Illusions

It has been a wee while, OK, OK over 8 months... have I really been that busy...? I suppose not really but should at least be getting my stuff up that I do for the Brechin Advertiser most weeks... so here is one from two weeks ago and I will try in the coming weeks to do better, I know, I know--I keep saying that but... so here is a newish one anyway... (reminder to self--put this paragraph in the clipboard for future use...)

This past week I had a chance to talk with a good group of teens about illusions. The contrast of what you see compared to what is actually there. Our world is full of illusions at times that leave us a bit confused and wondering who and what we can believe. 

Religion is one of those things that too often gets confused for what it isn’t as much as what it is. Christianity especially these days is under a rather strange attack considering the long history it has had. Yet one of the problems is that ‘Christianity’ has to many become an illusion of being the same as religion. 

The reality of Christianity is far too many only see the illusion of the outer trappings of the ritual and the buildings and then they look behind the curtain and see the ‘rules and regulations’ and that is all they see. Or they see the rules and regulations and say that isn’t for me or worse say wow the hypocrisy of it when they have this stuff called sin but nobody pays attention to it. It really comes down to that it has never become personal to them. Many see the outside but never meet the personal God that is really there waiting to become a personal friend.

We celebrate the glitz and glamour of the celebrity life style and at the same time the celebrity types are trying to lock us out of the their world so we don’t see the illusion of  brokenness and shallowness of their world that they see. Yet some of them if we really knew the personal side that goes beyond the outer appearances, we would think ‘wow nice folk too bad others can’t see they are just normal. I remember well the first time someone looked at me and said; ‘Wow Jon, you are almost like a normal person.’ But then I realized I had shattered their view of what they thought a minister was supposed to be like and I said ‘thank you what did you expect green skin and horns or something?’ The problem wasn’t me it was with the illusion of what they thought from afar a minister was supposed to be, but once we got to know each other personally the image changed.

So it is with Christianity, it has its challenges and folk have illusions built up about what it is supposed to be, but once it becomes personal and the perspective changes the illusion goes away and suddenly it can make sense. I suspect that this is true of a lot of life but when Jesus becomes personal instead of a building in the middle of the town or out in the country, the whole story changes. 

Till the next time,

Rev. Jon Bergen