“Cristos Victor”

It’s been several months since I’ve ventured back into writing. I’ve said it before, but I’ve been on a journey of sorts, especially over the past several months during this hiatus. There has been an engine for my blogging/journaling in the past that is no longer appropriate. I’d write mostly out of anger or frustration and I’m sure it probably showed, yet it was never questioned. No one has ever confronted me about the fundamental root of that frustration. To put it another way; there is a part of my socialization into this country and western religion, among other things, that has never been addressed.

Which leads me to the title of this post. (I must also mention that the majority of these thoughts are not entirely mine, but rather are built on a lifetime of work by Marcus J. Borg and Dominic Crossan, among many others.) Cristos Victor. A latin term, as you can well imagine, translated generally as “Christ the victor” or “victory of Christ.”

Here is my assertion today. I would argue that many in western religion do not, at the very core of their being, believe that Jesus was actually victorious. In short, I believe there has been a fundamental oversight in the life and teachings of Jesus. There is no amount of proof-texting that can convince me that Jesus Christ was anything other than a non-violent, peaceful revolutionary who fully intended those who claim to follow him to do the same. Further, I am willing to suggest that the myth of redemptive violence, or that Jesus lived a peaceful life but will come back with an army ready to slaughter all who oppose him is completely contrary to the character and will of God.

All of this leads me back to my original claim that the world in which most of us live has an extremely flawed view of the means to bring peace. Call it “Pax Romana,” call it “Rules of Engagement,” call it “the Constitution.” (which contrary to popular belief is not a christian document…I’ll save that for a later post) All of these at their core believe violence to be the answer to peace.

If Christ is victorious, it sure doesn’t seem like it. Our world is saturated in violence. It’s glamorized into blockbuster movies and video games where the good guys vanquish evil through brute force and killing all those who oppose them. Instead of one coliseum, we have thousands of them all over with 65,000 people cheering the most brutal tackles, a connecting right hook, the most gruesome arm-bar… See what I’m getting at here?

It’s time to start telling a different story. It’s time to start living a different story. Redemptive violence is a myth. When will we learn that peace is not actually achieved through military action? When will Christ be victor? When will his love saturate our psyches more deeply than violence, even the sugar coated kind of Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings? I believe that compassion and justice are far stronger forces for good in this world. I will live and tell those stories because I believe they speak the language of a God of compassion, justice and equal distribution. As Gandhi so aptly said, “Be the change you want to see in the world.” He, Martin Luther King Jr. and others have been killed, like Jesus, because they opposed the normalcy of civilization’s violence. That violent paradigm knows no other way to counter someone who stands in opposition to its “peaceful” rule, so it eliminates the thorn. Are you willing to die because you stand against the violent normalcy of civilization? Or is it simply easier to conform to the patterns of this violent world?

Similar

This post has, so far, been about two weeks in the making. Over the past several weeks, even months, I’ve been thinning about the notion that in my mind, there seems to be several differences that folks often highlight between Christians and those they (Christians) would traditionally define as “the world.” (translation: everyone who isn’t “in.”) Some of those differences being that most Christian folks pretty regularly wake up early on a Sunday morning to head to a church building, as well as make another trip at some point during the week. Most, not all mind you, Christian folks don’t season their language with “profanities.” Like I used to do, people probably internalize certain expletives, and somehow that’s taking the moral high ground. Many Christians would claim to, by virtue of their “relationship with Jesus,” have a higher ethical standard than their worldly relatives. Those are just some minor differences of which I highlight not to create an “us and them” mentality, but rather to illustrate a fascinating irony, as I hope to clearly describe.

What I am particularly interested in for this post are the similarities that Christians share with their “worldly” counterparts. Here are a few examples. And bear in mind, these are merely my own observations which are not based on any sort of measurable data.

Most Christians and non-Christians share these things in common: they drive the same sorts of vehicles, work the same kinds of jobs. They all watch the latest Oscar, golden globe nominee, or American idol. Music selection is largely the same. Starbucks is an addiction that isn’t particular to any group of people. Clothing is also similar, especially the stuff that is cheap (Old Navy, Walmart, or likewise) and made by children earning only pennies a day. Of course, the cheap clothes aren’t the only unethically produced and traded textiles. So essentially, both groups, across the board, still support and even enable modern day slavery. Both will eat whatever food they like without considering where it came from, who labored to prepare it, or what sort of ecological and global impact their eating habits have.

I’ve also noticed that both camps harbor ravenous sports fans. Both shop at Ethan Allen or IKEA and make room for the new furniture by putting the old stuff in a storage unit. LCD or Plasma screens are the same size, accompanied by the Blue-ray player, Playstation 3, xbox 360 or HD receiver. The alarming amount of time spent brainlessly mesmerized by the above list is largely the same. Violence permeates to the core of each’s psyche, whether it be manifested in “self defense” classes, lauding UFC as sport in it’s purest form or lashing out with uncontrolled and unfiltered verbal assaults to co-workers, peers, or worse, children. Both would argue women are inherently inferior. Christmas time and vacations offer unrestrained opportunities to spend absurd amounts of money. The divorce rate is pretty much the same across the board.

Oil is an erosive addiction to both and it seems most everyone will ignore any sort of ethical boundary lines when it comes to securing the supply. Both unflinchingly send their sons and daughters off to become puppets for the American war machine, “fighting to protect our freedom” at the expense of massive numbers of American and non-American lives and livihoods (spelling?). Ignorance of global suffering and decay is the norm, and what’s worse, few people really care at all to understand or alleviate any of it. American entitlement is pervasive across the board. iPhones, iPads, facebook, Twitter and MacBooks rob most everyone from any sort of authentic human interaction. Each seems to fill up the trash can just as rapidly and “throws away” it’s fill without accepting the reality that it’s not really being thrown away, rather saved for my son to deal with in a few years.

Everyone breathes the same polluted air. Everyone has the same red blood tracking through their bodies. Both sides will argue their own position/opinion until they are blue in the face without having heard, or listened to, the other side of the story. We all cut our nails, give money to homeless folks on the street and make really stupid mistakes. Everyone helplessly gropes to grab hold of the illusion of control. Both camps recycle, commute to work on bikes and love their parents.

If you haven’t gathered by now, my point in this now lengthy discourse is that we are all in fact human beings, who participate in the same kind of life and are, really, not all that different from each other. Essetially, at least in my mind, there are really no significant markers that differentiate a “Christian” person from his/her “worldly” kinfolk. Thus, If I’m to understand the person of Jesus correctly, there must be something more.

Now, please understand that I am no expert, merely an observer. Yet I suggest again, there must be something more. Was Jesus really interested in starting another church? Probably not. Did he call into question the fundamental building blocks of the society (both religious and secular) of his day? Yes. Did he rub people wrong? Absolutely. If we were to honestly listen to the teachings of Jesus and some more of his contemporary friends, I am confident there would be a multitude of people chomping at the bit to take a swing at him, which, strangely enough, is fundamentally counter to the Jesus way.

So, for now, I am interested in living the Jesus way, which is likely far different than we would like to define it, especially among religious circles. I would further suggest that if we would allow Jesus to exist outside those same circles, we might actually begin to understand him a little more fully. It is in the midst of that contention that more questions arise. Who is Jesus, really? What exactly did he come to do? Could the spirit, the essence of Jesus, be found in those who preceded him and followed him as full participants in this humanity? Why do I feel the need to control and/or convince everyone around me that my way is better? Is that an example Jesus set? Where do I get the gall to claim complete understanding on anything having to do with this life? Why can’t I just figure out what it means to live fully engaged in this moment without any sort of agenda, whether that be political, religious, social, etc. The only agendas I subscribe to are those that fulfill a law of love, limitless love that knows no boundaries.

I feel like I could continue writing, but I think it’s time to call it quits for the time being.