Wouldn’t it be great to find Jesus minus all the ‘evangelical sales hype’ it would be a little like travelling through Bangkok’s CBD without any billboards, no mega-phones no pamphlets, no in your face ‘buy now’ or else. No flashing lights, no for sale signs no manic need to ‘offload goods’ no agenda’s no nothing. Imagine how it would be if the emphasis was placed on creating an environment where searching and seeking were possible. In my youth ‘evangelical rally’s’ would inevitable include the mandatory scripture that lead one to believe that today was the day and that you might never have this opportunity again, in modern day terms this is called ‘the close’

I went along to a meeting a few years ago at City Life a special speaker had been brought out from the states, and at the end of his talk he said ‘ if there is anyone here who is only 99.9% sure of his salvation he needs to be down the front to find absolute assurance, otherwise you might find your self lost for eternity” much could be said about this type of hype at best it carries with it a threat, at worse I had the distinct impression that he ‘needed results for the night’ I went forward more out of fear than any other conviction. This sort of language has nothing to offer those who need a place for quite contemplation of the facts; this is the equivalent of a salesman looking for a sale and needing it at any cost. We need to be reminded that God is patient, just look at the children of Israel. Now having said that we do need to make a decision at some point, but this decision is not limited to a month a week a day or any hour.

If anything this stuff keeps people away, it keeps them from a deep sense of curiosity, it keeps them away from the centre, it will always be focused on the fringe, it will always encourage a spectator response. If deep calls to deep, its only fair that shallow appeals to the superficial. Put people in a place where they can discover a God of their understanding and most other things will be considered a distraction. 

The manic need to tell everybody about our version, is a like my little brother who would open up the Christmas presents (before Christmas day) and then proceed to tell me (without my asking) what I had for Christmas.

Long before we find him, long before we have had any chance whatsoever to find out who and what this Jesus is, we are over loaded with one-dimensional views, one-dimensional biases. I remember reading this in the gospels it’s a very simple but it’s also the real cry of ever man women or child who has ever thought to themselves who is this Jesus?

In the book of Mark it says this ‘We would see Jesus’ I must be honest, I don’t think I’ve met him yet; my capacity for bias, and half-truths, and misrepresentation and wrong judgements has been well and truly abused. It’s a little like trying to get through the opening day sale at Myer, fighting through the crowds, through all the mind numbing hype through all the for ‘sale seekers’ that have little or no use for most of the stuff they buy, this is a life threatening process imagine if you would Jesus going about his business somewhere in the back in the shadows, not wanting, not wishing in any way to be part of the cheap, nasty consumerist mentality. This so called Myer sale represents the wholesale greed of those who have a manic need to offload there half –theological truths about this man. On one hand we have painted him as a whitewashed shepherd with nothing better to do than walk around with a lamb around his neck; on the other we have painted him as a hater of all non theological certainties, we have painted him as psychopathic king who will one day return and give everybody there due, those in particular who don’t see things the same as us, we have painted him as a bigot, an idiot, a simpleton, one who is completely removed from the life that I happen to live. One who walks around quoting irrelevant truths, like a broken down toy stuck on some pre-programmed data.

I for one am a little sick of all the

If you happen to find him, I’m sure he’s in hiding by the way, please, please let me know, and maybe we can make arrangements to meet out the back of the Myer first day sale maybe in that section that’s called ‘no sale’ ‘no specials’

Maybe we should lead people to him in hushed tones, scared somehow that my limited edition version may spoil any further possibility, in the Old Testament the name of God was to sacred to speak the title YWHY was almost impossible to hang any thing on, to do this was to be guilty of idolatry and dangerous familiarity. Try getting a handle on “ I AM”