "Me and My Group First!" or actively encouraging us to hate our neighbors and insist on our own benefits over others, we should probably spot that as anti-Christ pretty easily. But a lot of the time, the influential voices competing for our attention are sly and sneaky--they like to dress their vantage point up to sound good and holy and righteous, maybe even dressing up with a cross stamped on the cover or quoting Bible passages.  Then it becomes trickier.  But our calling, according to Colossians, is still the same:  to be wise and discerning enough to recognize what really reflects the character of Christ, and what is simply somebody's self-interested agenda dressed up in religious garb.

The other thing that makes this so challenging for us is that the impostors keep changing.  Back in the first century, when these words to the Colossians were first written, the biggest concerns were ancient mystery religions like Mithraism or any of a number of gnostic groups that all claimed to have secret "true" knowledge of the divine, but were willing to put just a dash of Christian-friendly jargon in their spiels that it was easy to be hoodwinked by them.  Or it was accepting uncritically the metaphysical baggage of Aristotle or Plato, and assuming that their fashionable philosophies were perfectly compatible with the Gospel.  These days we probably read less philosophy (well, we read less all together), but there are still lots of voices out there holding out their own worldviews, and often presenting them as "Christian" when in fact they don't really look or sound like Jesus.

And for us who are marked with the cross of Christ, it really does come down to what reflects the character of Jesus as the touchstone for discerning which voices to listen to, and which to turn down the volume on.  So, for example, Jesus has this undeniable insistence on showing love even to our worst enemies--on that count, I'd steer away from listening to voices that feed your hatred of other people, no matter how easy and natural it can feel to want to hate someone who you see as different.  Or, for another example, Jesus is always crossing boundaries and offering a welcome to people on "the other side of the line," whether it's the people with scandalous diseases, foreigners with the wrong religion and nationality, soldiers of the enemy army, or notorious "sinners."  So, it seems pretty clearly opposed to the way of Jesus to buy into a worldview that values those dividing lines more than the people on the other side of them.  To go a bit further, Jesus insists that his kind of power takes the form of suffering love rather than violent coercion, and he seems unrelenting on the importance of being truthful rather than using lies or deception as a means of getting more power or influence.  That is also going to put some guard-rails up for us in terms of which voices we will take as authoritative--Jesus doesn't let us sell out our integrity because it is politically expedient, or to give up on seeking the good of all.  

All of that is hard work, because it means we are called to a permanent posture of critical thinking, and holding everything up to the light to see how it aligns with the way of Christ--or not.  And we should be honest about how difficult that can be, and then decide that it's worth the hard work of thinking critically and discerning wisely, so that we don't get duped again by the next blowhard that talks up how important "God" and "religion" are without being in line with the heart of Christ.

To do that work means having voices around us that we trust who can help us listen for what resonates with the person of Jesus, what is in tune with the song he sings.  It means having the patience, strenght, and wisdom to stop and ask, "How does this fit with the way of life shaped by a crucified and risen homeless rabbi?" of the things we hear--and to do that difficult evaluation even if the voice is saying something we want to be true, but know deep down doesn't ring true to the way of Christ.  It means we find the courage to realize that the people who tell us things we want to hear may not be the ones telling us the things we need to hear.  And the way to tell, in the end, is to look to Jesus.  The One who feeds multitudes of strangers with abundant bread and fish without asking for even a shekel from them, the One who washes feet rather than throwing punches, the One who prays forgiveness for his executioners and defends the folks who are being picked on by bullies, this is the One we measure all other voices up to.  And where the other voices run counter to Christ and we have to make a choice, well, we'll choose Jesus.

Lord Jesus, help us to listen to your voice and to be discerning enough to know how to hear you amid the other noise around us.