I know there is a tendency to view this occurrence as vandalism. However, for a moment, consider that this is a message from a prophet. I know that may sound far fetched. I really do not know if the Vaqueros knew about your situation personally or if it is general message to churches. If I may, I am going to refer to the pictures as art.
The art is surreal. The portrayal of Jesus as macho is rare in art history. Jesus is portrayed here as a super hero, much like Spiderman or Superman. We do not usually think of Jesus in this way. The two messages of the art are, Jesus is strong, and Jesus is the way out. If we combine these two messages with Salvador Dali's quotation, it leads me to believe that the message is a message that is for all churches, in every generation. However, I think it is very pertinent today.
An understanding of the real and living Jesus will remove the shackles of our limited physical visions. Leaders tend to think in terms of the building or programs. So much of our church culture is centered around bricks. Now because church buildings are so expensive, leaders think in terms of how we can use this building to the max, not so much to get their monies worth, as much as it is to appease their guilt. Not to discount at all the use of the building for the Glory of God.
A vision should not be about buildings or even programs. The vision should be the vision of Jesus. Jesus came to "seek and save the lost."
....more to come
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About Me
- David Michael
- Katy, Texas, United States
- Being a husband and a father is the greatest blessing in my life. I am also a Special Educator to students with an autism spectrum disorder.
5 comments:
Dear Michael, you may not remember me, but I once posted a comment on your blog describing you as a beautiful Christian writer and you replied to me after you read my blog (which I do not write anymore) called 'in one breath'. I have left here a quote from Pope Paul VI to illustrate a message I stongly want to tell you from my heart because I feel responsable for missleading you from the true path as a christian writer. I remember when you e-mailed me you said my writings were postmodern in style and you described them as fresh and vigerious. I am sorry to say I was mislead in my ways when I wrote some of those essays, espechally 'The Reinvention'. I had when I was about 22 read some of the works of Jorge Louis Borges, but I had forgotten about it when I was writing my blog. It is amazing but there was this song once released by the U.K band Garbage called Stupid Girl, and some of the lyrics in the song are 'you don't believe in love, you don't believe in hate, you dont believe in fear, you don't believe in anything that you can't break...you stupid girl"
That in turn reminded me of our new pontif's critisizm on Moral Relativism, which is like postmodernism, where postmodernism denies reality, moral relativism turns life, that is love, hate, fear, into putty, and it denies the two main forces in the world that all true Christians are awair of, good and evil. I think you eventually lose the value of life, and espechally of love, which is moulded by God in those other emotions through the process of life, and should not be taken into our own hands. Now comare this fact to 1 cor. 18: "Love bears all things, hopes all things, believes all things."
Here is the quote I so dearly want to remind you of:
"Pope Paul VI states in Evangelii Nuntiandi: “Every evangelizer is expected to have a reverence for Truth. … he never betrays or hides truth out of a desire to please men, in order to astonish or to shock, nor for the sake of originality or a desire to make an impression. He does not refuse truth. He does not obscure revealed truth by being too idle to search for it, or for the same of his own comfort, or out of fear”.
He then asks every evangelizer “to pray about the following thought: Men can gain salvation also in other ways, by God’s mercy, even though we do not preach the Gospel to them; but as for us, can we gain salvation if through negligence or fear or shame – what St Paul called ‘Blushing for the Gospel’ – or as a result of false ideas we fail to preach it? For that would betray the call of God, who wishes the seed to bear fruit through the voice of the ministers of the gospel; and it will depend on us whether this grows into trees and produces its full fruit”"
Let me tell you I was mislead as a writer at the time I was working on those essays. I was trying to be origional, and I was shying away like a coward from critism in my methods of communication. That other element of God's love in me inspired me to tell you how my heart really felt, that you were, and continue to always be I hope, a beautiful Christian write,
God Bless, and keep up the good work,
apologestmary@lycos.com
I love the statement that Vision should not be about buildings. It seems that everytime I hear the word it has to do with a capital campaign to spend more money to make our members cozy rather than how to deliver the love and the message of Jesus.....
Great thoughts!
Dear Michael, I am sure you are well awair that I wrote a comment here which was an apology to you. You did not send me an email to acknowledge my apology and you did not even send a little comment here on your blog to reply to me. I was deeply upset about this because i suffer from really bad anxiety combined with self doubt, espechally about God's presence in my life. Since I assumed you were led by the Holy Spirit I came to the conclusion I must have offended the Holy Spirit at some point in my past and maybe He was rejecting me even though now I was finally ready to do His work, when I had finally, fully, opened up to Him. And don't worry, you were not the first person to reject my attempt, 4 other people, for the first time in my life when I felt I was being truly led by Him in my words and in my actions, have not replied to my letters, comments or essays.
I noticed that you wrote a poem about a change in carrear and I am afraid that it is somehow my fault, that i yet again led you away from Him.
Two nights ago I took an overdose on Seroquel, the medication I was prescibed by my doctor for my skitzophrenia.
I survived.
And before the shrink got to me I had discharged myself from hospital.
"There ia a reason for everything",so my mother told me in my despair. "But He dose love you." It is that last message I find so difficult to believe. How could He love me, I cannot understand how anyone could love me. My mother and I are being stalked by a criminal gang because of a nasty relationship she had with a very wealthy but psycho man many years ago. He took a turn against her. Hardly anyone believes us, maybe only a nun or two. Mother told me she believes they are contract killers. That the unmentioned man wants her to be totally on her own. She has no fiends. Her sisters hardly contact her. She is a very private person.
I am by her side 24/7. This has been going on for the past year. My text-book shinks don't believe me or my mother and she is too afriad that they may think her mentally unwell and have her instatuionalised and therefor not be able to protect me from these evil people -WHO ARE FOLLOWING US. It is so obvious, but they do it in such a way as to leave no trace of evidence.
And the wost thing of all is that I believe I am a bad person who deserves to die, but am too much of a coward to actually acheive it. I believed that after you did not reply to me it must have been God cutting me off, cutting me down, that was the beginning of my despair.
My comment, to me now, also seems
to have been the beginning of yours, but maybe that is just my illness speaking here, I hope that is correct.
I apologise once again for any distress I may have caused you and I will pray in my dark misery to Him to lead you back home to where you belong, in the loving embrace of Jesus Christ. Amen.
apologestmary@lycos.com
Also I find this hard to say in the context of what I just said, but you have to believe it: people make mistakes, we are not perfect.
apologestmary@lycos.com
That is in my understanding the reason why He loves us, for our need of Him.
apologestmary@lycos.com
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