Defamiliarization…

Quick, recite the Lord’s Prayer!

Now, the Apostle’s Creed!

Many of you can do this without even thinking, and I think that might be the problem. I think that we have become too familiar with things that point to the unfamiliar God. Yeah, I said unfamiliar. You see we, who are connected to Jesus think we know Jesus. We think we have it all figured out, but we don’t really. God is someone who is completely different and unknown until he makes himself known. Karl Barth, arguably one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century said it this way, “God is the "wholly other," totally unlike mankind, who are utterly dependent on an encounter with the divine for any understanding of ultimate reality. Barth saw the task of the church as that of proclaiming the "good word" of God and as serving as the "place of encounter" between God and mankind.”

If God is wholly other, which I think he is, then how can we become familiar with the things of God? I think the problem is that we bend these things of God to meet our fancy, to fit our lives, to give us comfort in what we are doing rather than to lead us to a new way of doing things. This is why the Church is so stale for so many people out there who are unconnected or disconnected from Jesus, and why it has become like a warm blanket for those who are connected. The comfort we feel, and discomfort they feel is not because of God, but because of what we have done to familiarize the church to our lifestyles.

Whenever I read the gospels the one thing that jumps out at me the most is how Jesus always caught everyone off guard. Whether it was the teachers of the law, the religious or government leaders, or even his disciples, he had a knack for keeping everyone off balance. Do you really think Jesus has changed so much over the last 2000 years that he has become predicable? If you don’t think so, then why has the Church that worships this unpredictable savior become so predictable itself? Where is the mystery in the Church? Where is the mystery in your life? Find it, and you will find Jesus…