There are many times when we have to go looking for bridges between Christ and culture – those stories that might be a natural lead in to steer a neutral conversation towards Christ.
Other times the stories hit you in the face.
Hard.
Sarah Silverman provided just such a story. Not too long ago she tweeted:
MERRY CHRISTMAS! Jesus was gender fluid!
If you’re like me and are not familiar with the phrase “gender-fluid,” here you go:
Gender fluid is a gender identity which refers to a gender which varies over time. A gender fluid person may at any time identify as male, female, neutrois, or any other non-binary identity, or some combination of identities.
Naturally it cause a bit of a stir among those who consider themselves Christians. Jesus was not gender-fluid by this definition. He was not someone who identified as a man at one time and then later identified as a woman (or rejected all gender labels).
Silverman defended her “joke” by saying:
I was in Wales w my boyfriend and his family. I was sitting in the car on the way to Christmas at his sister’s and figured I’d sent out a Christmas tweet. Decided to add on a word from our collective vocabulary since, to me, it’s funny, beautiful, and true in that He is all of us.
Wow, Sarah Silverman. Thank you for reminding us that Christ is all of us, male and female. Except if you know anything about Ms. Silverman you’ll know that she’s no friend of Jesus. No, she wasn’t really trying to make a point about Christ in us all. She was playing loosy-goosey with words to provoke people with edgy humor. (If I’m totally wrong, Sarah, I welcome dialogue with you and you can explain how you as a nonbeliever view Christ in us all).
So, provocative humor aside, let’s take the explanation at face-value. Is there any merit in talking about Jesus as gender-fluid?
No, there is not.
The Incarnation is all about God taking on human form. The Gospel According to John says it like this:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it….
And the Word became flesh….
It’s the hypostatic union, the combination of the divine and human nature of Jesus, the Christ. But the human nature was a man. It does damage to the identity of Jesus to make attempts to change the Incarnation to fit ridiculous contemporary categories like gender-fluid or gender-neutral.
That’s just crazy.
Yes, the Savior came for all, and the Spirit resides in all. Spiritually we are all on equal footing, for “there is no male nor female” in Christ. That does not eliminate gender distinctions.
It simply means that we ALL have equal access to God’s salvation – being male or female is not a basis for spiritual standing before God.
Is Christ in all and available to all? Yes.
Is Jesus gender-fluid? No.
standing before him. That’s integrity. Can you imagine a world where we lived with that kind of integrity? Can you imagine a place where we behaved the same way I the presence of the high-and-mighty and the low-and-humble?
Three people went into a building and killed 14 others and wounded an additional 17. It is an incomprehensible tragedy. The violence is sickening and disgusting. Yet, even before the event concluded, both side of the political spectrum launched into promoting their own agendas.
Until humans are willing to change their hearts we will continue to be subjected to news stories of terror and violence. And this is not a solution that the government can carry out.
It’s difficult to go anywhere and not hear Adele. She’s everywhere. The other night my wife and I saw a Target commercial that was simply 60 seconds of the newest Adele music video. Her new hit that’s taking the world by storm is “Hello.”
They are about loss. They are about heartache. They are about a broken relationship. They are about missed opportunities. Those themes resonate with all of us, for we’ve all experienced them in our own way.
Let’s talk about what it means to rest and what it means to cease from activity.
Sabbath means ceasing from activity. It’s not about God being tired. It’s not about God needing a break. It’s about God having brought to completion all he set out to do, so he simply stops his activity. That is what Sabbath is – to pause, cease, and terminate your activity.
24 The Pharisees said to him, “Look, why are they doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath?” 25 He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need? 26 In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” 27 Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. 28 So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”
We must reform our immigration policies in the United States. We cannot allow Muslim immigrants to come across our borders unchecked while we are fighting this war on terror. If we continue to allow Muslim immigration, we’ll see much more of what happened in Paris—it’s on our doorstep. France and Europe are being overrun by young Muslim men from the Middle East, and they do not know their backgrounds or their motives and intentions. Islam is not a peaceful religion as George W. Bush told us and as President Barack Obama has said—that is just not true. Our president and our politicians in Washington need to wake up before it’s too late. This is not the time to be politically correct. Our nation’s security is at stake. The future of our children and grandchildren is at stake. We should not allow any political or religious group who want to destroy us and our way of life to immigrate to this country. Right now let us continue to pray for the victims and family members of the #parisattacks.
know, I know, you’re technically talking about immigration, not the foreigners who are living among us. But let’s follow your line of reasoning to its conclusion. What about the Muslims who are already within our borders? You would seem to advocate removing all of them, because we can’t possibly know all of their backgrounds, motives, or intentions.
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Chris Linzey 