Well, the 62-foot-tall statue of Jesus known as Touchdown Jesus (because of how his arms were raised up like a football referee) that sits along I-75 in Monroe, Ohio was struck by lightning – reducing the famous figure to ashes. I wonder what Jesus did? Because Monday night, Jesus was struck by lightning. and the Making of a National Leader (Civil Rights and the Struggle for Black Equality in the Twentieth Century) and a participant in Sojourners' Windchangers grassroots organizing project in Ohio.The usual joke is that if you say something that can be construed as blasphemous, you hope that lightning doesn’t strike you. He is author of Becoming King: Martin Luther King Jr. Troy Jackson is senior pastor of University Christian Church in Cincinnati, a graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary, and earned his PhD in United States history from the University of Kentucky. What about you? What is your faith made of? Sand and Styrofoam? Or solid rock? I pray, for your sake, for justice's sake, for God's sake, that your answer is solid rock. My labors for social change and life change flow not primarily from a place of duty or guilt or even arrogance, but from what I see everyday is the heartbeat of God. And slowly, I am convinced that my Styrofoam faith is turning to stone, so I can work for justice and the Gospel of Jesus BECAUSE I am pursuing Jesus each and every day. I slow down and begin each day with Jesus - Always Before Computer. My mantra has been simple: Jesus - Always Before Computer.Įvery day, before I log on to check e-mail or to find out if the Cincinnati Reds won or what is going on in the world, I spend time with God. My method was simple, trite, and even a bit silly, given that I tried to use my tech addictions to do a better job of pursuing Jesus. While a faith in Jesus devoid of justice is like building one's house upon the sand, a passion for justice that does not take seriously all of Jesus, and is not built on a firm foundation, is little more than a Styrofoam Jesus.Ī year ago, I made a simple commitment: I am going to pursue Jesus every day. The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell - and great was its fall!" And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock. I'm reminded of Jesus' words from Matthew 7: "Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. Frankly, I'm learning that a Jesus made only out of justice is not much better than a Jesus made only out of Styrofoam. It is very possible to become so focused on pursuing justice that you stop pursuing Jesus. Over the past year, I've been learning that my passion for justice can become hollow as well. This myopic, Western, consumer-driven Jesus is no better than a Styrofoam Jesus.īut I must make a confession. For far too long, white evangelicals have been worshiping a self-centered Jesus with little regard for the plight of those suffering and struggling in the world, even though the Bible reveals and accents God's heart for the poor, the marginalized, and the immigrant. Frankly, I'd become fed up and even nauseated by the "me-first," America-first Christianity that often defines white evangelicalism. For most of the past 20 years, I've been passionately pursuing social justice.
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