Jesus and All
Sunday, June 3rd, 2007
any of you may have noticed my relative silence recently in the blogosphere. Summer does this to me, mostly because of my work. As you may know, I am the musical director for the Blowing Rock Stage Company. This is my third season with them, and while I love the job and the chance to enjoy quite a variety of musical theater work, it does take a lot of my time during the summer.
So, while there are many things I would love to write about and comment on, time often gets in the way. However, in a moment of serendipity, something in the current production struck me as a very appropriate topic on which to write, and so I’ll take a few minutes here before getting ready for today’s matinee performance to share it with you.
The show that we just opened this past Wednesday night is called “Moses Cone: The Denim King“. It is a world premiere of a show written about some of our local history. In fact, it is so local that one can stand in the parking lot of our arts center (where the stage company is located) and look up on the hill and see the Cone’s mansion that is talked about and sung about in the show.
For those of you not familiar with the story of Moses Cone, he and his brother, Caesar, made a fortune around the late 1800’s by manufacturing denim for the farmers and other working class people in North Carolina and the United States. From humble beginnings as the sons of a Jewish immigrant, they built their industry up to a huge success, creating many jobs for people in the process.
Despite their Jewish beliefs and backgrounds, they often would use their money to provide churches for their workers. One of the most humorous scenes in the play shows a conversation between a man named Mr. Smith (representing the workers at the mill in Greensboro, NC) and the Cone brothers. Smith is trying to get to the point of what he is asking for:
Smith: It’s kinda hard to explain, with you being…Jewish and all.
Moses: Our being “Jewish…and all”. Now, what exactly do you think being “Jewish…and all” could mean, Caesar?
Caesar: I couldn’t say.
Smith: Well, you might have noticed there aren’t too many Jews around here.
Moses: I’ve noticed that.
Smith: And there are a heap of Christians.
Moses: Also noticed.
Smith: And most of your workers are Christians. Rural folks who have moved to the city to work in your mills. So, we would like…
Moses: Not a synagogue, I take it?
Smith: A what? Ohhh, that. No. We would like a church. With Jesus and all.
Moses: Ahhhhhh, Caesar. Christians have an “and all” as well.
Caesar: Undoubtedly they do.
The scene is very humorous in the way it’s played out by the actors. I wish there was a way to show you a video clip of it, but copyright laws and actor union restrictions would make that impossible.
But the point I want to get at is not the particular scene. It’s the thought that came to me when I started thinking about this particular statement.
Now obviously, “and all” is a manner of speech, and the Cone brothers are merely picking on the rural country worker for his way of speaking.
But it raises a very important question: Is there more to our faith than Jesus? Do we really end up with Jesus “and all” in our practice?
For example: I recently wrote about the Council of Nicaea and the circumstances surrounding that event. Many like to test someone’s Christianity by asking them if they accept the Nicaean Creed as truth. This might not always be an entirely bad thing, but in some ways, it comes across as amounting to “Jesus…and all”.
Or, for example, a particular view of creation. There are some who would say that, unless one believes in a literal 6 days of creation and a 6,000-year-old earth, they are denying all kinds of doctrines about the Bible, Jesus, etc. If we hold a particular view of creation as a test of salvation, doesn’t that result in “Jesus…and all”?
I’ve run across many people in my lifetime who draw lines in the sand on many things. Style of music. Type of preaching. Translation of the Bible. Interpretation of Revelation. Speaking in tongues.
Let’s face it. Any of these areas being emphasized run the danger of turning our faith into “Jesus…and all”. Paul wrote that he wanted to know “Jesus and all and him crucified.” (1 Cor 2:2)
I think there is a need among Christians today to return to the basic knowledge of Jesus and let everything else center around that. Let’s not be guilty of having “Jesus…and all”, unless by “and all” we are talking about the life and inheritance that we receive in Christ!
Until next time,
steve
