Having Fun with Stereotypes…until
My father was born in Kentucky and my mother in London. After they married a tug of war ensued and, following a few years in Geneva, my mother’s wishes prevailed, and they settled in Kent. I appeared on the scene during the Kent phase. Deep in my psyche, if not my DNA, I find myself floating somewhere close to a mid-Atlantic identity, despite my British Passport.
I’ve reflected in recent days on the slowness of Jesus’ disciples to cotton on to what they had gotten (I wrote ‘got’ but US Grammarly corrected it to ‘gotten’, so gotten won the day) involved with following Jesus. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and we can chuckle at their stumbling attempts to get a grasp, on Jesus’ message of the kingdom of God, even though they were with him for three years.
‘Hollywood Jesus’ wears a white tunic, looks steadily at the world with piercing blue eyes, is permanently unruffled, always ready with a clever comment, and the Hollywood Pharisee’ is a simple and unpleasant individual. The Hollywood stereotype proves to be a poor lens through which to understand what was truly at stake.
But to return to the British and America.
The British are forever obsessed with goodness, moral purity, reputation, and integrity. We fail, of course. But ‘standards must be maintained’. In England, this is as true for keeping one’s elbows off the table as it is for avoiding sexual or financial impropriety, and culprits who publically fall from grace are routinely drowned, especially if they were foolish enough to be caught. Far better to keep your dirty linen drying indoors.
Americans, however, are obsessed with success, in all areas of life. Anyone who fails is weak and eliminated from the race. Disregarded and put out of sight if not completely out of mind. Failure to turn the American dream into reality is the definition of human failure.
But, put a Brit and a Yank in the Kingdom and watch what happens.
The Brit will cling to Jesus because He is the hope of restoring true goodness. The Yank however will see in Jesus a greater source of faith for success. In Britain, the testimony is maybe of someone who has given up drinking to excess, in America it is how God has blessed their business, or their athletics, or their family.
Well, I did tell you this was an exercise in stereotypes. Bear with me.
I have, it seems, more in common with Moses than I thought. His father, a Levite, and therefore a Jew, was living in Egypt and so Moses was brought up in a foreign land. And that’s where the similarities end! He then became a Prince in the house of Pharoah and murdered an Egyptian who was mistreating one of his fellow Jews. His divided loyalty had well and truly come to light: Egypt and Israel vied for pre-eminence in his soul. The murder having been witnessed, he had to flee to the desert to spend 40 years in Midian with Jethro, his father-in-law, before a day arrived that translated him far beyond his issues with personal identity and history, and failures.
‘And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. The bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed…and God said…’Do not draw near…take off your for you are standing on holy ground’’
Moses was drawn into a completely new dimension, of the heavens, of unlimited glory, of the awesomeness of God. Radical change, therefore, was inevitable: he left the desert to confront Pharoah and thereafter we know about the plagues that led up to crossing the Red Sea on dry land, and, finally, the Exodus.
When Moses reappeared in Egypt, he would have faced stereotypical comments ‘O here comes the Jew’ ‘Who is this man that he should rule over us?’ ‘He’s a murderer’, and so on, as if any such statements convey the truth. It was the same for Jesus ‘The Messiah? He’s just a carpenter’s son. Who does he think He is?’ And it was the same for the disciples: a tax collector, some fishermen, a Zealot, and other Jews with no significant occupations. First, they watch him perform miracles, draw crowds, in debate with the Pharisees. Then they are sent out with the same authority, and report back, amazed that the sick are healed and dead raised just the same. And then they gaze on helpless as this seemingly invincible Man suffers the indignity of arrest, torture, and a lingering death on the cross, only to appear to them three days later eating fish but with gaping holes where the soldier’s spear had pierced his side.
Baffling as though these events proved to be for the disciples, a month or so later they are drenched, baptised in the Holy Spirit, with ‘power from on High’, and are speaking in other languages, Peter preaching the gospel to thousands in Jerusalem at the Feast of Pentecost, and the church is born. The crowd, none of whom knew Peter and the other disciples, witness them, just like the burning bush, with tongues of fire on their heads and yet not consumed, preaching about the Messiah who has risen from the tomb.
From that point on any stereotypes are inadequate. ‘Tax-collector’ fails to describe Matthew. Peter and the others are no longer fishermen. The zealot – a man who believed the only way to liberate Israel was to oust Rome militarily – is now preaching the gospel to Jews and Gentiles, including Romans.
For the Brit who is in the kingdom and still too concerned with his personal holiness, he must drop His guard and let Jesus, who he knows as Saviour and Lord, also be the Baptiser in the Holy Spirit however un-British that maybe. True Christianity is more than hymn books and dressing up on a Sunday, it’s more than pews, choirs, worship bands, it’s more than deacons, elders, churchwardens, priests, or pastors, it is as unpredictable as the wind or the rain. Truly we need to be like seed and be willing to let our ‘identity-kits’ our ‘stereotypes’ fall into the ground and die, or we will remain alone. Jesus isn’t British.
For the Yank, at least you know you must be baptised in the Spirit, and that it is just as important to know the baptism in the Spirit as it is to know Jesus as Saviour and Lord. But the baptism isn’t for your success. It’s more than ‘you’, dare I say it, it is more than ‘God bless America’. You will need to fall into the ground and die or you will remain alone. None of this ‘my church, my ministry’ talk is important, in fact, it will get burnt up in the flames. There is only one church. It is His church. It doesn’t need a building. It doesn’t need a budget. It doesn’t need to pay more than the next church to get a better pastor. It doesn’t need the best sound system, or the young people won’t come. Jesus isn’t American.
We all love having fun with stereotypes. And we must. At least then we know that, in lampooning others, we are lampooning ourselves. But there is something beyond even the lampooning, and it is the wholly ‘other’ dimension in which God is, which takes us far beyond any identity that has accrued over the years in our British, American, or any other culture, even if there’s some value in their standards and their hopes and dreams. True Christianity is Jesus-led, is Spirit-led, is the Father in Heaven-led, not tradition-led, not Pastor or Vicar-led, not ‘we do it this way’-led. It is not bound by the stereotypes that we think of ourselves or others. It is beyond all that – even if our initial experiences are not as dramatic as a burning bush or having flames on top of our heads.
they left their nets
Where to start? It’s simple really. If you are hearing in your heart Jesus calling you to ‘Follow Me’ you’ve already started. Moses took off his sandals. The disciples left their nets to follow Him. You know what it will take, what you need to leave behind. But that’s where it starts. Not with ‘going to church’, or ‘reading the bible’, or ‘praying and singing hymns’, or even ‘my ministry’ if you’re already in church, and certainly not ‘trying to be a Christian’.
Jesus said ‘My sheep know My voice’, that’s all we ever need to know, really. Everything else will follow on quite naturally/supernaturally once we respond.