Jesus and All
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
June 3rd, 2007 15:08
Well written, Steve! I agree that we need to return to the basic knowledge of Jesus. A few years ago our church was in the middle of a “cutting edge” movement full of new words and ideology to learn. One person found it overly complicated and unnecessary. She asked, “Can’t I just love Jesus?” I thought she just didn’t “get it.” Now, I see that she was right all along.
June 3rd, 2007 18:12
Great post Steve. I’m still trying to get over “and all”… It’s a process. I really never knew how many “things” I’d attached to Jesus. I’m really enjoying discovering just how simple the Christian life can (and probably should) be. “And all” gets very tiring.
Good to see you back on the blog.
Blessings to you…
Brandon
June 4th, 2007 08:48
Steve,
I was flipping through the last issue of House2House, this morning in fact, and came across something from Wolfgang Simpson. He was talking about Christians in the I.C. looking over at the house church. He said they are looking from mountaintop to mountaintop and have a tendancy to forget that ‘death valley’ is in-between.
He talked about the death of even the good things from an I.C. such as children programs and worship and a host of other things. He also mentioned the fact that it can take years to get to the house church pinnicle.
Sigh.
In some cases, it seems as though people are striving after the ‘and all’ instead of Jesus. I think there will always be a need to return to the simplicity of Jesus as we humans tend to muck things up with our own ideas and agendas.
I also find myself dispairing when I feel like I will never find the simplicity of Jesus. It seems, just when I strip another layer of man away from Jesus, there is another one waiting to be removed. Does it ever end? Or have we allowed man to pollute the purity of Jesus to the point we can never really regain what it means to be a true follower?
June 4th, 2007 17:45
Mike,
It only ends if you jump to the end.
Stop stripping layers of yourself away hoping to finally reveal Jesus. That won’t work. It is endless work. Instead, by faith, leap to the end. You are complete in Jesus. Yeah, you are still going to have to take responsibility for being just you, more than anyone cares to admit; but the work of the Cross that justifies you is complete. You are all you will ever be and Jesus is all He will ever be. Rest in Him. It is amazingly simple, which is what turned the world upside down 2000 years ago.
Over the centuries the “and all” got added.
Steve,
Such a great way to frame this topic. The excerpt from the play is right on. It’s a blessing to call you Brother!
June 4th, 2007 19:22
Mary and Brandon, thank you for your responses. I think we all used to think that there was more that needed to be gotten. I’m starting to really see it differently, though.
Mike, ded already said what was on my mind in response. There is no need to despair. Only rest. Rest in him and in his goodness to you. It’s so simple that we think it must be something else. But it’s not!
ded, the blessing goes both ways, my brother. I was so saddened that you weren’t able to join us for breakfast Friday after all. But I hope to see you again soon.
June 4th, 2007 20:38
This is sooooooo hard!
It has been ingrained in my “spiritual psyche” that in order to be a “good” Christian you have to subscribe to so much theology and other abstractions; like you mentioned the 6/6000 timeline for origins (where’d that come from?)
This understanding, Jesus and “all”, has so tainted my understandings of others’ relationships with Christ, that if they didn’t have Jesus and all, then they must be deficient in some way.
Repentance has been hard…and ugly.
June 4th, 2007 23:16
Steve,
I wish we could see the production. Any chance of taking it on the road? I know a place with a couple of Starbucks nearby.
Thank you for the post. You not only prompted a post on my blog, but you also prompted me to talk to my children. I hope they learn to rest in, abide in, remain in Jesus and let everything else fall away. That’s not the way that I grew up, but it is the way that I want to live. I want to live in the way of Jesus… and nothing else.
-Alan
June 5th, 2007 07:37
Tony, viewing others as “deficient in some way” almost seems to be an evangelical Christian sport, huh? Thanks for sharing your response here. Our journeys are not really that different, are they?
June 5th, 2007 07:40
Alan, it would be nice to get to a Starbucks again, but it won’t be able to be as a traveling stage company with this production. Too large a cast!
I’m glad these thoughts resonated with you so well. I used to judge the “just love Jesus” crowd as being overly simplistic and overlooking important things.
Now, I am eating a lot of those words…
June 5th, 2007 12:23
my hubby used to preach a sermon entitled “Is Not the Son Enough?”…changed more than one life…including mine…
June 5th, 2007 17:17
Steve,
Thank you for a very thoughtful post presenting a truth which needs to be heard! So many preach salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, and then preach so many add-ons which make folk slaves to systems of belief.
What a joy to know that the Lord Jesus Christ is our Sabbath, and that in Him we have eternal rest!
June 5th, 2007 21:46
jg, nice to see you. Thanks for stopping by. I take it the content of the sermon was similar to the thoughts expressed here?
June 5th, 2007 21:49
Aussie John, it is indeed interesting, as you have pointed out, that all of the “alones” end up getting stuff added on.
Elsewhere on this blog, I pointed out where “scripture alone” was added to in so many ways. And now here, we have “Christ alone” and “grace alone” being demonstrated as not being stated truthfully by many.
Oh, that we all could learn to rest in Jesus. The more I think about it, the more passionate I am feeling about it.
June 6th, 2007 14:12
ded and Steve,
Thanks for the encouragement, it is much needed. It does seem almost too simple. As I was Shop-Vac’ing my flodded basement, I kept thinking about it. “How?!? How can it be that simple?!?”
June 8th, 2007 09:36
I *really* like this post
i’ve been having conversations with myself lately along these same lines