Buddy the Elf may be onto something (Part 2)
It's Christmas Eve. Santa's coming tonight....
SANTA!!!!! I know him.
I couldn't resist. I've had a lot of fun with Buddy the Elf this Christmas season. I'm going to miss him.
I wrote earlier that Buddy the Elf was onto something when it came to worship. Santa was coming. It was a ginormous deal, and by golly he was going to make sure that everything in that store was first class and ready for the big man's arrival. In the same way, are we giving Jesus the King of Kings and redeemer of our lives that kind of energy from our own lives?
But not only that, I think Buddy may be onto something else.
When "Santa" arrives to the Macy's department store, Buddy has all of his expectations built up and wants to reunite with his long-lost friend from the North Pole. However, when Buddy sees the fat man sitting on the throne, he is sorely disappointed because...
"Who are you? You aren't Santa!"
Of course, Buddy didn't "get" that stores in malls all across America get guys to dress up as Santa to attract customers to their stores during this season. All he knew was that he was expecting the real deal and this yahoo isn't Santa.
So, Buddy has an argument with this guy... in front of a bunch of kids.
"So what did I sing for you on your birthday?"
"How can you live with yourself? You sit on a throne of lies."
"You stink. You smell like beef and cheese. You don't smell like Santa."
All of this drama reaches its climax with Buddy pulling the beard off this guy, yelling "ITS A FAKE! ITS A FAKE!," getting into a brawl with the Santa impostor and eventually finding himself in jail.
Okay - Buddy didn't get it. He didn't act in a socially responsible manner, either (but he made us all laugh) :-). But, what he DID get was that he knew Santa and this joker wasn't him, and Buddy wasn't going to put up with it.
Buddy knew that the Santa on the "throne of lies" was a fake not because he had been trained to point out fake mall Santas, but because he hung out and was intimate with the real deal. Santa wasn't a category or a character to be believed in to Buddy; Santa was a person he had a relationship with. It didn't take him too long to spot a fake when he knew by instinct what the real Santa was like.
The same thing goes for us with Jesus. Let's be honest, there are a lot of fake Jesus's being talked about in our culture and a lot of things being attributed to Jesus that aren't really things that Jesus would be about. In our culture, we can do the politically correct thing and accept that these different views of God may be valid (as... the mall Santa might be Santa, so let's not judge) -or- we can do the legalistic thing and take on falsehood like Buddy the Elf took on the mall Santa. I do think that both of these approaches are not helpful... challenging falsehood needs to be done in love in the context of a relationship with plenty of trust and authenticity.
However, could we actually discern what's real versus what's unreal if we don't really spend a lot of time with Jesus. I mean, Buddy HUNG OUT with Santa. And guess what, Jesus wants to hang out with us too... if we are in a relationship with Him based on his grace then we have access to intimacy with God (John 15:15). In light of that fact, it's kind of crazy to think that if we had access to something that cool that we wouldn't take advantage of it.
Having been in theological conversations before, I know from my experience that many discussions on what Jesus is REALLY like tends to focus more on theological talking points than the character of the person of Jesus or what He's done in our lives. Don't get me wrong... correct experience and correct doctrine must be married. However, if all we "know" (as in relationally know) Jesus by is our theology and our doctrines then we're a.) missing out of the life He intended for us, which is much better than anything we can ask or imagine, and b.) we can be drawn into something that's not entirely true because at some level the theological talking points tend to blur together. Relationship shows up in our lives and in our fruit... this is ultimately that is how Jesus told us that we could discern between "mall Christs" and Him.
The question is... are we living in relationship so that the fruit of relationship pours out of our lives, or are we strictly making sure our theology's correct? Buddy's "Santa theology" was correct, but married with relationship it became alive and powerful.
And while I will never advocate you doing anything that would make a scene and get you thrown in jail (Please don't :-) )... the question I would ask you especially if you know the truth and believe the right things is:
How is your relationship with Jesus going?
Because when you KNOW Him, it'll show... and you won't settle for a fake.
And that's what Buddy got.
SANTA!!!!! I know him.
I couldn't resist. I've had a lot of fun with Buddy the Elf this Christmas season. I'm going to miss him.
I wrote earlier that Buddy the Elf was onto something when it came to worship. Santa was coming. It was a ginormous deal, and by golly he was going to make sure that everything in that store was first class and ready for the big man's arrival. In the same way, are we giving Jesus the King of Kings and redeemer of our lives that kind of energy from our own lives?
But not only that, I think Buddy may be onto something else.
When "Santa" arrives to the Macy's department store, Buddy has all of his expectations built up and wants to reunite with his long-lost friend from the North Pole. However, when Buddy sees the fat man sitting on the throne, he is sorely disappointed because...
"Who are you? You aren't Santa!"
Of course, Buddy didn't "get" that stores in malls all across America get guys to dress up as Santa to attract customers to their stores during this season. All he knew was that he was expecting the real deal and this yahoo isn't Santa.
So, Buddy has an argument with this guy... in front of a bunch of kids.
"So what did I sing for you on your birthday?"
"How can you live with yourself? You sit on a throne of lies."
"You stink. You smell like beef and cheese. You don't smell like Santa."
All of this drama reaches its climax with Buddy pulling the beard off this guy, yelling "ITS A FAKE! ITS A FAKE!," getting into a brawl with the Santa impostor and eventually finding himself in jail.
Okay - Buddy didn't get it. He didn't act in a socially responsible manner, either (but he made us all laugh) :-). But, what he DID get was that he knew Santa and this joker wasn't him, and Buddy wasn't going to put up with it.
Buddy knew that the Santa on the "throne of lies" was a fake not because he had been trained to point out fake mall Santas, but because he hung out and was intimate with the real deal. Santa wasn't a category or a character to be believed in to Buddy; Santa was a person he had a relationship with. It didn't take him too long to spot a fake when he knew by instinct what the real Santa was like.
The same thing goes for us with Jesus. Let's be honest, there are a lot of fake Jesus's being talked about in our culture and a lot of things being attributed to Jesus that aren't really things that Jesus would be about. In our culture, we can do the politically correct thing and accept that these different views of God may be valid (as... the mall Santa might be Santa, so let's not judge) -or- we can do the legalistic thing and take on falsehood like Buddy the Elf took on the mall Santa. I do think that both of these approaches are not helpful... challenging falsehood needs to be done in love in the context of a relationship with plenty of trust and authenticity.
However, could we actually discern what's real versus what's unreal if we don't really spend a lot of time with Jesus. I mean, Buddy HUNG OUT with Santa. And guess what, Jesus wants to hang out with us too... if we are in a relationship with Him based on his grace then we have access to intimacy with God (John 15:15). In light of that fact, it's kind of crazy to think that if we had access to something that cool that we wouldn't take advantage of it.
Having been in theological conversations before, I know from my experience that many discussions on what Jesus is REALLY like tends to focus more on theological talking points than the character of the person of Jesus or what He's done in our lives. Don't get me wrong... correct experience and correct doctrine must be married. However, if all we "know" (as in relationally know) Jesus by is our theology and our doctrines then we're a.) missing out of the life He intended for us, which is much better than anything we can ask or imagine, and b.) we can be drawn into something that's not entirely true because at some level the theological talking points tend to blur together. Relationship shows up in our lives and in our fruit... this is ultimately that is how Jesus told us that we could discern between "mall Christs" and Him.
The question is... are we living in relationship so that the fruit of relationship pours out of our lives, or are we strictly making sure our theology's correct? Buddy's "Santa theology" was correct, but married with relationship it became alive and powerful.
And while I will never advocate you doing anything that would make a scene and get you thrown in jail (Please don't :-) )... the question I would ask you especially if you know the truth and believe the right things is:
How is your relationship with Jesus going?
Because when you KNOW Him, it'll show... and you won't settle for a fake.
And that's what Buddy got.
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