Jesus the surfer?

He was walking towards me on the other side of the street -  and the colours he was wearing were so bright and vivid that he could not be missed. Multi-coloured tee shirt, shorts with bright coloured trim, and tri-coloured sneakers.
 
Then he crossed the street just ahead of me, and I called out "great colours".  He, a lad of about seventeen, said "did you notice the tee shirt.  It's the resurrected Jesus, you can tell that because of the wound marks in his hands.  And because he is resurrected he does not need a surf board".
 
"Google images" enabled me to find an advertisement for that tee-shirt.
 
 
 

It was the young man's way of "witnessing".  He was so sweet, so sincere, and so engaging that I decided to say nothing except that I thought his shirt was cool.
 
And of course -   we believers also project so many of our own  hopes, prejudices, political ideas and thoughts onto the enigmatic Jesus of Nazareth, even if we do not wear tee-shirts.
 
None of us can lay claim to absolute  knowledge of the "real Jesus", (not even the New Testament writers).  ****
 
But we persist in the hope that in him we find way, truth and life.
 
=============================================================
 
****
 
(I draw a line at the idea, espoused by some American right wing Christians, of the "Heat Packing Jesus")
 
 
 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Shoe insults

Last year I consulted with a local podiatrist: Dr. Robert F Herbold Jr. D.P.M. 4717 Swift Rd., Sarasota , FL – 34231  because I was being bothered with a couple of bunions  (yes I am at that age). I was very impressed with this Doctor.  He agreed that I had bunions, but he ventured that it was much too soon for surgery. (Now there’s a first). Instead he recommended some “arch supports” to relieve the tension for my feet, a tension which was exacerbating the bunions. What’s more -  he told me that he sells these arch supports at the miserly sum of $2.50 each (about 1/5 of the price in the local pharmacies). He is an honest man, and I recommend him to anyone with foot problems. So, a couple of weeks ago, having purchased some new walking shoes, I knew that I needed to buy a couple of new arch supports I took myself to his office. Once there, my mind went blank. I wanted to ask his front desk Clerk if I could buy some “shoe inserts” , as I could not rem...
Read more

It began in Bristol U.K. "A man dies" and "Jesus Christ Superstar"

Image
I well remember the swirling controversy in Bristol, U.K. when a (Presbyterian) Minister the Revd, Earnest Marviin created a ":Rock Opera", called "A Man Dies"  in and for his congregation in the Lockleaze area of Bristol, U.K. Earnest Mrvin I was a sixteen years old member of the Plymouth Brethren Church back in those days, so I most likely disapproved of "A Man Dies" .  We, (the Plymouth Brethren),  disapproved of everything! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I had forgotten all about "A Man Dies" until earlier today when saw these pictures on the "Bristol, Then and Now"  Facebook page.   St. James Presbyterian Church, Lockleaze, Bristol  The Bristol Then and Now page includes the following commentary: Lockleaze, Bristol  -  'Jesus Christ Superstar' began at St.James (Presbyterian) Chur...
Read more

The background, the couple, my friends, the wedding ceremony, the Shaykh, the Priest,

Image
The background   I have known the Keller/Bonsey family since 2000 when I became the Rector at St. James's, Cambridge, MA. They (Elisabeth Keller and the Revd. Steven Bonsey with their four children Noah, Sam, Josiah and Annie) had come back to Cambridge from Hawaii where Steve had been the Rector of an Episcopal parish. Steve had just been appointed as a Chaplain at Tufts University (no Sunday morning duties) so the entire family was able to enrich our common life at St. James's - which they did with great love and joy. I count them as friends and have stayed in touch with them since my retirement.  Noah, the oldest son is eloquent in Arabic (he spent a year in Damascus when Syria was a safe place).  He has developed a super career as an analyst of social media in the near East.    Noah worked in Tampa for a while a few years ago, so he and I were a...
Read more