Ethos - 3.31.06

OK, so tonight's Ethos wasn't quite as controversial as expected, but speaker Tony Jones mentioned a blog entry I posted on myspace last night as part of his introduction! (Further proving the power and connectivity of the blogosphere.)

Anyway, I really appreciated what Tony had to say (and I'm not just saying that because I suspect he's reading this entry). He talked about symbols in culture and what they mean. Using the story of Jesus answering the Pharisee's question about the Roman tax (Matthew 22:16-22), Tony pointed out how when asked a yes-or-no question, Jesus chose a third option. He actually went further than a simple yes or no by asking them whose image (imago) was on the coin. To those who knew the Scriptures this was significant because not only did Jesus give his brilliant answer - "Give to Caesar what is Caesars and to God what is God's," - by bringing up the image issue, He went deeper to say that because everyone is created in God's image, ultimately everything is God's. Wow. Jesus = smart.

As Christians it seems we're obsessed with yes-or-no answers. We want everything to be in black and white. But Jesus didn't operate that way. Tony went on to explain that Jesus humanized people. He cut beneath the labels to a person's value as a human being. I love that! Tony gave a great illustration about "American Idol" and de-humanization. Ryan Seachrist came out being the Christ figure. (That's a whole other blog, but ask me about it if you're interested.) But the point was that glimpses of Christ are sprinkled throughout culture (culture = the mechanism by which humans process their experiences and ascribe them with meaning) and serve as excellent starting points for meaningful conversations if we go beyond yes and no.