What Good News?

I've seen you change the water into wine
I've seen you change it back to water, too
I sit at your table every night
I try but I just don't get by with you

I wish there was a treaty we could sign
I do not care who takes this bloody hill
I'm angry and I'm tired all the time
I wish there was a treaty,
I wish there was a treaty
Between your love and mine

Ah, they're dancing in the street it's jubilee
We sold ourselves for love but now we're free
I'm so sorry for that ghost I made you be
Only one of us was real and that was me

I haven't said a word since you been gone
That any liar couldn't say as well
I just can't believe the static coming on
You were my ground, my safe and sound
You were my Ariel

Ah, the fields are crying out it's jubilee
We sold ourselves for love but now we're free
I'm so sorry for that ghost I made you be
Only one of us was real and that was me

I heard the snake was baffled by his sin
He shed his scales to find the snake within
But born again is born without a skin
The poison enters into everything

And I wish there was a treaty we could sign
I do not care who takes this bloody hill
I'm angry and I'm tired all the time
I wish there was a treaty,
I wish there was a treaty
Between your love and mine

********

Dear Kate,

Yesterday I asked you to ask questions, search for deeper knowing.

I have one for you.  Jesus, who is he?  How does it work, I mean, the enterprise that's set up in his name, churches, people worshipping him?

Something happened, I know, that makes him very recommendable.  Not crucifixion, as eventful as Mel Gibson makes that out to be.  In fact, everything about Jesus up to his dying gives everyone every reason to obliterate him from history.  If I am his friend, I don't want to be remembered for ever being that.  All his friends disowned him as they should.  When I lost my job not too long ago I was treated like a leper by most of my "friends," and we are talking about us being in the 21st century, this most "enlightened" part of the world, over a non-event that didn't even do them any harm.

So it has to be the fabled resurrection then?  The resurrection event was an indisputable historical fact according to even secular scholarship--though one can explain away the "resurrection" as, say, a mere resuscitation or the disciples going crazy collectively then and still many 2,000 years later.  That's why you see my question isn't "Jesus, who was he?" but "Who is he?"  His crazy magic seems to linger on, languishing in this part of the world no doubt (we are the most enlightened, remember?), but crazier still in many other parts of the world (Mel Gibson has a Passion sequel set for release next year, just as crazy as the first, I heard, about, of course, the Resurrection.)

I know what a resurrection is.  Say, you lost your job, and turned yourself around, got back at your haters by getting a better one, elevated yourself to a more glorified state of being and, now, after all the blood sweat and tears, put yourself back on top, higher than ever.  Now your friends are coming back.  Now they are saying, Yeah, all along I can see that in you, destined for something better, grander, more fulfilling.  Now they can praise the Lord on my behalf.

No, that's not a resurrection I just described to you.  That's a resuscitation.  Your friends might finally have some nice things to say about you, but they ain't gonna bow down and worship you, pledge the rest of their life to speak about the Good News of your "coming back," to be persecuted and finally die for being loyal to you.  Remember the Obama "Hope" poster?  Seen that lately?  The dude didn't even do nothing then, but everyone was already ready to hope against hope.  Yet no one was crazy enough to throw one's life away for a moment of very pleasant diversion.  The show was great, but it needs to end somehow.

So I want to speak about your show, your Christian show, one that you folks continue to put on every weekend.  What difference does it make, your Jesus coming back to life?  The entertainment value is running dry, you must admit, as readily observable in your weekly re-runs.  Nothing new is breaking out or breaking through.  Do you go to church today to anticipate something new and exciting?  You need to repackage your "Hope" campaign and update your poster (and your poster boy) to make it more relevant, purpose and value driven.  You need to resurrect your dying campaign.

What difference does Jesus make?  "Turning and turning the world goes on; we can't change it, my friend."   Brokenness around you, all around, you heard them, know them yourself too.  Someone gets hurt, you can't resist doing something about it, or could persist doing nothing about it, yet what difference does your action or inaction make at the end?  Not much.  More violence.  More brokenness.  Good news, where? what? how?

Tell me about Jesus.

Yours, Alex